The Ringelblum Archive is a collection of extremely valuable source material relating primarily to the situation of Jews in 1939-1943 in German-occupied Poland. Its creation was initiated by Emanuel Ringelblum the Jewish historian.

At the time of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, which began the Second World War, Ringelblum was in Warsaw. Seeing the tragedy of his compatriots living in the areas conquered by the Germans, as early as October of that year, initially on his own, he began a campaign to collect information about the situation of Jews under the Third Reich.

The historian began looking for people to help. He formed a group of several dozen people, which adopted the code name Oneg Shabbat, or the Joy of Shabbat (22 November 1940). A month earlier, the researcher had been locked up by the Germans in the Warsaw ghetto with his family.  The organisation was social and underground, and over time it developed into a thriving research centre.

They collected all the information

The group that created the Ringelblum Archive collected everything from official letters to leaflets, work permits, candy wrappers or restaurant menus. It focused on the situation of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and in other Polish areas occupied by the Germans. It investigated how Jewish cultural and religious life was shaped, the demography, and the situation of women and children. It researched what role Jewish policemen and Judenrats played. It also focused on the subject of the rise of the Jewish resistance in the ghetto. Members of Oneg Shabbat collected information on the disease, hunger and corruption. Above all, they documented how the Germans mass-murdered Jews. This information was passed on to the Polish independence underground, which in turn sent it to the Polish government in exile and then to the Allies. As a result, the Allied states signed a declaration on 17 December 1942 publicly condemning the Third Reich for its crimes of exterminating Jews.

Where was the Ringelblum Archive hidden?

When the Germans began to carry out the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, Oneg Shabbat decided to hide part of the Archive. They were hidden in ten metal boxes and buried under the school building (68 Nowolipki Street, Warsaw).  Another batch was hidden in milk cans. The third batch was placed at 34 Świętojerska Street.

The documents in metal boxes were dug out of the rubble of the building in 1946. Materials placed in milk cans at the same address were found by chance 4 years later. The third part has still not been found.