Seventy-four years ago, amidst the ruins of a house at 68 Nowolipki Street in Warsaw, the second part of the Emanuel Ringelblum Archive, also known as the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, was uncovered. This invaluable historical collection, documenting the lives and suffering of Warsaw’s Jewish community during the Holocaust, was inscribed in 1999 onto UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Register.
Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat Group: Building the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
The creation of the archive was spearheaded by Emanuel Ringelblum, a historian, social activist, and one of the founders of the Warsaw Jewish History Commission, linked to the Jewish Scientific Institute (YIVO) in Vilnius. From the outbreak of World War II, Ringelblum dedicated himself to chronicling the experiences of Warsaw’s Jewish population, initially through a personal diary and later by collecting documents reflecting the profound social and demographic changes brought about by the war.
After the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, Ringelblum’s individual efforts evolved into a collective endeavour. In November 1940, the clandestine research and documentation group “Oneg Shabbat” (“Joy of the Sabbath”) was formed, named after their chosen meeting day. The group convened secretly in locations such as the Main Judaic Library building.
The Underground Archive meticulously documented German atrocities, collected materials about institutions and organizations active within the ghetto, and preserved private diaries, correspondence, underground press materials, and firsthand accounts from Jews displaced from other regions. It also included official German decrees, announcements by the Jewish Council, and research on social, economic, and demographic topics.
Preserving History Under Siege: The Buried Legacy of the Ringelblum Archive
Faced with the mass deportations during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, the members of Oneg Shabbat took measures to protect the archive. On August 3, 1942, they buried ten metal boxes containing 21,000 pages of documents in a school basement at 68 Nowolipki Street. In February 1943, as conditions worsened, a second cache of 8,000 pages was hidden in milk cans at the same location. Much of this material was compiled after the first burial, despite the extreme risks involved in the increasingly restrictive and violent environment.
After the war, efforts to recover the buried archives began, driven by Ringelblum’s surviving collaborators. Financial constraints initially hindered the search, but American Jewish organizations stepped in to fund the project. In September 1946, the first set of documents—the second part of the Ringelblum Archive—was unearthed, consisting of ten metal boxes filled with irreplaceable records.
The Ringelblum Archive: A Testament to Resilience and a Vital Historical Legacy
The Ringelblum Archive stands as one of the most comprehensive and poignant records of Jewish life and resistance during the Holocaust. Its inclusion in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Register underscores its significance as a testament to resilience and a source of vital historical insight.