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Secret Archive of Warsaw Ghetto Will be Topic of Talk at Ramapo College

(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)March 12, 2009

MAHWAH – Dr. Robert Shapiro, an associate professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, will speak at Ramapo College of New Jersey this month.  The topic of his presentation will be “Underground History:  The Clandestine Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, 1939-1943.”  The presentation is free and open to the public.

Shapiro will relate how the archive was retrieved after World War II from metal boxes and milk cans buried beneath the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto.  Clandestinely compiled between 1940 and 1942 under the leadership of historian Emanuel Ringelblum, the Oyneg Shabes-Ringelblum Archive creates a documentary record of the wartime fate of the daily lives, struggles and sufferings of the Jews of Poland.  Conscious of the momentous events unfolding and conscious of their mortality, Ringelblum and his associates dedicated themselves to leaving behind a record of the tragedy that had befallen them and their people.

Born in Germany to Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, Shapiro was raised and educated in New Jersey and Maryland.  He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and completed his doctorate in Jewish History at Columbia University while holding fellowships at the Max Weinreich Center of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.   His books include “Holocaust Chronicles,” “Why Didn’t the Press Shout” and “Lodz Ghetto: A History.”

With Tadeusz Epstein, he recently completed editing The Warsaw Ghetto Oyneg Shabes-Ringelblum Archive, of which he also the translator.  It will be published by Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw.

The presentation will be held Tuesday, March 25 at 1 p.m. in SC-217 of the Robert A. Scott Student Center.  For more information or to reserve a seat, please call 201.684.7409.

The talk will be sponsored by Ramapo College’s Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and The History Club.

For media inquiries, contact Anna Farneski, assistant vice president, Marketing and Communications, 201.684.6844.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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