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Construction of the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration Monument is completed!

On April 19th 2021, the 78th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, we present the Ringelblum Archive Commemoration Monument on 28 Nowolipki Street to the residents of Warsaw. In doing this, we wish to honor the heroes of the Oneg Shabbat group, creators of the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, one of the greatest testimonies of civic and intellectual resistance during World War II.

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.