Mr. Jenner. He was accused of being, was he not, during this period, a German spy?
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. No. I don't know that. But he had been an officer in the Czarist Army. He was a White Russian. And having lost everything through Communism, he saw the future of his return to Russia, back to his estates, through German intervention. Like many other White Russians. He possibly was more German than Russian—although he had been a Russian citizen, officer of the Czarist Army, and so forth and so on. A controversial person, no question about it. But I liked him. And he offered me to learn something about the making of documentary movies.
Mr. Jenner. Documentary?
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes—which is Facts—what was it called? Film Facts Incorporated.
Mr. Jenner. Film Facts I think is the name of it.
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. And he had a very interesting movie there of the Spanish revolution which he made. And this movie was shown all over the United States and was backed by—this, again, is my recollection, because it almost escaped from my mind. This movie was backed by quite a number of people here. I remember most of them—by Grace, who is president of Grace Lines today. So we decided with Maydell that we could make another documentary movie on the resistance of Poland. This is already—Poland had already been occupied. The movies were made in Poland, I think, by Americans. I don't recall that exactly—by Americans who were there during the occupation of Warsaw. And Maydell had these movies in his possession, and we decided to make a movie for the benefit of the Polish refugees.
Mr. Jenner. Resistance movement?
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. And collected money to that effect, small amounts of money from the sympathizers of Poland. To me it was actually a very pleasant experience. I tried to do my best, number one, to make some money; number two, to help the Polish cause.
So I went to the Polish Consulate, made arrangements for the consul to be a sponsor of this movie. And we eventually made this movie, put it together. It was about 45 minutes long—a very interesting movie, very moving picture of the resistance. But financially it was not a success. I don't even recall why. Either Maydell never gave me any money or something. Anyway, we broke up our partnership.
The movie did make some money for the Polish resistance fund. I think they used it showing around the country. The Polish organizations in the United States used that movie to show and collect money for their own purpose.