The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival

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The story of an extraordinary secret archive recording daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The story of the Oyneg Shabes archive. Between 1940 and 1943 a group of dedicated writers secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The story of the Oyneg Shabes archive. Between 1940 and 1943 a group of dedicated writers, led by historian Emanuel Ringeblum, secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto. It would become history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this new 10-part series revealing the lives, stories and destruction of the Ghetto.

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The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival: 4. The Jewish Postman

4. The Jewish Postman

BBC Radio 4 - The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival, 4. The Jewish Postman

An extraordinary secret archive of life in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Oyneg Shabes archive, led by historian Emanuel Ringeblum, secretly documented daily existence for half a million in the Warsaw Ghetto. With Alfred Molina.

The story of the Oyneg Shabes archive. Between 1940-43 a group of dedicated writers, led by historian Emanuel Ringeblum, secretly recorded daily Jewish existence for the 500,000 souls trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto. The project became a race against time -history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this 10 part series of the lives, stories & destruction of the Ghetto. Episode 4-The Jewish Postman. With Alfred Molina as Peretz Opoczynski.

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century, a half million Jewish men, women & children were herded into a prison city within a city. Walled off & surrounded by the German occupiers & their collaborators. How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised and directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) to chronicle every aspect of their existence. He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write, collect & compile thousands of pages-diaries, essays, poems, photographs, statistical studies, art, ephemera -a historical treasure that was buried even as the Ghetto was being extinguished so that the world might read and understand. Listen to their stories

Episode 4-The Jewish Postman. Separated from the rest of Warsaw parallel institutions and jobs were needed. Peretz Opoczynski trudged up & down the ruined buildings of the ghetto to deliver eagerly sought letters from loved ones & from abroad. 

Narration by Anton Lesser & featuring Alfred Molina. Translation by David Suchoff. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow. Written & 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/

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