Berlin street scenes; memorial ceremony; coal

Identifier
irn1003584
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.214
  • RG-60.4148
Dates
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

Sequence of outtakes. Park in Berlin, several people walk by, people sitting on wooden benches in the park, a child plays as an older woman looks on. CU of signs: Top: Citizens are asked to keep their dogs on leash. Bottom: "Die gelben Baenke sind fuer Jueden." [The yellow benches are for Jews.] VS of the park, but none that show the sign in context of park. (Olivaerplatz near Kurfuerstendamm) LS Airship hangar. Memorial for the fallen, Berlin. MS, Crowds assembled along the street. Wreath laying ceremony for Nazis (rainy day/overcast). Procession with dignitaries and military officers. Military band marches past. Troops with rifles and packs goosestep to monument. Honor guard with bayonets approaches mausoleum, with six large fluted columns. CU, guard, boots. Civilians walking in and out of the area. WS of the monument and uniformed men moving away from memorial. Onlookers, small crowd. Berlin street. Man reads sign posted by entrance to building, woman walks in front of the sign while walking her dog. The sign reads "Der Botschaft der Union der S.S.R. in Deutschland" [The Embassy of the USSR in Germany]. Also seen, repeated in Cyrillic. Shots of city plaza, facade of modern building. Views of streets and cars moving along. LS, entrance to mansion (embassy?) guarded by soldier with rifle. Signpost: "Wilhelmplatz" and "Wilhelmstrasse." LS: Autobahn construction: large crane, digger and dirt, rocks for construction, workers. VS: Berlin, Germany: public telephone booth, ornate facade of building in BG. Man standing under a tree near a phone booth. Sign on phone booth reads: "Fernsprecher" [long distance] and has a stamp dispenser. Activity in and around the booth. A man enters, aware of the camera, sign inside booth; "Fasse dich kurtz!" [Be Brief!].

Note(s)

  • Detailed preservation notes from the film lab are available in Film and Video department files. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives. This entire reel contains deep emulsion scratches, also known as "wavy positive scribe" that detract from the viewing of this print, and were done to prevent people from copying the footage without permission. Similar material exists in the Julien Bryan Collection at the Library of Congress. See USHMM Film IDs 210 and 211. Bryan filmed in Germany in 1937 for the March of Time, but retained certain material and rights. He donated this part of the collection to the Library of Congress. Some film shot at the same time appears in the March of Time release, "Inside Nazi Germany." See Raymond Fielding's chapter on this title, in the book "The March of Time 1935-1951."

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.