Driven by the urgency to document the inhumanity of the Nazi attack on the Jews of Warsaw, Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum (pictured, left) initiated an effort to collect and preserve a documentary record of life within the walls of the ghetto. Under his leadership, a small group of writers, journalists, teachers, and students of history formed Oneg Shabbat (Sabbath Delight).

This underground operation, code-named after the group's clandestine meetings on the Sabbath, created a secret archive chronicling the Jewish experience. Ringelblum's team encouraged the writing of memoirs and diaries. It collected underground materials such as ghetto newspapers, posters, announcements, photographs, and reports and statistics on the ghetto. The team also recorded testimonials of refugees arriving in Warsaw from other ghettos and camps. Ringelblum himself kept a diary of events.

Oneg Shabbat archivists attempted to transmit documentary evidence to the West, although they stored most archival materials in three sealed milk cans, buried in separate locations. One can was discovered in 1946, another in 1950. The third, reportedly containing information on the resistance, has still not been found. Most members of the organization did not survive the deportations of 1942. Ringelblum hid in non-Jewish Warsaw until arrested on March 7, 1944, whereupon he and his family were executed.
Photo: Yad Vashem