“To reconstruct this period of martyrdom and heroism”: The Jewish Historical Institute and the Ringelblum Archive, 1946–1989

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the years 1946–1989, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny; ŻIH) was forced to navigate between conflicting imperatives – on the one hand, safeguarding the memory of Polish Jews by means of extensive documentation of the scope and devastating outcome of the Holocaust; and, on the other, adhering to the official Polish historical narrative and constraints imposed by the Communist regime. This article examines the varying ways in which research connected with the Ringelblum Archive was carried out during this period, and how this mirrored the changing situation of the Jewish community in postwar Poland. For many, the institute's work of cataloging and publishing documents from the archive served as a proof of the continuity of Jewish life in Poland.