Jewish Historical Institute holds the greatest collection of Jewish-related archival documents, books and museum objects in Poland.
Its most valued treasure is the Undergound Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto, Ringelblum Archives.
The collection of books, oldprints, manuscripts and journals amounts to 70,000 volumes, half of them in Yiddish and Hebrew. Its historical core, consisting of the remains of the Main Judaic Library, the Library of the Breslau Theological Seminar, and numerous public Jewish libraries, has been continuously expanded with new publications.
The most beautiful works of art are displayed at the galleries of Jewish art (both religious and secular, such as paintings and sculptures). ZIH museum holds a major collection of ritual objects, including a unique set of ritual textiles: parochets, Torah mantles, matzatashes, and doilies. There is no way to assess value of historical objects of daily use, often personal mementos of Jewish life and the destruction.
Materials and studies concerning Jewish sites in Poland are gathered at the Historical Monuments Documentation Center. The collection of photographs, whose number amounts to thousands of pictures, inlcudes historical 19th andd 20th c.pieces and current records of the sites.