Oyneg Shabbos

Oneg Shabbat (Hebrew עונג שבת - Joy on the Sabbath, other spellings: Oneg Shabbat or Oyneg Shab ( b) ) was a code name for an underground archive of the Warsaw ghetto, which was built during the German occupation under the direction of Emanuel Ringelblum.

The collection Oneg Shabbat will be held at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. It comprises 1,680 archive items with about 25,000 pages. The archive was added to the UNESCO's World 1999.

History

In the archive everything was collected, which was able to document life in the ghetto. This should benefit future historians. Because of these materials have also been reports of the Polish underground and the Polish government in exile in London were written. In particular, the correspondence of the " Judenrat " with the German authorities was for the archive of great importance. Marcel Reich -Ranicki writes that he make of all the more important letters and reports copies and she had one of the employees Ringelblum's surrender at the office of " Judenrat ."

On 22 July 1942, the Great deportation of Warsaw Jews began in the Treblinka extermination camp. In early August secured the employees of the underground archive their valuable holdings: Ten waterproof metal boxes for documents were made and immured in the basement of a former school in the ghetto. A 18- year-old student assisting quickly wrote his resume and his legacy:

" I want to see the moment when the treasures that we hide here are unearthed and the world to know the whole truth. Be happy, who has spared the fate of this suffering! And we will feel like veterans with medals on his chest, like the wise men who look to the future. "

After the war, surviving employees Ringelblum began the search for the hidden underground archive. In September 1946, the ten metal boxes with 1208 archives were again found deep beneath the rubble of the house. In December 1950, two large milk cans were recovered with 484 archival materials in a further search. From the Third Division of the archive were found elsewhere only a number of half-ruined leaves. The fourth and final part of Ringelblum's last works from the years 1943 and 1944 was still hidden during the war with Polish friends and later at the Museum of the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz in Lochamej haGeta'ot (Israel ) cast.

A comprehensive edition of the documents of the Ringelblum Archive is a book by Samuel Kassow: Ringelblum's Legacy: The Secret Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto. published.

There were only two survivors of the Oneg Shabbat - group after the destruction of the ghetto: Rachel Auerbach and Hersh water.