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http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/czechguide.html
- latest update 10/11/2001
I. Introduction
By finding this page, you have already made an important step toward learning
how to research your Jewish ancestors in the lands of what is now the Czech
Republic, but before 1918 were the Habsburg lands of Bohemia and Moravia
in Austria-Hungary. Our sponsor, JewishGen's Bohemia-Moravia Special
Interest Group, through its web site and mailing list with over 400 amateur
and professional Jewish genealogist, is the best source outside the Czech
republic for information on your ancestry. I strongly encourage you
to subscribe (for free) to the mailing
list and post your research queries to the group. Also take the
time to explore the rest of the Austria-Czech
web site, and especially GemeindeView,
The Web Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities In Bohemia and Moravia.
II. A Very Brief History
There are records of Jews living in Bohemia and Moravia for almost 1,000
years. As in most places in Europe, Jews were subject to various
discriminatory decrees, pogroms and expulsions, but until World War II
the Jewish presence was always substantial. At one time, Jews made
up over 20% of the population of Prague, the largest city in the Czech
Republic. In 1724, the first census of all Jews in the Czech lands
was carried out. Approximately 30,000 Jews inhabited 168 towns and
672 villages in Bohemia and approximately 20,000 lived in Moravia, while
2,335 Jewish families (approximately 10,500 Jews) were registered in Prague.
III. Book of Jewish Familianten In 1726, due the order of the Habsburg ruler Charles VI, the number of Jewish families was limited by quota to 8,541 in Bohemia and 5,106 in Moravia. To enforce this quota (or "numerus clausus"), a so-called "Familianten" order was issued. According to this order, only the first-born son of each Jewish family was given permission to marry (called a "copulatio consensus"). The permits could also be sold if there were no son to inherit them. The Familianten order was in force until 1848. As a result, many Jews who could not obtain marriage permits emigrated from Bohemia and Moravia. For example, by 1900 almost half of the Jews in Hungary were of Bohemian or Moravian descent. One other result of the Familianten laws was that the government kept very good records of which families lived in which towns. The list of Familianten were collected in the Book of Jewish Familianten (also called "Mannschaftsbuecher" in Moravia). Records were collected in 1799 and in 1811 and updated until about 1830. Each record comprised the name of county, registration number of the family in the whole land (based on "copulatio consensus"), the registration number of family in the county (set up in 1725), name of the father, his wife, his sons and a few other family details. These records provide a very good resource for researchers investigating their family histories. For some families, up to three generations are included. See an example for Löwy Wölfner from Praschno Aujezd in Western Bohemia. The Familianten record books for Bohemia can be accessed at the Czech State Archives. (See IX.C.) For Moravia, the surviving books are not collected in one place, but are available from the various regional archives, such as in Brno or Olomouc, or in the Czech State Archives or the Jewish Museum in Prague. An index of all Bohemian towns with Familianten records in the Czech State Archives is available at http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/familianten.html. Julius
Müller is working on an index of all persons mentioned in the Familianten
Books. You can access his site at http://www.toledot.org/kraje.html.
IV. Birth, Marriage and Death Record Books In 1784, a patent of Joseph II. was issued to replace rabbinate circumcision/birth books by standard record books similar to Catholic parish books. The birth records, marriage records and death records were collected at district rabbinates. Local rabbis, mohels or school teachers were ordered to collect those data. See an example from Novy Jicin. To verify the accuracy of such records, duplicates (control records) were kept by local Catholic priests. In fact, Catholic priests often only copied the records which were already collected at district rabbinates. See an example of a duplicate record from Novy Jicin. Only rarely were Jewish births, deaths or marriages recorded directly in the Catholic parish register book. One such exceptional example exists for Zbyslaw. During
WWII, the Nazis ordered that all the records be gathered together in Prague.
At the very end of the war, many valuable documents were damaged.
After WWII, most of the surviving Jewish record books, as well as the Catholic
parish control records, were collected and deposited at the State Archives
in Prague (See IX.C.). An
index of all the communities with surviving Jewish birth, death and marriage
records, as well as their archival locations, are available from The
Gundacker List .
V. Tax Records Family documentation can be enriched by the records of different taxation duties. Requests of marriage permission called "inkolate" were associated with a duty to pay "inkolate" taxation. Submitted requests, evidence of all taxation duties, and other several documents of Jewish communities were collected by Committee for Jewish Agenda (Commissio in rebus Judaeorum). The committee was established by Czech Vice-Regency and Czech Chamber by Charles VI´s prescript in January 1, 1714. Its original intention was to prepare for a drastic restriction of the Jewish population in Czech lands, primarily in Prague. The plan was elaborated in 1715, but it was not never practiced due to the resistance of both Jewish and non-Jewish circles. The activity of the committee was reduced to gathering several documents, requests etc. The committee ceased its activity due to the order of Josef II in February 15, 1782. The documents which depict the life of Jewish communities in the period 1714-1782 are collected as Committee for Jewish Agenda documents and are available at the Czech State Archives in Prague. (See IX.C.)
In 1808, all old taxation duties were discharged, while three others were
re-established -- family tax, property tax and food tax. The corporation,
"K.K. Direktion des Judischen Steuerefalls", was in charge of collecting
these taxes. The documents of "Jewish Taxation Headquarters" are
available as a separate collection at the Czech State Archives. (See
IX.C.)
VI. The Registers of Jews
The Jewish population was registered several times both for the measures
of restrictive population policy and for tax measures. Two campaigns
were performed by the Committee for Jewish Agenda, and one by the Czech
Gubernium (regional districts). The registers are comprised of a
list of the fathers, their wives and all children including girls.
See an example from 1793 for Straz
nad Nezarkou. The registers are located at the Czech State Archives.
(See IX.C.)
VII. Judaica
Mappach (wimples) are a special type of Torah binder used from around 1600
in the German-speaking parts of Europe. A strip of cloth torn from
a newborn baby's blanket was used to inscribe a child's name and date of
birth and a standard prayer. A few of these have survived and are
housed in the Jewish Museum of Prague. (See IX.B.)
VIII. Books on Czech Jewish History There are a great number of books written on Bohemian and Moravian Jewry, although not all of them will contain useful genealogical information. The best way to begin your research is to go to your nearest university library and browse the sections that contain books on Czech Jews. At http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/books.html is a list of some of these books, located using the University of California's on-line catalogue, The California Digital Library, at http://www.cdlib.org. Most of the books are written in English, German, Czech or Hebrew. If you are looking to purchase an excellent book in English on the Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia, we highly recommend Jewish sights of Bohemia and Moravia : guide book by Jirí Fiedler with an introduction by Arno Parík. (Prague: Sefer, 1991. 224 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.) It is available from Amazon.com for just $12.95 plus shipping.
The best books by far on Bohemian and Moravian Jewry were compiled by Hugo
Gold in the decade prior to the Nazi invasion and destruction of these
centuries-old Jewish communitites. These books are written primarily
in German and Czech, and are often very difficult to locate. They
contain detailed essays on a large number of Jewish communities and often
contain a wealth of useful genealogical and historical information.
Contributions to JewishGenerosity
support our efforts to translate the articles in these books and make them
available from Austria-Czech SIG's
GemeindeView page. For more information on this project, or to
request a copy of an article in one of Hugo Goldís books, please contact
.
IX. Resource Locations A. Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic The Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic maintains most of the Jewish cemeteries and synagogues in the Czech Republic. It also owns and operates the Jewish Museum of Prague. B. Jewish Museum of PragueFederation of the Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic The Jewish Museum in Prague has a large collection of Jewish records going back well into the 18th and in some cases into the 17th century. In JUDAICA BOHEMIAE Vol. VII , Jan Herman published under the title ėThe Jewish Community Archives from Bohemia and Moraviaî a detailed description of these holdings. This important publication is available in larger Jewish and University libraries and is described in great detail in the article by Henry Wellisch. The address and contact information for the Jewish Museum of Prague is C. Czech State ArchivesJewish Museum of Prague The birth, death and marriage records of the former Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as the Catholic parish duplicates, are located at the Czech State Archives in Prague. These records are in German, and are usually in old gothic script, making it difficult for most people to take advantage of these fabulous resources. There is a catalogue of the archival holdings organized by town name. Reviewing the records takes at least two days if you have not arranged your visit ahead of time. On the first day, you request retrieval of the record books and then must return the next day to actually review the records. The staff will make copies or microfilm for a modest fee. The Czech archives also will conduct basic genealogical research for $10-$14 per hour plus administrative fees and copying costs. Translations are available for $5 per page. Contact: D. Regional Archives:PhDr. Lenka Matusikova The addresses of all of the Czech archives - Central, District, County and City and their branches - are listed on the following website:
Terezín, known in German as Theresienstadt, was the ėmodel ghettoî established by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. 139,517 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, Slovakia, and Hungary were deported to Terezín Ghetto. 33,521 of them died there and 87,063 of them were taken to the eastern death camps, such as Treblinka, Maly Trostinec and Auschwitz-Berikenau. Due to Nazi record-keeping, an almost complete lists of people and their transport numbers has been collected and the lists then remained in the Terezín Ghetto History Department. The recent document Terezinska pametni kniha (Memorial Book of Terezin) collects in strict hearttearing form the names of each of 73,608 Jews (in a form of "entry") from Bohemia and Moravia. The large book was issued in 1995 by Terezinska iniciativa and Melantrich Publ. There is a complete list of transports to and from Terezin Ghetto in two volumes - written in Czech. In the case of Jews from Bohemia and Moravia, there is a complete name index, date of birth, date of their arrival to Terezin, the date and the code of their next deportation, the date and the place of their death, and possibly an indication whether he or she survived. Jews of other countries who were detained in Terezin can be looked for by name directly in Museum History Department in Terezin. The document helps to identify the transport record which included the date of birth and pre-war addresses. The list will be supplemented soon by the names of detainees of other nations. The document also contains a names of those very few who survived in Terezín or in other locations. Terezín Memorial
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