{"id":106,"date":"2025-10-17T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/?p=106"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:50:53","slug":"an-open-door-in-antwerp-the-micol-and-the-power-of-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/an-open-door-in-antwerp-the-micol-and-the-power-of-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"An open door in Antwerp \u2013 the Mic\u00f2l and the power of Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the heart of Le Case di Mic\u00f2l<\/em>, every house is a threshold between past and present. In Belgium, that threshold opens onto an address in Antwerp<\/strong>, on Lange Leemstraat<\/strong>, chosen to represent the Belgian Mic\u00f2l: Jenta Gothelf<\/strong>. Her story is one of discretion and courage, of loss and renewal, deeply intertwined with the history of the city and its Jewish community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenta Gothelf, a Young Jewish Woman in Flight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenta Gothelf was born in Berlin in 1922 to a well-off Jewish family of Polish origin. As Nazism advanced and persecution escalated, her family fled to Belgium, settling in Antwerp. There, on Lange Leemstraat, they tried to rebuild a life. But the Nazi occupation of Belgium in 1940 abruptly ended all hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jenta was arrested and deported to Auschwitz with other members of her family. She survived the camp and, at the end of the war, returned to Antwerp\u2014to the very house she had left behind. There, quietly, she began again. For many years, she would not speak of her experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Silence of Inherited Memory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war, Jenta remained silent about what she had endured. Like many women survivors, she chose silence\u2014not to deny, but to protect: herself, her family, and the fragile fabric of a new life. It would be her granddaughter, decades later, who gathered her memories and transformed them into a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gesture is at the core of Le Case di Mic\u00f2l<\/em>: the transition from individual to collective memory, from family history to shared responsibility. Through homes and human stories, the project seeks to reactivate remembrance and transform it into an educational tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antwerp: City of Transit and Resistance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antwerp was not only a temporary haven for many Jews fleeing persecution, but also a strategic hub in the Jewish resistance network. The city was home to one of the most important Jewish communities in Europe and witnessed numerous acts of solidarity, protection, and rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Placing Jenta\u2019s address on the project map means not only remembering her story but honoring the city\u2019s collective memory and the moral courage of those who chose not to look away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Symbolic Power of Intimacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we speak of the Shoah, we often focus on the camps, the numbers, the transports. But every tragedy began in a private space: a home, a room, a garden. And likewise, every hope was reborn there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenta\u2019s house in Antwerp\u2014the one she was torn from\u2014is today a symbol. Not only of loss, but of resilience. Of someone who returned, rebuilt, and kept a door open. A gesture of hospitality that now echoes as a powerful message for the young people involved in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Connection to Contemporary Narratives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the films created within Le Case di Mic\u00f2l<\/em> are not directly inspired by Jenta, her story offers a cross-cutting symbol for the participants. Her act of welcoming, her quiet resistance, and her choice to protect others can inspire narrative threads and ethical perspectives in the students\u2019 works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project Le Case di Mic\u00f2l<\/em> is funded by the CERV \u2013 Remembrance 2022<\/strong> call and coordinated by Ferrara La Citt\u00e0 del Cinema<\/strong>. Partners: Prague Film School<\/strong>, Warsaw Film School<\/strong>, ACT (Belgium)<\/strong>, Blow-Up Film and TV Academy (Italy)<\/strong>, Fondazione\u00a0 per il centro studi \u2018Citt\u00e0 di Orvieto\u2019, Fondazione Giorgio Bassani<\/strong>, MEIS \u2013 National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah<\/strong>, Istituto di Storia Contemporanea di Ferrara<\/strong>, and Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Luigi Einaudi<\/strong>.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the heart of Le Case di Mic\u00f2l, every house is a threshold between past and present. In Belgium, that threshold opens onto an address in Antwerp, on Lange Leemstraat, chosen to represent the Belgian Mic\u00f2l: Jenta Gothelf. Her story is one of discretion and courage, of loss and renewal, deeply intertwined with the history […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/micol.develooper.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}