Jewish Historical Institute

At Tłomackie 3/5 in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute is a museum and research centre focused on Polish Jewish history. Its permanent exhibition centres on the Ringelblum Archive, a collection of accounts and documents made by people in the Warsaw Ghetto. Letters, notes and personal testimony trace daily life, persecution and resistance during the Second World War. The exhibition uses text and multimedia in Polish and English, and includes original archival material. Allow about 90 minutes to take it in.

The Ringelblum Archive

The permanent exhibition centres on the work of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat group, whose members recorded life in the Warsaw Ghetto. They included people from different walks of life, such as teachers, writers, students and clerks. Their records preserve accounts of daily hardship and persecution.

As the ghetto faced destruction, the group hid its documents in metal containers, including milk cans. The exhibition displays original material, including letters and one of the cans used to preserve the archive. The documents were intended to carry evidence of what happened beyond the lives of the people who collected them.

Reading the exhibition

This is a document-led exhibition, with substantial text and multimedia rather than a large display of objects. Its structure guides visitors through the archive and the events it records. Personal notes, memoirs, postcards and letters bring individual voices into the account of the ghetto.

The displays are in Polish and English. The material addresses starvation, illness, deportations and crimes, as well as efforts to document and resist what was happening. The subject matter is grave, and the exhibition gives space to the records themselves.