Rudi Meyer

Ludwig Wilhelm Rudolf (Rudi) Meyer was born to Gustav Meyer (1872–1942) and Margaretha Meyer-Meyer (1878-1943).^[1] They lived in Berlin, where Rudolf was active in the Scouting movement.^[2] 

Through his uncle, film producer Erich Pommer,^[3] Rudi ended up in the film industry. Initially, he worked as an accountant and publicity assistant for Decla-Bioskop, his uncle's production company,^[4] but after a few years he moved to distributor and producer Althoff-Ambos-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Aafa)^[5] owned by producer Gabriel Levy,^[6] where he headed the company's export department. Not long after the Nazis seized power, Meyer left with his non-Jewish wife Alwine Else Messer for Amsterdam, where they were registered at the address Michelangelostraat 54-I in October 1933.^[1] In the Netherlands, Meyer established his own distribution company, focused on purchasing Dutch, Belgian and French films.^[7] Together with Gabriel Levvy, who had also fled to the Netherlands, and Jo Pearl, head of the Dutch branch of Hollywood company Universal Studios, Meyer founded the production facility Hollandsche Film Productie (Holfi) in 1934. From 1935 onwards, Meyer produced films independently, including De Kribbebijter (The  crib biter), Pygmalion, Vadertje Langbeen (Daddy Longlegs), Morgen gaat het beter! (Tomorrow will be better!), De spooktrein (The ghost train), and Ergens in Nederland (Somewhere in the Netherlands). These were films by directors who had fled Nazi Germany, such as  Hermann Kosterlitz, Ernst Winar, Ludwig Berger, Karel Lamač and Friedrich Zelnik.^[8] Anne Frank cut out a picture of actress Lily Bouwmeester and actor Cruys Voorbergh from Libelle magazine, taken from the film Ergens in Nederland , and stuck it on the wall of her room in the Secret Annex..^[9]

In 1939, Meyer also became a member of the board of directors of the film distribution companyFilmex.^[10] In March 1939, a few months after the November pogrom of 1938, Rudi Meyer's parents also moved to Amsterdam,^[11] where they initially found accommodation with Rudi and his wife. They had been living on Stadionkade since September 1935.^[1] The outbreak of war and the German occupation brought Meyer's career as a film producer to an abrupt end for the time being. On 16 January 1942, an advertisement for “the Jewish Cleaning Service” was placed in Het Joodsche Weekblad with the address Stadionkade 4.^[12] The company belonged to Meyer and his wife.^[13]

Meyer spent the first four years of the occupation relatively safely in the Netherlands, protected by his marriage to a non-Jewish woman, but he eventually ended up in Westerbork, where he was registered on 20 July 1944 and housed in barrack 67, the penal barrack.^[13]  He may have spent some time in hiding after all. On 3 September 1944, he left Westerbork on the last transport to Auschwitz, along with the people from the Secret Annex. His parents had already been deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz on 24 August 1943 and murdered immediately upon arrival.^[14] 

Rudi survived Auschwitz, where he was liberated by the Red Army, and made the same journey back as Otto Frank to Odessa and from there aboard the SS Monowai to Marseille..^[15] In the notebook that Otto Frank kept from January to June 1945, he wrote down “Rudi Meyer Film.”^[16] Rudi Meyer was also one of the people on Otto Frank's mailing list when Weet je nog? Verhalen en sprookjes (Tales from the house behind) was published in 1948.^[17] 

After liberation, Rudi Meyer resettled in the Netherlands and continued his activities as a producer with documentaries and ambitious feature films, some of which dealt with the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and were directed by well-known filmmakers such as Paul Rotha (De overval, 1962; The robbery) and Kees Brusse (Mensen van morgen, 1964; People of tomorrow). He was also the producer of one of the most successful Dutch films of all time: Fanfare (1952), a film about rival brass bands directed by Bert Haanstra. The film was largely shot in Giethoorn, where Meyer stood out because of his inseparable horn.^[18] In September 1960, during the broadcast of Anders dan anderen (Different from Others), a television programme by Bert Garthoff similar to This is your life, Meyer was presented with a wooden bench in Giethoorn as a tribute.^[19] In turn, Meyer donated a bench to Bert Haanstra.^[20] Both benches, bearing inscriptions, can be found in a corner near the village church De Vermaning in Giethoorn.^[21]

However, Meyer's main field of activity remained his work for Filmex. He remained active there until his death and, in the 1950s, introduced Dutch cinema-goers to the Sissi films, among other things. According to his daughter Dorrie, Meyer suffered from increasing health problems after his imprisonment in Auschwitz. He never talked about the war.^[21] Rudi Meyer passed away at the age of 67 on 16 September 1969 in Euschkirchen, where he was on holiday at the time..^[22]

Source personal data.^[10] Addresses: Berlin; Amsterdam: Michelangelostraat 54-I (October 1933), Stadionkade 4hs (September 1935); Schubertstraat 78hs (December. 1958).^[1]