ONEG SHABBAT:JOY OF THE SABBATH
Emmanuel Ringelblum was a journalist and
historian, a professional person who saw the events of Warsaw during WWII
with a timeless eye. Like the other Jews of his day in Poland, he had been
forced to live in a ghetto, the Warsaw Ghetto along with thousands of
others. The Ghetto was, some estimated large enough for about 50,000 to
live comfortably. Over 500,000 Jews at one point were crowded into this
small area of Warsaw, often with several families to a two room apartment;
and replete with the monstrous problems of overpopulated urban living.
The problems of oppressive Ghetto living under the sinister eye of the Third Reich were more than most on the outside could believe. Mothers and children died daily of starvation. Food rations for the Jews varied between 300 and 650 calories a day: barely enough to keep a person alive. Bodies were carted away each morning and given anything but a decent burial. There were still some class differences even among Jews in the Ghetto: the poor fared far worse than the wealthy. Persons who tried to steal foodstuffs from outside the ghetto were punished often by death, most often by shooting. Even starving children were subject to the terrible treatment.
Amidst the growing misery of the Ghetto, Emmanuel Ringelblum watched. He wanted somehow to make sure that no one would ever forget what was done to the Jews of Warsaw and Europe. His keen journalistic spirit led to an idea: he would carefully record the daily life of the Ghetto while he was interred there. He would record the actions of the government (see Warsaw Ghetto:Judenrat); the cultural life, news in the Ghetto, and the intricate details of daily life: food, commerce, deaths, problems, children, deportations and work. Ringelblum realized early that this was a enormous task, really too extensive for one person, even a historian to handle. So he formed a circle of persons who would each record a separate aspect of ghetto life. The group was called Oneg Shabbat which translates "Joy of the Sabbath". They met secretly weekly to share and collate their writings, data, and general information; Ringelblum served as editor to synthesis the sources into one main source. Ringelblum's "Warsaw Ghetto Diaries" is one of the most formidable historical eyewitness accounts, accurate and careful, that we have today.
The Milk Cans
The reason that Oneg Shabbat met clandestinely was because the Nazis would have shot the members of the group if any of them had been found. To in any way let the outside world know what the Nazis were doing was considered treasonous and was punishable by death. The Nazis had even sent German college students to the guillotine for doing nothing more than passing out tracts and pamphlets protesting Hitler's "Euthanasia" plan for the mentally impaired. (see White Rose) To be a Jew conducting such a massive historical accounting was far more dangerous. The group knew that their collected materials and writings would have to be hidden carefully, or the Nazis would confiscate their work, and the world would lose all knowledge of what really happened in the Ghetto. Ringelblum and the other authors decided to hide their written accounts in tin milk contains, which were then buried where the Nazis would never find them. The documents stayed hidden the entire span of the war, and when they were unearthed after the war, they made Ghetto Life come alive to horrified readers.There was one more remarkable thing about Emmanuel Ringelblum. Because of his reknown in the professional community, towards the end of the Ghetto he was offered the chance to be free. He could have escaped the desparate circumstances and starvation. Emmanuel chose to stay behind. Why? He knew he had a place in history, in the Ghetto, that was so important and so critical to the Jewish people that rather than live life for himself, he chose to live it for the benefit of others, for the benefit of the timelessness of being Jewish in a world that has never welcomed the Jews. Ringelblum's legacy lives on: The Warsaw Ghetto Diaries has proven to be a lasting history of the Jews of Warsaw, a lasting testimony to their suffering. Ringelblum's choice was vindicated: his life was not in vain.
Yad Vashem: Ringelblum's Box
Ringelblum
Wikipedia: Ringelblum
Oneg Shabbat: Jewish Virtual Library
1Photo Credits: Archives of USHMM. Base photo adjusted for graphic purposes.
2Ringelblum, E. The Warsaw Ghetto Diaries.
3Document on Food Supplies: From Archives/Holdings of WJC at Hebrew Union College, Cincinati, OH
4Berenbaum, M. The World Must Know.
5Scholl, Inge. The Students Against Tyranny.
5Scholl, Hans & Sophie The White Rose Diaries.
© 2003 Elizabeth Kirkley Best PhD; Shoah Education Project (WEB); All Rights Reserved