DPs emigrate from Bremerhaven, Germany to the United States; scenes of postwar life in Salzburg, Austria

Identifier
irn1003639
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.213
  • RG-60.4187
Dates
1 Jan 1947 - 31 Dec 1947
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

Bremerhaven, Germany: CU of Julien Bryan's name written in chalk on the side of a railcar, he used this as his camera slate. Port: MS of part of the ship the "US Army Transport General William M. Black," passengers wave from the deck of the ship to the camera, a banner on the lower deck of the ship reads: "America Welcomes Its New Citizens," camera pans to upper deck of ship where a banner reads: "Ship to Freedom." The passengers and the US military aboard the ship wave to the cameras. New slate, Salzburg, Austria: US Information Center on a buys street corner. Austrian civilians gather to look at the window displays featuring information about industry and farming in the US. Scene shifts to barge along a river in Austria. New slate: Bremerhaven, Germany: DPs getting off the trains from the first leg of their journey, US military police are patrolling the train platform, young women with their luggage and their ID tags pinned to their coats line up for the camera and then move along. VS of DPs and MPs feet as they move along the train platform. Teenage boys (refugees) waiting in line to board the ship, looking up at the ship that is out of frame, their ID tags are attached to pins that say; "US Committee," they are followed by a group of older ladies, a man with a camera around his neck moves out of the way of the movie camera. VS of refugees filing off of trains and towards the ship. Good CUs of the children, the press, etc. at the port as they get on board the ship. US military cameramen are visible in some shots as well.

Note(s)

  • At the time of the filming, Julien Bryan was working under contract for the International Relief Organization/UNRRA and tasked with capturing images of Europe rebuilding. The finished films were intended for an international [European] audience, often screened under the auspices of the US Department of State. Detailed preservation notes from the film lab are available in Film and Video department files. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.

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Places

Genre

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