Historian

Emanuel Ringelblum

Historian and famed chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto, Emanuel Ringelblum was born November 21, 1900 in Buczacz, Galicia (today Buchach, Ukraine).

Together with his friends, leaders in the Socialist Zionist movement, Ringelblum developed a passion for Jewish history while young.

He studied at Warsaw University and in 1927 completed his dissertation while working as a history teacher. After the war broke out, he led the Aleynhilf, the Warsaw Ghetto’s main relief organization.

Emanuel Ringelblum
21 November 1900 – 7 March 1944
High School Teacher
Ringelblum in 1927 with his students at the private Jewish girls' high school Jehudija in Warsaw, where he taught history while completing his doctoral dissertation on the early history of the Jews of Warsaw.
The Polish Jews in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794
In addition to his doctorate on The Jews of Warsaw until 1527 (published in 1932), Emanuel Ringelblum wrote prolifically in Polish and Yiddish on Jewish historical topics, including the Kościuszko Uprising in this 1937 YIVO-published volume.
Ghetto Historian
In the Ghetto, Ringelblum was a leader of the relief organization Aleynhilf, through which he created the secret ghetto archive, code-named "Oyneg Shabes" in November 1940, gathering artifacts of ghetto life until February 1943 and storing them in milk jugs and other makeshift containers. In this photo, historians pore over unearthed archive material, a third of which has never been found.
Rules for History
Oyneg Shabes collected all available material to record life in the ghetto: photographs, newspapers, literary essays, tickets, and candy wrappers. While the early mission of the project was to compile a social history that would improve post-war Polish-Jewish relations, after 1942 the goal shifted to document the destruction of Polish Jewry for posterity. Here's a fragment from a list of rules for a fact-gathering competition document life during wartime.

This became the base of the עונג שבת (Oyneg Shabes), a secret ghetto archive Ringelblum began in 1940, which collected artifacts of ghetto life.

Ringelblum was murdered with his wife, son, and 35 others hiding on the “Aryan” side of Warsaw on March 7, 1944.

A short documentary explaining the development of the Oyneg Shabbes project from Yad Vashem, featuring Ringelblum’s own descriptions of the work.

Look Ahead! Support Yiddishkayt Today

Emanuel Ringelblum

Historian

Emanuel Ringelblum

Historian and famed chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto, Emanuel Ringelblum was born November 21, 1900 in Buczacz, Galicia (today Buchach, Ukraine).

Emanuel Ringelblum

High School Teacher

The Polish Jews in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794

Ghetto Historian

Rules for History

A short documentary explaining the development of the Oyneg Shabbes project from Yad Vashem, featuring Ringelblum’s own descriptions of the work.

Contact Us

Investigate History

Get Social