The ordinary as a site of meaning
A candy wrapper
A food ration card
Invitation to “A Great Children’s Presentation” on the occasion of “Holiday of the Child —5.05.1942,” in the “Femina” hall
What happens when we treat the “ordinary” not as a background, but as a form of knowledge?
The Oyneg Shabes archive includes reports on the psychological toll of hunger, the logistics of smuggling, the internal economies of barter and theft. These are documents of infrastructure — of how people endured structurally. But just as often, the texts turn to questions of care: the behavior of mothers, the state of religious observance, the role of art, the routines of children. In these accounts, the “everyday” becomes a measure of what it took to remain human.
The scholar Michael Rothberg has argued for a “multidirectional memory,” one that does not separate suffering from the daily conditions in which it is experienced. The Oyneg Shabes was already doing this decades before the theory emerged. It understood that atrocity is not only a historical event but a slow, daily degradation — and that resistance, likewise, is not only a heroic gesture but a set of repeated, intimate acts.
The Oyneg Shabes archive includes reports on the psychological toll of hunger, the logistics of smuggling, the internal economies of barter and theft. These are documents of infrastructure — of how people endured structurally. But just as often, the texts turn to questions of care: the behavior of mothers, the state of religious observance, the role of art, the routines of children. In these accounts, the “everyday” becomes a measure of what it took to remain human.
The scholar Michael Rothberg has argued for a “multidirectional memory,” one that does not separate suffering from the daily conditions in which it is experienced. The Oyneg Shabes was already doing this decades before the theory emerged. It understood that atrocity is not only a historical event but a slow, daily degradation — and that resistance, likewise, is not only a heroic gesture but a set of repeated, intimate acts.
Ringelblum envisioned “armies of zamlers” preserving the collective memory of the Jewish people. This philosophy guided the Oyneg Shabes: it was a collective project of dozens of individuals, each writing their piece of history. In practice, Ringelblum was the chief editor and motivator, but he empowered others — from rabbis to teenage girls — to contribute in their own voice.
Emanuel Ringelblum designed the breadth of the Archive to be as wide as possible, from ephemera to official documentation to photographs and artwork, a deliberate decision. Ringelblum wanted future generations to see beyond statistics that would read as Nazi achievements — instead to see the faces, voices, and daily routines of an exterminated community.
Emanuel Ringelblum designed the breadth of the Archive to be as wide as possible, from ephemera to official documentation to photographs and artwork, a deliberate decision. Ringelblum wanted future generations to see beyond statistics that would read as Nazi achievements — instead to see the faces, voices, and daily routines of an exterminated community.
For today’s reader, the temptation is to seek the extraordinary — the big revelation, the poetic phrase, the shocking statistic. But to honor this material is to understand that the everyday is extraordinary. That these fragments are not incidental — they are residues of the human.
Address list of 37 individuals — workers of the Oyneg Shabes
Underground monthly of the Ha-Shomer Ha-Tsair (Against the Current) organization, issue 2(13), 02/03.1941
Postcard with information about mass executions (inter alia 18.04.1942) in Międzyrzec Podlaski, Poland. Lists addressee as J. Perkal, Warsaw ul. Twarda 30, Apt. 10.
Menachem Mendel Kohn’s ID card
A candy wrapper
A patent of Henryk Piórnik and Wacław Kączkowski issued by the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland
Invitation and ticket to a cultural performance organized in the Warsaw Ghetto
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