80 years on from the uprising & destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, Radio 4 brings to life an extraordinary archive that chronicled day to day existence. With the ghetto in ruins the leader of the Oyneg Shabes archive was now in hiding on the Aryan side, still writing the history of its people & its murders. Episode 9-'Krysia'. Narrated by Anton Lesser with Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum.

Following the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1943, historian & activist Emanuel Ringelblum went into hiding on the 'Aryan' side of Warsaw along with his family. His great work of history, the Oyneg Shabes archive-a vast project to chronicle life in the ghetto, was now buried in the rubble of Warsaw. Now he and 38 other souls lived a fragile existence in the underground shelter 'Krysia'. Boredom and the ever present fear of betrayal and discovery filled their days and nights but Ringeblum was determined to continue writing his first draft of history. In regular contact with the Jewish underground, with documents smuggled in and out, he wrote by the dim light of a carbide lamp. Both a history of the Uprising that had already become deeply symbolic and the painful question of Polish Jewish relations since the German invasion. But would Ringeblum live to see his great work of social history, the 'Oyneg Shabes' archive, finally revealed to the world?

Narration by Anton Lesser with Eliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum. Translation by Dafna Allon, Danuta Dabrowska & Dana Keren. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow.
Written and 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/ Show less