The exhibition: A first in France

In 1999, UNESCO’s International Advisory Committee recognized the world significance of the Emmanuel Ringelblum Archives and recommended them for inclusion in the Memory of the World International Register.

About a hundred original archival units, among the 6,000 documents kept in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, are being presented in France for the first time, in the Shoah Memorial. The exhibition entitled "The Clandestine Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto" will be shown from December 15, 2006 to April 29, 2007, providing an opportunity of discovering some of these original documents, saved from destruction. The exhibition is based on two fundamental themes: on the one hand the Nazi-led organization of extermination and, on the other, the actions of the Jewish community to ensure its survival, the efforts of the clandestine resistance activists to discover the objectives and scope of the mass deportation (Aktion) and their preparations for armed combat. The exhibits are grouped to illustrate subjects such as the famine, the plight of the children and forced labor. The documents as a whole lead the way through the various phases of the Holocaust, whereas the Emmanuel Ringelblum Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Oyneg Shabbes reports for the Polish Government in exile in London constitute a commentary. The presentation also illustrates the diversity which is so characteristic of the collection, thus immensely enhancing its value as testimony. The documents taken altogether are evocative of an open book, made up of several chapters, in this following the original wishes of the Ghetto's archivists.

The exhibition was conceived by the Shoah Memorial, in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (Zydowski Instytut Historyczny) and The International Contemporary Documentation Library - the Museum of Contemporary History (BDIC in French).

Organizers of the Exhibition: Sophie Nagiscarde, Head of Cultural Activities, Shoah Memorial; Eleonora Bergman, Deputy Director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw; Jean-Claude Famulicki, Head of the BDIC's Polish Department; Michel Wlassikoff, Historian.
Text of the exhibition: Georges Bensoussan.
Coordination: Marlène Rigler, Assistant for Cultural Activities, Shoah Memorial.