In the summer of 1942, two teenagers and their teacher buried the first part of the Ringelblum Archive at what was then 68 Nowolipki Street. Dawid Graber, Nachum Grzywacz, and Izrael Lichtensztajn were members of a clandestine organization named Oneg Shabbat, which means “the Joy of Shabbat” in Hebrew. Founded by Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, Oneg Shabbat’s goal was to document the lives and deaths of Polish Jews under the German occupation. Neither the teacher nor his students survived the war.
The second part of the Ringelblum Archive was buried in the same place, most likely in February 1943. Only three members of Oneg Shabbat survived the war: Rachela Auerbach, Hersz Wasser and Bluma Wasser. Afterwards, they began the search for the Archive, one of the most important testimonies on the Holocaust.
The first part of the Archive was found in the ruins of Nowolipki Street in 1946, and the second part in 1950. Since that time, the Archive, containing over 35,000 pages of documents, has been under the guardianship of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland and is entrusted to the care of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. In 1999, the Archive was included on the UNESCO Memory of the World list as an example of the documentary heritage of humanity.
The Ringelblum Archive Commemoration Monument, designed by Łukasz Mieszkowski and Marcin Urbanek, emerges today on the map of Warsaw thanks to the partnership of the Association for Social and Cultural Initiatives Stacja Muranów, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, the Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration, over 40 donors from Poland and around the world, and many other people who did their utmost to properly commemorate the heroes of Oneg Shabbat.
Stacja Muranów and the Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration conducted administrative activities in the Wola District Office, which enabled the project implementation. The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland was responsible for the fundraising for the building of the Commemoration and for the whole process of implementation.
We invite you to watch the video below, in which we summarize the completion of the Commemoration’s construction, and to visit the site itself on 28 Nowolipki Street.
We commemorate these heroes, for whom revealing the truth about the Warsaw ghetto was more important than life.
Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland
Association for Social and Cultural Initiatives Stacja Muranów
Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration
Initiators of the Commemoration Monument: the Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration
Partners: the Association for Social and Cultural Initiatives Stacja Muranów, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland
Design of the Commemoration Monument: Marcin Urbanek, Łukasz Mieszkowski
Donors – Patrons: Oscar Kazanelson, NeocityPolska, Zygmunt Rolat, Ronson Development, Piotr Wiślicki
Donors – Builders: Bracia Alster, Sigrid and Borno Janekovic, Mark Katzenelson, Keemple Polska Sp. z. o. o., Marek i Agnieszka Nowakowscy, Rick Parasol, Andrzej Rojek, Juliusz Windorbski, White Stone Development, Krzysztof Zorde
In addition, we would like to thank other donors across Poland and worldwide, who supported the project.
Patronage: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, Wola District Office in Warsaw
Project Implementation
the Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration: Aleksandra Engler-Malinowska, Tomasz Kapliński, Jacek Leociak, Łukasz Mieszkowski, Łukasz Prokop, Marcin Urbanek
and persons supporting activities of the Public Committee for the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration: Eleonora Bergman, Katarzyna Górska, Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik, Alicja Mroczkowska, Aleksandra Sajdak, Paulina Sobieszuk
Fundraising: Agnieszka Dulęba, Bartosz Dymarek, Aleksandra Maj, Anna Miszewska, Anna Szcześniak
Coordination: Beata Chomątowska, Michał Majewski
Administration: Anna Moniewska
Legal support: mec. Magdalena Małocha from „DMS Kancelaria prawnicza”, Kancelaria prawna TK Legal
Translations and editing: Nili Amit, HaviDreifuss, Dominika Gajewska, Aleksandra Król, Alan Lockwood, Dominik Wódz
Construction site inspector: Konrad Gawrysiak
Construction manager: Łukasz Matulaniec
General contractor: Gemard Sp. z o.o.
Structural engineer: Piotr Szczepański
Glass works: Archa Inženiring d.o.o., Studiostopa
Graphic design of the plaques: to/studio
Stonemasonry: Imag Sp. z o. o.
Creation of the document’s replica: Musea Łukasz Smutek
Archaeological supervision: Ryszard Cędrowski
Production of the footage: Jakub Gryżewski, Ivo Krankowski, Dominik Śmiałowski
Special thanks for support to: American Friends of POLIN Museum, Beit Lohamei HaGeta’ot, Alex Carnegie, Sam Kassow, Rafał Kowalczyk, Michał Krasucki, Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner, Mateusz Matejewski, Avraham Novershtern, Anna Osińska-Cocker, Grażyna Orzechowska-Mikulska, Agnieszka Reszka, Adam Siwek, Krzysztof Strzałkowski, Grzegorz Tomczewski, Marian Turski, Tomasz Urzykowski, Marcin Wojdat, Małgorzata Wosińska, Michał Zadrzyński, Zarząd Gospodarowania Nieruchomościami Dzielnicy Wola, Ludwik Żmijewski
and Muranów district Residents.