Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive

Appendix C. Guidelines for a Study of the Jewish Shtetl

396 The Life and Appearance of the Shtetl Just Before the Outbreak of the War • Polish-Jewish relations • Polish-German relations • Reporting in the local press The Beginning of the War and the Situation in the Shtetl Before “They” Arrive • Events in the first days after the outbreak of the war • Facts and descriptions of special interest • Bombardments, fires • Casualties of military action • Communal life • Attitudes of Poles toward Jews • Fleeing. (Dos loyfn). Who gave the signal? Who ran? The attitude of the peasants toward those who fled • How many returned? • How many remained in the shtetl, and why? • Which classes and age groups fled? • List of victims (kedoyshim) of the military operations • Battles around and within the shtetl The Arrival of “Them” [the Germans] • The first days after their arrival • Their attitude toward Poles and Jews Guidelines for a Study of the Jewish Shtetl (AR I, no. 155) appendix C Guidelines for a Study of the Jewish Shtetl 397 • Jewish loss of legal rights • Arson, attacks on Jews • The attitude of the Polish population • What happened with the main synagogue, prayer houses, societies (hevres), the cemetery, chronicles (pinkesim), religious objects (tora scrolls, religious books), the rabbi • Jewish markings [armbands or star]: shape, inscriptions, when introduced? • Beards, Jewish traditional dress • Tribute (kontributsie): how did it happen? • Synagogues and prayer houses, burning synagogues (with or without Jews inside) • Public burning of books • Roundups for forced labor • Deportation to concentration camps: who, how, why? • Examples of martyrdom (Kiddush Hashem) and self-sacrifice (mesires nefesh) • List of martyrs killed by “them” • Incidents of resistance (kegnvirkungs aktn) Public Jewish life under “Them” [the Germans] • Ghetto: open or closed? • Judenrat and its makeup • New strongmen (tkifim), communal leaders and their actions • Jewish police: composition and powers. How did they wield their power? • Legal status of the Judenrat. Documents. Daily functioning • How did the Judenrat get its revenue? What were its expenditures? • What did the kehille give to “them”? • What did “they” take from the Jews? • How did Jews try to influence “them”? • Labor duty . . . • Labor camps: their organization and how they took Jewish workers • Jewish work. How did “they” related to it? • Jewish artisans working for “them” • Jewish women working for “them.” How were they treated? Pretty women, ugly women • Brothels for “them” • Jewish social aid and “their” reaction to it: soup kitchens, refugees from the immediate vicinity, refugee shelters 398 Appendix C • Aspects of help for the poor: permanent help, special drives for Passover and the holidays, help in winter, medical help, legal advice, help from abroad • Schools, religious schools • How “they” acted to Jews: to workers, wealthy Jews, merchants, artisans, religious figures, etc. • Religious life: prayer quorums, prayer houses, Hasidic life, the Sabbath, the third meal of the Sabbath, Melave Malkes (ceremony of ushering out the Sabbath), . . . Sukkot, citrons, holidays • Special days • Informers and thugs (voyle yungn) • What happened to the local shtetl intelligentsia? • New converts and their attitude toward Jews • The condition and the attitude of German (Jewish) refugees to the shtetl Jews The Economic Situation • Bourgeoisie, industry, handicrafts, workers, petty trade, businesses, trade now, new forms, new materials, joint ventures with “them.” Smuggling: what form did it take? • The newly rich. How did they make their fortune? Names of the newly rich • What happened to the prewar rich and to their fortunes? The Expulsion (give date) • Rumors about the expulsion (planned or sudden) • How many were expelled? • The process of the expulsion. Where to? • The population: the elderly, youth, children • Kindnesses and cruelty from “them” • The attitude of the Poles • What happened to the insane and to the patients in the hospital? • What was the approximate value of the lost Jewish wealth? • Arrival in Warsaw and the reception (First aid, life in the refugee shelter, etc.) Political , Labor, and Other Organizations • How many members did the organization have before the war? • What happened to the members at the beginning of the war: mobilized, left the shtetl, etc. Guidelines for a Study of the Jewish Shtetl 399 • What happened to the local party archive, flag, library, Jewish school, party seal, etc. • Interesting episodes in the life of the organization during the (Polish-German) war and in the first days of the occupation • How many members fled to the Soviet zone (oyf yener zayt) and what happened to them? • A list—as detailed as possible—of party martyrs. Under what circumstances were they killed? Did they receive a Jewish burial? • What...