Gdansk and Krakow scenes, daily life in Poland
Creator(s)
- Julien H. Bryan (Director)
- Sam Bryan and International Film Foundation
- Julien H. Bryan (Producer)
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
Street scenes in Gdansk (Danzig) on ulica Dluga (German: Lange Straße) [see the city hall in BG]. Traffic cop directs traffic in busy town square. Women gaze through shop windows, reflection from outside in. Scenes of a castle and the Dembnicki bridge in Krakow. Some scenes seem to be in the Kazimierz section (Jewish quarter) of Krakow. 01:02:52 CU of the sign on the front of a merchant's shop: "Depot de Vin T. Fukier Fonde en 1610." Town square, a man is wheeling a young boy across the cobblestone plaza in a wooden cart, a few darkly clad figures and a police officer in the BG. 01:03:01 MCU, panning pedestrians as they look at a store window, men in fedoras and trench style coats, women in fur collared jackets and pretty velvet hats. They look at Polish signs and advertisements for the 1937 Worlds Fair, which was held in Paris from May to November.
Note(s)
Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives. The original title on the film can, as well as the original film leader indicate the year as 1936 and the location as Central Poland. It is possible that some shots are Lodz, and still others Warsaw and Krakow. Further research is needed to confirm these locations. Film lab inspection notes also indicate several slugs within the reel that allude to locations: i.e.: "Cracow Road to Paderemski Bridge", "Cracow shop windows" and "Cracow Jewish quarter".There is no footage of Zakopane, although a short excerpt at the end shows the Tatra mountains. Footage of marketplace and church in BG can also be seen in Story 772, Film ID 507 and Story 3991, Film ID 3004. Footage of square and sign "Depot de Vin T. Fukier Fonde en 1610" can also be seen in Story 772, Film ID 507 and Story 3991, Film ID 3004.
Subjects
- SHOPS
- RIVERS
- BOATS
- SYNAGOGUES
- WINDOWS
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- WOMEN
- POLAND
- BRIDGES
- BRYAN, JULIEN
- CIVILIANS
- CHURCHES
- STREETS
- HORSES
- AUTOMOBILES
- MARKETS
- POLICE
- CHILDREN
- BUILDINGS
- STREETCARS
Places
- Krakow, Poland
- ,
- Danzig, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Outtakes.