Who Will Write Our History (2018) - full transcript

[ thunder rumbling,
rain falling ]

[ train engine chugging ]

♪

♪

Auerbach:
What factors contributed

To one person surviving...

And another dying?

♪

I am writing this as a witness.

I know how it was for me.

I still see before me



Emanuel ringelblum's
living tall figure.

I hear his voice,

All my talks
with him in those years,

Months and days.

What he accomplished
as an historian of polish jewry

Led others to help.

I want to focus on what
I personally experienced.

I'm in the hidden archive
that dr. Ringelblum created

And led until the destruction
of the ghetto.

A huge mass of materials
that give a picture

Of the jewish people
under the nazis

Are all collected
in the ringelblum archive.

Yet three years
after it was hidden,

The search for
the buried archive



In the desert
of the warsaw ghetto

Had not even begun.

Just finding a certain house

Among the rubble
was difficult enough,

But to find a cellar
within a cellar

Was almost like
an archaeological expedition.

♪

♪

The papers that will rise up
from the dead

Are the eyewitness accounts...

Of our disaster...

And our resistance.

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪

♪

♪

When I came to warsaw for the
first time in the early 1930s,

I was astonished at
the intensity of jewish life.

Such a multitude of jews
I had never seen --

Pious jews in black gaberdines
looking like priests

In their medieval garb,

Jews who were rabbis,

Teachers who wanted
to transform our earthly life

Into a long study of torah
and prayer to god.

And still other jews
broad-shouldered,

Deep-voiced, jews who with
a blow of their fists

Could floor any hooligan

Who dared enter
into their neighborhoods.

Rachel auerbach belongs
to the first generation

Of polish jews
who got a higher education.

She became a journalist
and a leading member

Of the yiddish-polish
intelligentsia.

She was a literary,
art and film critic.

She wrote about
women's literature

But also about position of women
in contemporary society.

She emphasized the double
exclusion jewish women

Were experiencing as women
and as jews.

Auerbach: In warsaw, there were
six yiddish daily papers

And two dailies
in the polish language.

There were two steady
yiddish theaters

And many traveling troupes.

The yiddish literary
and journalist union

Had 400 members.

This jewry had about 100 modern
jewish schools in warsaw alone.

"a state within a state,"

The polish anti-semites
screamed.

And there was slight truth
in that,

Especially culturally.

Rachel auerbach hooked up
with itzik manger,

A bohemian poet.

He drank a lot and took
no responsibility for himself.

Szymaniak: Itzik manger was
a very famous poet.

This relationship ends
in April 1938

When he is forced to leave
poland as a romanian citizen,

And she stays in poland.

She's alone.

♪

[ people chanting in german ]

♪

Auerbach: One could say we
should've seen the worst coming.

[ chanting in german ]

But we did not want
to know the truth.

We protected ourselves
from the truth.

We did not want to see it.

[ airplane engines roaring,
explosions ]

Reporter:
On September the 1st, 1939,

The nazi army
smashed into poland.

Auerbach: None of us considered
they could not be stopped.

[ siren wailing ]

♪

[ people screaming ]

♪

These were the last days
of September 1939 --

The roar of
the dive-bombers overhead

And the relief of breathing

When the explosion comes...

Not in the house you were in.

I was broken up,

Paralyzed, worried.

Reporter #2:
On September the 27th,

The signal of the warsaw radio

Had been heard
for the last time.

Warsaw fell.

[ boots marching ]

Auerbach: On one day in that
series of black days,

A yiddish poet came to see me.

She brought me news
that emanuel ringelblum

Was looking for me.

As wave after wave of refugees
arrived in warsaw,

Dr. Ringelblum was one of those
who organized relief.

Kassow: When the war started,
an organization

Called the jewish self-help took
over social welfare functions

In jewish warsaw,
and it was funded

By an american-based
relief organization

Called the joint distribution
committee,

Or, in short, the joint.

The self-help led by
ringelblum ran soup kitchens,

Orphanages, refugee centers,

And this was a time when
the jewish leadership of warsaw

Was running east.

He could've run.

He could've escaped.

Nobody had appointed him
as a leader.

He just stepped forward,
and he decided to do it.

[ coughing ]

Auerbach: Dr. Emanuel ringelblum
was a well-known public figure

Even before the war.

We occasionally bumped
into each other

At a yiddish theater premiere
or a book launching.

[ speaking foreign
language ]

I didn't know him well,
so it was a surprise to me

That dr. Ringelblum wanted
to know what had happened to me.

This first meeting
with ringelblum

Would play a decisive role
in my fate

And lead to my remaining
in warsaw

And not leaving
with the stream of runaways

To where my closest
family called me.

Dr. Ringelblum started keeping
a daily diary

Immediately from
the first days of the war.

The historian sensed that
an historical time had begun.

Ringelblum: At 2 tomanski place,
three nazi lords and masters

Ravaged some jewish women.

Screams resounded
through the house.

♪

In anin two weeks ago,
two germans were killed

And 100 poles in retaliation.

Jews were removed
from all posts in government

And aryan-owned enterprises,

Their bank accounts frozen.

They were not allowed
to use railways or buses...

...To go to theaters
or cinemas.

February 7, 1940,

Jewish women
were seized for labor.

And it just so happened,
women in fur coats,

They were ordered to wash
the pavement with their panties

And put them on again wet.

February 23rd, nolefki street
looks like hollywood these days.

Everywhere you go,
you see a star.

Today, 29th of September,

Got a blow to the mouth
for not saluting a german.

Jews of warsaw and, as a matter
of fact, jews of poland,

It didn't take long for them
to come to a conclusion

That the worst scenario
was in the process of happening.

[ indistinct yelling ]

I mean, all kinds
of indignities,

It started as soon
as the germans arrived...

...Forcing them to perform
humiliating labor,

Jews being pushed
literally into the gutter.

Almost all the photography
that we have that documents

The holocaust was taken
by germans,

By the german propaganda unit.

I think it's really important
that when people see

These photographs
that they understand

That they're seeing
through a german lens,

And the photographs
are profoundly humiliating

To the jews
who have been photographed.

[ singing in foreign language ]

Ringelblum: They're showing
propaganda films against jews

In movie houses again.

Grabowski: The main message
of this film is,

The jews are a threat.

If they are in the ghetto,
it's because we, the germans,

Want to preserve
the poles from disease.

So if you want to help a jew,
think twice because you risk

The life of your family,
of your close ones.

♪

Ringelblum:
Saturday, October 12, 1940 --

The loudspeaker announced

The division of the city
into three parts --

German...

Polish...

Jewish.

Black melancholy reigns
in our courtyard.

The polish owner of
the apartment house

Has lived here some 37 years
and now has to leave.

Gradually, a ghetto
is being established.

By the end of October,

Everyone has to move over
to the quarter assigned to them.

The streets are continuously
being filled

With newly arrived refugees.

There are 350,000 jews
living in warsaw in 1939,

One-third of the population.

And now with war,

Germans are dumping into warsaw
more and more jews

From the outlying areas,

Which makes for,
and finally,

Close to half
a million jews in warsaw.

The germans, in order
to really implement

The idea of a ghetto in warsaw,
you had to transfer poles out.

You had to transfer the jews in.

♪

If you are like ringelblum was,

In a fairly advantageous
situation,

You live already in an area
which became the ghetto,

So you don't have to move.

[ clock ticking ]

Ringelblum:
Saturday was terrible.

People in the street didn't know
it was to be a closed ghetto,

So it came like a thunderbolt.

A wave of evil rolled
over the whole city...

...As if in response
to a nod from above.

♪

♪

The ghettos closed...

And a new era begins.

♪

[ trolley bell dinging ]

A man, a visitor
to the other side,

Tells of the great difference.

The cafes are full of people...

[ indistinct conversations ]

...The streets, not overcrowded
as in the ghetto.

Those who read horoscopes
for the jews

Say they are bad.

Roskies: Emanuel ringelblum
understood

That he had a story to tell,

And it was the most
important story

He would ever have to tell,

But in order to do it justice,
he couldn't do it alone.

[ indistinct conversations ]

Wasser: Just eight days
after the ghetto was sealed,

Several of us met
with dr. Ringelblum

At his apartment
on 18 leszno street.

Kassow: Hersh wasser was
one of emanuel ringelblum's

Two executive secretaries.

He and ringelblum belonged
to the same political party --

The left labor zionists,
very marxist.

Roskies: Abraham lewin got
to know ringelblum

Because they taught
in the same school together.

Kassow: Like ringelblum,
he was also a historian.

Roskies: Ringelblum's greatness
was to bring together

Extraordinarily talented people

And to let each of them
do their thing as economists,

As journalists,
as artists, as statisticians.

Ringelblum:
The whole institution

Was dubbed oyneg shabes,

Which means
the joys of shabbat...

...For reasons of secrecy.

[ sighs ]

Kassow: At the beginning,
their basic goal was to collect

And to record
eyewitness accounts

And use the materials

To write the history of the war
from the jewish perspective.

The germans are sending
film crews into the ghetto

To show everybody how dirty
we are and how filthy we are.

They're telling the world that
we're the scum of the earth.

And unless we collect
our own documents,

Posterity will remember us
on the basis of german sources

And not jewish sources.

Will the germans
write our history,

Or will we write our history?

♪

♪

[ woman singing
in foreign language ]

♪

Auerbach: Ringelblum had sent me
to work in the kitchen

At 40 leszno street,

And the kitchen gave me
a unique observation point.

[ indistinct conversations ]

A kitchen was everything --

Life, the center,

The focal point of the problems
of the jews in the ghetto.

A great deal of tension
developed regarding

Who would work
in the kitchens

Because these workers
always had a bowl of soup.

The 100 kitchens in the ghetto
were the front line in the war

Against hunger...

For the crowds of refugees...

...For whom the soup
from the kitchen

Was their only food
of the day.

♪

♪

[ camera shutter clicking ]

Ringelblum: The war changed
jewish life very quickly.

No day was like the preceding.

Images succeeded one another
with cinematic speed.

Many jews make their living
outside the ghetto.

Now they're cut off from it.

There was an immediate shortage
of bread and other produce.

There's been a real orgy
of high prices ever since.

Grabowski: You could buy some
food on the black market,

But it was very,
very expensive.

A loaf of bread
cost an equivalent,

In today's dollars, $60.

What the jews can do
at that stage

Is basically to sell out
their accumulated wealth.

However, people who are brought
from outside of warsaw,

They are being given,
let's say, two hours,

And they can take
one little package each.

They are basically dumped
into warsaw ghetto.

So once they sell
their jackets, trousers

And their humble belongings,

They are basically left
to their own devices.

Kassow: The self-help provided
ideal cover

For the oyneg shabes archive,

And under this cover

Of gathering information
for welfare,

The oyneg shabes was able
to keep its secrecy

And, at the same time,
to employ all of its members.

The small salaries
that they got helped them

Keep their families alive.

Ringelblum: The refugees
related the history

Of their towns
to our co-workers,

Who later wrote it up.

♪

In the terrible overcrowding
of the ghetto,

The refugees live
in housing conditions

That simply cannot
be described.

♪

Sborow: The worst experience
was the night mommy died.

During the night,
I felt her cold and stiff,

But what could I do?

I laid close to her
until morning,

And then a neighbor helped me
carry her out of bed

And lay her on the floor.

Lewin: I live by the wall

That divides the ghetto
from the aryan side.

[ gunshots ]

[ woman screams ]

We could observe scores
of jewish children

Stealing over to the aryan side
to buy a few potatoes there.

Yesterday, a jewish boy was shot
dead in front of my window.

[ crying ]

The murder was committed
by a polish policeman.

Ringelblum:
Smuggling was done --

One, across the walls;

Two, at exit points;

Three,
through underground tunnels;

Four, through the sewers;

And, five, through holes
in houses

Bordering on the aryan side.

♪

If one had wanted really
to restrict one's self

To the official rations,

Then the entire population
of the ghetto

Would've died of hunger
in a very short time.

♪

Auerbach:
Last night, I ahead a dream.

I was walking down the street
with a tall gentleman.

And he walked me,
our arms linked.

[ conversing
in foreign language ]

This tad of manly tenderness

Echoed the longing, hunger,

Absence of two
manly arms sitting here.

Syzmaniak: In the ghetto,
rachel auerbach wasn't a member

Of the oyneg shabes group
from the very beginning.

She's a writer, but after 1939,
the bombarding and everything,

She's not able actually
to write something,

And she's trying but cannot.

Auerbach: I start to write
so many times,

And every time,
I just feel helpless.

It's apathy.

It's a low mood,

A hunch
that I will fail to describe

The reality
we are living in right now.

Again, a messenger
from ringelblum came to me.

I learn about the oyneg shabes.

Ringelblum is calling me
to join it.

Ringelblum kept sending one of
the secretaries of the archive

Just to push her
a little bit,

And, finally,
in the late summer 1941,

She starts writing.

Auerbach: Sometimes, I worry

That these terrible pictures
of the life

We are looking at every day
will die with us...

...Like pictures of a panic
on a sinking ship.

So let the witness
be our writing.

Ringelblum:
The jews started to write.

Everyone did --

Journalists,
authors, teachers...

...Even children.

Roskies: You're cut off
from the whole world.

You can't go to school.

You can't make a living.

So writing becomes
the only recourse

To feel a sense
of ownership of oneself.

Auerbach: Literary pieces and
reports from the ghetto streets,

Poetry, jokes and the songs
of beggars came flowing in.

The oyneg shabes
collected diaries --

Commissioned works
about refugees,

Illnesses, smuggling...

...About the situation
of the jewish child...

...The role of women

And about hunger.

♪

Ringelblum stayed in touch
with us

Through his executive
secretaries,

Who gave us notebooks
and stipends.

Wasser:
Each essay and each account,

The longest and the shortest,

Had to pass the critical eye
of dr. Ringelblum.

We have to understand
that the archive of oyneg shabes

Is one great act
of accusation

Against the german policy.

Any underground activity,

Any kind of collecting
of evidence of german crimes

Carried with it
the death penalty.

♪

[ door closes ]

Wasser: Even those
in the archives' confidence

Did not know who was in charge

Of the physical safeguarding
of the collections.

This was israel lichtenstein,

Who did not have any contact
with other archive workers.

Kassow:
Only israel lichtenstein,
hersh wasser

And emanuel ringelblum
knew where the documents were.

So if the gestapo arrested
a member of the oyneg shabes,

Even under torture,

They would not be able
to divulge the location.

Auerbach: More than 60 members
of the oyneg shabes

Collected artifacts...

Such as german pronouncements,

Official
and underground newspapers...

...Labels on ghetto goods,

White jewish ribbons

With the blue star of david.

They started to
collect documents

Which,
from the point of view of,

Let's say,
19th-century historians,

Would make no sense...

Simple proofs
of every day life and death.

Kirshenblatt-gimblett:
The model for it

Was the yivo institute
for jewish research,

Which had been established
in vilnius in 1925

To study the heritage
of east european jews.

There was a value placed
on ordinary people

And their experiences.

That way of working was
very inspiring

For ringelblum himself.

Kassow: Ringelblum was
absolutely dedicated

To the notion

That jewish history
is not the history of rabbis,

Not the history
of philosophers.

But it's the history
of the whole people.

Ringelblum passionately
loved the jewish masses,

And he passionately loved the
language of the jewish masses,

Which was yiddish.

[ piano playing ]

♪

[ woman singing
in foreign language ]

Wasser: Warsaw is filled
with the sound of music.

The belly is empty,
but the ears are full.

Places of entertainment
are prospering.

It began with the melody palace,
a modern european cabaret.

Today, there are many
more such places.

The high artistic standards
are a source of true delight.

Ringelblum: The watchword
of the organized groups

Of the jewish community

Was...To live with honor

And die with honor.

An expression of this
was the wide scope

Of the cultural work
which was undertaken.

A network of underground
schools,

A central library for children

And the theater were created.

[ children playing ]

When I enlisted the cooperation

Of historian
rabbi shimon huberband...

Gut shabbos.
Gut shabbos.

...The oyneg shabes acquired
one of its best co-workers.

He was a gentle soul.

Kassow: When the war began,

Huberband
lost his wife and child

In the german bombing.

So his personal life
was shattered

The first week of the war.

Gut shabbos.

Gut shabbos.

He collected material

On how religious jews
conducted themselves.

[ singing in hebrew ]

Huberband:
Questions of jewish law

Are almost never asked anymore,

Firstly,
because people tend to behave

Much more leniently
in times of war,

Find no need to consult
a rabbi.

Secondly, there's almost
nothing left to ask.

There's no ritual
slaughter of animals,

No chickens,
virtually no meat

Or milk among jews
in the ghetto.

On the other hand,

There have arisen
specific wartime questions

Concerning sitting shiva
for a murdered person,

Regarding burial.

[ singing in hebrew
continues ]

There are many stories,
and they're preserved

In the oyneg shabes archive

Of this struggle
of religious jews

To continue to be observant.

How to deal with passover,
for example,

Was an enormous struggle.

Do you starve
if you can't get matzo,

Or do you violate the rule
on passover of not eating bread?

In one family, the wife
refused to eat bread,

And the husband put bread aside,
so he wouldn't starve,

And they couldn't sit together
at the same table.

[ singing in hebrew
continues ]

[ all speak in hebrew ]

♪

Ringelblum: A terrifying, simply
monstrous impression is made

By the wailing of children
who beg for alms.

A couple of coins
I give them nightly

Cannot ease my conscience.

Kassow: The oyneg shabes archive
had a discussion

About what it means to walk
by dying people on the street.

Some people
in this discussion said,

"it shows how callous
we've become."

Another person said,

"no, it shows
how strong we've become."

If you're a parent,

And you're barely able to
feed your two kids,

The fact that you could walk
by dying people on the street

And even dying children shows
that you have made a decision

To do what you have to do
to enable your kids to survive.

[ trolley bell dings ]

Grabowski: In the first year
of the ghetto's existence,

Nearly 80,000 people died
of typhus and starvation.

Slowly, the previously
wealthy middle class

Will share the fate
of the poorest refugees.

♪

Ringelblum: Hundreds of polish
smugglers come into the ghetto

Through the guard post
by paying bribes.

Individuals not wearing armbands
were leniently treated.

The whole length of the street
has become a gigantic bazaar.

♪

Opoczynski: Jews, who until now
have lived off of savings

From before the war,

Had run out of money

And had started
to sell possessions --

Coats, clothing.

The only buyer now
was the poles.

♪

Wedding dresses
of jewish mothers,

Thrown out to the middle
of the night

From the homes they had lived
in their whole lives.

♪

How many wonderful memories
are bound up with every item?

♪

[ match strikes ]

Goldin: It is not yet 5:00,
and I am hungry.

Food, food, food!

The last portion of soup
yesterday, at 20 to 1:00.

The next will be today
at the same time.

How much longer to go?

Seven hours.

Very well then.

How does one get through
the seven hours?

Read?

Your brain won't take it in.

You turn the first page
and realize

You've understood no more
than the first sentence.

A few pages earlier, they were
eating in a restaurant.

No, no, don't read
about what they ate.

That's right, just as old people
skip descriptions of sex.

There is a gnawing
in my stomach.

If you only had a quarter
of a loaf now...

...A quarter of a loaf.

[ indistinct conversations ]

♪

Maybe it isn't nice to think
about one's self in this way,

Only about one's self.

It's not me thinking it.

It's my stomach.

It doesn't think.

It yells.

It provokes me.

"intellectual, where are you
with your theories,

With your dreams, your goals?

You educated imbecile,
answer me."

"why are you yelling like that?"

♪

♪

"because I, your stomach...

Am hungry."

Auerbach: The woman who handed
out the soups, helena,

With her true natural kindness,

Was a large part of home for me
in the newly inhospitable world.

She knew all the consumers,

Knew their interests
and troubles.

I recall a family of three
refugee sisters

Who had carried out from their
home a proper fine aluminum pot.

Every day, one of the sisters
came to get soup

For all three of them.

♪

♪

♪

About six months later,
the middle sister came

And told us her older sister
was sick.

♪

A while later, helena remarked
that waiting for the soup now

Was the third sister.

The second did not have
the strength to come.

And so,
one sister after another...

...Only the pot stayed the same.

♪

What is the use of all our work

If we can't save
even one person from hunger?

I have not managed it
through my work

With a single person...

Not one.

♪

Ringelblum: Rachel auerbach

Came to
the disheartening conclusion

That the jewish public kitchen

Never saved anybody
from starvation.

While one group found its place

In the mass graves
of the warsaw cemetery...

...A new wave of customers
arrived at the kitchen.

One is left
with the tragic dilemma,

"are we to dole out spoonfuls
to everyone..."

"...Or are we to give full
measure to a few

With only a handful
having enough to survive?"

Grabowski: On the one hand,
you have the soup kitchens

Feeding hundreds
of thousands of people,

But they cannot
feed them enough.

And that's where you can see
this huge frustration

When the dilemma is,

"who dies first?
Is it my family or your family?"

♪

Can we talk about ethics
at all on that stage?

Goldin: It's getting dark.

A round-bellied prostitute give
candies to two of her friends.

[ conversing
in foreign language ]

An operation.

We've never seen one before.

At the movies and a book, yes,

But in life, no.

They're operating on a child,
and in front is the mother.

But why, why save?

To what is the child
being brought back?

And suddenly, you remember
that dead jew

Whom you tripped over today.

Somewhere, years ago,
there was a mother

While cleaning his head,

Knew that her son
was the cleverest,

The most talented,
the most beautiful.

And now the brightest
and most beautiful child

In the world
lies in a strange street...

...And his name
isn't even known.

Each day, the profiles of
our children of our lives

Acquire the mourning look
of foxes, dingoes, kangaroos.

Our howls are like
the cry of jackals...

...But we are not animals.

We operate on our children.

The world is turning
upside down.

The planet melts in tears,

And I...

I am hungry.

♪

[ converses
in foreign language ]

Lewin: Every day, we receive
such terrible news

From the provinces.

Woman: In the middle
of the night, an order came.

We were to gather
in the market square.

Half-naked girls were forced
to dance with young men.

No one can describe
how a mother feels

When her daughter is
being tormented like this.

Threatened by bayonets,

The jewish boys raped
these girls

Who were their friends.

♪

Kassow: The oyneg shabes
are interviewing people

Who are giving them firsthand
accounts of mass shootings

In eastern poland.

[ woman speaking
foreign language ]

It's hard to believe.

Lewin: The strangest torments
and weirdest deaths,

Men, women and infants,

With no distinction made
between adults and children.

Will a remnant of us
jews survive?

Kassow: Meanwhile, postcards are
coming in to the warsaw ghetto.

People are waiting
to be deported.

♪

Then you get the reports
from chelmno.

An escapee described
the gassing of jews in chelmno.

This was
the first-ever description

Of the mass murder
of jews in a death camp.

So the killing is
to the east of warsaw

And to the west of warsaw.

♪

♪

Now the agenda of the archive

Changed to something
totally new and horrible --

The documentation
of mass murder,

The gathering of information
that might help prosecute

The killers
when the war was over.

Ringelblum:
For long, long months,

We've tormented ourselves
with the question,

Does the world know
about our suffering?

And if it knows,
why is it silent?

Everybody agreed that
the most important thing

Was to arouse the world

To the horror
of the organized extermination.

Kassow: The oyneg shabes put out
a clandestine bulletin.

The main message
of that bulletin

Was that the germans
were hell-bent

On the total murder
of the jewish population...

...And that surviving jews

Should not believe
anything different.

In using the channels
of the polish underground,

The oyneg shabes sent
four reports to london.

[ radio static ]

[ man singing
in foreign language ]

♪

[ static ]

Man: This is the bbc.

We will now broadcast
a special program

About the horrific
bestialities

That the nazi occupier
is perpetuating on the jews.

Exhaustive information
has reached london

To fully convey
the cruel, premeditated system

Through which
the jewish population

Is being executed
by the thousands.

According to the information
available now,

The germans have murdered

About 700,000 polish jews
in all.

These inhumane crimes
being committed

Against defenseless people

Call for fair
and severe punishment.

Ringelblum: Friday, June 26th

Has been a great day
for oyneg shabes.

This morning, the english
radio broadcast

About the fate of polish jewry.

We raised a cry to the world

With exact information about
the greatest crime in history...

♪

...And perhaps saved hundreds
of thousands of polish jews.

♪

We have struck the enemy
a hard blow,

And if England keeps its word,

Then perhaps
we shall be saved.

♪

Lewin:
Wednesday, July 22, 1942,

The day of turmoil,
chaos and fear.

The news about the expulsion
of jews

Is spreading like lightning
through the ghetto.

Jews are running as if insane.

Mothers and children wander
around like lost sheep.

Where is my child?

Kassow:
During the great deportation,

The germans ordered
the jewish police

To collect 5,000
to 7,000 jews every day.

The jewish police were told
that,

"if you don't, we'll deport you
and your family,"

And the jewish police
were turned into bloodhounds

In order to save
their own skin.

[ speaks foreign language ]

Sunday, July 26th,

The action continues,
shouts and screams.

Outside my windows,
they are checking papers

And arresting people.

They're seizing
an 8-year-old girl,

Prettily dressed.

She screams, "mommy!"

Those rounded up are divided up
into those fit to work,

Those able to survive and those
not fit to be transported.

The last group is killed
on the spot.

Grandmother
was killed by a single shot.

Kassow: The writings that were
written in real time

During the deportation

Are full of blazing anger,

Anger at other jews.

[ all yelling ]

Lewin: The savagery
of the jewish police

Against their unfortunate
victims.

They beat viciously.

They steal, and they loot
and pillage like bandits

In a forest.

Who has raised these bitter
fruits among us?

Kassow: This is one
of the major differences

Between the contemporaneous
writing that you find

In the ringelblum archive
and postwar writing.

After the war,
you would never find this.

Lewin:
Friday, July 31, 1942,

The 10th day of the slaughter

That has no parallel
in our history.

Kassow: Those 60 members
of the oyneg shabes

Quickly became 50, 40, 30.

Every day, somebody else
would be taken to the trains.

And during that terrible summer,
they decided that it was time

To bury everything that
they had collected so far.

There was no time to lose.

Auerbach: Wasser came to me late
in the afternoon

When one could move
on the streets.

He took from me the last
torn-out pages from my diary.

She gives her unfinished
works to the archives,

And then she goes on to hide.

They had a hideout
under the floor,

Hidden by a carpet and a table.

♪

[ knock on door ]

♪

♪

♪

Ringelblum: I do not know who
of our group will survive

To work through
our collected material.

But one thing is clear
to all of us...

...Our devotion
and constant terror...

...Our toils and tribulations...

Have not been in vain.

♪

♪

Lewin: Eclipse of the sun,

Universal blackness.

My wife, luba, was taken away
during the blockade

On 30 gesia street.

I'll have to go after her
to die,

To have no strength
to take such a step.

Our life together,
of over 21 years,

Has met with such
a tragic end.

Today is ora's 15th birthday.

What a black day in her life
and in my life.

Ora was talking in her sleep.

"mama, don't leave me."

The day the great deportation
began,

Abraham lewin changed
the language of his diary

From yiddish to hebrew.

Lewin may have realized
that his own story

Had now turned into
something eternal...

...Something that linked
his experience

To all of past
jewish history

And the language of
the eternal jewish past.

[ yelling and screaming
in background ]

♪

[ gunshots ]

[ dogs barking ]

♪

♪

Grzywacz: There's terrible
shooting going on in the street.

I just heard my parents'
building is surrounded.

I am going to run to my parents
and see if they are all right.

Remember, my name
is nahum grzywacz.

♪

Lichtenstein: I do not ask
for any praise.

I only wish to be remembered.

I wish my wife to be remembered,

The artist gele sekstein.

The past three years,
she worked with children

In the ghetto as a teacher.

She designed stage sets
and costumes

For the children's theater.

♪

My daughter, margalit,
is 20 months old today.

She has fully mastered yiddish
and speaks it perfectly.

I pity this lovely, little,
talented girl.

She, too, deserves
to be remembered.

♪

Garber:
We were not afraid of the risk.

What we were unable to cry
and shriek out to the world,

We buried in the ground.

I would love to live to see
the moment

In which the great treasure
will be dug up...

...And scream
the truth at the world.

Roskies: In six weeks,

The largest
jewish community in europe

Was shipped off in cattle cars
to treblinka,

Among them,

Most of the staff
of the oyneg shabes.

The ghetto was, essentially,
turned into a labor camp.

Only 60,000 people remained,

And they knew that their days
were numbered.

Szymaniak: After the great
deportation ended,

And it was safe to go out,

Rachel auerbach goes back
to work in the soup kitchen.

She's practically
the only person

Surviving out
of the kitchen staff.

♪

Auerbach:
I remember my first walk

After the great deportation.

At the beginning of autumn,

A peculiar fluttering
of strange snow.

♪

Every once in a while, the wind
picked up the white stuff.

And what it was,
was feathers let loose

From the bed quilts
of murdered people.

♪

Oh, the crying of things forever
abandoned by their owners...

...Becoming degraded
in strange hands,

By corpses not buried...

...Who have no one
to do right by them.

♪

He who has not seen the weeping
of dead things...

...He has not heard or seen,
in his life, any sad things.

[ man whistles ]

[ footsteps approaching ]

Auerbach:
Dr. Emanuel ringelblum

Crossed to the aryan side
of warsaw

In February.

He sat for almost nine months
in hiding place,

Deeply absorbed in the work
of his historic materials.

Grabowski: The bunker was
located under the greenhouses

Of a very courageous pole.

The nazis made it
very dangerous

For well-meaning poles
to hid their jewish neighbors.

And some who did were murdered
along with their families.

But there were also
polish blackmailers

Actively hunting for jews.

Ringelblum: Dear friends,
we write to you at a time

When 95% of the polish jews

Have already died in the gas
chambers of treblinka,

Sobibor, chelmno, auschwitz.

Tins of crates were collected

With extraordinarily
valuable documents.

A great deal was written,

But the overwhelming majority
of it

Was destroyed
in the deportations.

All that remained
of the materials

Preserved in the archives.

There has been no major event
in the life of the jews

That was not reflected in the
materials of the oyneg shabes.

And the life of every jew

During this war
is a world to itself.

♪

♪

Auerbach: With the help
of dr. Ringelblum,

I crossed to the aryan
side of warsaw.

♪

Ringelblum: Whomever you talk
to, you hear the same cry.

"you should've run out
into the street,

Set fire to everything in sight,

Torn down the walls
and escaped to the other side."

The germans would've
taken their revenge.

It would've cost tens
of thousands of lives

But not 300,000.

This must not be repeated now.

We must put up a resistance.

Kassow:
On the eve of passover 1943,

Emanuel ringelblum was,

Once again,
in the ghetto to meet

With a few surviving members
of the archive.

♪

The uprising
started the next day.

♪

[ gunfire ]

Ringelblum: The jews showed
the world that they could fight,

Weapon in hand,

That they know how to die
honorably in the battle

Against the deadly enemy
of the jewish nation

And all of humanity.

Grabowski:
The warsaw ghetto uprising

Was an act of despair
and courage,

And it really had
no military objectives.

It was a statement
that we will die fighting,

That we will not go quietly.

The uprising caught
the germans unawares.

In the face of mounting losses,

They started simply to burn down
the ghetto, block after block...

...Burning people alive,
all those who were hidden.

Took them four weeks to win
the battle

Against these largely
unarmed jews.

[ explosion ]

♪

♪

Szymaniak: Auerbach is there
in warsaw on the aryan side.

She has this non-jewish look,
and she speaks perfect polish,

So she can hide in the open.

She can see the ghetto burning.
She cannot cry.

She cannot show emotion,

But the smoke is there,
everywhere.

Auerbach: For four months,

We did not know
what happened to ringelblum

During the battles, fires
and mass executions.

Then in July, a postcard
came to a polish address

With the news
that he was in a labor camp.

The jewish underground
on the aryan side

Sent the polish train
employee...

[ man whistles ]

...Who had taken me
out of the ghetto.

[ footsteps approaching ]

♪

♪

♪

Ringelblum: Remember that our
workers were ever faithful

To the ideals of our culture
until their dying moments.

The flag of culture
and of struggle with barbarism,

Was clenched in their hands
until death.

[ footsteps ]

[ man speaking
in foreign language ]

Whether we shall have
the opportunity to meet

With you is doubtful.

We send our warmest greetings.

Dr. E. Ringelblum.

Auerbach:
A polish police unit

Dedicated to finding jews
in hiding

Betrayed a large bunker
to the nazis.

♪

♪

Dr. Emanuel ringelblum,
his wife, yehudit,

And their 12-year-old son, uri,

Were shot and killed
three days later

Along with the other jews
from the bunker

And the polish gardener
who had been hiding them.

We could not make peace
with this news,

Even until today.

♪

[ explosions ]

So passed one phase
after another.

Today, we know the end.

♪

♪

♪

♪

Should I regret that I did
not flee warsaw before the war?

Maybe I could've managed to save
some of most beloved,

Closest ones.

♪

The memories of those
who survived

Are often as hurt
and broken as their lives.

That is why the most
believable witness

Will the written word
from those years...

...Which is now under the ruins
of the warsaw ghetto.

Kassow: The warsaw ghetto
was just a heap of rubble.

It was hard to know
where a street had been,

Much less where
a building had been.

Luckily, they had prewar
aerial photographs.

Using the spire
of a catholic church,

They estimated where
the building would have been.

And that's where
they started digging.

Auerbach: A message came to me.

The foundation of the building
has now been reached.

Will it be possible to get
to the necessary place?

Will anything be found?

Maybe they found damaged tins

Strewn about
with half-rotten papers.

And maybe there's not
a shred left of what, for us,

Is a more important treasure
than all the money and gold

Hidden in the secret
places of the ghetto.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[ sighs ]

♪

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