Sylvester 'Kris' BraunPhotographer extraordinaire
by Stanley Stankiewicz
Many Poles in California know Sylvester 'Kris' Braun, but few know his life story as a soldier and a hero who also saved historic photographs of the City of Warsaw during World War II. ('Kris' is his wartime, pseudonym). After World War II, Braun immigrated to Southern California.
In 1979 the Warsaw newspaper Kurier Polski searched for the photographer of the dramatic demolition of the Prudential Building during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Braun made contact with the newspaper's editor and at his invitation found himself in Warsaw the city of his childhood, youth and heroic wartime battles after an absence of 35 years.
Braun, by profession a geodetic engineer, was employed prior to World War II in the Municipal Planning Bureau of Warsaw. He initiated photographic documentation of the city after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Although many of the original negatives were destroyed during the August 1944 Warsaw uprising, reproductions of some of Braun's prints from this period were published intermittently in post war publications. The Warsaw Historical Museum possesses numerous photographs marked with a seal: "Copyright by Kris, Warsaw 1940." The photographs show the destruction of the city during and after the battles of 1939.
The collection of photographs, made during the Warsaw Uprising, is a real treasure. A significant number of the photographic documents made under extremely difficult and dangerous situations, requiring much courage and sacrifice, were lost.
Of more than 3000 photographs made by Braun, less than 1500 survived. Fortunately, a case of negatives, buried in the basement of a house on Marszalkowska street, was uncovered by Braun after his return from a German concentration camp. They were later smuggled to the United States via Sweden, and for many years kept in Braun's home.
In 1979, the first exhibition of Braun's collection, which presented to the Polish public this prominent photo-reporter, was organized in Warsaw. The newspaper Kurier Polski was instrumental in arranging this exhibit.
The objective of this photo-exposition was to show a wide range of themes and settings of the achievements of Sylvester Kris-Braun. His collection contains photographs from various sections of Warsaw during the 1944 Warsaw uprising. The photographs portray hope, success, defense, daily life in Warsaw, the fighting up to the surrender. They chronicle the dramatic struggle, air raids, and death. Viewing Braun's photographs, one can sense the horror of the war; falling buildings, homes burned to the ground, broken trees and bodies.
Braun donated all his negatives to the History Museum of Warsaw. Braun's photographs have been shown in Belgrade, Zagreb, Moscow, Chicago, Vladivostok, Los Angeles and in Montreal, Canada.
In the Arceniew Museum in Vladivostok, the Association of Polish Culture Gmina presented a photographic exhibition entitled "50 Years of Warsaw - Photographed by Sylvester Kris-Braun," which portrayed a moving history of Warsaw (1939-1989). According to Miroslawa Efimova, President of Gmina, an enormous number of visitors viewed the exhibit. The press and television also praised the exhibit and expressed their fascination with Braun's work.
When Poland was finally liberated from oppressive Communist domination, it was fitting and proper that Braun's photo-exhibit be shown on the premises of the newly established offices of the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles. The exhibit was very well received by the American public.
From: Polish Americans in California, vol. II. National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs & Polish American Historical Association. California 1995.