Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive (The Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies)

569 Pages·2007·9.25 MB·English

by  Samuel D. Kassow

Holocaust $34.95
Judaica
SAMuEl D. KASSOW is the Charles Kassow In 1940
the historian Emanuel
Northam Professor of History at Trinity
“Two major historians meet in this book: Ringelblum established a clandestine or-
College. He is author of Students, Professors,
ganization, code named Oyneg Shabes, in
and the State in Tsarist Russia, 1884–1917 one named Ringelblum, the other named Kassow.
Nazi-occupied Warsaw to study and doc-
and editor (with Edith W. Clowes and
W
ument all facets of Jewish life in wartime
James l. West) of Between Tsar and People: “Drawing on his passion for the past, his revolutionary Who
Poland and to compile an archive that
The Search for a Public Identity in Tsarist ethos, his organizational genius, not to speak of his self- h would preserve this history for posterity.
Russia. He has lectured on Russian and discipline, unflagging energy, and courage, Emanuel o Will As the Final Solution unfolded, although
Jewish history in many countries, including
Ringelblum recorded, compiled, and preserved the last
decimated by murders and deportations,
W
Israel, Russia, and Poland.
chapter of Polish Jewry.
the group persevered in its work until
Write
“Drawing on his vast erudition and moral imagination, the spring of 1943. Of its more than 60
i
l
Samuel Kassow has rescued this incomparable story. l members, only three survived. Ringelblum
The Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures
Emanuel
Thanks to him, the Oyneg Shabes Archive is revealed to W and his family perished in March 1944.
in Jewish Studies Our
be the single greatest memory site of East European Jewry.” Ringelblum, But before he died, he managed to hide
—David G. Roskies, author of Against the Apocalypse r thousands of documents in milk cans and
the Warsaw
i
History? tin boxes. Searchers found two of these
t
“Emanuel Ringelblum was the main architect of the e Ghetto, buried caches in 1946 and 1950.

underground archive in the Warsaw ghetto created to O and the
record the sufferings of the nearly half a million Jews Who Will Write Our History? tells the
Oyneg Shabes
u
confined there. This definitive biography illuminates gripping story of Ringelblum and his
r Archive
not only his remarkable achievements and charismatic determination to use historical scholar-

H
personality but also the tragic fate which he shared with ship and the collection of documents to
Warsaw Jewry.” resist Nazi oppression. The Germans,
i
—Antony Polonsky, editor of Polin s confident of victory, assumed that they
t
would determine how future generations
o
remembered the Jews. Through his heroic
r
y efforts, Ringelblum insured that even
?
if he and his comrades perished, future
INDIANA generations would rely on Jewish and not
Nazi sources to study the last chapters of
University Press
Polish Jewry.
Jacket illustrations: Bloomington & Indianapolis
(top) courtesy of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem;
http://iupress.indiana.edu
(bottom and background) courtesy of Jewish Historical
INDIANA
Institute, Warsaw 1-800-842-6796
Samuel D. Kassow
Who Will Write Our History?
The Helen and Martin Schwartz
Lectures in Jewish Studies
Sponsored by the
Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns
Jewish Studies Program
Indiana University
Who Will Write Our History?
emanuel ringelblum,
the Warsaw Ghetto, and the
Oyneg Shabes archive
Samuel D. KaSSOW
IndIana UnIverSITy PreSS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
Published with the generous support
of the Helen and Martin Schwartz Endowment.
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
© 2007 by Samuel D. Kassow
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University
Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kassow, Samuel D.
Who will write our history? : Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes
Archive / Samuel D. Kassow.
p. cm. — (The Helen and Martin Schwartz lectures in Jewish studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-253-34908-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Jews—Persecutions—Poland—Warsaw.
2. Oyneg Shabes (Group) 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Poland—Warsaw—History.
4. Warsaw (Poland)—History—Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943. 5. Ringelblum, Emanuel,
1900–1944. I. Title.
ds135.P62w2774 2007
940.53’1853841—dc22
2006039839
1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08 07
Dedicated to my wife Lisa,
my daughters Miri and Serena,
and to the loving memory
of my parents
Jacob Kassow and Celia Kassow

Efsher veln oykh di verter
Dervartn zikh ven oyf dem likht—
Veln in sho in basherter
Tseblien zikh umgerikht?
Un vi der uralter kern
Vos hot zikh farvandlt in zang—
Veln di verter oykh nern,
Veln di verter gehern
Dem folk, in zayn eybikn gang.
[Perhaps these words will endure
And live to see the light loom—
And in the destined hour
Will unexpectedly bloom?
And like the primeval grain
That turned into a stalk—
The words will nourish,
The words will belong
To the people, in its eternal walk.]
—Avrom Sutzkever,
“Grains of Wheat,”
Vilna Ghetto, March 1943.
Translated by
Barbara and Benjamin Harshav

cOnTenTS
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Language Use xiii
Introduction 1
1 From “Bichuch” to Warsaw 17
2 Borochov’s Disciple 27
3 History for the People 49
4 Organizing the Community SeLf-HeLP and reLIef 90
5 a Band of Comrades 145
6 The Different Voices of Polish Jewry 209
7 Traces of life and Death TexTS frOM THe arcHIve 225
8 The Tidings of Job 285
9 a Historian’s Final mission 333
Appendix A. Guidelines for a Study of Polish-Jewish Relations 389
Appendix B. Guidelines for a Study of the Warsaw Ghetto 393
Appendix C. Guidelines for a Study of the Jewish Shtetl 396
Notes 401
Selected Bibliography 481
Index 495
Photographs appear after pages 144 and 284.