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The Warsaw Ghetto Death Cards collection at the Jewish Historical
Institute, Warsaw (JHI), provides a remarkable view into the lives and
deaths of almost 10,000 individuals, mostly Jews. While their origins
are clouded in mystery, and it is uncertain how they ended up in the
JHI, historians and archivists have concluded that the Death Cards
were likely found in the ruins of the Mayoral Office that was
virtually destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising.
The collection of 9,924
cards are mostly from 1941, with the rest from 1939. Fire and the
fading of the script through aging makes it difficult to read many of
the cards and decipher the information. Sometimes, the writing style
creates a problem. Nonetheless, great efforts have been made to
extract and record every piece of information on each card.
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 Example of Warsaw Ghetto Death
Card. Click the image for a larger view.
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The cards
were usually filled by two individuals: (1) a doctor who recorded the
last and first name, date of death, and sex of the deceased. On the
reverse side, he wrote the cause of death (in Polish or Latin), signed
his name and put an official stamp; (2) a clerk, who - depending on
available information - filled the balance of the card - including
first names of parents, birth dates (usually the year only),
denomination, address, marital status, and occupation. In the category
"citizenship," the clerk entered numbers, the meaning of
which is not known. Information for children noted if they were born
to their parents or outside the marriage. Occasionally, dates of
hospitalizations were given. In some cases, he would describe living
conditions of the deceased, date of marriage, and the spouse's age.
Sometimes, this part of the card was filled by a relative.
In one
case, the collection contains two cards for the same individual, each
filled independently by a different physician. Under the doctor's
signature it is noted that the deceased female was of Moslem faith.
In
general, the death cards from 1939 contain little information: the
last name, date of burial (considered the date of death), place of
residence, approximate age, and sometimes the cause of death (usually,
war casualty). Similarly, a few categories are filled for persons,
whose names were unknown and whose cards are designated as NN in a
separate group. This group also contains cards, which because of
damage (burns; some other physical imperfection; fading; difficult
writing style) made it impossible to decipher the last name or a part
of the name of the deceased (in such cases at the beginning or the end
of the name the symbol (e) was placed to indicate physical damage).
When the first name could be established - even when the last two
letters were missing - such as in Ruchla - the symbol (e) was used to
indicate that the card was damaged. Other symbols on the
database are as follows:
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a |
no data given |
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b |
damaged by fire |
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c |
difficult handwriting |
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d |
pencil faded handwriting |
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f |
unclear registration |
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g |
conservator’s remark |
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h |
card consists of information originally given
on 2 cards |
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? +/- |
(about) this year; probably |
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„C” |
daughter (written by doctors, clerks) |
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„S” |
son (written by doctors, clerks) |
Those who died in the Warsaw
ghetto in 1941 usually came from the poorest segments of the Jewish
community as witnessed by their occupations, porter, peddler, laborer
or domestic. The profession of women is often stated as a housewife
and in the case of older persons as a dependent. Many were residents
of refugee centers and homeless shelters. The most common causes of
death were inanito (deprivation) with the phrase "of hunger"
added. Most children died of colitis. Many people died of heart
disease such as myocarditis (degeneratio musculi cordis),
cardiomyopathy (adynamia musculi cordis), and CHF (insufficienta
musculi cordis). A cause of death translation list has been
compiled by Dr. Kris Murawski. An Excel version can be
downloaded by clicking here.
It is best to use a Polish font to read the list.
The restoration and preservation of the card
collection, mostly by hot lamination, was completed between 1995 and
1997. The work was carried out by the Paper Conservation Department at
the Jewish Historical Institute at an estimated cost of $10,000.
Jewish
Records Indexing - Poland funded the data entry of the information
from the cards. The work was completed in September 2002.
Surnames
There are more than 5,500 different surnames in the
database.
Click here for a list of all
surnames extracted from the Warsaw
Ghetto List. Please also search
the database for more data from the
death cards.
In many cases the town of birth is also listed. There were over 400
different towns listed which can be found in current day Poland,
Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus.
Click here for a list of all
towns extracted from the Warsaw
Ghetto List.
Accessing the Data
All information
recorded on the Death Card has been documented on the database. There
is no further information that can be provided by the Jewish
Historical Institute. The fundraising target for this initiative was $3,000.
JRI-Poland would like to thank the Conference
on Material Claims Against Germany and JGS, Inc (NY) for their
support of this worthy project.
For copies of the Death cards, please
contact
The
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Genealogy
Project at the Jewish Historical
Institute
of
Poland, ul. Tlomackie 3/5, 00-090
Warsaw
,
Poland
For further information, please contact Warsaw Ghetto Death Project
Coordinator Hadassah Lipsius.
Return to JHI project page. |