Children playing in prewar Vienna
Possibly a kindergarten scene. Four little girls, posing for the camera, then running about happily. An infant is being placed into its carriage, CUs. Another baby. A few mothers with carriages gathered on a sidewalk, including Doris Lichtenthal. Children play. They begin raking sand or dirt of some kind.
01:01:08 Kids play, boys in lederhosen with hoops and sticks, girls with jump ropes. The boys try to climb the fence before giving up. Peter rides a scooter that is just a bit big for him. Peter plays with blocks (brief). A child writing, followed by a girl running behind a toy baby carriage.
01:02:41 Children playing in what appears to be a schoolyard. A teacher is present as they run about the yard and play in a sandbox. Young boys chase after slightly older girls.
01:03:23 Peter in a striped bathrobe plays indoors with wooden construction blocks. The picture is dark. He continues to play with an electric model train locomotive on an oval track.
- Film Title
-
Schur Family -- Helen Schur -- home movies
- Duration
- 00:04:13
- Date
-
Event:
1933-1938
- Locale
-
Vienna,
Austria
- Language
-
Silent
- Genre/Form
-
Amateur.
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Peter Schur
-
Record last modified: 2022-07-28 22:02:22
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1004245
Also in Schur Family Collection
Dr. Peter Schur donated a videocassette transfer of his family's original 9.5mm films documenting life in Vienna before the war. His father, Dr. Max Schur, was a psychoanalyst and Sigmund Freud's personal physician. The Schur family lived in Vienna until June 1938, when they emigrated to London, and finally to New York in 1939. Scenes include Peter and his sister Eva playing, vacationing, and attending a Montessori school.
Children play with bunnies in prewar Vienna
Film
Peter Schur rides down the street on his scooter, which seems more his size now. He cuts paper, then boils an egg. People come over with a basket, followed by scenes outdoors with a plate of eggs, and then shots of rabbits (perhaps this is Easter?). The kids play with the rabbits.
Montessori school in Vienna
Film
Peter Schur, dressed for winter, a lunch box hanging from his neck, is helped into the backseat of a car. Scenes from inside the car as it drives down a street lined with trees, snow. The car was later confiscated by the Nazis, along with a revolver and some gold coins. 01:14:56 Seasons change, scenes from inside the car as it drives on a city street with trams. The boy is on his way to school, possibly on his first day. Sign on glass: "Montessori-Kindergarten Hedy Schwarz." Peter smiles and waves from inside the window. 01:15:25 INT, Montessori-Kindergarten, with children playing and interacting, both inside the classroom and outdoors. 01:17:11 A birthday party, with many children seated around low tables eating ice cream, CUs. Kids play with toy car.
Peter grows up
Film
Baby Peter developing and growing up. CUs and MSs of the baby in a high chair, crib, playing peek-a-boo, crawling, playing with sister, ring a rosie in the garden, toddling, walking with father (Dr. Max Schur), picking fruit from bushes in the garden, and drinking water from a large bucket or barrel.
Children play
Film
Children playing on the porch with adults lounging. Dr. Max Schur and Dr. Helen Schur, parents, seated in chairs behind the children.
Baby grows up with Schur family in prewar Vienna
Film
In winter, mother pushes baby carriage and toddler walks alongside. Sequences of developing baby as she is bathed, stretched, plays on tummy, smiles, cries, sits in the grass, plays with a rattle. Some damage to image from 01:28:38 to 01:28:47. Baby sits in the grass. Peter on a toy car. 01:28:56 The entire family sits down for a portrait, the image is very dark and nearly indistinguishable.
Family vacations at the beach in prewar Austria
Film
Summer scenes near the lake on a beach (the same vacation resort in Gmunden, Austria?). A teenage girl swings, older men swim, a motorboat passes by, a woman (their mother?) does gymnastics, and the children Eva and Peter play in the sand with a ball, beach chairs, and fishing rods.
Children at play in prewar Vienna
Film
Peter and Eva Schur crawling around, having fun, playing with blocks. 01:30:13 Eva plays with the housecat. Peter on scooter. Baby with man in glasses. Baby in carriage, CUs. Peter circling on the patio. 01:30:57 Peter and Eva row a boat on the lake (on vacation in Gmunden, Austria?). 01:31:19 Child eats an apple, then runs around with toy wagon. 01:32:11 Peter plays in snow. **Story contains short pieces of footage of children at various ages, intercut non-chronologically.**
Family car and women knitting in prewar Vienna
Film
The family car (new?), which was later confiscated by the Nazis, along with a revolver and some gold coins. Peter rides a toy car and plays ball. Sign reads "19. Hannplatz." CUs, women knit.
Vacationing on Lake Traun, Gmunden, Austria
Film
Outside, a sign reads "Schloss Pension: Freisitz Roith" (a famous historic hotel on the Traunsee [Lake Traun] in Gmunden, Austria). Scenes of an estate at the end of a long scenic road, where children run about and peer over a railing to the view of Lake Traun with mountains surrounding it. They run back into the house. 01:05:11 Eva Schur stands on a man-made pathway, watching swans on the lake in front of her. Motorboats pass by. 01:05:30 Girls play with dolls, boys swim, mother crochets. A rowboat with everyone aboard, along with a new woman in glasses. The boat is landed and chained by the young boys. They get changed out of their wet clothes. 01:07:43 Two infants lie in a baby carriage. Their mother, and the children, entertain the babies. 01:07:53 Swimming, various scenes of the children playing in the water.
Peter as a baby
Film
Peter Schur gets a diaper change. He lies on the bed, plays, is held, fed, and generally loved by the family, including mom Helen, nurse, and dad Max.
