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Documentary about the German invasion and siege of Poland

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 2003.214 | RG Number: RG-60.4705 | Film ID: 3049

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    Documentary about the German invasion and siege of Poland

    Overview

    Description
    In this ten minute film, Julien Bryan, the last neutral reporter remaining in Poland on September 1, 1939, records the horror and confusion of Warsaw during the German attack on Poland. Through actual footage taken during the siege, Bryan poignantly describes the frightening chain of events that finally resulted in the capitulation of Warsaw and Poland. During the early stages of the blitzkrieg, civilians were commandeered to dig ditches, set tank traps and shore up fortifications. Then, as the Polish soldiers retreated, Warsaw was surrounded and besieged. German planes, triumphant in the skies, wreaked destruction on the city with aerial and incendiary bombs, while heavy artillery guns kept up an incessant bombardment. Hospitals and churches were ultimately targets and women were machine gunned from planes while digging potatoes for their hungry families.
    Film Title
    Siege
    Duration
    00:09:48
    Date
    Event:  1939 September
    Production:  1940
    Locale
    Warsaw, Poland
    Credit
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Julien Bryan Archive
    Contributor
    Narrator: Julien H. Bryan
    Camera Operator: Julien H. Bryan
    Biography
    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.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Documentary.
    B&W / Color
    Black & White
    Image Quality
    Excellent
    Time Code
    01:00:00:00 to 01:09:48:00
    Film Format
    • Master
    • Master 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - acetate - composite print
      Master 3049 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
      Master 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - acetate - composite print
      Master 3049 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
      Master 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - acetate - composite print
      Master 3049 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
      Master 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - acetate - composite print
      Master 3049 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
    • Preservation
    • Preservation 3049 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - optical track - B-wind
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - polyester - b&w - duplicate negative - B-wind - Kodak - 2234
      Preservation 3049 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - optical track - B-wind
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - polyester - b&w - duplicate negative - B-wind - Kodak - 2234
      Preservation 3049 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - optical track - B-wind
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - polyester - b&w - duplicate negative - B-wind - Kodak - 2234
      Preservation 3049 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - optical track - B-wind
      Preservation 3049 Film: negative - 35 mm - polyester - b&w - duplicate negative - B-wind - Kodak - 2234
    • User
    • User 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - answer print - A-wind
      User 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - answer print - A-wind
      User 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - answer print - A-wind
      User 3049 Film: positive - 35 mm - b&w - answer print - A-wind

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
    Copyright
    Public Domain
    Conditions on Use
    To the best of the Museum's knowledge, this material is in the public domain. You do not require further permission from the Museum to reproduce or use this material.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Film Provenance
    The Julien Bryan Collection of films, photographs, documents, and artifacts was purchased by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from Sam Bryan and the International Film Foundation, Inc. on February 12, 2003.
    Note
    Released in 1940 by RKO as a newsreel in the Reelism Series, "Siege" is the first non-Nazi film of the start of World War II to be seen in American theaters. It was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Short, one reel) in 1941 and placed on the 2006 National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress in December 2006.

    After an exhaustive search, the USHMM believes that this 35mm print is the best surviving and most complete film element of "Siege." See FIlm and Video departmental files for more information.

    This film was preserved with a 2008 National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) cash grant.

    Transferred at 24 FPS
    Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.
    Film Source
    Sam Bryan and International Film Foundation
    File Number
    Legacy Database File: 5083
    Source Archive Number: JB 9977A
    Record last modified:
    2024-02-21 07:49:36
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn1004199

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