Friedrich Family Archive

collection Friedrich Family Archive
authors Tadeusz Friedrich
starring Anna Friedrich; Irena Friedrich; Felicja Schabińska-Friedrich; Małgorzata Serini-Bulska
length 06'55
country Poland
locations Warsaw, Poland  Cracow, Poland  Szczawnica, Poland 
year 1944; 1945
format 16 mm
color black and white
signature PAFD 0052 001
description

Tadeusz Friedrich was born on July 7, 1903, in Nowy Sącz. He was a multiple Polish champion in fencing and two-time bronze medalist at the Olympic Games: in Amsterdam (1928) and Los Angeles (1932). During his trip to the United States, he met his future wife, Felicja Schabińska (1909-1996), an outstanding athlete, multiple record holder and Polish champion. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising. After ending his sports career, he got involved in coaching at several fencing clubs in Kraków. Photography was his passion. In his free time, he documented family life with a 16mm film camera.
Continuation of the film lost during the Warsaw Uprising.
Part 1
Film shot in June 1944 in Zalesie near Warsaw. Felicja is spending time outdoors with her two-year-old daughter Irena, nicknamed Kukusia by family members. The little girl is blowing dandelion clocks with her mother and playing with pinecones on a blanket spread on the grass.
Part 2
Film shot on July 3, 1944, a few days after the birth of Felicja and Tadeusz’s second daughter, Anna, at the Hospital of the Infant Jesus in Warsaw. At the maternity ward, Felicja and her daughter were under the care of Małgorzata (Greta) Serini-Bulska, a world-renowned doctor, head of the gynecology and obstetrics department, and a personal friend of the Friedrichs. Like Tadeusz, Greta represented Poland in many fencing competitions. The doctor takes the newborn from the crib and carries her down the hospital corridor. Felicja leaves the hospital, bids farewell to Greta, and returns to Zalesie by car with her daughters.
Part 3
Shot of a wall calendar showing the date August 1, 1944. As Irena recalls, during their stay in Zalesie, her mother received news of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. Tadeusz was in the city at the time, taking part in the uprising as a translator of German communications. The film shows fragments of war newsreels edited by him: Polish soldiers during combat, ruins of Warsaw, the Red Army offensive, and Soviet troops marching through Kraków in January 1945. The footage is intercut with text boards, dates, and occasional shots of nature.
Part 4
After the war, the family moved from destroyed Warsaw to Szczawnica. The younger sister, affectionately called Anusia by the family, is sitting in a baby carriage and smiles at her father filming her.

(AT)

keywords family  family life  summer  dandelion  child  baby carriage  hospital  city  nature  World War II  bomber  bomb  airplane  ruins  rifle  cannon  march 
source of funding Polish Film Institute