Ringleblum Archive

The Ringleblum Archive

(Emanuel Ringleblum)

The Ringelblum Archive is a collection of Documents from the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, collected and preserved by a group known by the codename Oyneg Shabbos (Joy of the Sabbath), led by Emanuel Ringelblum.

Emanuel Ringleblum (November 21, 1900 – March 10, 1944) was a Polish Historian, Politician and Social Worker who created the Group of Men, Women and Children to record the different aspects of the Warsaw Ghetto while it was happening. Shortly before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Ringelblum and his Family (his Wife and Son) escaped from the Ghetto and found refuge on the Polish side of Warsaw. However, on March 7, 1944 their hiding place (prewar address 81 Grójecka Street) was discovered by the Gestapo. Soon after, Ringelblum and his Family were executed, along with the Polish Rescuers Mieczysław Wolski and Janusz Wysocki, in Pawiak Prison.

The Group, which included Historians, Writers, Rabbis, and Social Workers, was dedicated to chronicling life in the Ghetto during the German Occupation. They worked as a team, collecting documents and soliciting testimonies and reports from dozens of Volunteers of all ages. The materials submitted included essays, diaries, drawings, wall posters, and other materials describing life in the Ghetto. The collecting work began in September 1939 and ended in January 1943.

They collected data and wrote about daily life in the Ghetto, specific Jewish Communities, Jewish Participation in the September 1939 Campaign, Forced Labor, the German-appointed Judenrat (Jewish Council) Policy, the work of the Social Welfare Institutions in the Ghetto, the fate of Jewish children, and Religious Life in the Ghetto. They also wrote about Resistance in its several forms, including Cultural Work, Underground Schools, the Underground Press, and Smuggling, as well as Armed Resistance.

There were 60 Members of Oyneg Shabbos with only 3 Members (including Ringleblum) knowing the exact location of where the items were hidden.

(Post-War Discovery of Part of the Archive)

On January 19, 1942, an escaped Inmate from the Chełmno Extermination Camp, Jacob Grojanowski, reached the Warsaw Ghetto, where he gave detailed information about the Death Camp to the Oneg Shabbat Group. His report, which became known as the Grojanowski Report, was smuggled out of the Ghetto through the channels of the Polish Underground, reached London and was published by June 1942.

In 1942, the Germans started the Grossaktion Warschau (Great Action Warsaw) where from July 22, 1942 to September 21, 1942 they deported 265,000 Men, Women and Children from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Death Camp 50 miles away – where 99% of them were gassed and burned within an hour of arriving.

Many of the Members of the Group were also deported and those that weren’t wrote a firsthand account of the horrible scenes (a Disabled Man thrown over his balcony to his death, a baby ripped from its Mother’s arms and bayoneted to death, etc.)

Both the Warsaw Ghetto and the city of Warsaw itself were complete rubble after World War 2 (due to the Germans bombing and setting on fire every building during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising) so it was difficult for the 1 surviving member of the Group, out of the 3 who knew the location of the hidden items, to find them.

(Post-War Discovery of Part of the Archive)

Two of the canisters, containing thousands of Documents, were unearthed on September 18, 1946 and a further ten boxes on December 1, 1950.

The third cache is rumored to be buried beneath what is now the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw.

Today the discovered part of the Collection, containing some 6,000 documents (some 35,000 pages),is housed in Warsaw at the Jewish Historical Institute.

A 2018 Documentary “Who Will Write Our History?” about the Ringelblum Archive and its Group is available to watch on Amazon Prime (based on a book of the same name.)