Type interview: scientific
This interview can be found in DAAN, the digital archive of Beeld & Geluid with the following search terms: “Stichting film en wetenschap” AND”Lutkie”. It can also be found with the term “Lutkie”
Title: Soli Deo – Wouter Lutkie: biografie van een priester-fascist
Author: Willem Huberts
Publisher: Boom, Amsterdam 2022
ISBN: 9789024446414
Two years before his death, R.L. Schuursma and Sj. Vellenga interviewed the Catholic priest Wouter Lutkie from North Brabant. This interview discusses his views on Catholicism and fascism.
Wouter Lutkie was a Dutch priest who was constantly at odds with virtually the entire Dutch episcopate – yet was never excommunicated. He was an idiosyncratic, stubborn character and always went his own way. He was however not a loner. He conducted correspondence with hundreds of people, wrote many books and was active as a journalist for decades, especially for his own magazine Aristo. Lutkie was the only Dutchman to be on friendly terms with the Italian fascist leader Mussolini, with whom he was allowed seven private audiences. Lutkie had close ties to fascism, but was never charged with collaboration despite of investigations.
After the war, he continued his work as a priest without office and his magazine Aristo continued to exist. This had since become a literary journal. In early 1965, the magazine had to cease publication for good, due to lack of subscribers. To what extent Lutkie and his Aristo had been fascist or even national socialist remained the subject of much debate. This interview addresses this issue.
For more information about the interview and the interviewee, see: SFW work issue no. 8 (1995), p.31.
The collection has not yet been digitized and therefore cannot be viewed directly at Sound & Vision. Digitization, can be requested through Sound & Vision.
However, the following item cán be found in DAAN, the digital archive of Beeld & Geluid:
The interviews with Marga Klompé (1912-1986) and Joseph Luns (born 1911) were conducted for a doctoral thesis on Roman Catholicism and KVP politics in the Netherlands. Klompé became a member of parliament for the KVP in the late 1940s and also held several international positions. In the 1950s and 1960s, she was minister – the first woman in the Netherlands – of Social Work and CRM respectively in several cabinets. Later, she developed many activities the church peace movements. The KVP-er Luns held the foreign ministry continuously from 1956 to 1971. In 1972, he became secretary-general of NATO. Shortly afterwards, he resigned from the KVP.
The film and the interviews can be found in DAAN, the digital archive of Sound & Vision with the search terms “Op zoek naar Joods Amsterdam”
The interviews were made for Bregstein’s film “In Search of Jewish Amsterdam”, created at the initiative of the City of Amsterdam on the occasion of the city’s 700th anniversary celebrations. Film and interviews cover Jewish Amsterdam up to 1940. The film had its premiere on 29 December 1975 in Amsterdam. It was also broadcast on television by the NCRV on 8 February 1976.
Some of the research was done by Salvador Bloemgarten, who also worked with Bregstein on the screenplay. The film was produced by Jan Vrijman Cineproductie.
The integral film text was later published in the book Op zoek naar Joods Amsterdam / film by Philo Bregstein, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff (film texts), 1981 (partly previously published in Parool and Skoop). At the back (pp.59-76) is a diary Bregstein kept on the preparations and production of the film.
More extensive excerpts from the interviews were included in Herinneringen aan Joods Amsterdam / edited by Philo Bregstein and Salvador Bloemgarten, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1978 (340 pp). Some additional interviews were conducted in 1977 for this purpose. The book includes a list of ‘narrators’, as well as a list of biographical notes concerning the interviewees.
Copies of the collection are managed by Jewish Cultural Quarter. The original is managed by Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision.
If interested, the Heritage Centre Dutch Monastic Life can request permission to view from Missionaries of the Sacred Heart after which the interviews can be listened to in the reading room.
Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven has been collecting and managing archives of over 100 monastic communities since 2006, including the archives of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. The interviews were conducted as part of the series Together with Papuans on the Way (18 interviews) and Conversations with Gurus or Family Members (5 interviews) in West Papua. Interviewer Fr J. Boelaars was in charge of pastoral care and scientific research for the benefit of mission work. Between 1950 and 1990, he worked for several extended periods in Indonesia and West Papua.
The interviews led to the publication Met Papuas samen op weg: Part 3 the companions and were used for the treatise Witnesses Speak: church history of the archdiocese of Merauke, Irian Jaya, Indonesia (ca 1999) by J. Boelaars in collaboration with A. Vriens.
Themes include Dutch administration, Indonesian administration, the Vatican Council, discrimination, schooling, spiritual life, daily activities, adat, pastoral policy, missionary development.
List available with names of interviewees at Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven
Relevant links: Website Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven: erfgoedkloosterleven.nl
Treatise Witness Speaking: Verhandeling Getuigen spreken
Between 1 April 2007 and 15 December 2009, according to the methodology of ‘oral history’, 48 in-depth interviews were conducted with Friars Minor, former confreres, a claris and others involved. In addition to these audio recordings, 9 interviews were filmed so that we have 28 hours of professional footage.
By collecting these ‘testimonies’ through in-depth interviews, we obtained a ‘more complete’ picture of the recent history of the Friars Minor. There has been a lot of research into the order in Flanders in the past. This has mainly given us information about ‘facts’. But how the Friars Minor ‘experienced’ everything personally is an aspect that was not covered before.
As a function of the set-up ‘they came barefoot…’, audio and visual clips of the interviews were unlocked. Such testimonials succeed much better than traditional presentations in communicating a complex story to a wide audience. After all, we now live in an environment where images and sound are dominant.
‘Leaves in a tree’
6 Fathers and 1 Sister Claris were interviewed on camera. Very candidly, they talk about their vocation, their faith and experiences within the order. Maurice Noben turned it into a fascinating testimonial film. The film can be viewed continuously in the museum.