1920

FOUNDATION OF LOET C. BARNSTIJN STANDARD MOVIES

Loet C. Barnstijn was de son of Hertog Izak Cohen and Eva Barnstijn. He grew up in Enschede and at the age of 24 he moved to Den Haag. He found work in a textile company and worked his way up from clerk to buyer. By starting the ‘Standaard Films’ company and in 1925 the ‘Loet C. Barnstijn Filmproductie’, he laid the foundation for the first Dutch language talking movie. In 1931 Barnstijn produced: ‘Zijn Belooning’ and three years later he was one of the investors in ‘De Jantjes’, which was an outstanding success. In 1932 he produced a movie about Jewish Amsterdam. Fragments from this film were abused by the German occupiers in 1941 by inserting them into the Dutch version of the antisemitic movie ‘De eeuwige Jood’, Loet Barnstijn had a large studio in park Oosterbeek just between Den Haag and Wassenaar, which was called Filmstad. In early May 1940 the Dutch government requisitioned the studio buildings to imprison German prisoners of war and Dutch traitors.