Kęszyccy Family Archive

The author of the film is Marcin Kęszycki, who as a teenager documented family and social life with a Newa 2 camera. 

A film made during the first family trip abroad to the GDR in 1966 or 1967. The purpose of the trip was to visit the former Ravensbrück concentration camp, where Józefa Kęszycka – sister of Wojciech, Marcin’s father – was executed on 16 July 1943. The family visits the camp and the Ravensbrück National Site of Admonition and Remembrance, established on the site in 1959. Shots of the obelisk by the Schwedt lake, into which the ashes of the murdered prisoners were thrown. The Kęszycki family threw a bunch of flowers on the surface of the water, but this was not captured on film. Wojciech is smoking a cigarette and saying something to his son who is filming him. Marcin is walking on the pavement with his mum Maria and brother Wojtek. Dad swaps with his son behind the camera, the parents and brother are filmed again by Marcin. The family members are walking through the town, looking at the shop windows. As the film’s author recalls, he was particularly impressed by a photo shop with ORWO color films, which were hardly available in Poland at the time. Maria and Wojciech bought an editing table for 8 mm films during their trip. 

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