Selected online collections

The Ringelblum Archive 

The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto (so-called Ringelblum Archive), established in the autumn of 1940 at the initiative of Dr Emanuel Ringelblum and the underground Oneg Shabbat organisation, is one of the most important testimonies of the extermination of Polish Jews. The Archive comprises about 35,000 pages. A large part of the material does not have counterparts in any other preserved archival collections in the world. Among such unique items are witness testimonies, mail addressed to the Warsaw ghetto, studies and analyses elaborated by Oneg Shabbat, underground printed materials produced in the Warsaw ghetto, literary pieces written during the war, documents from private (heritage) collections, and many more. 

The collection includes scans of documents, photos, and artworks, as well as the volumes of the Full Edition of the Ringelblum Archive, a fruit of the labour of JHI’s Research Department. 

Periodicals 

The collection comprises over 2,500 titles of Jewish press published in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Among these are newspapers and magazines dealing with art, literature, social issues, and politics. Illustrated magazines are particularly interesting, as the photos they include provide a fascinating, colourful insight into the daily life in Poland and abroad before World War II (Yiddishe Bilder, Nasz Przegląd Ilustrowany). 

Our collection of press clippings includes anecdotes, stories, and biographical notes from the Yiddish press, illustrating the multi-faceted day-to-day reality of Polish Jews and their social and spiritual life. 

The Quarterly (former Bulletin) 

The Jewish History Quarterly (formerly the Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute) is one of the oldest and most influential scholarly journals dedicated to the history of Jews, publishing academic studies and articles on Jewish history and culture in Poland and abroad. It has been published in Polish since 1951. Both the recent and the archival issues of the Quarterly are available on the website of the Central Judaic Library. 

Photos 

The photos published on the DELET Portal can be categorised into several thematic collections. They constitute a well-preserved illustration of the daily life in pre-war Poland. They often document mundane – but far from dull – events and practices, such as summer trips, sports, customs, fashion, social life. 

 

Glass Negatives is a collection of pre-war negatives from an unidentified photography studio operating in the area of Warsaw and Otwock. It comprises ca. 470 negatives, almost all of which are portrait photos taken en face, in a bust, likely intended to be used in official documentation. The negatives were produced by cutting standard 9×12 cm glass plates widely used by photographers before the war. The photos are anonymous – we can only look at the details in the pictures and guess when they were taken or what the social status and background of the captured people was. 

Photos of the Bund The JHI archive includes two collections associated with the activities of the Bund: The Bund Central Committee until 1939 and The Bund in Poland after 1944. A large part of the items are group photos of members of the Bund or its associated organisations (Zukunft and Morgenstern) at summer camps, trips, or party rallies and meetings. 

Julia Pirotte (1908‒2000) was a Jewish photographer and social activist. She donated some 1,000 photos to the JHI collection, mainly taken in the 1940s and the 1950s, as well as a number of archival materials – typescripts, documents connected with her professional life and wartime activities, reprints of her photos published in the press and books, photos from the Battle of Marseille (1944), and, significantly, photographic documentation of the Kielce Pogrom (1946). The collection was digitised in the years 2019–2020 in a cooperative effort of the JHI and the Archaeology of Photography Foundation. 

Albums 

We continue our efforts to expand our digital libraries with newly digitised collections of photographs. The albums published in the CJL and the DELET Portal are often collections not published anywhere else. This is certainly the case of the album documenting the events organised to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1947. It comprises unique photos showing the scope of destruction in post-war Warsaw. 

Berlinka  

“Berlinka” is the casual name of a photographic archive forming part of the collection of Jüdisches Museum Berlin – a Jewish museum operating in the German capital before the war, located at 31 Oranienburger Straße. 

The museum was opened on 24 January 1933, a week after the Nazi party had taken power in Germany. The institution became an important mainstay for the Jewish community in the turbulent 1930s. It was open until 10 November 1938, when it was the Third Reich authorities shut it down. For the five years of its existence, the museum enjoyed international renown, but has since fallen into oblivion, and the items from its collection have been scattered around the world or lost. Berlinka was donated to the JHI in its entirety in 1951. It is one of the most significant collections owned by the Association of the JHI and the Jewish Historical Institute. It comprises several dozen cardboard boxes holding boards with reproductions and photos as well as original artworks. Each board is accompanied with a short caption. 

As part of the DELET project, we decided to shed light on this forgotten Jewish patrimony by digitising Berlinka and uploading it to our portal. This has allowed us to present the collection online with more in-depth descriptions. 

You can find thematic collections from Berlinka here.