Destruction and rebuilding in Poland circa 1946; country life in Poland, circa 1939

http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn1003641 an entity of type: Record

rico: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.

rico:identifier

irn1003641

rico:title

Destruction and rebuilding in Poland circa 1946; country life in Poland, circa 1939

rico:scopeAndContent

Children playing in the rubble in the streets of a destroyed, unidentified city. It may be Danzig, it may be Warsaw, or it may be another Polish city. Bricks from fallen buildings are piled high alongside the street, children pick up sticks and whatever they can find and play with the bricks. Vs of the countryside, a pointed roof house, ducks and geese swimming in a pond, men driving tractors across a field (probably in1946 - see notes field). VS of the fields being plowed. CU on the men driving the tractors, the wheels of the machine, etc. EXT, back in the city, a sign on the corner of a building reads:"YMC", with an arrow pointing in the direction of the YMCA. More shots of destroyed buildings, piles of rubble, young boys clearing up more rubble as men, women and children walk through the streets. Two Polish soldiers walk boy carrying paper parcels under their arms. EXT of the"Polska YMC", men, women and children enter the building. INT, young boy in a tattered scout uniforms and other tattered clothing put together a puzzle, others play with a model airplane. EXT: snow covers the ground, more destroyed buildings, quick cut to the blueprints for a building. EXT: women sit on folding chairs and wooden crates outside the door to a building, they are beggars. People give them money and they smile for the camera. EXT: a cemetery, several people are in the cemetery laying flowers on graves. A large memorial, Polish soldiers burying their war dead, line up alongside coffins of their fallen comrades, a priest blesses the coffins. The men pass white wooden crosses down the line of soldiers; these crosses will soon mark the graves they are digging. The coffins are put into the ground. EXT: cows in a pasture, a few quick shots of peasant.

ehri:notes

See RG-60.7207 for similar shots.

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. The label on this reel indicates that a portion of this footage may have been shot in 1939, but the images seem to be much more in line with the footage that Bryan shot in 1946 for UNRRA. Sometimes the original cans that housed the footage when it arrived at USHMM were repurposed from other reels, and this may explain the discrepancy in dating. The film preservation notes indicate that there may be a mix of footage as well, This reel shows signs of decomposition and loss of emulsion along the right and left outer edges of the frame, the reel was rewashed and printed, and the majority of the image area of the frame is intact with clear picture quality. 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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