Jewish quarters Krakow and Warsaw 1936; Jewish teens

Identifier
irn1003552
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.214
  • RG-60.4116
Dates
1 Jan 1936 - 31 Dec 1936, 1 Jan 1937 - 31 Dec 1937
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

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

Daily life in the Jewish quarter or Krakow. Two men conducting business in a dark doorway. 01:15:05:26 MS of four orthodox Jews walking down the street in Krakow, they look to the camera, and move on. They pass a man with a movie camera. (This is not Julien Bryan; probably Jules Bucher, cameraman who accompanied Bryan in Poland in 1936.) MS of three orthodox Jews on a street corner talking to each other, across the street in BG there is a sign for the shop "Salomon Diamant"- a men's clothing store [duplicate footage on USHMM Film ID 3001]. CUs of the religious Hasidic men talking and walking around the quarter; VS of one of the men putting his hands in front of his face, VS of people looking suspiciously at the camera, an angry passersby. Two Hasidic men talking in square with R. Beck sign in BG. Store workers moving a display.Older, poorer orthodox man, scenes of the old market place. Market place (LS) with synagogue in BG. Jewish man turns away from the camera. Elderly lady buying a chicken and putting it in her shopping bag- talking to the woman selling it, young dark haired girl in the market. Other streets of the Jewish quarter in Krakow, man selling balloons outside the Hotel Muller (sign on wall plaque next to doorway). In Warsaw, streets of the Jewish quarter, religious Jews walking in the street, scenes of a funeral, for Marja Steinberger who was 70 years old- a funeral announcement is filmed in CU at 01:17:18:17. The names of relatives, etc. are listed on the announcement. Return to Krakow, old market square in front of the synagogue with the chicken vendor. MLS, Interior courtyard sequence, with young Jewish children clearing brush, preparing for the harvest festival of Sukkot beneath the archway made famous in an iconic Roman Vishniac photograph. CUs of Jewish teens laughing and talking, in forest.

Note(s)

  • See also Story 765, Film ID 507 for duplicate (although poorer quality) footage. Parts of this story can be seen in Story 3945, Film ID 3001 and Story 3998, Film ID 3004. Detailed preservation notes from the film lab are available in Film and Video department files. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.

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.