Metadata: Papers of Artur Eisenbach. 1918-1992
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- +48 22 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 312/S/339/
- Title:
- Papers of Artur Eisenbach. 1918-1992
- Title (official language):
- Spuścizna Artura Eisenbacha. 1918-1992
- Creator/accumulator:
- Eisenbach, Artur
- Date(s):
- 1920/1992
- Language:
- Polish
- German
- Yiddish
- French
- Hebrew
- English
- Extent:
- 1 linear metre; 177 archival units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains:
I - ref. nos. 1-124: works by Artur Eisenbach:
- his own studies (archival units 1-32)
- reviews and polemics (archival units 33-36)
- transcripts of documents (archival units 37-56)
- workshop materials (archival units 57-124) - handwritten notes, index cards, indexes, excerpts from sources, excerpts from the press, on various topics, including:
a) History of Jews in Poland in the 17th-19th centuries (archival units 57-66)
b) Emanuel Ringelblum (Eisenbach's brother-in-law) (archival 67 - 68)
c) Antisemitism (archival units 69 - 70)
d) The Łódź Ghetto and the Warthegau (archival units 71 - 78)
e) 'Extermination' of Jews (archival units 79 - 110)
f) Trials of German criminals (archival units 111 - 119)
g) Reviews (archival units 120 - 121)
h) Press clippings (archival units 122-124) - extracts from the Jewish press from 1945-1946, press clippings on the history and contemporary situation of Jews.
II - ref. nos. 125-132 materials not directly related to A Eisenbach's academic work, but concerning activity in the Jewish Historical Institute and the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), membership in the Polish communist party (PZPR), etc.
III - ref. nos. 133-138: biographical materials - personal documents: membership cards (including the Union of Polish Patriots, the Union of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland, the Central Committee of Jews in Poland, the Jewish Cultural Society), passes, doctoral diploma (original and 2 duplicates), journal of vacation in Sopot, medical examination results, bank documents. State awards granted to A Eisenbach: Golden Cross of Merit, Polonia Restituta, Medal of the 10th anniversary of People's Poland, Jubilee Medal of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
IV - ref. nos. 139-144 official and private correspondence - Invitations, conference programs, book purchase offers, with the editors of Polski Słownik Biograficzny (Polish Biographical Lexicon), Europa Konyvkiado publishing house in Budapest regarding the publication of the Kronika getta warszawskiego (Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto) by E. Ringelblum, the Institute of Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin Academic Society, Radom Academic Society, the Social Committee for the Care of Jewish Cemeteries and Monuments in Poland, the Association of Authors (ZaiKS), the Department of History and Culture of Jews in Poland of the Jagiellonian University, the publishing house "Czytelnik", Antony Polonsky and others.
V - ref. nos. 145-152- family materials - personal documents and decorations of Maria Czarniewicz, Eisenbach's second wife; collection of event and portrait photographs, including pre-war photographs (archival units 145-152).
VI - ref. nos. 153-175 materials from strangers - mainly articles and descriptions of research projects, probably sent for commentary and review.
VII - ref. nos. 176-177 - Miscellaneous.
- Archival history:
-
There is no information as to when Artur Eisenbach's papers were transferred to the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute. Notes relating to the works written when A Eisenbach worked at the Jewish Historical Institute could have simply remained there, but a large part of the collection consists of materials concerning works written at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, personal documents, documents of his second wife, Maria Czarniewicz, and family photographs that were handed over – most likely – by Eisenbach himself before leaving for Israel. Some folders were given working titles and some even labeled.
The papers contain many original documents from the Łódź ghetto as well as numerous transcripts. They were separated and transferred to the Collection of materials on the history of the Jewish population in Łódź 1939-1944 (collection 205).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Arthur (Aron) Eisenbach (1906-1992) was a historian. He was a member of the Left Poalei Tziyon party as of 1920. In 1923 he began a teaching course in Vilna and he cooperated with YIVO. He studied history at the Jagiellonian University and the University of Warsaw, where he obtained his diploma in 1935. Prof. M. Handelsman was his doctoral dissertation advisor. Before the war broke out, he was the head of the Society for Health Care (TOZ) statistical office. In 1931, he married Giza, the sister of Emanuel Ringelblum (she died in Buczacz, probably in 1942). During World War II, he lived in Saratov and Almaty. After his return in 1946, he worked at the Central Jewish Historical Commission (CŻKH) and at the Jewish Historical Institute as the head of the archives and at the same time a researcher, and then in the years 1966-1968 as director. He belonged to the Union of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland. His first publication on the history of the Holocaust appeared as early as 1946: a selection of sources for research on the Łódź ghetto (volume III of the Central Jewish Historical Commission series Dokumenty i materiały do dziejów okupacji niemieckiej w Polsce) (Documents and materials on the history of German occupation in Poland). In the early post-war years, he published several articles about the Holocaust of the Łódź ghetto and the ghettos in Warthegau, both in scientific journals (Bleter far Geshikhte, Biuletyn ŻIH) and in the daily press (Dos Naye Lebn, Nasze Słowo). He edited and published Kronika getta warszawskiego by E Ringelblum and Stosunki polsko-żydowskie w czasie drugiej wojny światowej (Polish-Jewish relations during WWII) by the same.
He also appeared as an expert in the trials of German war criminals Hans Biebow (1947), Erich Czarnulla and Franz Seifert (1947), Josef Bühler (1948), Jürgen Stroop and Franz Konrad (1951), as well as in the trial of Michał Weichert. In 1966 he was awarded the title of professor and started working at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He specialised in researching the history of Jews in Poland in the second half of the 18th and 19th centuries. His most important works on this subject are: Kwestia równouprawnienia Żydów z Królestwie Polskim (On the equality of rights of the Jews in the Kingdom of Poland) and Emancypacja Żydów na ziemiach polskich 1785-1870 (Emancipation of the Jews on the Polish lands 1785-1870). In 1988 he moved to Israel, where he committed suicide in 1992.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Ringelblum, Emanuel
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Historical research
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Ghettos
- War crimes
- Finding aids:
- A digital catalogue is available in the reading room of the Jewish Historical Institute.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; March 2018