The second module of the Virtual Museum is comprised of the Jewish Underground Resistance Collection, 1929-1945, compiled by David Diamant. David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich. He was born 18 March 1903 in Hrubieszow, Poland, and emigrated to France in the 1920s where he remained for the rest of his life. A Jewish communist, Diamant was a committed member of the underground resistance during World War II; on more than one occasion he was offered safe passage to England but chose instead to remain in France. After the war he worked initially with the UJRE (l'Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et l'Entraide) and devoted himself to documenting the Jewish resistance by collecting original documents and writing and publishing extensively on the subject. Diamant died in Paris on 24 August 1994. The Collection consists of original documents collected by David Diamant over a period of approximately 30 years dealing primarily with the Jewish segment of the French underground resistance; many of the documents originate with communist groups, and some deal with Polish groups. Most of the documents are in French, while some are in Yiddish.

The David Diamant collection is available online to McMaster students, faculty, and staff on the Archives Unbound site from Gale Publishing. The original documents are available for research and study by all in the Library's William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections. A full list of items in the collection can be found in the finding aid.