Phil's Berlin Films - 1945 to 1949
Phil arrived in Berlin Germany in July1945 as part of - well, I don't rightly know, but I'll try to find out soon. Soon after Phil's arrival in July 1945 Berlin, a man came knocking on his door, at 20 Vogelsang Road, with a a box full of films and I believe some camera equipment. Again, the specific details will have to be filled in later. For reference, check out Marian's Autobiography (37 pages, pdf). Dad, as I recall, surmised the man was an employee of the Swiss Embassy ("Schweizer Reisebureau at Unter den Linden, 57/58, Berlin NW 7 Germany") because of the nature of some of the films. Many of them were of such subjects as Swiss skiing and mountaineering, so perhaps they came from a travel agency. There was news footage as well, some of Hitler ("Hitler and von Hindenburg at Potsdam, 1933"), and some of the German government ("Reich's Army Unit: Stahlhelm, 1932" and "Building Nazi Bridges"). Marian typed up Phil's Inventory of Movie Films on April 20, 2003 (a revision of her earlier list ("8mm movies and 16mm movies"). This list also includes films that Phil himself took, with the extensive photographic equipment he purchased (from the door-to-door "salesman", I believe). SO - Phil's Berlin Films are about 1/3 composed of the purchased frilms from the Swiss Bureau, 1/3 of professional footage that he shot himself, in his capacity as ????, and perhaps 1/3 of family films taken while living in Berlin. Marian had joined him in the fall of 1946, after Martha was 6-months old, and Philip Jr. was about 2 and 1/4.
Here are my unedited notes from June 6, 2010, when Phil and newsman Tom Trow met (PDF of 6 photos) to talk about digitizing these films. Tom had been invited by Phil to meet him at his residence at Sunrise of Roseville, an assisted living facility where Marian and Phil lived from late 2008 until their deaths, Marian on June 9, 2009, and Phil on July 21, 2011. I made the contact for Dad, after having met Tom at a neighbor's home for dinner, and telling him about the films. I'm not sure if he recalls that he met Phil earlier, but while sifting through Dad's files from his office in February of 2012, I discovered several other references to Thomas Trow. Dad had an April 1988 calling card of Tom's with the incrscription "Preserve Movie Film". On April 4, 2005, Phil received an email from Dr. Stephen Feinstein of the Center of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of MN, in which he mentioned that Tom Trow had told him about Phil and his films from Berlin. I found no record of the outcome of the subsequent discussion, other than that Phil called him. So it's almost serendipitous that it was Tom Trow that I turned to for help with copying, digitizing, and preserving Phil's Berlin films (PDF of 4 photos).
On June 8, 2010 Tom met me at Phil's Fulham Street home to pick out some films that he intended to put together as a "Berlin Sampler" to see if there was anything of historic value amongst Phil's collection. Together we selected 8 films that Tom decided, after discussion by phone with my brother Philip, woul be suitable for giving us a broad-range view of the salvageability and suitability of these films. A contract was signed, and Tom took 8 films to the TPT news station to see if they could be viewed with their eqipment. On 8/19/10 I called Tom and found out that money and camera equipment might not be available for this project now. On September 28, 2010, Dianne and I met Tom at Astound Video, where he introduced us to Jim. Tom had suggested the best thing for Phil to do, at this point, was to digitize the films himself, at personal expense, rather than wait for corporation or public support. Everyone knew that time was of the essence, for these films, some perhaps as old as the 1920s, were or soon would be deteriorating rapidly.
Phil saw the video produced in late 2010, and determined that he did want to go through with this project. At our next opportunity, on July 13, 2011, as recorded in my unedited notes, he once again reiterated at a family meal that the digitization and preservation of the Berlin Films was of utmost importance to him. In fact, that was to be one of the main focuses of that particular visit. Alas, Phil succumbed to a series of heart attacks beginning on June 17 that led to his death on July 21, 2011. When the job of Executor of Phil's Estate came to me (brother Gordon had declined, for business reasons), I continued with the digitiziation of the Berlin Films. Dianne and I had already carefully sorted and boxed all the films. so they were ready to go. On 11/17/11 the family films were processed as well as the professional and Swiss Bureau (purchased) films, and The film digitization process was complete, and hopefully they will one day be edited and ready for family, public, and professional viewing.