Docudrama on Poland's Ringelblum Archive commences filming

Based on a book by the American historian Samuel D. Kassow, the story traces the history of a clandestine organisation, codenamed Oynet Shabes, established in Nazi-occupied Warsaw by Emanuel Ringelblum to study and document all aspects of Jewish life in wartime Poland and to compile an archive that would preserve this history for posterity.

Their goal was to ensure that the truth would survive even if they did not. The organisation continued its work until the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943.

Before his death in March 1944, Ringelblum managed to hide over 30,000 documents – newspapers, photographs, poems, paintings and essays – in milk cans and tin boxes.

Two caches of the Ringelblum Archive were unearthed shortly after the war. The third one has never been found.

Roberta Grossman, the film’s director and producer, has told the Polish Press Agency that the Ringelblum Archive is “the most important untold story of the Holocaust”.

Nancy Spielberg, the younger sister of Steven Spielberg, is the executive producer of the project.

Cinematography is in the hands of five-time Emmy winner Dyanna Taylor. Polish actors are cast in the leads, including Piotr Głowacki as Emanuel Ringelblum and Karolina Gruszka as his wife Judyta. (mk/rg)