GUARDS OF THE COLLECTIONS
Jolanta Hercog, Jewish Historical Institute
“I have been ordained a guard of the Collections. I hid the material. No one else besides me knew. I only told my friend Hersz Wasser whom I report to, about this place. The material is well-hidden. If only it survives - it will be the most beautiful and the best thing we have accomplished in these terrible times” - Lichtenstein wrote on 31 July 1942.
Out of several dozen members of the Oneg Shabbat group, only three survived the war. Rachel Auerbach and Bluma and Hersz Wasser.
In autumn 1944, the Central Committee of Polish Jews (CCPJ) was founded in Lublin, under which the Central Jewish Historical Commission (CJHC) was established. Its task was to collect documents and accounts from Holocaust survivors. The committee gathered documents, archival materials, books, photographs, works of art, items of historical value found on victims, as well as compiled and provided evidence that could help in the prosecution of German war criminals.
On 5 May 1945, Filip Friedman the director of the CJHC turned to Hersz Wasser:
“I would like to point out that the most important materials are with you, buried in the archival collections and would be a perfect opportunity to turn to the (CCPJ) with a request to fund these excavations as soon as possible".
A month later Hersz Wasser brought up the topic of unearthing the Ringelblum Archive at the praesidium meeting. A three-person committee was appointed, which undertook to find the documents in the ruins of Warsaw.
On 4 August, the Provincial Historical Commission in Warsaw turned to the Warsaw Reconstruction Office (WRO):
We hereby kindly ask you to issue a permit for excavation works on the premises of houses located at Nowolipki No. 68 and Sto-Jerska 34 / the site of the former Warsaw ghetto/.
We explain that historical archives are buried in the basement of the listed houses, regarding the life of Jews during the German occupation, which belongs to the Jewish Historical Commission in Warsaw.
Simultaneously, we ask if the W.R.O could provide us with technical assistance in the form of Labour Brigades.
Please note that the total cost of the works would be borne by the Provincial Jewish Historical Commission in Warsaw
Manager:
H. Wasser
In the early days of August 1942, during the great liquidation action of the Warsaw ghetto, the teacher Izrael Lichtenstein along with his students Nachum Grzywacz and Dawid Graber buried the first portion of the Warsaw Underground Ghetto Archives in the basement of the Ber Borochow school. They hid the Archive created by Dr Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat group in a galvanised box.
Testament of Izrael Lichtensztein. ŻIH