Pair of lobby cards for the film “Ulica Graniczna” (1949)
Extent and Medium
.1: Height: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm) | Width: 16.000 inches (40.64 cm)
.2: Height: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm) | Width: 16.000 inches (40.64 cm)
Creator(s)
- Film Polski (Production Company)
- Cinematografica Tadeo S.A. (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The lobby cards were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Pair of Mexican lobby cards poster for the film, “Ulica Graniczna” (“Border Street”), originally released in Poland in 1949. Lobby cards are promotional materials placed in theater lobby windows to highlight specific movie scenes, rather than the broader themes often depicted on posters. “Ulica Graniczna” centers on several families in a tenement building in Warsaw, and features two Jewish children who are forced to relocate with their families into the Warsaw Ghetto. The film concludes with a dramatization of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first on-screen representation of the event. During production in the late 1940s, increasing communist and antisemitic sentiment in Poland led the director to relocate to Czechoslovakia, where the film was completed. The intended 1948 premiere was delayed, after a Polish state-run committee deemed the film anti-Polish and lacking characters in line with a communist ideology. It was only released after revisions were made that downplayed Poland’s role in the Holocaust. Rather than focusing on the Jewish victims, Poland’s communist authorities wanted to emphasize the struggle that the Polish people shared with their Jewish neighbors. The final version of “Ulica Graniczna” shows a variety of Polish attitudes about the Holocaust and ends ambiguously, emphasizing to the audience that racism and persecution is not over. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
.1 Lobby card printed on rectangular off-white cardstock, with a narrow white margin on all four sides, and an illustration in the center. In the top left corner of the card is a line of advertising copy in white, the Spanish film title in large yellow text, and film credits in smaller, white text. The film title is overlaid on a large, red swastika that is cracking. In the bottom left corner are three, different-sized illustrations of men wearing brown jumpsuits, with gray helmets, and holding rifles. Overlaying one of the men is additional advertising copy in yellow. In the top right corner is an illustration of two Nazi officers in green uniforms assaulting a dark-haired woman. One of the officers is restraining the woman’s arms from behind, while the other is tearing her clothes off. In the bottom right corner is a canted, rectangular, black-and-white, photographic image with white and black borders on all four sides. The image depicts a man and woman standing over a bed with two sleeping children. The woman is looking at the man, who is holding one finger to his lips. In the card’s background is a blue sky with an orange horizon, with black silhouettes of crumbling buildings. Across the bottom of the card is a black bar containing additional film credits printed in blue. On the back, there is ink transfer from another image and a series of letters and numbers handwritten in pencil. Depicted: Maria Zabczynska as Wojtanowa, Jerzy Pichelski as Kazimierz Wojtan, others unidentified .2 Lobby card printed on rectangular off-white cardstock, with a narrow white margin on all four sides, and an illustration in the center. In the top left corner of the card is a line of advertising copy in white, the Spanish film title in large yellow text, and film credits in smaller, white text. The film title is overlaid on a large, red swastika that is cracking. In the bottom left corner are three illustrations of varying scales of men wearing brown jumpsuits, with gray helmets, and holding rifles. Overlaying one of the men is additional advertising copy in yellow. In the top right corner is an illustration of two Nazi officers in green uniforms assaulting a dark-haired woman. One of the officers is restraining the woman’s arms from behind, while the other is tearing her clothes off. In the bottom right corner is a canted, rectangular, black-and-white, photographic image with white and black borders on all four sides. The image depicts a woman speaking to a boy, both depicted from the neck up. In the background of the card is a blue sky with an orange horizon, with black silhouettes of crumbling buildings. Across the bottom of the card is a black bar containing additional film credits printed in blue. On the back, there is a series of letters and numbers handwritten in pencil. Depicted: Jerzy Zlotnicki as David Libermann, others unidentified
.1 back, upper left, handwritten, pencil : d6127 .2 back, upper left, handwritten, pencil : e1198
People
- Broniewska, Maria.
- Fijewski, Tadeusz.
- Ford, Aleksander.
- Pichelski, Jerzy, 1903-1963.
Subjects
- Heroes in motion pictures.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures.
- Warsaw (Poland)--History--Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
- Foreign language films.
- History in motion pictures.
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
- Mexico.
- Jews in motion pictures.
- Poland.
- Polish people in motion pictures.
Genre
- Object
- Posters
- Display cards.