The Research
Methods, materials, and memory in Holocaust documentation
The Research
This work has been carried out by Max Berger as Northeastern University’s Gideon Klein Scholar 2024-5 with the gracious support of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation and Northeastern University’s Department of Jewish Studies exploring the Ringelblum Archive and the intellectual, ethical, and poetic questions it raises. It includes primary sources, key secondary texts, and research frameworks that situate the Oyneg Shabes within broader conversations on testimony, memory, and resistance. It does not attempt to be comprehensive—only to orient.
This work has been made possible by the gracious support of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation and Northeastern University’s Department of Jewish Studies.
Research Guide
Books
Poesis in Extremis: Literature Witnessing the Holocaust
Feldman, Daniel, and Efraim Sicher
Poesis in Extremis: Literature Witnessing the Holocaust by Daniel Feldman and Efraim Sicher examines how genocide is witnessed through literature, analyzing works by Elie Wiesel, Paul Celan, Avrom Sutzkever, Ida Fink, and others. Framing Holocaust literature as a form of testimony, the book explores the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction, the poetics of survival, and the limits of representation. It highlights how writers, often facing their own annihilation, used poetry and prose as acts of resistance and memory, ensuring their words reached future generations. This study, a new release, is invaluable for understanding how Holocaust literature functions as both historical documentation and artistic expression, deepening the discourse on literary witnessing.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 1: Warsaw Ghetto, Everyday Life
Translated by Anna Brzostowska, Katarzyna Gucio, Jerzy Giebułtowski, Helen Beer, Khayke Beburiah Wiegand, Vincent Homolka, Wojciech Tworek, and Lena Watson.
Access
The first volume of the the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, offers seventy-one detailed documents on daily life under Nazi occupation. As part of the clandestine efforts of the Oneg Shabbat, these records provide firsthand accounts of the social, cultural, and economic conditions in the Warsaw ghetto. Illuminating how ghetto inhabitants processed and navigated the complexities of survival, resilience, and resistance, the volume underscores Emmanuel Ringelblum’s passion for documentation, testimony, and cultural preservation — even recording the minutia of everyday life from postal stamps to playbills became a powerful form of resistance and historical memory.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 3: Oyneg Shabes: People and Works.
Translated by Anna Brzostowska, Katarzyna Gucio, Jerzy Giebułtowski, Helen Beer, Khayke Beburiah Wiegand, Vincent Homolka, Wojciech Tworek, and Lena Watson.
Access The third volume of the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, examines the Oneg Shabbat group itself—its members, aims, and the significance of its work. While nearly every document in the archive bears traces of Oneg Shabbat’s influence, the materials collected here provide a rare, multifaceted view of the group as an underground research institution operating under Nazi occupation. Chronicling their efforts to systematically record the destruction of Polish Jewry, this volume highlights the intellectual and moral convictions that shaped their work. By preserving the identities, methodologies, and motivations of those who built the archive, it reinforces the group’s role not only as chroniclers of genocide but as architects of historical memory.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 5: The Final Stage of Resettlement is Death
Translated from Polish by Anna Brzostowska and Jerzy Giebułtowski, and from Yiddish by Daniel Kennedy, Miriam Schulz, Ri J. Turner, Janina Wurbs, and Sandra Chiritescu.
Access
The fifth volume of the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, is titled The Final Stage of Resettlement Is Death, echoing Gustawa Jarecka's poignant essay. This volume is divided into two parts: the first focuses on victims’ experiences within the transit camp at Pomiechówek, while the second compiles testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the extermination camps at Chełmno nad Nerem and Treblinka. Through meticulous documentation, it provides a comprehensive account of the systematic deportation and annihilation processes, offering invaluable insights into the mechanisms of genocide.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 6: Accounts from the General Government
Access
The sixth volume of the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, is titled Accounts from the General Government. This compilation encompasses a diverse array of materials, predominantly firsthand accounts from displaced individuals and refugees originating from various towns and cities within the General Government, who resided in the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940 and 1942. Additionally, the volume includes diaries, journals, and segments of correspondence collected by the Oneg Shabbat group, as well as personal documents such as permits, health certificates, and identification papers. Notably, it also features official records, including German decrees, and reports and minutes from Jewish Councils, Jewish Social Aid organizations, and the American Joint Distribution Committee. By presenting these multifaceted documents, this volume offers a comprehensive insight into the experiences of Jewish communities across the General Government.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 8: Diaries from the Warsaw Ghetto
Translated from Polish by Krzysztof Heymer, and from Yiddish by Jennifer Bell, Christopher Hutton, and Dianne Levitin.
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The eighth volume of the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, is titled Diaries from the Warsaw Ghetto. This volume is divided into two parts: the first features the journal of Abraham Lewin—a teacher, writer, and social activist—who documented his experiences as a Warsaw Jew and gathered information from refugees and resettled individuals. The second part comprises twenty-one diaries and notes from various authors, including several collaborators of Emanuel Ringelblum, such as Eliyahu Gutkowski, Yekhiel Górny, and Menakhem Mendel Kohn.
The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
Vol. 9: Letters on the Shoah
Translated from Polish by Jerzy Giebułtowski and Maria Ferenc; from Yiddish by Eleonora Bergman, Raphael Halff, Michael C. Steinlauf, and Lena Watson; and from German by Maria Ferenc, Jerzy Giebułtowski, and Wojciech Tworek.
Access The ninth volume of the English edition of the Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Jewish Historical Institute, is titled Letters on the Shoah. This collection is based on the 1997 Polish edition, Listy o Zagładzie, edited by Ruta Sakowska, a pioneering researcher of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Oneg Shabbat group. The volume comprises letters that bear witness to the decimation of Jewish communities, detailing the destruction of ghettos, mass executions, and the annihilation of Jews in killing centers. While many letters address personal experiences, they often serve to convey information about entire communities facing extermination. This volume offers invaluable insights into the personal and communal dimensions of the Holocaust, focusing on ther esilience of those who endeavored to record their experiences.
Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive.
2nd ed.
Samuel D. Kassow
Indiana University Press, 2018
Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive by Samuel D. Kassow provides a historian’s perspective on Emanuel Ringelblum’s personal background, intellectual influences, and the organizational strategies he employed to form the Oyneg Shabes group. While many of the other sources in this guide consist of primary documents and firsthand accounts, Kassow’s work offers a comprehensive secondary analysis, examining Ringelblum’s political roots in Borochovian socialism, his commitment to grassroots relief efforts, and his broader vision of “history for the people.” The volume’s focus on community organizing (Chapter 4), diverse Jewish voices (Chapter 6), and the final mission to preserve traces of life and death (Chapter 7) distinguishes it as a deeper exploration of Ringelblum’s motivations and leadership style. By situating the Oyneg Shabes archive within its wider social, political, and cultural context, Kassow’s study reveals how scholarly inquiry and methodical record-keeping functioned as forms of both resistance and collective memory—complementing the primary materials featured in other Ringelblum Archive publications.
Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto
2nd ed.
Edited by Michal Grynberg & translated by Philip Boehm
Macmillan Publishers, 2002
Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto, edited by Michal Grynberg, is a collection of firsthand testimonies that preserves the voices of those who lived — and died — within the ghetto’s walls. Unlike Kassow’s analytical reconstruction of the Oyneg Shabes group, this volume offers raw, fragmented perspectives: doctors, writers, children, and workers narrate the collapse of their world in real time. Its power lies in the immediacy and moral clarity of lived experience—accounts of hunger, humiliation, deportation, and fleeting acts of dignity.
Grynberg’s curation avoids synthesis. Instead, the chorus of individual memory becomes a collective act of witnessing. In the context of A Poetic Revolt, this volume complements the archival efforts of Oyneg Shabes by illuminating the personal cost of history.
Digital Materials
Who Will Write Our History
Film directed by Roberta Grossman
Playmount productions, 2018
Who Will Write Our History (Playmount Productions, 2018), directed by Roberta Grossman, offers a cinematic portrayal of the efforts of the Oyneg Shabes, combining dramatic re-enactments, archival footage (taken primary by the Nazis), and voice-over readings to bring their clandestine documentation efforts vividly to life. Filmic narratives, in this case, possess a certain power in immersing viewers in the emotional stakes of recording history under persecution. It weaves historical scholarship with accessible storytelling, an approach that, given its success, underscores the Ringelblum Archive’s enduring relevance, particularly for new generations who increasingly engage with Holocaust remembrance through multimedia.
Archiwum Ringelbluma — DELET Database
Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland
Access
The Jewish Historical Institute’s DELET Database is an online resource that provides access to a vast collection of materials related to Jewish history and culture. Notably, it includes the Ringelblum Archive, the clandestine compilation of documents from the Warsaw Ghetto orchestrated by the Oneg Shabbat group. Through the DELET portal, users can explore digitized versions of these invaluable records, which encompass scans of personal diaries, official decrees, photographs, and other items found in the Ringelblum Archive. It is an invaluable resource for those referencing the Archive’s visual history.
Women as Leaders in the Jewish Underground in Poland During the Holocaust
in Jewish Women: a Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia
Avihu Ronen
Ed. Dalia Ofer, Paula E. Hyman
Shalvi Publishing, 2007
Access
Avihu Ronen’s encyclopedia article examines how young Jewish women emerged as prominent leaders in Polish underground movements during the Holocaust, challenging traditional gender norms of the era. By tracing the women’s roots in socialist youth groups and revolutionary traditions, Ronen shows how these activists wielded both “emotional” and strategic authority—serving as couriers, organizers, and, in some instances, military commanders. Unlike many other sources focused primarily on ghetto archives or male-led fighting units, this essay provides a gendered analysis of resistance, highlighting the family-like structures of youth movements and exploring how romantic partnerships and the “intimate group” dynamic shaped women’s leadership roles.
The Ringelblum Archive
Life Amid Destruction
Bearing Witness
Research Guide
© Max Berger, 2025. Original content and website design. Archival materials and images are rights reserved to their respective holders and used here solely for academic and educational purposes.
This work has been made possible due to the gracious support of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation and the Northeastern University Department of Jewish Studies.