Rudolf Breslauer


Werner Rudolf Breslauer was a German photographer of Jewish descent.

Leipzig, the Netherlands, Westerbork, Auschwitz

Breslauer was born in Leipzig, where he was trained as a photographer and as a printer. In 1938, he fled to the Netherlands, where he lived and worked in Leiden, Alphen and Utrecht. In 1942, Breslauer, his wife Bella Weissmann, sons Mischa and Stefan and daughter Ursula were imprisoned and deported to Westerbork transit camp.
Camp commander ordered Breslauer to make photographs and films of life in Westerbork. Breslauer and his family were transported to Auschwitz in the autumn of 1944. His wife and two sons were immediately killed, Rudolf Breslauer died a few months later. Their daughter Ursula survived the war.

Photographs, stills and a film from Westerbork, by Breslauer

The German camp commander, Albert Gemmeker ordered Breslauer to document everyday life in the Westerbork transit camp. In 2017, these films were submitted by the Netherlands and included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.