Prewar family life in Saxony
Creator(s)
- Albert G. Hess (Subject)
- Albert G. Hess (Camera Operator)
- Marie Brandes Hammerling
Biographical History
The Hess family was a prominent, assimilated Jewish family in Pirna, Germany. They owned a large chemical and lacquer manufacturing plant. Gustav and Hermine Hess had three children - Ilse, Manfred, and Albert. All were married in Germany and managed to escape the war. Ilse and her family moved to NY (she married Alfred Rosenstern and the name was later changed to Roston). Manfred, his wife Gertrud "Trude", and their daughters Ursula and Luise left Germany for England in 1939. Albert Günther Hess (AGH) and his family went to Belgium and later to the US. AGH was born on March 1, 1909. He studied music and law; still and motion picture photography was his lifelong hobby. In the 1930s, he made travel and family films on 9.5 mm. He was drafted by the US Army shortly after arriving in the US in the early 1940s. He was in a military intelligence unit, interrogated and translated for Nazi prisoners, interviewed Hermann Goering, and helped liberate Dachau (His photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives). In the 1950s, he returned to filming his family and documenting his travels. AGH married three times, first to Ilse Sobel (who appears in many of his early films and who - later in the US - went by the name Peggy Kaufman), next to Gisela Oppens (a refugee and the mother of the donor), and finally to Julia Kao. AGH was also a criminology professor, an airplane pilot, a boater, and a language enthusiast.
Scope and Content
THE LIFE OF THE HESSENS AND THE ROSENSTERNS - NATUREFILM. THE HESSENS AND ROSENSTERNS BELONG TO THE CULTURED MAMMALIAN SPECIES LIVE IN INNER SAXONY. Map of Inner Saxony. EXT, apartment building, someone waving on the balcony. INT of home, table with flowers. EARLY IN THE MORNING, WOMEN SEARCH FOR FOOD. Albert Günther Hess's (AGH) sister-in-law Ilse Rosenstern and her son George walking. Street scenes. Woman entering a shop. 12:20 Clock. 1:35 Clock. Same woman exiting shop. MEN HAVE UNUSUAL APPENDAGES FOR AMBULATION. AGH working on his first boat. Automobile. Child on bicycle, scooter. THESE ARE CAMERA-SHY INDIVIDUALS FILMED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. Marie, the camera-shy maid. CAUTION. SINGING IN PROGRESS. INT of home, Alfred Roston, AGH's brother and Ilse's husband, singing. He was an amateur tenor who sang exercises for several years (He was also an avid hockey player). Playing soccer. Shots of cathedral from boat. Hermine Hess, AGH's mother, playing cards with her friends, many of whom possibly perished in the Holocaust (their names are unknown). Shots of boy and mother. Another boy mimicking AGH filming. MARIONETTE THEATER. Ursula, the oldest daughter of AGH's brother Manfred, and her friend enjoy a puppet theater presentation. AGH likely made the puppets. Her sister Luise is shown on the potty. Woman sewing. Ursula watering bushes in the garden. SOME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD ARE QUITE WELL-KNOWN. CU, baby (Luise?). Scenes show Alfred resting, AGH working on his boat, eating ice cream and Alfred's wife Trude with a hankerchief. ONE SPECIES MAKES A MARK THROUGH UNUSUAL TALENTS. AGH working on his boat. END NOTE: The titles are written jokingly in a pseudo-scientific manner.
Note(s)
See also Film ID 2724 for more footage shot by Albert Guenter Hess. The film was shot in 1930 in 9.5mm. The donor created an 8mm reduction with new titles in 1959. Brodsky & Treadway (lab in Boston, MA) transferred from 8mm in 2001.
Subjects
- BICYCLES
- EATING
- SEWING
- SINGING
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- GERMANY
- JEWS
- BOATS
- CHILDREN
- FAMILIES
- CHILDREN (JEWISH)
- GERMANS
- STREETS
Places
- Pirna, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.