Czech Archival Sources on the
History of the Jews in the Czech Lands
Lenka Matusikova
Czech National Archives, First
Department
M. Horakove 133, 166 21 Prague
6
Czech Republic
E-mail: lenka.matusikova@nacr.cz
Ladies and gentlemen,
I
would like to begin by thanking you for the invitation to come and speak to you
today about Czech Archival Sources on the History of the Jews in the Czech
Lands. In this lecture, I will be explaining the origins of registers of Jewish
vital events (births, marriages, and deaths), and the ways in which they can be
exploited by genealogical researchers. I will also discuss the types of
archival records available at each level of the Czech archive system, focussing
on those records that are of particular interest for Jewish genealogy. Later I
will use some actual archival sources to give you a brief concrete
demonstration of the kind of results one can get. At the end of my lecture, I
will introduce you a big research project called ÒBohemia, Moravia et Silesia
JudaicaÓ, which seeks to bring together our knowledge about the Jews of
Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia – all, at one time or another, part of the
Czech Lands.
The
political and social changes that took place in the Czech Republic after
November 1989 opened up access to archives and documents, not only to
professional historians interested in the history of the Jewish population in
the Czech Lands, but also to ordinary people of Jewish origin looking for their
own roots. For many such individuals, their interest in genealogical research
was spurred by the new, post-1989 Czech laws concerning restitution of property
and indemnification of victims of racial persecution in World War II. For many
people, applying for a relativeÕs property or for financial indemnification has
meant going back and opening a door to memories of hardship, sorrow, and
bereavement. Others began their genealogical research under the stimulus of
questions posed by their children or grandchildren – apparently simple
inquiries such as ÒWhere did our family come from? Who were our ancestors? How
did they live and where did they die?Ó
1. Registers
of births, marriages and deaths of Jewish communities
The
path to discovering oneÕs family history usually starts with looking for
information in registers of vital events – births, marriages and deaths.
Such registers – English Òparish registersÓ, Czech ÒmatrikyÓ –
already existed for the Christian population of the Czech Lands from the
sixteenth or seventeenth century onward, but were only extended to the Jewish
population in 1784, through a decree of Emperor Joseph II. This decree ordered
that registers of births, marriages, and deaths of the Jewish population should
be written up in a precise format, with a distinct column for each type of
information about the individual whose vital event was being recorded. It put
Catholic priests in charge of writing up these registers and ensuring they were
kept carefully. In order to guarantee standardized registration, it ordered
that vital events should be filled in on pre-printed forms. The decree also instructed
Jewish registrars to keep the same type of registers, but allowed them to adapt
the columns to the categories used in the Jewish religion. In localities where
there were rabbis, it was they who were made responsible for ensuring that the
registers were maintained. Where Jewish families were living scattered in the
countryside, without a community or a rabbi of their own, the master record was
supposed to be kept by the rabbi of the nearest Jewish community; an
alternative option was for Jewish vital events to be recorded by the local
Catholic priest on the final pages of the Catholic parish registers.
Three years later, in 1787, the
authorities made further efforts to improve and standardize the master records
of Jewish vital events. This led to a second decree which ordered that parish
registers and circumcision registers were to be kept for the Jewish population
in the German language, and all Jewish records were to assign prenames and
surnames to every individual. In practice, this mean that all Jews permitted to
reside in the Czech Lands by virtue of the so-called ãFamiliantÒ –
licensed Jew – law of 1726 were compelled to accept family names, which
they and their families were henceforth to use in all formal activities.
The relationship between the Jewish
population and the state in the Czech lands underwent a fundamental change in
1797 with the so-called ãSystemal PatentÒ. This was a decree which outlined the
rights and obligations of the Jewish population. Jewish teachers were put in
charge of keeping registers of Jewish vital events. In localities where there
were no Jewish schools, the responsibility devolved on men who were appointed
and sworn in by the local manorial authorities. Catholic priests were made
responsible for checking the Jewish registrars and for keeping duplicate
registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths, the so-called ãControl
RegistersÒ.
In 1848-9, there were liberal
uprisings – sometimes called ãRevolutionsÒ – in many parts of
Europe, including the Czech Lands. These events saw the beginning of the full
emancipation of the Jews in the Czech Lands, and the abolition of all the
discriminatory laws against them which had existed up to that point. These
changes can also be seen in the master records of Jewish vital events. The
Jewish registers administered by Jewish registrars were declared to be
authentic records which could be used as evidence in a court of law. The
supervision of Jewish vital registration by Catholic priests was abolished.
Instead, the Jewish registrars were ordered to keep duplicate originals with
appropriate indexes and to submit them to the district authorities annually at
the end of each year. The district authorities were instructed to place the
duplicate Jewish registers in safekeeping and to compare them with the original
registers. As late as the first half of the twentieth century, the district
authorities in the Czech Lands were still checking up on the keeping of the original
registers of Jewish communities and storing the duplicate Jewish registers.
During the period when Czechoslovakia
was occupied by the Germans between 1938 and 1945, both the Jewish registers
and other documents of Jewish communities suffered a similar fate to the Jewish
population itself. The first thing to happen was that in October 1938
the registers of the Jewish communities in the German-occupied Czech
borderlands were closed down. The registers from the Bohemian border regions
were collected in Liberec, the center of the so-called ÒSudetenlandÓ. Between
1939 and 1945, the registers were not written up, and were completed after the
liberation of the country by referring retrospectively to the master records,
especially the death records. The registers of the Jewish communities from the
border regions of northern and southern Moravia did not survive at all and are
thought to have been lost at the very beginning of the German occupation.
In 1942 the
Office of the ÒReichsprotektorÓ ordered that all original Jewish registers in
the so-called ÒProtectorate of Bohemia and MoraviaÓ were to be passed to a
special authority called the ÒCentral Office for the Regulation of the Jewish
QuestionÓ in Prague. In April 1945, on the orders of the Gestapo, the originals
were transported to a paper mill in the Bubeneč district of Prague and
destroyed. In 1943, the duplicate volumes of the registers had also been
collected, but thanks to the care of the Czech employees of the so-called
ÒCentral Office for the Regulation of the Jewish QuestionÓ, they were stored in
Český Šternberk together with the older Control Registers. The
duplicates from the period 1880-1945 were saved by being deposited outside
Prague, and in October 1945 they were declared to be valid originals for
issuing certificates, official documents, and licenses. All the registers that
had been preserved were transferred to the Prague Jewish community, which was
then entrusted with the further administration of the registers for both
Bohemia and Moravia.
Then, in
December 1949, a law was passed which removed the administration of vital
registers by any churches, instead establishing standardized civil registers
supervised by non-religious authorities – initially district committees,
nowadays municipal offices and town councils. In compliance with this law, the
Prague Jewish community transferred the entire collection of Jewish registers,
along with all other master documents, to the district committee of Prague 1. There it remained until
1983, at which point the entire collection was transferred to the Central State
Archive in Prague, which has now become the National Archive. This
priceless collection of more than 3000 volumes of Jewish birth-, marriage-, and
death-registers, covering Bohemia, Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia over
the period 1784-1949, is now held in the First Department of the Czech National
Archive in Prague (na1@nacr.cz). The inventory
of this collection is available on the website of the Czech National Archive at
www.nacr.cz.
The
earliest Jewish birth registers resembled the Christian baptism registers of
the time in including date of birth, childÕs name, parentsÕ names, and
witnessesÕ names. But they also included details specific to the Jewish
religion – of circumcision ceremonies for boys and name-giving ceremonies
for girls. The entries in these early registers were very simple, often
including only names and dates. How the register was written up depended very
much on the individual decisions and conscientiousness of the man who was
responsible for making the entries in it. It was not until 1838 that
standardized rules were issued on how the master registers were to be kept,
with strictly designated columns for each category of information.
It is
important to recognize that most of the registers were not filled out in such
an ideal form. It was always up to the registrar how much information he really
wrote down. The duplicate registers in particular were often kept only in
outline form. Thus, for example, the duplicate birth registers sometimes only
recorded the names of the parents and left out all the other information that
was supposed to be entered. It must also be realized that the so-called
ÒFamiliant lawÓ permitted only 8 500 Jewish families to reside in Bohemia
and 5 400 Jewish families in Moravia. In these families, only the
first-born son had the right to marry and replace his father as head of the family –
the so-called called ÒFamiliantÓ in German and Czech documents. Second and
later sons had to wait for a vacancy to open up in the official number of
families and had to apply for a state permit to get married. Some Jewish
marriages were concluded by rabbis but without the requisite state permit. Any
child of such a marriage was officially defined as ÒfatherlessÓ and was
recorded in the Jewish birth registers under its motherÕs maiden name. The
father could take responsibility for such a child. If he did, then his
declaration of paternity, together with the signatures of two witnesses, was
recorded as a note. Children of parents who married after 1848 were
retrospectively legitimized and received their fathersÕ surnames subsequently
to their birth. This fact is not widely known by their descendants and often
makes research in pre-1848 registers quite difficult.
In 1838, the
same year that standardized forms were introduced, registration districts were
specified in such a way that the community with the largest Jewish population
would be at the center of the registration district. That was where the registrar
was supposed to reside. If the office of registrar was not filled in a
particular locality, then births, marriages, and deaths were supposed to be
notified to the nearest alternative registry office, which in many cases meant
going beyond the boundaries of the original registry office. This fact
complicates genealogical research, especially in Jewish communities on the
inland border between Bohemia and Moravia.
A little
while ago, I mentioned the Òmaster documentsÓ which were transferred to the
Central State Archive in December 1949 along with the Jewish registers. These
documents included the originals of autopsies from the ghetto of Terez’n
between 1941 and 1943, and official declarations of death for many victims of
the Holocaust (issued in the period 1946-1948/1950). These Òmaster documentsÓ
were used retrospectively to fill in the master records of Jewish deaths. Those
who survived had to start their new lives – to find work, apply to
inherit relativesÕ property, marry, or adopt children. To do so, they needed
new personal documents for themselves and in many cases death certificates for
their relatives which were replaced by judicial confirmations of death. For
genealogical research, the two above-mentioned documents are very useful
because they provide not only personal data (such as birth-date, birthplace,
and parentsÕ names) but also information about where the person in question had
been born and their last place of residence before deportation. In many cases,
this makes it possible to begin genealogical research just with the most basic
information. In some cases, these documents also contain the address and name
of the person applying for a declaration of death, who is usually a relative of
the deceased person.
This file of
Òmaster documentsÓ also contains a small group of applications for change of
surname and for permission to adopt an orphan. Especially the former type of
document can help verify the identity of applicants for citizenship or confirm
kinship in applications for property or indemnification. Applications for
change of surname were made by a number of concentration camp survivors with
typical Jewish surnames (such as Kohn, Roubitschek, or Abeles) or typical
German surnames (such as Adler, Schwarzkopf, or WeissmŸller), with the intention of putting
the past behind them and integrating into a non-Jewish social environment. It
is also important to recall the existence of the deportation registers which
were drawn up during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in connection with
deportations to the Ghetto of Terezin and to other camps in Eastern Europe. Up
to the present day, one card-index is still deposited in Prague and used for
official purposes by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech
Republic. Another is stored in the Third Department of the National Archives
and in the archives of the ãTerez’n MemorialÒ located in a small fortress in
Terez’n. Records on the cards in this index also provide information helpful
for genealogical research – details such as names, dates of birth, last
address before deportation, transport number, and so on.
Alongside
this collection of Òmaster documentsÓ, the First Department of the Czech
National Archive also contains the so-called ÒJewish Control RegistersÓ. As I
have mentioned, these are duplicate registers which were kept by the Jewish
community so they could be checked by the Catholic priests, who were officially
required to keep their eye on all Jews living in their parishes.
According to the Czech Law of Registration, the
personal data recorded in both sets of registers and in the card-index files have
a legally protected status. Birth registers for 100 years after the last record
was entered in them, and marriage and death registers for 75 years after the
last record, are accessible only to direct relatives of the individual
concerned or to a plenipotentiary body or the state authorities. For
genealogical research, access to these more recent registers is not permitted.
The other more than 3000 volumes in both collections of Jewish registers are
available on microfilms in the study room of the First Department of the
National Archives. Gaps in the archival collections I have mentioned and in the
registers of Jewish vital events have in recent years been filled by reference
to volumes discovered in archives on the level of individual parishes. Damaged
registers are being systematically restored in the National ArchiveÕs
department of conservation with the assistance of trainee conservators.
2. Other
kinds of documents relevant to the history of Jews in the Czech Lands
Other
kinds of documents relevant to the history of the Jewish population of the
Czech Lands and preserved in Czech archives fall into two broad categories,
according to whether the documents originated inside or outside the Jewish
community. The first category consists of documents generated internally by
Jewish communities, schools, associations, foundations, and prominent
individuals. The nature of these records arises out of the functions which
Jewish communities and institutions carried out toward their own members and
vis-ˆ-vis the surrounding Christian world. The first set of functions, within
the Jewish community itself, included elections of community representatives,
conduct of religious life and education, poor relief, care of orphans, support
for refugees and Òforeign JewsÓ who had come to the end of their resources,
philanthropy, and so on. In this context, I would like to alert you to some
types of specific documentary sources that can be particularly useful for
genealogical research – records of Jewish schools and associations,
foundations and funeral confraternities, all of which usually include personal
data of pupils or members and records of private persons.
The second set of functions, those
carried out vis-ˆ-vis the surrounding Christian world, included implementing
rules imposed by the state and the manorial administration, paying feudal
levies and state taxes, keeping registers of vital events, dealing with
complaints, and resolving conflicts. The correspondence with civic and church
authorities and institutions in matters relevant to the whole Jewish community
as well as individuals in conflicts with Christians over debts and criminal
affairs is evidence that these duties were carried out very consistently.
Unfortunately, because of loss and damage to documents during the Nazi
occupation of Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1945, most of the archives of the
original Jewish communities survive only as a fragment of their former selves.
The few documents that have been preserved are deposited either in the Archives
of Jewish Museum in Prague, or in the district state archives for the relevant
locality, or in the municipal archives of the relevant large city. There are 72
district state archives for the various former administrative districts, and
these now have become the constituents of the regional state archives.
Alternatively, documents concerning the larger urban centres can be found in
the city archives of Prague, Brno, Plzeň, òst’ nad Labem and Ostrava.
This is why I would also like to draw
your attention to the second broad category of documentary sources on Czech
Jewish history, those arising from the activities of state, regional and district authorities, town-councils, and other
state and independent institutions at various levels. For more than 200 years
(from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century) the Habsburg state tried to
restrict and ultimately reduce the number of Jewish families in the Czech
Lands. These efforts gave rise to many official registers – lists of all
Jews settled in Bohemia in 1724, 1783 and 1793, and the so-called ÒJewish
Family BooksÒ (JŸdische
FamiliantenbŸcher) of 1811, recording the 8 500 Jewish families
officially permitted to live in Bohemia and the 5 400 families permitted
to live in Moravia. The lists of Jews and the ÒJewish Family BooksÓ usually
provide personal data such as name, sex, age, marital status, relationship to
household head, and occupation. However, in using these sources, especially
those dating from before 1787, one must be aware that most Jews of that time
did not use surnames in the modern way and it is often very difficult to trace
relationships down the generations. For the territory of Bohemia, the book of
Jewish families and the other lists of Jews which I have mentioned were
collected by the ÒBohemian GuberniumÓ and are now deposited in the National
Archives in Prague. In Moravia, by contrast, the situation is quite different:
insofar as lists and the registers of Jewish families have survived at all,
they are to be found among the records of the manorial authorities.
In addition to these sources, an experienced genealogical researcher can make use of the documents generated by the manorial authorities which administered the large feudal domains in which Bohemians lived in the past. Before 1848, these feudal domains were the units of local administration. The manorial authorities were responsible for two things. First, they administered the property of the domainÕs owner (usually a member of nobility), which also involved responsibility for the property of all the ordinary people who lived on that domain and for levying the feudal duties owed by serfs to their overlords. Second, the manorial authorities also acted as the local government administration – they administered matters relating to the police, commerce, politics, taxation, military affairs, judicial matters, and economic regulation.
The
records of the manorial administration include documents concerning the
acceptance of Jews onto the domain, periodic lists of Jewish inhabitants, and
the establishment and filling of the positions of ÒFamiliantsÓ (licensed Jews).
The manorial authorities also supervised Jewish marriage licenses, tenancies
and sales of real estate, especially distilleries, tanneries, potash-plants,
and other forms of production commonly undertaken by Jews because they were
unpopular among Christians. There were also Jewish traders who were invited to
live on the domain under the title of ÒSchutzjudeÓ (literally Òprotected JewÓ).
These protected Jewish traders were responsible for selling the output produced
on the home farm of the overlord or his industrial operations – grain,
livestock, alcoholic beverage, etc. They were also supposed to buy up the
surplus output of the serfs of the domain, such as feathers, eggs, butter,
linen cloth, and so on. Finally, these protected Jewish merchants were responsible
for importing back onto the domain the common wares that were unavailable
locally, such as spices, dry goods, fruits, coffee, etc. The manorial
administration was directly involved in administering the inheritances of these
Òprotected JewsÓ, and this gave rise to very useful documentary sources. These
not only record the death of an individual, and include information about his
property, repayment of his debts, and the division of his inheritance among his
relatives. They can also be used to study the social and economic conditions of
the Jewish families living in the small rural towns. Such records enable us to
follow the whole process of the division of an inheritance, and to reconstruct
a deceased personÕs household equipment, craft or business, how people dressed,
what kind of tools they used, and so on.
The
manorial archives also include the records of elections to Jewish councils, the
volumes of the synagogue, the establishment of Jewish schools, the appointment
of Jewish teachers, and social care within Jewish communities. This is because
the manorial authorities intervened in all spheres of the life of the Jewish
community on the domain. As a
result, manorial records, which are now held in the seven regional state
archives of the Czech Republic, can be very helpful for genealogical research.
Just a word of warning - to carry out research in this sort of records calls
for an experienced researcher with the expertise to cope with the handwriting
and language used in local-level documents, which are often non-standardized
and difficult to understand.
The
regional state archives also contain the records of the former regional
administrative offices (the so-called ÒKreisŠmteÓ), which were established in
1751 and existed for about 100 years. These offices generated several different
types of register of inhabitants; lists of tax-payers; lists of travel and
emigration permits; and many other miscellaneous documents. All these documents
also record Jews and Jewish communities, and often provide very useful evidence
on Jewish vital events.
After
1868, the regional administrative offices were abolished and replaced by the
district administrative offices (the so-called ÒBezirksŠmteÓ). These, too,
generated numerous documents of genealogical interest, including registers of
residency certificates, registers of passports and travel permits, indexes of
work permits, and after 1918 registers of nationality certificates. From 1870
on, the district offices also registered births, marriages and deaths of all
individuals who had no official religious denomination. The district offices
also preserved the censuses which were drawn up every 10 years from 1857
onward. All the types of document generated by the district administrative
offices are now stored in the district state archives, alongside the records of
town and local archives.
For
genealogists, another useful archival source is the so-called ÒGrundbŸcherÓ,
literally Òland-booksÓ, some of which date back to the later fifteenth century.
These were public registers recording all transfers of real estate between
owners (whether by inheritance or sale), as well as many legal documents such
as wills. But there are also many other interesting genealogical records,
especially from the second half of the nineteenth century, such as registers of
native and foreign persons belonging to the local community, registers of
residency certificates, and registers of tradesmen.
Genealogists
can also find interesting information in the records left by public schools,
grammar schools and vocational schools. Personal data such as names,
birthdates, addresses, and parentsÕ names can be found in school registers,
graduation books, attendance registers, and registers of examination results.
Not
even the records of the Christian church can be omitted in our survey of
documents potentially useful for studying Jewish genealogy. As I have
mentioned, the Catholic priests were supposed to keep their eye on all Jews
living in their parishes. So among the records of parish offices, nowadays
stored in the district state archives, is preserved information about Jews,
particularly concerning conversions of Jews to the Catholic religion.
3. How to
consult documents preserved in Czech Archives
Basic
information about all the Czech archives I have mentioned here can be found on
the website of the Czech Archive Society (at www.cesarch.cz) and the Ministry
of the Interior (at www.mvcr.cz and www.mvcr.cz/archivy/). Both these websites
provide access to a database called ÒArchive Holdings and Collections in the
Czech RepublicÓ (PevA) giving many more details.
Archives
are part of the universal information system of the Czech Republic and are
therefore accessible to the general public. However, for documents that have
been deposited for less than 30 years, people can work with them only
exceptionally and only with the permission of the archive director. Anyone who
wants to look at archival documents is required to verify his or her identity
by means of valid identity card or passport; foreigners require no special
permit. Researchers are allowed to use their own digital cameras, although
there may be restrictions depending on the content and the physical condition
of particular documents.
The
main way to examine archive documents is by visiting the archive in person. It
is also possible to obtain basic information through a written request to the
archive. When one fills out an application to do genealogical research, whether
in writing or on a personal visit, one needs to provide as many details as
possible concerning the person one is looking for – not just the name,
but the date of birth, marriage, and death, the places where these events
occurred, and all other known facts about this individual. If information about
the locality of vital events is unknown, then the next best thing is to provide
information about any other places where the person lived, such as the last
known address, the place of residence of family members or relatives, or the
location of the school attended by that individual. It is important to remember
that documents from the nineteenth century will use the German version of the
names of Czech towns and villages, so one should make sure to enter the
original place names, or even better, enclose photocopies of any old documents or mementos
in the possession of the family. If the registers of the locality relevant to
the person one is searching for have not survived, then one can address oneÕs
request to the regional or district state archives and ask that research be
undertaken into the Catholic parish registers, the registers of local
residents, the school registers, the archives of the Jewish community, or the
censuses.
However,
it is important to realize that personal data from the history of the Czech
Lands have not yet been digitized or computerized, and archives do not have the
resources to engage in extensive genealogical research for private applicants.
A Czech archive will typically respond to a written request from a private user
by providing basic information, giving advice concerning the other archives or
archival holdings which might contain the requested data, and recommending the
use of private genealogical researchers or firms if more extensive research is
required.
The
National Archives can provide extracts from registers for those applying to do
genealogical research. The original birth, marriage, and death certificates are
to be found in the Registry of the òřad městskŽ č‡sti Praha 1, whose address is
Vodičkova 18, 115 68 Praha 1.
4.
Genealogical research in practice: the Glaser family in Postoloprty
I
would now like to demonstrate the process of carrying out genealogical research
into Jewish inhabitants of the Czech Lands on the basis of a particular
concrete example. What I shall do is show how I traced all the available
records for a family called Glaser
in the small town of Postoloprty and the village of Lenešice in the
district of Louny in north-west Bohemia.
I
began only with the most basic of information. The person I was looking for was
Adolf Glaser, born in 1886, who
lived in Postoloprty until the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, and was then
lost in a concentration camp at some point during World War II. Among those
declared dead, I found a document recording the vital events of Adolf Glaser,
born on 30 April 1886 in Postoloprty, unmarried, son of Moritz Glaser and Anna
Pollak. He was domiciled in Postoloprty, but the last address before his deportation
was in Prague. Adolf Glaser was declared dead on the request of Gabriela
Chlamtatsch from Palestine and Lotty Glaser from England, both of whom were
represented by a Czech lawyer. In the same archival carton, I also found
information on Emilie Glaser, born on 5 June 1896 in Postoloprty, who was the
sister of Adolf Glaser. Both Adolf and Emilie were deported from Prague to the
Ghetto of Terez’n by transport AAt on 23 July 1942. Then, on 1 September 1942,
they were both deported by transport Be to Raasika. They never came back and
were declared dead on 1 March 1943.
I
then looked for other relatives of Adolf Glaser in the surviving registers of
births, marriages, and deaths for the Jewish community of Postoloprty. This
search brought to light quite a lot of additional information about the vital
events of Adolf and his relatives. Adolf had one elder brother called Friedrich
(Bedřich in Czech), who was born in 1885. Friedrich went to the bar and at
time of his marriage to Elisabeth Strass in 1921 was working in a bank in
Vienna. The birth register also recorded three sisters of Adolf –
Charlotte (born
in 1890), Gabriele (born in 1892), and Emmi (born in 1896). Gabriela (who
married a man called Chlamtatsch) and Charlotte (whose nickname was Lotty) left
the country at some point, and after the war had some reason to request death
certificates and official death declarations for their siblings.
To
find out more details about the family of Adolf Glaser and the Jewish community
in Postoloprty, I visited the district state archives in Louny. These archives
contain the documents of the district authorities, the archives of the town of
Postoloprty, the 1921 census, and many records of other local institutions and
personalities. According to the 1921 census, Adolf Glaser was living in house
number 62 in Postoloprty, together with his parents and his two younger sisters. His father Moritz Glaser
(born in 1857 in Postoloprty) was a farmer, and Adolf was assisting him in his
agricultural activities. AdolfÕs mother Anna (born in 1860) and AdolfÕs sisters
Ella and Emma kept the household. The family was of the Jewish religion and
spoke the German language. The census also records three servants – a
coachman, a house-maid, and a cook, all of the Catholic religion.
The
district archives of Louny also contain a manuscript city chronicle for
Postoloprty, which is deposited in the personal collection of Emil Mendl. In
this chronicle, I found a list of the Jewish magistrates and the heads of the
Jewish community in Postoloprty since 1674. AdolfÕs father Moritz Glaser was
the head of the Jewish community in the town for 31 years, from 1893 until his
death in 1924.
Unfortunately, the records of the
Jewish community in Postoloprty, in which I hoped to find more information about
the activities of Moritz Glaser and his relatives, have been lost. But further
research in the registers of Jewish vital events and the books of Jewish
Families (both deposited in the National Archives in Prague), as well as in the
records of the manorial administration of the domain of Postoloprty (deposited
in the Regional State Archives in Třeboň) enabled me to discover
additional generations of the Glaser family.
AdolfÕs
father, Moritz Leopold Glaser, was
born as the last of 8 children of Simon Glaser and his wife Charlotte Hirsch
from òštěk. MoritzÕs father Simon
Glaser – AdolfÕs grandfather – was the second son born to a
certain Lšbl Glaser. In 1844, Simon
obtained permission to marry and replaced a familiant (licensed Jew) in
Postoloprty who had died without male issue.
Lšbl Glaser was thus AdolfÕs
great-grandfather. He was also called Lšwy
or Leopold, as I found from some
of the documents referring to him. Lšbl is thought to have been born in 1773,
and he definitely died in 1846. In 1799, he obtained permission to get married
because he was a glazier (Glaser in
German) and his craft was needed on the domain. The occupation of glazier was
practiced before him by his father Elias,
who already used the German term Glaser
as his own identification among the Jewish families of Postoloprty. The earliest
birth register for the Jewish community of Postoloprty records a total of 11
children for Lšbl
Glaser and his wife Eva Mendlin (Heller).
As
mentioned, LšblÕs father was called Elias,
in fact Elias Wolf. He is
thought to have been born in 1735 and he died in 1805. It was in 1797 that he
took on the surname Glaser for
himself and for his unmarried sons Simon, Lšbl and Isaak. Elias – our
AdolfÕs great-great-grandfather – is the first member of the Glaser family
in Postoloprty who can definitely be verified in the sources. His adoption of
the surname Glaser is confirmed in the records of the manorial administration
of the estate of Postoloprty, currently held in the Regional State Archives in
Třeboň. Among other documents, this archive contains official
confirmations of adoptions of new first names and surnames by Jews from 1787
onward. As a glazier, Elias Wolf was in 1759 allowed to get married to Barbara
Lšwenfeld (Lšbl). Their 4 sons can only be found in the Book of Jewish
families, because the Jewish vital registers in Postoloprty only started in
1788. At that time, their oldest son Wolf,
who also accepted the surname Glaser, was allowed to marry Kressel (Katharina)
Kofman and gained his own position of licensed Jew on the estate of
Lenešice. WolfÕs sons Michael (1787), Pinkas (1791) and Lšwy (1796) were
born there, while Elias (1807) and Moises (1810) were born in Postoloprty,
because Wolf was invited back to occupy his fatherÕs position as licensed Jew
there. We do not know how many daughters were born to the family, because the
Books of Jewish families only record sons.
It was
possible to trace the family even further back by consulting the lists of Jews
written up in Bohemia in 1793, 1784 and 1724, as well as the papers of the
so-called Theresianum – the early eighteenth-century Czech cadaster,
where the Jews settled on the estate of Postoloprty were recorded in 1715, with
information going back to 1670. The 1793 list of Jews has been opened up to the
public in a scholarly edition prepared by students of archival science at the
Charles University in Prague. This 1793 list records the glazier Elias Glaser,
with his wife Barbara and his sons Lewi, Simon presently in Vienna, and Isaak.
The family is recorded as being under the protection of the estate of
Postoloprty. The 1793 list also records for the estate of Lenešice EliasÕs son
Wolf with his wife Katharina and his two sons. They owned a house which had
been sold to them by the manorial administration and they lived from potash
production.
Elias Glaser
is also recorded in Postoloprty in the 1783 list of Jews, with his wife and 4
children. This list records that for three months of the year he worked as a
glazier, and the rest of year lived from selling spices and haberdashery.
Here the clear genealogical linkage
between Adolf Glaser and Elias Glaser ends. The 1724 list of Jews, and also the
records of the Theresianum from 1715, only mention a Jew called Elias Veith. This man lived in
Postoloprty for 44 years, and in 1715 had a wife and five children. He held the
office of Jewish magistrate or headman in Postoloprty. The information about
Elias Veith states that he came to Bohemia from Austria at a very young age,
earned his living by trading in linen and other goods, and paid 30 Gulden
Òprotection-moneyÓ (Schutzgeld) to the manorial authorities each year. This
information about Elias Veith is consistent with the fact, noted in several
regional histories, that in 1671 the owner of the estate of Postoloprty, Count
von Sinzendorf, brought 55 Jews to his estate who had been banished from Austria. We
may speculate that Elias Veith was an ancestor of Elias Wolf Glaser, the
great-great-grandfather of our Adolf Glaser, and thus that the history of the
Glaser family in Postoloprty can be traced back, rather insecurely, to the
later seventeenth century. However, we cannot have absolute confidence in any
of the links before 1783.
Let me now give you one more brief
demonstration. On the occasion of my visit to the district archives in Louny in
search of Adolf Glaser and his ancestors, an archivist colleague showed me the
card register of local Jews, drawn up by the district authorities in 1938 and
1939. The registration cards were completed with photographs of registered Jews.
If such a card can be found, then it will often provide the sole surviving
picture of an individual who may have been killed in a concentration camp. In
the card register for Louny, I found the cards and pictures for the family of Julius (born in 1890) and Marie (born in 1900) Glaser
and their daughters Johanna (born in 1926) and Marie (born in 1928) from
Lenešice. While Julius is recorded as being of the Jewish religion, his
wife and daughters were recorded as being Catholic. Julius came from the family
of Friedrich Glaser (born in 1858),
owner of a farm in Lenešice, and Julie Getreuer from Louny. His grandfather Simon Glaser (born in 1826) departed from the family occupation of
glaziers, and became a tanner in Lenešice. In 1849 he obtained permission to
get married to Theresia Glaser from Leškov. The couple had 8 children.
JuliusÕs great-grandfather Michael
Glaser (born in 1787) came from Postoloprty and was a son of the great-great-grandfather of the family, Wolf Glaser (born 1760) and Kressel
Kofman (Katharina Kaufmann). The family circle is closed in the person of
JuliusÕs great-great-great-grandfather
Elias Glaser (born 1735), who was the head of the Glaser family in the
second half of the eighteenth century, as I described before.
While Adolf
and Julius Glaser had the same ancestors and relatives, their fates during the
period of World War II were quite different. Adolf was deported as early as 1942 and killed, but Julius
was sent to a labour camp at the beginning of 1945 and survived. It seems that
his wife was not of Jewish origin and for this reason during the Nazi
occupation Julius was more protected than other Jews, and Marie and his
daughters escaped. How they lived after 1945, we do not know. Because of the
legislation governing personal data protection, it is not possible for anyone
who is not a direct descendant to continue genealogical research.
If we accept the speculation that
Elias Veith, who came to Postoloprty from Austria in the later seventeenth
century, was the direct ancestor of Elias Wolf Glaser, we can follow the Glaser
family in the Jewish community for more than 250 years. The occupation of
glazier, in which most of them were engaged, gave the surname to five
generations of the family. The heads of the Glaser family were among the representatives
of the Jewish community, where they held several formal offices. They had large
families with large numbers of children. Thanks to the relatively stable
conditions in the Jewish community and the protection granted to Jews by the
manorial authorities, most of the sons from all branches of the Glaser family
obtained positions as licensed Jews or were able to earn a livelihood in some
other way, either in Postoloprty or in the villages or domains in the vicinity.
The centuries-long history of the Jewish community in Postoloprty was broken by
violence in World War II and did not recover because those who might have been
able to continue its activities were lost.
The estate of Postoloprty and its
Jewish community was unusually successful in collecting and preserving almost
all of the types of archival documents I have discussed in this lecture.
However, it is important to recognize that many archives of Jewish communities
were either destroyed or damaged beyond redemption during the Nazi occupation
of Czechoslovakia and the Second Wordl War. Genealogical research is like
solving a ãpuzzleÒ, in which the pieces are not stored in a single box, but
instead scattered in different places, so even before they can be fit together,
they have to be sought out and collected.
5. Accessing archival sources: the project ãBohemia,
Moravia et Silesia JudaicaÒ
Genealogical
research does not always end with the compiling of a family tree. The desire
for a colourfully illustrated tree of life often inspires a dream of putting
specific faces to the names one has found, investigating oneÕs ancestorsÕ lives
more closely, and following up each life story. This dream cannot be satisfied
merely by the simple records found in the registers of births, marriages and deaths.
One has to search for historical causes, learn more about economic and social
situation of a particular time in history, and in particular explore the
history of the Jewish community in a particular country.
In
the last ten years, an increasing number of Bohemian and Moravian archivists
and historians have focussed on the history of the Jews in the Czech Lands.
Most attention has been devoted to the events of World War II and the Shoah of
Czech Jews. But in addition there are many publications focussing on the
history of Czech Jews from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The work
of archivists has been mostly aimed at opening up the hitherto unused archival
sources they have found in the course of their routine professional activities.
A review of what has been published on the history of Jews and Jewish
communities in the Czech Lands over the last ten years can be found in the
journal Judaica Bohemiae,
volume XL, for 2004 (published by the Jewish Museum in Prague, 2005, pages
277-290).
Modern
historians dealing with the history of Jews in the Czech Lands in the early
modern period repeatedly refer to the fact that existing archival sources have
not been sufficiently explored. The observation relates primarily to the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Researchers only have at their disposal a
few old-fashioned and unsatisfactory editions of the historical sources from
this period. As a result, nine years ago historians and archivists began a
research project entitled ÒBohemia, Moravia et Silesia JudaicaÓ (BMSJ) –
a part of the international project ÒGermania Judaica IVÓ. The aim of this
project was to locate as many archival sources as possible for the history of
the Jews in the Czech Lands – which means in Bohemia, Moravia and the Czech
part of Silesia – for the period 1520-1670, and to make these documents
available in the form of a scholarly edition. The project, which covered the
territory of Czech Lands within the borders of 1750, started in the summer of
1999 in the framework of a project entitled ÒAustria JudaicaÓ led by the
Institute for the History of the Jews in Austria (Institut fŸr Geschichte der
Juden in …sterreich). Since 2005, this project has been directed and supported
by the Society for the History of Jews in the Czech Republic, headed by the
historian Dr. Helmut Teufel.
The
members of the project have been undertaking research into a number of archives
in the Czech Republic and have been covering all sources from the period
1520-1670 which have any application to the Jewish inhabitants. This method of
research is time-consuming and expensive, but very effective, and after many
years of intensive research is now bringing in good results. The archival
documents which are discovered are processed in the following form:
a)
A full transcription is made of all
documents falling into particular categories, such as significant privileges,
deeds and letters, and important records in official registers which deal
primarily with the Jewish population. In these cases, the full text of each
document is transcribed and supplemented with a short summary of the content;
texts in the Germany language are always transliterated.
b)
A partial transcription supplemented
by an extended summary is provided for all documentary sources which were
primarily written up to record the majority Christian population but which
mention Jews in passing; these include registers of serf obligations, censuses,
tax registers, financial papers, account-books, and general correspondence.
c)
A brief summary of the contents and
the precise archival reference is provided for all archival sources which
already exist in other editions, are duplicates of sources in other
collections, are dated outside the primary period of interest, or are not very
important for the history of Jewish people.
This approach to processing the
documents complies with the principles of producing a scholarly edition of
archival sources. The edition is also equipped with appropriate footnotes,
references to other editions of documents, and secondary literature about the
documentary sources. In addition, all information about Jewish individuals
mentioned in the documentary sources – name, sex, occupation, family
relationships, place of origin, and archival reference – are recorded in
a parallel electronic database in the form of an Excel file which is set up in
such a way as to enable statistical and demographic analyses.
Any archival sources in the Hebrew
language have been reproduced, indexed, and passed over to Hebrew specialists
to transcribe and translate. The same process has been applied to any Jewish
seals discovered on the documents. Part of the edition of a number of these
archival sources consists of photographs of texts in Hebrew and Jewish seals.
The archival research underlying this
project has been financed by public sources (supplied by foundatiosn and
grants) and by donations from private individuals. The results
of the intensive research currently being conducted in Moravian archives are
gradually being made available on the website of the Society for the History of
the Jews at www.BMSJ.eu. This website has
versions in two languages – Czech and German. An English-language version
is planned for the introductory and associated texts, while the edition itself
will stick with the language used in the original sources (either Czech or
German). The website has been fully functional since the beginning of January 2008. At present, it makes
available archival files from eight archives, mainly in Moravia. Information on
the documentary sources that have been used is currently being completed. If
finances and the time of the researchers permit, additional documentary
collections will be included from Czech archives and – in the case of
Silesia – also from Poland archives.
The Internet website www.BMSJ.eu has two levels – a public level
and a fee-paying level. The public level provides access to the introductory
and associated texts concerning the archives and collections, a summary of a
number of documentary sources, and the Excel files which fulfil the function of
indexes. The fee-paying level of the website offers, in return for payment of a
user-fee, unlimited access to the editions of all the documentary sources that
have been collected. The funds raised through these website fees will be used
for collection of further archival information on the Jewish population of the
Czech Lands.
One particular group of documentary
sources which have been located and made available within this project are a
number of censuses of the Jewish population of the Czech Lands. These are among
the most valuable historical sources not only for historical demography and
statistics, but also for genealogical studies. These censuses and lists are
presented in a special group of documents under the rubric ãLists of JewsÒ.
They include surveys and lists drawn up on the orders of the manorial
authorities as well as on the command of the state (such as censuses and
tax-cadasters). The documents included in this group contain, at a minimum, the
nominal list of Jews settled in each locality. For later periods, such lists
include a much greater quantity of associated information concerning the
property and occupation of the Jews who are listed. Most important for
genealogical research are the vital events and information concerning wives,
children, other family members and relatives. One of the main aims of this
project is to make public the lists drawn up from the seventeenth to the
nineteenth century and to fill the existing lack of documetnary sources for
genealogical research after 1670. These editions of the lists of the Jewish
population are fully accessible upon payment of a registration fee.
The structure of the projectÕs internet website can be seen
now in a brief presentation. After the opening page, which has basic
information relating to the project ãBohemia, Moravia et Silesia JudaicaÒ and a
survey of results so far, there is a statement concerning the organization
currently responsible for the proejct, the ãAssociation for the History of the
Jews in the Czech RepublicÒ (ãSpolečnost pro dějiny židů
v ČeskŽ republiceÒ) based in Brno, at the address SlovanskŽ n‡m. 8
(e-mail: sdzcr@bmsj.eu). The slot labeled
ÒSurvey of the archiveÓ (Seznam archivů) gives the gist of the editions of documents.
This section of the website publishes all the sources which have been worked
up, according to the various archives and archival collections in which the
research was carried out or is currently being performed.
At present,
the following archives are available: Archiv města Brna (AMB) – City
Archives of Brno
The second
part of the survey of archives provides a complete edition or transcription of
the text of various documentary sources, including footnotes containing all the
important information concerning the documents used, including bibliographical
data. This part of the edition is accessible once one pays a registration fee.
As is apparent, the project ãBohemia,
Moravia and Silesia JudaicaÒ offers to researchers information useful not only
for the history of Jews in the Czech Lands, but also for regional history,
historical demography, and studies of the social and economic conditions of
Jews living in Moravian towns and villages. Whether analogous research in other
Moravian and Czech Archives will continue in future depends above all on the
availability of funding to keep together the current productive and expert
research team.
* * *
The number of people wishing compile
their own family tree has increased significantly over the last decade.
Researchers usually begin by investigating the three basic events that
significantly influence a personÕs fate -
birth, marriage and death. Some of them come to the archives prepared, with
basic information concerning their ancestors or relatives and sometimes also
familiar with the history of Czech Land.
But those are not so many. There are more researchers who come with the
name and at best an approximate year of birth (or marriage, or death) of the
person they are looking for, somewhere in the Czech or Austrian Lands. There
are even some researchers who lost all documents and also any possibility of
learning anything by word of mouth, because their parents, grandparents,
relatives or friends were killed in the Holocaust.
What can be quite easy in undertaking Christian genealogy is usually more complicated in Jewish genealogical research. As we have seen, the collection of Jewish registers of vital events is not complete because most of the originals were destroyed, along with other Jewish documents and archives, during the Second World War. Jewish families also moved house more often than Christian families, and often the last known address where they were living before being deported to a concentrations camp was not in the locality where they and their ancestors had been living for many generations. This is especially true of Jews who had previously lived in the Nazi-occupied ÒSudetenÓ borderland regions of Czechoslovakia. The discriminatory laws even influenced Jewish names and the state of the master records, which makes genealogical research even more difficult.
In cases
where someone searching for their Jewish ancestors comes with just a few small
hints, the archivists will do their best to find information in all the
different kinds of documents available – both well-known and obscure. The
aim of my lecture today has been to show you where to go to inquire, how to do
so, and what the archives can and cannot do. Perhaps the most important thing
to remember is that luck matters – but fortune favours the person who is
well-prepared.
I hope that my presentation today
will provide helpful to you in orientating yourselves in the archival sources
on the history of Jews in the Czech Lands and to achieving a fuller
understanding of the challenges and rewards of genealogical research on Czech
Jews.
Thank you very much for your
attention.