testimony to the tragedy that occurred.
Konik said the finds so far “confirm and complement” the reports about everyday life in the Ghetto found in the so-called Ringelblum Archive. The Archive was organized in November 1940 by historian Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum and his clandestine Oneg Shabbat organization. The aim was to gather detailed and extensive documentation on the fate of Jews under German occupation.
The Archive materials were hidden in three batches (the last hidden on the day before the Ghetto Uprising began). Two of these caches have been discovered. As the Jewish Historical Institute puts it:
The collected materials, numbering some 35,000 documents, usually do not have counterparts in other archival units in the world. They are often the last testimonies of life, suffering and death of both individuals and entire communities of cities and towns scattered throughout the country. They constitute an invaluable source for Holocaust study.
This summer’s excavations follow on from non-invasive research carried out in July 2021 via geoscientific tools such as ground-penetrating radar and metal detectors. These non-invasive surveys indicated an “anomaly” that led to physical excavation in October 2021 in Krasiński Park, which stands in the former Ghetto area. The anomaly turned out to be a steel beam.
The article was originally published at the Jewish Heritage Europe page.