Street scenes in Wittenberg; Hitler Youth; church
Creator(s)
- Julien H. Bryan (Director)
- Julien H. Bryan (Camera Operator)
- Library of Congress - Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
Biographical History
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.
Scope and Content
Establishing shot, EXT, MLS of street, Schlosskirche (All Saints Church) in BG where Luther nailed his 95 theses. Workers are digging a trench along street. SS man standing on sidewalk as traffic passes; bus comes up and stops. Nazi official with swastika armband directing traffic; two women pass in FG, wheeling baby carriage. Cut to EXT, MS, angle up, church roof and steeple. MCU, worker digging trench with a pick-axe, pauses to look at camera. CU, doorway of church, painting of the crucifixion in arch above door, writing on the door. MCU, rear view of man opening church door; enters. INT, church, brief glimpse, underexposed shot. EXT, medieval structure with large rounded tower. EXT, LS, another view of workers digging up street, two workers pass by on horseback carrying their tools. EXT, MLS, street similar to ES of this story. Group of Hitler Youth march by along street, some look at camera. Alongside ditch, young girls follow the Hitler Youth boys. EXT, MS, another street, near town square, traffic cop with swastika armband, young couple with a baby carriage, several cars parked in front of a well-manicured building with window boxes full of flowers, bedecked with garlands. VS of town square in BG, Hitler Youth marching by in FG.
Note(s)
Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.
Subjects
- GERMANS
- WORKERS
- NAZI PARTY
- SS (SCHUTZSTAFFEL)
- UNIFORMS
- GERMANY
- BRYAN, JULIEN
- HITLER YOUTH
- STREETS
- CHURCHES
- MARCHING
Places
- Wittenberg, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Unedited.