Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Two nurses tend to a sick and wounded Polish woman in the besieged city of Warsaw.
- Date
-
1939 September
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Julien Bryan Archive
- Contributor
-
Photographer:
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 Soviet Union. 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 Kraków 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 within days of Germany's invasion of Poland in Sept. 1939 and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of World War II. 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
- Classification
-
Photographs
- Category
-
Slides (Photography)
- Object Type
-
Lantern slides (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Handcolored glass lantern slide; image shows wide view of two nurses tending to a sick and wounded Polish woman in the hospital. Inscribed with "EDWARD VAN ALTENA/71-79 W. 45TH ST. N.Y.C." on mat on either side.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 3.200 inches (8.128 cm) | Width: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm)
- Materials
- overall : glass
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- Sam Bryan transferred the copyright for the Julien Bryan Archive to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April 2020. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum places no restrictions on use of this material and you do not require further permission from the Museum to reproduce or use this film footage.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The lantern slide was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 17:49:56
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn38135
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- By Appointment
- Request 21 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Request to See This Object
Contact Us
Also in Julien Bryan collection
Collection consists of motion picture, still photographic materials, and colored glass slides and papers of Julien Bryan's visits to Poland, Nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia during World War II. Also included in the collection are Julien Bryan's United States passport, scrapbook of newspaper clippings, announcements, and reviews of Julien Bryan's "Nazi Germany" traveling lecture, an envelope of duplicate newspaper clippings on "Siege" (of Warsaw), and a scrapbook of articles written on Julien Bryan's Siege of Warsaw film and book.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish family huddles around a column in front of the Opera House in besieged Warsaw while a Polish soldier looks on.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish soldier and two civilian workers amid pile of wreckage in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish soldiers and civilians gathered on wreckage strewn hillside in Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A group of Polish women and children gather on the street during the Siege of Warsaw - the woman in the center is holding a loaf of bread.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Hitler Youth gather on a street in Germany in Berlin 1939. [This image from Berlin was found in the P-20-1939 contact book]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
An intact portrait of President Roosevelt lies amidst the rubble of the destroyed officer of the American Consulate General in Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Interior view of a ward in the Catholic Hospital of the Transfiguration (one of Warsaw's largest hospitals) that is completely destroyed.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A group of Polish men drag the carcass of a horse through the streets of Warsaw during the siege of the capital.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of civilians, soldiers and police officer gathered along sidewalk.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish family lives in desitution on the streets of besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish woman holding her child converses with her soldier husband, who supervises a group of civilians digging an anti-tank trench along a street in Warsaw to slow the advance of the German army.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
The corpse of a child lies on the grounds of a bombed out school in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish civilians carry bundles and travel in horse-drawn carriages during the siege of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish soldiers and civilians dig anti-tank trenches to defend Warsaw from the oncoming German army while other civilians pass by them on the street.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Poles stare at a large hole created from a bombing of a street of beisieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two Polish nurses attend to corpses lying on the ground in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Close view of signs marking the American Joint Reconstruction Foundation and the American Consulate in Warsaw 1939. Signs are in Polish and English.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of an apartment building centered in the frame. Signs are in Polish and English.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Poles observe a truck draped in the American flag in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of religious statue. The wings are broken off, lying on the ground.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two Polish women look at the destruction of an apartment building in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A ten-year-old Polish girl named Kazimiera Mika, mourns the death of her older sister, who was killed in a field in Warsaw during a German air raid. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her... The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, pp.20-21.]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A group of Polish women pray on their knees before a large crucifix hanging outside an old wooden church that had been bombed by German aircraft a day earlier. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "The entire right wing of the building had been blown away, and where this section had been was an enormous crater, thirty feet across and fifteen feet deep. The rest of the building was still standing. A young Catholic priest with a serene face showed us about. Luckily, he said, they had heard the alarm for an air attack and he managed to get all his parishioners out of the church before the bomb struck." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw 1939 Siege, 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, p. 22]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A group of Polish women pray on their knees before a large crucifix hanging outside an old wooden church that had been bombed by German aircraft a day earlier. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "The entire right wing of the building had been blown away, and where this section had been was an enormous crater, thirty feet across and fifteen feet deep. The rest of the building was still standing. A young Catholic priest with a serene face showed us about. Luckily, he said, they had heard the alarm for an air attack and he managed to get all his parishioners out of the church before the bomb struck." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw 1939 Siege, 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, p. 22]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish girl holding her dog in her arms views the destruction wrought by German air raids during the siege of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of Julien Bryan and solder amid rubble of besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of soldier holding up tattered banner amid rubble in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Julien Bryan's driver stops Bryan from waving to a crowd of Polish spectators in besieged
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A group of Polish women stare ahead in front of a bombed out building in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wounded German POWs rest in a makeshift hospital in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Civilians walk and bicycle past a business protected by sand bags in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of an operating table in the bombed out maternity ward of the Catholic Hospital of the Transfiguration (one of Warsaw's largest hospitals).
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish mother and child pose amidst the rubble on a street in Warsaw that had been bombed during the siege of the capital.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Medium view of three mothers holding infants in laps, seated on floor of makeshift hospital.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish woman, Apolonia Wiktorzak, recieves her bread allotment in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A ten-year-old Polish girl named Kazimiera Mika mourns the death of her older sister, who was killed in a field in Warsaw during a German air raid. Photographer Julien Bryan described the scene: "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her... The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, pp.20-21.]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View from above of a Polish family performing their daily chores amidst the remnants of their household furnishings that they have reassembled outside the charred ruins of their home in Warsaw. The boy with the hatchet is Albert Turowski, who later became a film actor in postwar Poland.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish woman sells cow's milk outside of the American Consolate in beseiged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two women sit amidst the ruins of their homes in Warsaw with a pile of bedding they were able to save.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
High angle wide view of bombarded buildings and rubble in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A young boy, Zygmunt Askienow, sits with his rescued pet canary among the ruins of his home in Warsaw after a German air raid. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "Not far from the center of town a bomb had hit an apartment house and exposed the first, second, and third floors. A boy was walking dazedly back and forth carrying the one possession he had found -- a canary in its cage. He walked up and down over a pile of stones and bricks. Under the pile there were nine or ten bodies, so the neighbors told us, not yet recovered." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw 1939 Siege, 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, p. 24]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Julien Bryan's interpreter explains to a Polish policeman that Bryan is an American photographer, not a German spy.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of a boarded up store in besieged Warsaw. The sign outside reads: "A black marketeer was here - He went to Bereza-Kartuska." Bereza - Kartuska was a Polish prison for political criminals that operated from 1934-1939.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two men unfurl a large American flag on the roof of the American Consulate.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Aerial view of the American flag flying in front of the American Consulate in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Julien Bryan films an anti-Nazi propaganda poster affixed to a wall in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of a destroyed streetcar on a bomb damaged street in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Roof-top view over tree tops in besieged Warsaw, fires visible in distance.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Under the supervision of Polish soldiers, elderly religious Jews dig anti-tank trenches to impede the German invasion.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
"The face of suffering Poland:" a woman killed when the Germans bombed her apartment building.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Photographer and filmaker Julien Bryan takes pictures of corpses during the siege of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Men and women pile sand bags outside on the base of the American consulate in Warsaw to protect it from German bombs.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish refugees leave Warsaw on a horse-drawn wagon loaded with their personal property during the German siege of the capital.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Photographer Julien Bryan comforts a ten-year-old Polish girl named Kazimiera Mika, whose older sister was killed in a field in Warsaw during a German air raid. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her... The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, pp.20-21.]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two Polish women look at the destruction of an apartment building in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish Catholic Priest removes religious iconography from a destoyed church - including a statue of the Virgin Mary and a portrait of Pope Pius XII.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Pedestrians cross a bridge during the siege of Warsaw; one Polish man in the center carries bedding on a bicycle.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Interior view of the destroyed Catholic Hospital of the Transfiguration. one of Warsaw's largest hospitals.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish civilians and a soldier loiter about an automobile [possibly Julien Bryan's car] in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of [what is probably the casing of a German bomb] lying next to a pile of bricks in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Close view of document or cloth banner held unfurled by two individuals.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
An American flag hangs outside the shattered window of the American embassy in Warsaw during the siege of the capital.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of a plaster wall in besieged Warsaw that has been riddled by machine gun fire.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of a bombed out apartment building in the besieged city of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View from interior looking out of war torn building in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
View of an operating table in the bombed out maternity ward of the Catholic Hospital of the Transfiguration (one of Warsaw's largest hospitals).
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish citizens look at The Evening Express. It says: "The United States enters the block against Germany. Today England and France began the war with all their forces on land - sea - and air. America will not remain neutral."
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Patient with head heavily bandaged in a hospital bed in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Aerial view of the American flag flying in front of the American Consulate in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A crowd of Polish spectators surround military vehicles on a street in Poland.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
American photographer Julien Bryan films a scene duing the siege of Warsaw. He stands atop a barricade of paving stones that had been erected to slow the advance of the German army.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish civilians and soldier walk through defenses built during the Siege of Warsaw to slow the advance of the German army.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish civilians and soldiers evacuate the wounded in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Swastikas hang from a building in Berlin 1939. [This image from Germany was found in the P-20-1939 contact book]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Wide view of Polish streets. Man in foreground carries large picture frame on his back. Crowd of civilians in background.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish women and children venture into bombed-out and besieged Warsaw to find wood for fuel.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish mother and baby walk through the bombed out streets of besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Stacks of crucifixes lie against the brick wall of a destroyed church or cemetery structure in Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Father Wlodarczyk tries to clean and repair a bombed-out church in the besieged city of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish family picks up the pieces of the wreckage of a bombed out home in the besieged city of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A young boy sits next to the corpse of his mother who was killed when a German airplane dropped bombs on them while their were digging for potatoes.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish family performs their daily chores amidst the remnants of their household furnishings that they have reassembled outside the charred ruins of their home in Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
An elderly Polish woman poses with two silver spoons and a pair of scissors, all that remained of her home after it was destroyed in a German air raid during the siege of Warsaw. The woman's name is Mrs. Jaworska. Julien Bryan later learned that she died in 1940.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Nurses care for infants in a makeshift maternity ward in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A ten-year-old Polish girl named Kazimiera Mika, mourns the death of her older sister, who was killed in a field in Warsaw during a German air raid. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her... The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, pp.20-21.]
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
An elderly Polish woman looks out the shattered window of her apartment in Warsaw, where the remnant of a lace curtain hangs next to a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two young Polish boys read a Polish edition of a Mickey Mouse Sunday colored supplement while standing among the ruins of a building in Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish men march past the Great Theatre in Warsaw to dig anti-tank trenches against the German Army.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
The corpse of a Polish victim of a German air raid lies on the ground in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A Polish mother and daughter flee the besieged city of Warsaw with bedding and other essential household items.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A bombed out home in the besieged capital of Poland - only the chimney and stove remain relatively intact.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish woman and children forage for potatoes in the besieged city of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
"Food warehouses set afire by incendiary bombs" in besieged Warsaw. Caption from Bryan's book "Siege."
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Extreme wide view of bombarded building. Polish workers and civilians gather amid rubble.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
A young boy sits among the ruins of his home in Warsaw after it was destroyed during a German air raid.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Poles dig trenches in Warsaw to protect the capital against German invasion.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two Polish mothers pose with their newborn infants during the siege of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish doctors and nurses look at the damage to their hospital, The Transfiguration of the Lord, following its bombing during the siege of Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Under the supervision of Polish soldiers, elderly religious Jews dig anti-tank trenches to impede the German invasion.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Two Polish women stand horrified after the destruction of their homes by the Germans - in the foreground is the corpse of one of the women killed in the air raid.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish women bow their heads and kneel in prayer after the destruction of their church in besieged Warsaw.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Polish civilians dig an anti-tank trench and plant street car rails in the ground on a street in Warsaw to slow the advance of the German army.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Crater left after explosion from German bombing during the siege of Warsaw, 1939.
Hand-colored glass slide
Object
Four Polish women view with anguish the bodies of those killed in a field in Warsaw, where they were digging for potatoes during the siege of the capital. In the words of photographer Julien Bryan, "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited." Warsaw, Polonia, 1959, pp.20-21.]
Julien Bryan collection
Document
Collection consists of Julien Bryan's United States passport; scrapbook of newspaper clippings; and announcements and reviews of Julien Bryan's "Nazi Germany" traveling lecture; an envelope of duplicate newspaper clippings on "Siege" (of Warsaw); and a scrapbook of articles written on Julien Bryan's "Siege of Warsaw" film and book.
