Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944) was a Polish-Jewish historian, politician and social worker, known for his Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn chronicling the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyn and the so-called Ringelblum's Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Before the World War II Ringelblum was working for various social organisations. Among his most notable activities was organisation of all-national action to help the Jews exiled from Germany in 1938 and 1939. He was also a known historian and a specialist in the field of the history of Polish Jews between late Middle Ages and 18th century.

During the war together with his family Ringelblum was resettled to the Warsaw Ghetto. There he led a secret operation code-named "Oyneg Shabbos" (Hebrew for "Sabbath delight"). Together with numerous other Jewish writers, scientists and ordinary people, Ringelblum collected diaries, documents, commissioned papers, and preserved the posters and decrees that comprised the memory of the doomed community. Among approximately 25 000 sheets preserved there are also detailed descriptions of destruction of Ghettos in other parts of occupied Poland, Treblinka extermination camp, Chełm concentration camp and a number of reports made by scientists conducting research on the effects of famine in the ghettos. He was also one of the most active of Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna (Polish for Jewish Social Aid), an organisation established to help the starving people of the Warsaw Ghetto. On the eve of the ghetto's destruction in the spring of 1943, when all seemed lost, the archive was placed in three milk cans and metal boxes. Parts were buried in the cellars of Warsaw buildings.

Shortly before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Ringelblum together with his family was smuggled out of the Ghetto and hidden on the "Aryan side". However, his refuge was discovered by the Germans and Ringelblum and his family were shot on the spot, together with the Pole who hid them, shortly before the Warsaw Uprising.

The fate of the Ringelblum's Archives is only partially known. In September 1946 ten metal boxes were found in the ruins of Warsaw. In December 1950 in a cellar of another ruined house at 68 Nowolipki Street two additional milk cans were found containing more documents. Among them were copies of several underground newspapers, a narrative of deportations from the Warsaw ghetto, and public notices by the Judenrat (the council of Jewish leaders established on German orders), but also documents of ordinary life, concert invitations, milk coupons and chocolate papers. Despite repeated searches, the rest of the archive, including the third milk can, was never found.

Reference

• Emanuel Ringelblum, Żydzi w Warszawie (Jews in Warsaw), Warsaw, 1932
• Various authors, Kronika getta warszawskiego (Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto), 1961–1963
• Mark Beyer, Emmanuel Ringelblum: Historian of the Warsaw Ghetto, New York, 2001. ISBN 082393375X

External links:

• Ringelblum's Archives in the State Archives of Poland (http://archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=352)
• Ringelblum in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/1999/eng/poland_1/reading.html#1)
• Ringelblum's Milk Can (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Ringelblumcan.html)
• Time Capsule in a Milk Can (.pdf document) (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/publicprograms/programs/milkcan/LearningGuide.pdf)
• Ringelblum's Box (http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/museums/histmuseum/from_coll/data/ringelblum.html)