Sylwester Braun „Kris”

Sylwester Braun (“Kris”) was born on 1 January 1909 in Warsaw. A surveyor by profession, he has worked in the Office for Town Planning on Future of Warsaw projects. As soon as the war starts, he begins documenting the destruction of Warsaw and manifestations of Nazi terror. He joins the underground in 1940. In the Rising he is a photojournalist for the Information and Propaganda Bureau of Home Army HQ. As a Press War Correspondent (code name “Kris”), he makes photographs with a Leica camera. After capitulation of Warsaw, he leaves the capital with civilians and escapes transportation to Germany. In 1945 he returns to Warsaw and finds his negatives. About half of the approx. 3 000 uprising photographs have survived. He emigrates to Sweden and then to the United States. In the 1980s he returns to Poland. He is the author of the Polish-language Reports from the Warsaw Rising. Braun died on 9 February 1996 in Warsaw. || Photo: Eugeniusz Haneman