Highlights from the Film and Video Archive in the year 2007

Rita Wolman Stern & Deborah Wolman Rosen Collection The first two segments illustrate street scenes in Warsaw in 1932, including the Grand Theater, Nalewki Street in the Jewish quarter, and the Mirkowska Hala market. The final clip shows the cameraman Robert Wolman's family at a park in Warsaw. 3:48 minutes, Silent Judy Simon Collection Dr. Benjamin Gasul, the donor's father, shot this footage on 16mm Kodachrome (color) film just a few months before World War II began. This excerpt shows people on the streets of Warsaw's Jewish quarter as they enjoy the sunny weather and clown for the camera. 2:36 minutes, Silent Russian Archives of Documentary Films & Photographs Ilya Ehrenburg, the famous writer and member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, visits Soviet soldiers at the front in 1945. 1:03 minutes, Silent Bundesarchiv This German newsreel shows Allied soldiers captured by the Germans in Greece in May 1941. The camera work is intended to highlight the different ethnic types who are fighting against Germany; the commentary (not available on the DVD) states that many members of the British army are Jews who fled Germany and then turned against their native country. 1:27 minutes, Silent Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection Interview with Tadeusz Pankiewicz Pankiewicz was a Pole who operated a pharmacy within the walls of the Krakow ghetto. He helped Jews by providing them with food and a place to hide. Here, Pankiewicz says that his was the only pharmacy run by a non-Jew within any ghetto. It was open day and night and he lived on the premises. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Jewish work battalions came from the Plaszow camp to buy food. He explains the division of the ghetto into ghetto "A", where those able to work lived, and ghetto "B", where those Jews who were to be liquidated resided. 2:38 minutes, German Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection Interview with Gertrude Schneider Gertrude Schneider lived in Vienna with her family until they were deported to Riga, Latvia. In this clip she describes the arrival in Riga and her narrow escape from the gas vans. 5:43 minutes, English Bundesarchiv SS men and prisoners, wearing Star of David badges, filming a scene in a rail siding for the 1942 German Propaganda Kompanie film about Theresienstadt. This film is much lesser known than the 1944 propaganda film about Theresienstadt. 2:46 minutes, Silent Bundesarchiv This footage adds to the Archive's holdings on the trial of the so-called 20th of July plotters who attempted to assassinate Hitler. Roland Freisler, the notorious president of the People's Court, enters the courtroom. Conspirator Hans-Georg Klamroth, a salesman whose only involvement in the plot consisted of passive knowledge, appears before the court. Freisler asks Klamroth whether it is clear to him that his decision not to act once he learned of the plot amounted to treason. The second man who appears is Hans-Bernd August Gustav von Haeften, an official in the foreign office. He tells Freisler that he lost whatever sense of loyalty he had once had toward Hitler, who he considered the "executor of evil in history." 2:53 minutes, German Russian Archives of Documentary Films & Photographs The actor Solomon Mikhoels and other prominent members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee meet in Columnar Hall in Moscow in 1944. Mikhoels reads from a statement, which is applauded by the attendees. Members of the committee, including David Bergelson, Mikhoels, Abraham Sutzkever, and Ilya Ehrenburg, sign the statement. 2:30 minutes, Silent Mara Vishniac & the International Center of Photography The renowned photographer Roman Vishniac shot this footage of men participating in ORT training activities in Marseilles in 1939. The men work in a greenhouse, lay irrigation pipes, attend classes, and perform other tasks. 4:01 minutes, Silent