Feliks Matuszelański’s albums: Personal collection — documentation of movies — commemoration of Maria Hirszbein

Abstract

In the collection of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN is an album that contains various paper documents, such as programmes, leaflets on several pre-war films, as well as photographs of the films and their sets. There are also cards with commemorative writings (stammbuch) sewn into the initial section. These are mainly materials from the production of the Warsaw-based Leo-Film studio, headed since 1926 by Maria Hirszbein, one of the most important institutions of its kind in pre-war Poland. The author of this article describes this unusual artefact, trying to show its multi-layered nature. Matuszelański’s album, originally intended as a reflection of his own professional way and an album of memorabilia, and evolving over the years into an archive showing the activities of the Leo-Film studio — in its present form it is an album in memory of Maria Hirszbein, who was perished in the Holocaust.