Day 8: Who will write YOUR story?

Do you journal or keep a diary?

When I was a young mother journaling saved my life. It was where I poured out all my fears, prayers, and frustrations. I often felt lost and confused in the world of motherhood. If I were to reflect now on my experiences as a young mother then, my writing would be different and my memory not so sharp. Nonetheless, it would still be meaningful.

Today, we visited the Jewish Historical Institute where the Oyneg Shabes Archives are located. It was a secret code named for the group in the Warsaw Ghetto whose purpose was to document the plight of the Jews under German occupation. Under the leadership of Emanuel Ringelblum, from 1940-1943 members interviewed people, compiled testimonies, photographs, artwork, examples of German propaganda, memoirs, anything that revealed daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto. They engaged in a clever, sophisticated, and brave form of resistance. It was a super clandestine operation. On August 3, 1942 the archives were buried and only 3 of the members knew where they were located. Ringelblum was a trained historian who knew the difference between real time testimony and survivor testimony. Participants suspected they would not live to see liberation, but were motivated by the mission to write their own history.

After the war, only ONE of the three members who knew where the archives were located, survived. Using prewar maps, a team went back to the Warsaw Ghetto and unearthed two of the three caches. I stood on that ground today. I saw those archives! AMAZING!

Professor Kassow wrote the book, Who Will Write Our History?, which was also made into a docudrama by the same title. To be at the Jewish Historical Institute and see one of the two surviving milk cans and the archive which comprises some 35,000 pages was more than I could bear. I completely came undone.

My beloved Dad, Dr. Andres Torres, wrote his memoir, Signing in Puerto Rican, which chronicles his experiences as a Puerto Rican raised by deaf and mute parents. Sometimes our parents don’t share as much about their upbringing because it’s too painful to share. Friends, talk to your living relatives and if they are willing to share, learn their story. It might be messy and uncomfortable, but so worth it.

Go and write your story for the next generation!

Jewish Historical Institute. Miraculously survived during the war.

"What We've Been Unable to Shout Out to the World"

Emanuel Ringelblum. A true hero and visionary.

One of the two milk cans contains hundreds of archives. Could not stop crying.

Rachela Auerbach worked with Ringelblum and was
one of the few members who survived and was able to see the archive after it was discovered.

Heartbreaking testimony

A Mother’s drawing of her baby girl. Heartbreaking.

You tap on each area and a digital story of the person can be read.

Bluma Wasser. Another amazing hero.

Table with the names of all the members of the Oyneg Shabes

Street where one can see three existing parts of the Ghetto Wall in Warsaw.

A marker along the street where the original Ghetto gate once stood. 

If you can read the lettering you are outside the ghetto.

Touching the first wall of the ghetto. Unbelievable.

Second wall of the Ghetto.

Third wall. To think this is part of existing housing.