This new three-part series – The Oneg Shabbat Archives and Beyond: Documenting and Preserving the History of European Jewry at the Jewish Historical Institute marks the 75th anniversary of the Jewish Historical Institute. The first program:
"Let the World Read and Know": The Oneg Shabbat Archives gave us an introduction to the institute and its work. Opening remarks were given by Monika Krawczyk, Director of the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI), and the guest speakers were
Prof. Natalia Aleksiun and Dr. Katarzyna Person.
From the moment that its existence became widely known, the Ringelblum Archive (also known as the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto) was widely regarded as a collection of unusual significance. Under the initiative of historian Emanual Ringelblum, a group of social activists incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto created the archive between 1940 and 1943 with the aim to document the persecution of Jews in occupied Poland. Emulating the working principles of YIVO (Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, Yiddish Scientific Institute), the Warsaw group gathered and produced a total of 35,000 pages of documents, in Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, and German and stowed them away secretly within the Ghetto. Among the documents were diaries, accounts from approximately 300 Jewish communities from the whole territory of occupied Poland, school essays, research works, and official German documents: like posters, identification cards, and food ration cards. There were also some 70 photographs and over 300 drawings and paintings. The Archive was retrieved in parts from the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto: Part I (concealed on August 3, 1942) was found on September 18, 1946, and Part II (concealed in early February 1943) was found on December 1, 1950.
Who were the people who created this archive? Dr. Natalia Aleksiun shared with the audience the goals of the main contributors to one of the most important archives that was written as the events were happening.
In her presentation, Dr. Katarzyna Person discussed the academic significance of the archive and the methods used to bring this extraordinary collection to the wider public.
This program is in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Polish Institute in Tel-Aviv, the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre in Lublin, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, Liberation 75, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
