Ben Ali Libi

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Ben Ali Libi shows a magic trick in a retirement home
Appearance by Ben Ali Libi in Breda (1937)

Ben Ali Libi , actually Michel Velleman , (born January 5, 1895 in Groningen ; died July 2, 1943 in the Sobibor extermination camp ) was a Dutch magician .

biography

Michel Velleman was the second son of a poor Jewish family with nine children, two of whom died shortly after birth. His father worked as a traveling salesman, musician, stage worker and magician. After moving around the country several times, the family ended up with four of the children in a one-room apartment in Amsterdam, where they lived on social assistance. An employee of the city administration stated: “Yes, de toestand is daar verschrikkelijk. Bedden he rivets. Show geheel onder lompen. "(" Yes, the condition there is terrible. There are no beds. They are under rags. ")

In 1909, at the age of 14, Velleman made one of his first appearances as a magician. As an artist, he called himself Professor Ben Ali Libi from the 1920s and presented himself as a “humorous magician”, according to his business card later as a “court magician and festival arranger”. He has performed throughout the country, such as on the fairground of Dronrijp , upon arrival of Sinterklaas in Tilburg or a festive evening in Brunssum . In 1924 the newspaper Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden wrote about him: “Ben Ali Libi is a skilled magician who will astonish those present with his incredible tricks […]. Nobody would be bored in a whole evening with this magician alone. ”On November 11th of the same year he showed his tricks at an anniversary celebration of the patient association in the Jewish psychiatric hospital Apeldoornsche Bosch in Apeldoorn . He has appeared in the Paleis voor Volksvlijt and in the Variété Mille Colonnes on the Grote Markt in Amsterdam and in the Wintertuin Frigge in Groningen. According to his own statements, he showed his magic in front of Princess Juliana and her father Hendrik as well as in front of the German ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II , who lived in the Netherlands . There were other appearances in VARA , KRO and AVRO . His manager was the well-known impresario Max van Gelder . In 1925 Ben Ali Libi published a booklet with simple magic tricks, and he also gave courses.

In 1916 Ben Ali Libi married Anna Speijer (born May 20, 1896); the couple had two children, Aaltje (born March 16, 1919) and Jacques (born December 2, 1921). He gained a nationwide reputation as a magician and now earned so well that he was able to move with his family to the new Amsterdam district of Rivierenbuurt for the better middle class and get a telephone connection, a sign of prosperity at the time. In 1940 the family improved again and moved, this time to Merwedeplein 59 in Amsterdam-Zuid , a few houses away from the Frank family's residence . It was from here that Ben Ali Libi ran his amusement bureau .

After the occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, life became increasingly difficult for Ben Ali Libi due to his Jewish origins, especially since he also fell ill. In November he had one of his last performances in Zaandam under the title "Educated humor is spiritual nourishment". After all, he was only allowed to perform in front of a Jewish audience, and gradually his savings were used up. From November 1941 he took up a job in the cultural department of the Joodschen Raad , especially since he was no longer allowed to travel freely within the country. In May 1942 he performed together with the Jewish jazz duo Johnny & Jones in the Molengoot labor camp near Hardenberg .

In July 1942 the first deportations of Jewish people from the Netherlands began. Velleman's work at the Joodsche Raad initially saved his family from this. But in May 1943 the disabled daughter Aaltje was deported and murdered in Sobibor on May 7th, her parents followed on June 20, 1943 after they were arrested in the course of a raid on her apartment. On June 29, 1943, Anna and Michel Velleman were transported via Westerbork to the Sobibor extermination camp, where they were gassed on July 2. Her son Jacques escaped and survived the end of the war after fleeing to France (d. 1979). Four of Velleman's siblings were also murdered in the Holocaust, as was the Jewish impresario Max van Gelder in 1943.

memory

In 2003 the Dutch poet Willem Wilmink wrote the poem Ben Ali Libi about the magician, which was set to music and performed by Herman van Veen in 2009 . Van Veen sings in it: "He, who had hidden a rabbit so often, could not hide himself when there was a loud knock" ("Wie zo dikwijls een konijn had verstopt kon zichzelf niet niet, toen he hard werd knocked.") 2015 the documentary Ben Ali Libi - goochelaar by Dirk Jan Roeleven came out.

In 2017, Velleman's native Groningen, in the presence of Velleman's granddaughter and Wilmink's widow, unveiled a memorial sign in memory of Ben Ali Libi, designed by the Dutch artist Albert Rademaker . Iron letters were placed on the wall of the Pathé bioscoop, forming a sentence from Wilmink's poem: “Jouw paradijs, hoeveel ruimte is daar” (“Your paradise, how much space is there”). There is information about his life on one board and the full text of the poem on another.

Web links

Commons : Ben Ali Libi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michel Velleman. In: joodsmonument.nl. Retrieved December 24, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Ben Ali Libi, een bijna vergeten goochelaar uit Groningen. In: dvhn.nl. September 2, 2017, accessed December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Beno Hofman: Geboortehuis Michel Velleman alias Ben-Ali-Libi. In: benohofman.nl. Retrieved December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  4. ↑ a b FILM Ben Ali Libi. In: histornieuwsblad.nl. Retrieved December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  5. ↑ About Michel Velleman. In: joodsmonument.nl. February 28, 2006, accessed December 24, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c Ben Ali Libi. In: Sobibor Interviews. Retrieved December 24, 2018 .
  7. ^ Ronald Wilfred Jansen: Anne Frank. epubli, 2015, ISBN 978-3-737-54080-3 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  8. ↑ Jochem Nooyen: Ben Ali Libi de goochelaar. In: goochelaar.eu. February 22, 2017, accessed December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  9. ↑ Herman van Veen. In: discoveen.nl. Retrieved January 1, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b Ben Ali Libi, de goochelaar die in Sobibor werd vermoord. In: historiek.net. March 14, 2018, accessed December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  11. ^ Evert Janse: Gedenkteken voor Ben Ali Libi onthuld - OOG Radio en Televisie. In: oogtv.nl. September 1, 2017, accessed December 24, 2018 (Dutch).
personal data
SURNAME Libi, Ben Ali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Velleman, Michel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch magician
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Groningen
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1943
Place of death Sobibor extermination camp