Title:GERMAN SOLDIER IN OCCUPIED WARSAW IN 1940 [Allocated Title]
Film Number:GWY 1265
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY GERMAN SOLDIER [Alternative Title]
Summary:Unidentified German soldier's off-duty view of damaged buildings, street life and military activity in Occupied Warsaw records arm-banded Jews outside Ghetto (probably just prior to its sealing in November 1940), German soldiers dining and later on tour of inspection in mountains and port.
Description:Pan across centre of Warsaw to Prudential Building landmark on horizon. Pan across Central Railway Station and flattened surrounding area (already cleared of rubble by 1940). Pan past Hotel Polonia on Jerozolimskie Avenue, with civilians in coats in street. Middle aged Jewish businessman wearing Star of David armband on right sleeve and Jewish woman with shopping bag pass along Marszalkowska Street (not far from Ghetto). Shoe-shine boys at work in street. Zbawiciela Place, with church, on Marszalkowska Street. View of Warsaw across River Vistula from Praga on east bank. Poniatowski Bridge over Vistula. Street scene, probably in Praga (cupola of Orthodox Church at end of street), records Jewish woman looking at camera, teenage Jewish girl in smart black coat with armband walking past and staring at camera, while cameraman tracks woman carrying heavy suitcase across street. Tram No 25 in same scene. Period is autumnal, trees still semi-leaved.
Sailing barges on wide river spanned by girder bridge (not Vistula at Warsaw). War damage. Mounted German soldiers cross bridge. Steeply gabled houses (Bromberg or Danzig?). Unidentified church. Civilians walking, in Sunday style. German soldiers outside barracks and interior shot of soldiers eating at long table. Soldiers standing in doorway of No 10, as civilians and nun pass by. German soldiers and boy board tram marked "Nur für Deutschen". Snow piled up on edge of square. Interior of cafe marked Kaffeehaus on window, with tram (not Warsaw-type) passing outside. Poznan: Swastikas on poles in rectangular park facing neo-classical building (theatre?); row of small gliders (Luftwaffe Day?) in foreground. Pegasus figure on top of another neo-classical building, with three-emblem white flag in foreground. Deer tormented by civilian in park outside barracks.
Scenes in Cracow: Jagellonian University with Copernicus Statue; Wawel Castle; German soldiers in car in square.
German Army officers tour mountain area (Tatra Mountains?), observing destroyed Polish fortifications. Embark at Gdynia in small naval vessel and pass two berthed liners (Kraft Durch Freude vessels?). Inspection of fortified positions on land. Agfa 1941 leader attached to end of reel.
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY GERMAN SOLDIER [Alternative Title]
