Hotel Müller and the Jewish Streets of Kraków, 1936

Galician Jewry · Kraków, 1936

Hotel Müller and the Jewish Streets of Kraków, 1936

Published September 2, 2026 · Updated September 8, 2026

Two men stand in the Hotel Müller doorway in Kraków, 1936, before Julien Bryan’s camera walks the shops, the market, and a courtyard in Kazimierz.

Julien Bryan’s Kraków film, 1936. About seven minutes. The Colorized toggle adds computer color; the museum film is black and white. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Julien Bryan Archive.

Follow the walk on the map: pin 1 is where the reel starts, and a click jumps to that scene.

Hotel Müller

Hotel Müller 1 Krakowska Street (ul. Krakowska 1 / ul. Dietla 41), Kazimierz, Kraków

Two men stand in the dark of the Hotel Müller door, long coats and hats, facing each other just inside the stone opening, where the walk begins.

On the left wall of that opening a plaque names the hotel’s restaurant and café, in Polish and in Yiddish, and under that K. Goldman; a post box hangs below the same board. The right wall carries a second plaque for a ladies’ handbag workshop: M. L. Wachsstock.

Those handbag initials fit Majer Lazar Wachsstock, born in 1890, so the plaque is still the best name we have for that workshop at the door. In the mid-1920s the hotel itself was run by Schiff Róża, and before her by Brenner Hirsch Leib.

Two men in the doorway of Hotel Müller, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: Hotel Müller doorway, 1 Krakowska Street.

Street View, the Hotel Müller doorway at 1 Krakowska Street / 41 Dietla Street.

Planty Dietlowskie

Planty Dietlowskie ul. Dietla, beside the trees. Kazimierz, Kraków

From the doorway the walk turns onto Planty Dietlowskie, four men in long coats and hats on the stones. Behind them, four or five more people take the far sidewalk, beside the trees and a low iron railing.

Four men in long coats walking beside trees, with more people on the far sidewalk, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: walkers on Planty Dietlowskie, Dietla Street.

Planty Dietlowskie on Dietla Street, photograph by Ignacy Krieger, about 1895 — Ignacy Krieger, about 1895: Planty Dietlowskie on Dietla Street.

Street View, Planty Dietlowskie along Dietla Street.

The Diamant shop

Salomon Diamant 44 Dietla Street (ul. Dietla 44 / ul. Stradomska 18), street corner, Kazimierz, Kraków

The next corner on Dietla comes into view with tram lines through the street: two men talk in the road, a woman passes with a folded umbrella, and high on the shop the paint says Salomon Diamant. Boards by the door show men in suits.

A 1926 Kraków address book puts Diamant Salomon under clothing at Stradomska 18, the same corner as Dietla 44, then he is gone from the early-1930s books there. A Kraków Salomon Diamant died in March 1933, so the paint Bryan filmed in October 1936 can be a firm name that outlived the man.

Street corner at Dietla 44 in Kraków with a Salomon Diamant shop sign, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: the Salomon Diamant corner, Dietla 44 / Stradomska 18.

The Dietla 44 corner before the 1926–29 height addition, photograph by Ignacy Krieger — Ignacy Krieger: the Dietla 44 corner, two floors shorter.

Street View, the Dietla 44 / Stradomska 18 chamfer.

Across the crossing from that painted corner, a rusticated wall and a closed shutter carry a dark enamel plaque 43. That house is Dietla 43, also Krakowska 2, the northeast corner opposite the hotel.

Two men by a rusticated wall and enamel plaque 43, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: house 43, Dietla 43 / Krakowska 2.

Street View, the Dietla × Krakowska crossing. House 43 is the northeast corner.

As the camera keeps moving past house 43, an open door carries a painted board whose middle line reads KURACYJNE and whose bottom line is almost certainly GAZOWE. The top line is harder to read; it may be SOKI or WODY: carbonated therapeutic drinks.

Coats at an unnamed door

Kazimierz, Kraków

A knot of men stand at another shop door, pictures of coats on the wall; one holds a leather bag while a woman in a light coat walks past. The shop name is unknown.

Men talking outside a clothing shop, Kraków, 1936

Goldstoff and Beck

1 Krakowska Street ul. Krakowska 1, arcade on the hotel

The walk returns under the hotel arcade at 1 Krakowska Street, where two older men talk on the stones; one holds a stick, and a boy in a cap looks toward the camera. Behind them the paint says Józef Goldstoff and A. Beck, and the windows show men’s coats.

Józef Goldstoff died in December 1931, so the name Bryan filmed in October 1936 is a shop that kept trading under that paint after his death.

Shop signs reading Józef Goldstoff and A. Beck, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: Józef Goldstoff and A. Beck, the arcade at 1 Krakowska Street.

Street View, the arcade at 1 Krakowska Street.

A fur collar, unnamed door

Kazimierz, Kraków The shop name is unknown.

Women stand in coats and hats at another unnamed shop door; one has a fur collar, and a boy in a cap looks at the camera.

After a cut, two older men talk at a plain doorway while a youth in a flat cap stands inside. That doorway is unidentified.

Women and a boy outside a shop doorway, Kraków, 1936

The market on Plac Izaaka

Plac Izaaka (Isaac Square) Kazimierz, Kraków

Izaak Synagogue 18 Kupa Street (ul. Kupa 18), Kazimierz, Kraków

The street opens onto Plac Izaaka: wooden tables in the dirt, birds piled on the boards, baskets underneath. A woman in a kerchief works a table while men in coats lean in to buy and to talk.

Behind those stalls is the west front of the Izaak Synagogue, a double stone stair to a small porch.

Poultry market on Plac Izaaka with the west front of the Izaak Synagogue behind the stalls, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: poultry tables on Plac Izaaka, Izaak Synagogue west front.

West front of the Izaak Synagogue and the market, NAC, April 1936 — NAC, April 1936: the west front of the Izaak Synagogue and the market.

Street View, the west front of the Izaak Synagogue on Plac Izaaka.

Another stretch of Bryan’s film holds that west front closer in, so the double stair is clear. Those stairs were added in 1924 for the women’s gallery, to a design by Zygmunt Prokesza. Until 1939 the square in front of this face was a fish market.

West front of the Izaak Synagogue with the 1924 double stair, filmed on Plac Izaaka, Kraków, 1936

Balloons at the hotel

Hotel Müller 1 Krakowska Street (ul. Krakowska 1 / ul. Dietla 41), Kazimierz, Kraków

The camera comes back to the Hotel Müller door, where a bunch of balloons rises at the side of the arch. Children press in, men fill the opening, and a boy looks at the camera.

Balloons and children at the Hotel Müller doorway, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: balloons at the Hotel Müller doorway, 1 Krakowska Street.

Street View, the Hotel Müller doorway at 1 Krakowska Street / 41 Dietla Street.

Eichenbaum

Eichenbaum 33 Dietla Street (ul. Dietla 33). Kazimierz, Kraków

Farther along Dietla the board over a shop door reads J. Eichenbaum, and a white-bearded man with a walking stick stands in front of the shutters.

A 1933/34 Kraków book lists Jakób Eichenbaum, textiles, at Dietla 33. He died in July 1935, so the board in this reel is another name that stayed on the street after the man was gone.

Another stretch of the film holds longer on that man.

A white-bearded man with a walking stick outside the Eichenbaum shop, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: a white-bearded man outside the Eichenbaum shop, Dietla 33.

Street View, Dietla 33.

The Finkelstein doorway

House number 16 Street name unknown. Kazimierz, Kraków

The camera walks a rusticated row of arched shops and finds a sign reading Mleczarnia Hygieniczna, a hygienic dairy, with crates of fruit out on the stones.

Arched shops including a hygienic dairy, Kraków, 1936

Then it holds on a clothing shop. The board over the door reads R.Z. M. Finkelstein and the year 1896, with ties and a child’s sailor collar hanging in the window. A wall plaque to the right of the door reads 16, and beside the door a sign offers sprats and marinades.

Shop sign reading R.Z. M. Finkelstein 1896, Kraków, 1936

A white-bearded man and a woman stand in that Finkelstein doorway. Neither name is known.

The Finkelstein doorway at house number 16, with a man and a woman standing in the entrance, Kraków, 1936

A funeral on Szeroka Street

Szeroka Street Kazimierz, Kraków. One museum note files this stretch as Warsaw.

Men carry a black-covered coffin across the stones; others follow, and a boy looks back at the camera.

The wide cobbled square matches Szeroka, though one museum note files this stretch as Warsaw, then a return to Kraków. The map pin follows the look of the street; the catalog label stays open.

Men carrying a black-covered coffin on Szeroka Street in Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: a funeral procession on the wide square matching Szeroka.

Street View, Szeroka long axis. One note also says Warsaw.

After a cut, the camera holds on a sheet of paper nailed to a wooden fence, the name in large type Marja Steinberger. Whether the procession was hers, we do not know.

The notice says she died after a short, hard illness, having lived seventy years, and sets the funeral for Tuesday, 13 October 1936, at 1:30 in the afternoon, from the funeral house of the Jewish cemetery in Podgórze, on Abrahama Street. At the bottom it lists a son, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson.

Funeral poster naming Marja Steinberger, age 70, funeral 13 October 1936

5 Krzywa Street ul. Krzywa 5, Kleparz, Kraków

Abrahama Street Podgórze, Kraków. The cemetery on the notice.

On Wednesday, 14 October, the day after the funeral, Kraków’s Jewish daily Nowy Dziennik listed Steinberger Marjem, age 70, of Krzywa 5. A 1932 book lists Steinberger Fischel, tailor, at that address, the strongest named match for the son on the notice.

Nowy Dziennik, 14 October 1936: deaths listing Steinberger Marjem, age 70, Krzywa 5

Back on Plac Izaaka

Plac Izaaka Kazimierz, Kraków

A few seconds later the camera is back on Plac Izaaka: tables, people, the west front of the Izaak Synagogue, a woman in a kerchief behind a stall, men looking over the goods.

Market tables on Plac Izaaka with the Izaak Synagogue behind, Kraków, 1936

The courtyard on Józefa Street

12 Józefa Street ul. Józefa 12, Kazimierz, Kraków

The reel goes into the courtyard at 12 Józefa Street: a stone arch, wooden stairs, wash hanging on a rail, children in the dirt, a pile of leafy branches in the middle. A girl with dark hair looks at the camera, and a woman looks down from the walk over the arch.

Courtyard with wooden stairs, an arch, and children at Józefa 12, Kraków, 1936 — Bryan’s 1936 film: the courtyard at 12 Józefa Street, arch, stairs, and wash.

The Józefa 12 courtyard in a 1935 photograph from Mahler’s Kraków guide — Mahler’s 1935 Kraków guide: the Józefa 12 courtyard, the same arch and galleries.

Street View, the courtyard at 12 Józefa Street.

Another stretch of the film holds the same arch from a few steps farther back, a man in a long coat walking toward the passage and children by a door. The funeral notice is dated 13 October 1936, after Sukkot that year. Whether those leafy branches were for a sukkah, we do not know.

Wider Film 3000 view of the Józefa 12 courtyard, with the arch, stairs, and brush pile, Kraków, 1936

Caps and payos

Unknown

The reel ends on Jewish boys and young men, caps and heavy coats; one smiles with his mouth open, another has payos and looks aside. The setting is unknown. The boys are unnamed.

A smiling boy in a cap with payos, from the close of Bryan’s 1936 Kraków reel

The film and what followed

The museum names cameraman Jules Bucher on these Poland reels, and he appears on screen with the camera.

A wall poster in the reel reads ARARAT, Sz. Dzigan and Szumacher. That same week they played Kraków only on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 1936, at the Jewish theatre on Bocheńska 7. Those October 1936 dates hold over later notes that place the posters in 1937.

Where a doorway shows a Persil enamel, that is a Henkel / Persil Polska brand sign, not the name of the shop.

Three years after these Kraków reels, Julien Bryan was in Warsaw during the German siege. On 13 September 1939 he photographed Kazimiera Mika, age ten, after her older sister was killed in a field near Jana Ostroroga Street.

Julien Bryan comforts ten-year-old Kazimiera Mika in a field in Warsaw, 13 September 1939 — Julien Bryan with Kazimiera Mika near Jana Ostroroga Street, Warsaw, 13 September 1939. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photograph 50900, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1941 the Kraków ghetto was established in Podgórze, on the same side of the Wisła as the cemetery on Abrahama Street. Bryan’s Kraków film is in the Julien Bryan Collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which acquired the collection in 2003.

Timeline

10–11 October 1936: Dzigan and Szumacher play Ararat at the Jewish theatre, Bocheńska 7, only those two days.
13 October 1936: The funeral of Marja Steinberger is set for 1:30 in the afternoon from the funeral house of the Jewish cemetery in Podgórze, on Abrahama Street.
14 October 1936: Kraków’s Jewish daily Nowy Dziennik lists Steinberger Marjem, age 70, Krzywa 5.
13 September 1939: Julien Bryan photographs Kazimiera Mika in Warsaw during the German siege.
1941: The Kraków ghetto is established in Podgórze.
2003: The museum acquires the Julien Bryan Collection.