From Krasnosielc to Hollywood, The Warner brothers have joined the “Legacy” gallery at the POLIN Museum
At the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the “Legacy” gallery was supplemented with four new heroes – the Warner brothers, founders of the film empire. Present at the ceremony were David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, and Mark Brzezinski, US ambassador to Poland.
The ceremony took place on Monday at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. It was in connection with the 100th anniversary, celebrated this year, of Warner Bros. Pictures.The “Legacy” gallery, which is dedicated to the cultural achievements of Polish Jews, has been enriched with another biography, the Warner brothers. Albert, Sam and Harry were Polish immigrants of Jewish descent who created the famous film studio, and Jack, already born in Canada.
In this space we want to symbolically commemorate the contribution of Polish Jews to civilization, both Polish, Jewish and world. At the moment we have 27 individual stories, as one of these stories has recently been that of the Warner brothers. These are characters who represent very different areas. It’s a constellation of characters representing a diversity of fields and at the same time a diversity of life paths of Polish Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries,” said Dr. Tamara Sztyma, curator of the exhibition.
They created a film empire
Three of the Warner brothers – Albert, Sam and Harry – were born in the second half of the 19th century in Krasnosielc, a town in northeastern Poland. The youngest, Jack, was already born in Canada when the Wonsal family emigrated from Poland to America in the late 1880s. It was overseas that they began building their film empire in the early 20th century.
They first started by running a travelling cinema, then switched to film distribution and finally to film production in the early 1920s, founding the Warner Bros. studio. Their story is one of the most representative of this great involvement and participation of Jewish migrants from Polish lands in the development of cinematography, Dr. Sztyma added.
At the same time, she stressed that this gallery should not be treated in terms of a gallery of celebrities. – For us, this gallery is more of a supplement to the museum’s historical narrative. We want to say something more about Jewish history in the 19th and 20th centuries. The 19th century was a time when many Jews emerged from the world of tradition and began to function in the surrounding society. The fate of the figures presented in the gallery reflects the entire complex Jewish historical experience in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is assimilation, acculturation and emigration,” the curator explained.
Authorities at Warner Bros. Discovery at the museum
Participants included Kasia Kieli, President & Managing Director of Warner Bros. Discovery Poland and CEO of TVN, David Zaslav, President & CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, and Mark Brzezinski, US ambassador to Poland. As of May 2022, TVN is part of the family of Warner Bros. Discovery.
This hall of heritage tells the incredible story of Polish-American-Jewish relations. In many ways, this hall comes full circle,” Brzezinski said. – Take the Warner brothers, for example. They came from a small town in central Poland. They came to America with nothing. They built a film company of global scale, and now here we are, in their country of origin, at the POLIN Museum, which pays tribute,” he added.