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The extraordinary Oyneg Shabes archive that secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto – brought to life 80 years on from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

The extraordinary archive that secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto – brought to life 80 years on from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Through the Warsaw Ghetto's short, terrible life, historian Emanuel Ringelblum led a group of writers to secretly chronicle life for its inhabitants. The project became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this new 10 part series. Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. How the archive began. With Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum.

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century, a half million Jewish men, women & children were herded into a prison city within a city. Walled off & surrounded by the German occupiers. How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised & directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) chronicling every aspect of existence. He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write, collect & compile thousands of pages-diaries, essays, poems, photographs, statistical studies, art, ephemera -a historical treasure that was buried even as the Ghetto was being extinguished so that the world might read and understand. Listen to their stories

Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. In 1943, with most of the ghetto's inhabitants already murdered historian, Emanuel Ringelblum looked back on the history of the history.

Narration by Anton Lesser with Elliot Levey & the voices of Lily Fair, Carl Prekopp & Tracy-Ann Oberman. Translation by Elinor Robinson. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow. Written & produced by Mark Burman.

For more information on the Oyneg Shabes/Ringeblum archive go to the website of the Jewish Historical Institute https://cbj.jhi.pl/

Available now

14 minutes

On radio

Next Thursday 21:45

Broadcasts

  • Mon 24 Apr 2023 13:45
  • Next Thursday 21:45