Louis Sommer was born in Izbugya, Hungary and emigrated to the United States in 1899. He settled in Omaha, Nebraska where he owned a grocery business at the intersection of Dodge Street and 49th Street. Louis and his brother Harry visited their father Barnath and extended family and friends in Humenne, Slovakia in March 1932. They recorded Jewish families and businesses with a movie camera.
The five original film reels are labeled: (1) Around Before LS Europe Trip (Film ID 2988); (2) My Trip to Europe - March 29, 1932 (Film ID 412.1); (3) My Trip to Europe Continued (Film ID 412.2); (4) My Trip to Europe Continued (Film ID 413); (5) Louis Sommer's Family Abroad (Film ID 2989).
For more information, review the Oral History with Bernard and Emery Klein from May 23, 1984 at http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/klein/ or RG-50.155*0228. Refer also to the Washington Post article on the first transport to Auschwitz with teenage girls from Humenne, including Edith Friedman Grosman: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/01/27/first-transport-jews-auschwitz-was-997-teenage-girls-few-survived/
Reel 5. Children dancing in a circle in Humenne (similar to the beginning of RG-60.0833). 00:00:10"Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia - The Famous Health Resor" Pan of city buildings in Karlovy Vary in Bohemia. Street scenes with pedestrians. More tourist views of the beautiful city. 00:01:09"Vienna - Parliament Building and the Ring Strass" Street scenes with shops, traffic, civilians, and major sites. 00:02:18"Budapest - The Most Beautiful City in the Worl" Tourist shots of sights in Budapest. Driver stands beside car loaded with suitcases. More sightseeing in the city. CU, men with headphones, one smokes a cigar. 00:04:03 Nice MS of a group of visitors in the street surrounding a man getting his shoes shined. The group poses in a park before a large estate.
Tourist views of Carlsbad, Vienna, and Budapest