Alerting the world

As from October 1941, information on the massacres behind the Russian front, and later the testimony of an escaped deportee from the Chelmno camp, describing the killings, reached Warsaw. The members of Oyneg Shabbes became aware of the existence of Hitler's determination to exterminate European Jews ("Ausrottung") and henceforth devoted their efforts to gathering information on the process of extermination.

Investigation took priority over the constitution of archives. To try and alert the world to the ongoing genocide, Emmanuel Ringelblum, Eliahu Gutkowski and Hersz Wasser created an information agency which circulated bulletins through the underground press: Wiadomosci in Polish and Mitteylungen in Yiddish. The first report, intended for the Polish government in exile, was sent to its clandestine delegation in Warsaw and reached London in April 1942.

The members of Oyneg Shabbes were well aware of the future importance of the testimony they were collecting as evidence for the prosecution to be used in court when the time came to formulate an indictment against Nazism.