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"More Important Than Life: The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto" Exhibition opening

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The Jewish Historical Institute - closed on 15th and 16th of August!

"More Important Than Life: The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto" exhibition - 14th of August

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JHI reading room closed in August 2025

He couldn’t bear the tragedy of the Ghetto. Szmuel Bresław

Szmul (Szmuel) Bresław was a Hashomer Hatzair activist, as well as a contributor and an editor of nearly all periodicals published by this organization in the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1942, he was invited by Emanuel Ringelblum to cooperate with Oneg Shabbat. A large collection of bulletins from radio monitoring was preserved in the Archive. He has also contributed a few of his own writings, such as an interview with Irena Adamowicz about Polish-Jewish relations, Henryk Gotland’s biography, a study – „The housing officer” and one report, „The disinfection column”. He was killed on 3 September 1942, after he wielded a knife against an armed German.
A stone thrown under the wheel of history. Gustawa Jarecka

Gustawa Jarecka was a writer and a teacher. In the ghetto, she was working as a telephone assistant and typist at the Jewish Council, which allowed her to pass copies of Judenrat’s documents to the Ringelblum Archive (for example a transcript of the meeting on 22 July, during which Hermann Höfle dictated the German orders regarding the Great Deportation). She is assumed to have written The last stage of resettlement is death, a harrowing reportage about deportations from the ghetto, written in September 1942. She was independently bringing up two sons, Marek and Karol. Jarecka died together with her children in the train to Treblinka in January 1943, probably due to lack of access to air.
Izrael Winnik

There are several regular associates of Oneg Shabbat who we have little information about. Izrael Winnik is one of them. There is only one typescript signed with his name in the Archive. We don’t know whether it was Winnik behind unrecognized manuscripts, or whether his works didn’t survive at all.
Monday, August 3, 4 p.m. "We'll be burying the last part in a moment"

On 3 August 1942 two students of the Ber Borochovv school at 68 Nowolipki street – Dawid Graber and Nachum Grzywacz, along with their teacher Izrael Lichtensztajn, hid the last section of the first part of the Ringelblum Archive. Ten boxes with documents, as well as their own testaments and accounts, were buried in the basement of the school.
22 July March of Remembrance

On the 77th anniversary of the beginning of the great liquidation action of the Warsaw Ghetto the Jewish Historical Institute, together with its partners, invites you to the July 22 March of Remembrance. Together we will pay homage to the 300,000 murdered Warsaw Jews, whose life and death were captured by Władysław Szlengel in his poetry.
The winners of life. Cecylia Słapakowa

The lives of Jewish women in the ghetto were documented by Cecylia Słapakowa. She was a Vilnius-born translator, founder of the Warsaw literary salon, who in 1942 carried out 17 interviews with Jewish women from various social backgrounds and professions. This priceless source for research on daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto shows a shift in the social role of women during the war, but above all, it praises their versatility, courage and sacrifice.
A divorce of Chana Hermelin and Awram Mosze Fingerhut

A few days ago we received a mail from a family searching for information about a woman called Chana HERMELIN. The story they told is a little sneak-peak to the life of women in the pre-war Jewish community in Poland, and in the world, and it corresponds with a previous post about the status of ’Aguna’.
He felt uncomfortable only when he had to shoot. Yitzhak Zuckerman

Yitzhak „Antek” Zuckerman, co-founder of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB), died on June 17, 1981.
Józef Sandel. The protagonist of Adam Nowiński’s letter to Symche Trachter
Hersz Wasser – the Oneg Shabbat’s Secretary

Hersz Wasser was Emanuel Ringelblum’s closest collaborator, the heir of the Oneg Shabbat after the war. He handled the organization’s everyday affairs, obtaining and cataloguing documents, recruiting and keeping a record of employees, purchasing stationery and managing the finances. As one of three surviving members of the Oneg Shabbat, he was the only one who knew where the Archive was hidden, which made it possible to find the first cache in 1946.
73rd anniversary of the Kielce pogrom

4th of July marks 70th anniversary of the Kielce pogrom of Jews. Their killers were Polish neighbors, and those tragic events took place in Poland liberated from German occupation.
Jechiel (Chil) Górny

In Oneg Shabbat, he was responsible for cataloguing materials and copying documents – together with Hersz Wasser, Bluma Wasser and Eliasz Gutkowski. He was writing down and editing first-hand accounts. His diary provides a priceless record of the Great Deportation and the battles of January 1943. During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he was a member of Hersz Berliński’s combat unit. He died in the sewers, trying to escape the burning ghetto.
To bring out the beauty of every child

One of the metal boxes which contain the first part of the Ringelblum Archive includes a collection of works by painter Gela Seksztajn, along with documentation of her artistic career, photographs and testament. Her paintings and drawings are a unique part of the Oneg Shabbat legacy. They provide a special illustration of the fate of the Jewish community before and during World War 2.
Lag ba-Omer

Lag ba-Omer — also known as the Scholar’s Day – is the festival of the 33th Day of the Omer. It is celebrated on the 18th day of the Iyar month – this year, it’s 22 May.
76th Anniversary of the destruction of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw

On 16th May, 1943 not only the most impressive synagogue in Warsaw but also the entire Jewish district ceased to exist. The demolition of the synagogue was a symbolic act of the triumph over the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which had been ongoing since 19th April 1943.
I can neither be silent nor live when the last remnants of the Jewish people, whose I represent, are being killed

At night, between 11 and 12 May 1943, when the last fighters were being murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto, Zygielbojm committed suicide. He left three farewell letters addressed to: his brother Fajwel, who lived in Johannesburg, fellow party members in the United States, the President and Prime Minister of Poland.
11. anniversary of Irena Sendler’s death

Irena Sendlerowa died on 12 May 2008 in Warsaw.
Władysław Szlengel’s unknown photograph from 1938

For the first time, we are presenting a previously unknown photograph of Władysław Szlengel. It was found in the resources of the National Library by dr Agnieszka Żółkiewska, a scholar working at the Jewish Historical Institute.
Poems I was reading to the dead. Władysław Szlengel

On 8 May 1943, Władysław Szlengel, a Polish poet of Jewish origin, author of cabaret lyrics and songs, was shot. The first part of the Ringelblum Archive contains several satirical poems written by Szlengel before the Great Deportation. The second part of the Archive includes the poems, such as ’A small station called Treblinka’, ’Passport’, ’Five minutes to midnight’ and ’Telephone’.
BROTHERS REUNITED AFTER MORE THAN 70 YEARS
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