Dutch film director, producer, best known for his documentaries.
He was the son of the actor Louis Augustaaf van Gasteren (1887-1962) and singer Elise Menagé Challa (1891-1962). The actress Josephine van Gasteren (1917-1989) was his sister.
He studied electrical engineering. As a sound technician he became involved with film making. In 1952 he debuted with brown gold, about the production of chocolate. He made some 70 films and documentaries.
He died 10 May 2016 of disease.
The murder on Walter Oettinger
On 19 May 1943 the Jewish-German refugee Walter Oettinger (born 23 May 1905, Hamburg) arrived at his home in the Beethoven street 146 in Amsterdam. Oettinger was handicapped from age 17 (polio) and had fled in 1939 from Germany to his nephew Johann Oettinger in Amsterdam. Johann and his wife committed suicide on 16 May 1940 after the arrival of the Nazi’s.
On 24 May 1943 Van Gasteren killed Walter by hitting him on the head with a steel cable and drowning him, because Walters behaviour should have endangered other hiding people and their protectors. The body was dumped in the water. When it came out, Van Gasteren was sentenced in June 1944 for homicide. After the war, he and his family stated that the murder was inevitable and a deed of resistance as Oettinger threatened to betray the hiding place. .
Link to Wikipedia