The Baby (2012)

Directed by: Deborah van Dam | 85 minutes | documentary

Nowadays, thanks to digital cameras, for example, the wide range of baby diaries with pre-printed what to write down and the various forms of social media, it is very easy to record how a newborn baby grows up. That has not always been the case, of course. The older generations often had to make do with a few black and white photos in combination with stories from their parents. Knowing how you were as a child is by no means a given for everyone. But it can largely determine how you stand in the rest of your life. After all, things that you experienced as a toddler or preschooler can still reverberate later in life. Even if you don’t really remember those things, they draw you. This is confirmed in ‘De baby’, a moving documentary by Deborah van Dam (The Hague, 1968).

The baby in question is the cute Anneke Kohnke, who was born in Hilversum on Christmas Day 1940. Her parents are Jewish Germans and fled from their homeland. The three-headed family ended up with the Frank family during the war, a few months before they moved into the Secret Annex. Anneke’s mother still knows Anne’s mother from Germany and they spend a lot of time together because they shared the same interests. When Anneke’s parents find a new hiding place in Ede, Anneke cannot come with them, because ‘a baby makes too much noise and that is too dangerous’. It is with a heavy heart that Anneke’s parents have to place their daughter with a foster family. The one who takes care of that is Otto Frank. He arranges a courier, Cora, who manages to free the toddler from her parents with difficulty and takes her to Voorburg by train. In Voorburg, Anneke is raised by the Blacquière family. Fred Blacquière, now in his late sixties and then about the same age as Anneke, cherishes warm memories of that time, something that is nourished by photos taken of the family and the traditions of his parents. Correspondence from his father to family shows that Anneke simply belonged to the family. Yet with the end of the war this period also comes to an end, because the Blacquière family leaves for Breda and Anneke – for reasons unclear to Fred – does not go with them. She ends up in an orphanage. His parents are now deceased, but Fred has promised his mother to keep looking for Anneke.

Filmmaker Deborah van Dam discovered the story of this war baby when she was visiting a hospital in The Hague. There she met an elderly woman who had just discovered that she had ‘found her baby again’. That lady turned out to be Cora de Jong, the courier (already over 90 years old at the time). Deborah interviewed her and was thus sucked into the story of Anneke Kohnke. Making this documentary was no more than a logical consequence.

After the war, Anneke is taken from the orphanage by Otto Frank. Her parents have died. She is not allowed to return to her foster family, but is put on a boat by the Red Cross from Le Havre to the United States. Her aunt and uncle live there. She was raised by them and her earliest childhood memories begin in that period. She hardly realizes everything before she is six (although later in the documentary some pieces of the puzzle fall into place in a horrifying way). It is not allowed to talk about her time in the Netherlands, Anneke even has to secretly read Anne Frank’s diary (and later she discovers in a box a photo of herself as a baby on the lap of a girl who looks very much like Anne Frank Could it be…? The Anne Frank House claims not, but the resemblance is very striking).

The interviews with Anneke are excellently edited and filmed. With deep respect for the humble American, her past and present are revealed. She was very surprised that there are people in the Netherlands who have been looking for her. There is absolutely no question of the (emotional) bond that Fred immediately thinks he has with her. Quite logical, if you’ve never heard of that person. And it is also understandable from Fred’s side, because he has wondered all his life – perhaps not always very prominently in the foreground – how Anneke would be.

‘The Baby’ is a fascinating documentary. This is not so much due to the story of the baby in hiding, because stories like Anneke’s are probably not unique. ‘The baby’ is the result of a lot of detective work and that’s what makes it so exciting. Not all questions had been answered when the makers started the project. But during the shooting for this documentary much more has surfaced in this history than many dared to hope and not always to everyone’s satisfaction. In addition, ‘The baby’ is simply a beautiful portrait of real people with emotions, who openly come to the table. It is a staggering, at times painful, at times endearing and very layered story that ‘The Baby’ tells. For those who still hesitate, ‘The baby’ has nothing to do with an episode “Spoorloos”. Anneke has had enough of the Dutch sobriety for that. But nevertheless this beautiful documentary knows how to touch you.