For the Polish specialist, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division's most important research asset is its extensive collection of German archival films, including several thousand feature films, newsreels, and shorts captured by the allied forces in World War II. A large share of these films pertain to Poland, and although frequently propagandistic in tone, they provide an important visual record of German-Polish relations before and during the Third Reich. Listed below in chronological order are some of the German Collection's more interesting titles as presented in the card catalog.
Polen feiert seine Unabhangigkeit. (Poland celebrates its independence). Footage of November 16, 1916 Independence Day parade before General Pilsudski and later before General Rydz-Smigly). 1936.
Feinde (Enemies). Produced in Munich in 1940, the film is a drama about the German minority in Poland before World War II.
Feldzug in Polen (Campaign in Poland), 1939. Two reels.
Einnahme von Warschau (The Capture of Warsaw), 1939.
Scenes from Occupied Poland, 1939.
Besides the German Collection, the Division offers an interesting array of Western documentary/educational films about Poland, including:
Poland Invaded. (The Evening News, London). Rony Collection, #170.
Poland and the Soviet Power: background to recent history. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1961. A documentary record of the changes that have taken place in Poland since 1939.
CBS News Special Report. Poland--Days of Darkness. U.S.: CBS Television Network, December 17, 1981.
The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest. United Kingdom: 1986. A documentary about the murder of Father Popieluszko.
CBS News Special Report. Lech Walesa at Congress. United States: CBS, November 15, 1989.
The Library's modest collection of Polish cinema includes two films by the renowned Polish director, Andrzej Wajda (Kanal, 1957, and Popiol i Diament, 1958; Krzysztof Kieslowski's award-winning La Double Vie de Veronique, 1991; two films by internationally acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland--Europa, Europa, 1990, and To Kill a Priest, 1988; Menahem Golan's The Magician of Lublin, based on a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1978; several films by Roman Polanski, including the Polish-language Dwaj ludzie z szafa, 1958; and Ryszard Czekala's Syn, 1970. In addition, the American Film Institute Collection includes a number of Yiddish-language films produced in Poland in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Library of Congress began collecting motion pictures in 1893 when Thomas Edison and his brilliant assistant W.K.L. Dickson deposited the Edison Kinetoscopic Records for copyright. However, because of the difficulty of safely storing the flammable nitrate film used at the time, the Library retained only the descriptive material relating to motion pictures. In 1942, recognizing the importance of motion pictures and the need to preserve them as a historical record, the Library began the collection of the films themselves; from 1949 on these included films made for television. Today the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) is responsible for the acquisition, cataloging and preservation of the Library's motion picture and television collections.
