Keep up with Jewish news by reading the Jewish Daily Bulletin, only English-language Jewish daily newspaper.
Professor Schmidt, Soviet Arctic explorer who led the Cheluskin expedition paid high tribute to Arkady Shafrin, the Jewish cameraman who filmed the entire expedition, beginning with the departure of the ship from Archangel and ending with the survivors’ return to Moscow.
Shafrin was one of those awarded the Order of the Red Star. No handicaps encountered by the expedition could prevent him from making a daily record of the expedition’s life, first aboard the ship, then during and after the wreck, on the ice-camp, Professor Schmidt related. He also recorded the heroism of Soviet fliers who saved more than 100 members of the expedition and scientific material of importance to the world.
“While the ship was sinking, Shafrin stood calmly at his post, working his camera,” the leader declared. Pilot Liapidewsky, one of the rescuers, related that when his plane approached the camps, “the first thing I saw was a kino camera being worked by Shafrin.” In a few days cinemas all over the Soviet Union will be showing the film of the Cheluskin expedition.
Keep up with Jewish news by reading the Jewish Daily Bulletin, only English-language Jewish daily newspaper.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
