Robert Gessner passport

Identifier
irn596945
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2018.193.1
  • 2014.534
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

folder

1

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Robert Gessner (1907-1968) was a Jewish American screenwriter and author born in Escanaba, MI. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1929 and a M.A. from Columbia University in 1930. He started teaching at New York University in 1930. He traveled to several European countries in 1934 and shot the photographs and film footage donated to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum by his son, Peter. Gessner wrote a book about his journeys, titled "Some of My Best Friends are Jews" in 1936, in which he explicitly warned of the Nazi threat in Europe. He married Doris Lindeman on May 27, 1938 and had two children, Peter and Stephen. Mr. Gessner was a screen playwright and the author of several additional books, including "Massacre" (1931); "Broken Arrow" (1933); "Treason" (1944); "Youth is the Time" (1945), and "The Moving Image, A Guide to Cinematic Literacy" (1968). He was a pioneer educator in motion pictures as an art form. Gessner founded the Motion Picture Department at NYU in 1941, the first four-year film curriculum leading to a B.A. degree in motion picture studies in the United States.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Gessner.

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Peter Gessner.

Scope and Content

Contains a passport issued by the United States of America to Robert Gessner (donor's father) in 1932 and used by him through 1935 during his travels in Europe.

People

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.