Five Cities
Creator(s)
- Yitzhak Goskind (Producer)
- Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
- Asher Lerner (Narrator)
- Shaul Goskind (Producer)
- V. Kazimierczak (Camera Operator)
- Asher Lerner (Text Contributor)
Biographical History
In 1938 and 1939, Shaul and Yitzhak Goskind of Warsaw-based Sektor Films produced six short films about urban Jewish communities in Poland. One, about Łódź, is lost. The other five-on Bialystok, Cracow, Lwow, Vilna, and Warsaw-have survived and are now called "Five Cities." These low-budget 35mm films were made for Landsmanshaften groups in America for fundraising purposes. On the eve of war, the Goskinds sent the films to Joseph Seiden, the prolific director in New York who distributed Yiddish newsreels and feature films in the US and Europe.
In 1938 and 1939, Shaul and Yitzhak Goskind of Warsaw-based Sektor Films produced six short films about urban Jewish communities in Poland. One, about Łódź, is lost. The other five-on Bialystok, Cracow, Lwow, Vilna, and Warsaw-have survived and are now called "Five Cities." These low-budget 35mm films were made for Landsmanshaften groups in America for fundraising purposes. On the eve of war, the Goskinds sent the films to Joseph Seiden, the prolific director in New York who distributed Yiddish newsreels and feature films in the US and Europe.
Scope and Content
Yiddish titles. English title: "Jewish Life in Lwow." Pan, overview Lwow city nestled in a valley. Large buildings, city square, monuments, trams, busy street traffic, pedestrians, promenade, important buildings, marketplace. Stylish men and women promenade through modern Lwow, also known as Lemberg. MSs, shopping for wares and sellers at marketplace. Parks and pavilions, public spaces, busy streets, people. 04:05:58 Scenes in the old and well-established Jewish community, following groups of well-dressed and Orthodox Jews, street scenes, daily activities, and showing the landmarks: Yad Haruzim Trade Union Building, Old Ghetto, softly curving exterior of the Modern Temple, the orthodox school, Moorish-looking Lazarus Hospital, grave of the "Golden Rose" and the Nowosci Theater. Large, thriving marketplace. Crowds watching a street performer. VAR shots of marketeers. Pan of city. "The End"
Note(s)
John E. Allen, Inc. (an archive now located at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC) holds the only 35mm nitrate copy of this footage, which likely entered John E. Allen, Inc. before the Goskins gave rights to Spielberg Jewish Film Archive.
Subjects
- CROWDS
- POLAND
- MARKETS
- PARKS
- BUILDINGS
- CARTS/WAGONS
- CHILDREN (JEWISH)
- SCHOOLS
- CITIES
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- THEATERS
- SYNAGOGUES
- GRAVES
- CEMETERIES
- JEWS
- ORTHODOX JEWS
- GHETTOS
- STREETCARS
- POLES
- WOMEN
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- STREETS
Places
- Lviv (Lvov), Poland
- , Ukraine
Genre
- Film
- Documentary.