return to Poland is motivated by our civic duty”,⁸ Emanuel wrote in his diary.
Perhaps not only public matters called him to Warsaw, as he had also left his
wife and son there.⁹ The moment he returned to Warsaw he became engaged
in the relief activity coordinated by the Joint.¹⁰ He also cooperated with the
Coordinating Commission from the very beginning [of the occupation]. In
1940 the organisation transformed into Jewish Social Self-help (Żydow ska
Samopomoc Społeczna, ŻSS), and he was among the top leadership until the
end. After the Germans closed the “Jewish residential district” in Warsaw
in November 1940, Emanuel lived in the ghetto, continuing his community
work in the ŻSS and particularly by leading the Oyneg Shabes underground
research group. Furthermore, Ringelblum was active in other underground
structures in the ghetto, such as the Anti-fascist Bloc (Blok Antyfaszystowski)
and the Jewish Fighting Organisation (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB). In
February 1943 Emanuel and his family left the ghetto and hid on the “Aryan”
side of Warsaw, but as soon as on the eve of the outbreak of the uprising
he returned to the ghetto with Hersh Wasser. Captured by the Germans, he
was deported to the camp in Trawniki, from where he was extricated with
the cooperation of the Polish underground. After his return to Warsaw in
August 1943 he was hiding with his wife, son, and other people in a shelter
at Mieczysław Wolski’s property under a greenhouse at Grójecka Street 81.¹¹
Unfortunately, on 7 March 1943 the “Krysia” shelter was discovered by the
Germans after a denunciation and all its residents plus the farm owner and
his nephew were executed several days later near the Pawiak prison on the
ruins of the ghetto.
Oyneg Shabes
As early as the first months of the war Emanuel Ringelblum began to collect
testimonies regarding the events taking place before his eyes. The first
8 ARG I 449/1 (Ring. I/507/1), p. 2.
9 Emanuel Ringelblum met his future wife Yehudit Herman (1904–1944) in Left Poalei
Tsiyon. They had a son Uriel (Uri, Jurek) (1930–1944).
10 Ringelblum’s cooperation with the Joint began in 1938 during the organisation of aid for
Jews expelled from Germany.
11 Now Grójecka Street 77.
