This is one of three milk cans in which Emannuel Ringelblum saved the "oneg Shabbat" archives.  This was an underground operation chronicling the history of the Warsaw Ghetto.  Also included were postcards received in the ghetto, notes written at the gathering point for persons being deported, as well as posters produced and hung in the ghetto.  It was one of three milk cans (only two have been discovered) and ten containers buried beneath the ghetto in the spring of 1943 before the Warsaw ghetto uprising.  The can was unearthed in 1950.  This artifact is currently on loan to the museum from the State Museum of Auschwitz, Oswiecim, Poland; State Museum of Majdanek, Lublin, Poland.

Relationship to guideline

Teachers should encourage students to practice distinguishing between types of evidence and to analyze their sources carefully.  By examining the story of the milkcan, students have the opportunity to analyze the special issues surrounding the analysis of these documents that were written for a particular purpose under very unique circumstances.