“Everyone would believe my pictures”

In the 1930s, the American filmmaker Julien Bryan chronicled life in Poland and Nazi Germany. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Bryan risked his life to record the ferocious siege of Warsaw, “People might not believe my story if I told it in words when I returned to America. Everyone would believe my pictures.” Bryan embraced this philosophy throughout his career by aiming to further world understanding through documentary films.

Film galleries

Prewar Poland 1936–1937 
Nazi Germany 1937
Siege of Warsaw, Poland 1939
Postwar

Photo Galleries

Prewar Poland 1936–1937
Nazi Germany 1937
Siege of Warsaw, Poland 1939
Postwar
Conservation

Biography

Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899–1974) was an important US documentary filmmaker who filmed and photographed the everyday life, work, and culture of individuals and communities in many countries around the globe. Read biography

About the collection

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired the Julien Bryan Collection in 2003. Since then, the Museum’s Film and Video Archive, Archives, Photo Archives, and Conservation departments have worked diligently to preserve and further document the collection. Learn more