Wedding in Brussels

Identifier
irn1003004
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1996.164.1
  • RG-60.2477
Dates
1 Jan 1935 - 31 Dec 1935
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

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

Albert Günther Hess and Ilse Sobel getting married at the courthouse in Brussels. Film shows the couple entering and leaving the courthouse (probably the municipal building in Uccle) and a wedding party hosted by friends.

Note(s)

  • Brodsky & Treadway transfer 2001. See also Film ID 2724 for more footage shot by Albert Guenter Hess.

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.