Czechoslovak Survivors' Personal Files

Holocaust · Survivors · Refugees/DPs · Czechoslovakia

After the Holocaust, survivors from Czechoslovakia faced immense challenges in rebuilding their lives. To reclaim their rights, emigrate, or establish legal status, they had to obtain a variety of official documents, including residency certificates, citizenship confirmations, travel permits, and passport applications.

This database is dedicated to preserving and providing access to these invaluable records. Containing hundreds of personal documents issued in post-war Czechoslovakia, it serves as a crucial resource for researchers, genealogists, and descendants seeking to uncover their relatives' histories. Additionally, in many cases, these documents offer essential proof for reclaiming lost Czechoslovak citizenship.

By compiling these historical records, we aim to honour the resilience of survivors and support families in reconnecting with their past.

The Archiv bezpecnostnich slozek (ABS), or Security Services Archive, is a government institution in Prague, Czech Republic, responsible for preserving and providing access to historical records from the former Czechoslovak state security agencies. It holds a vast collection of documents from the Communist-era secret police (StB - Statní bezpecnost), intelligence services, border guards, and other security forces.

The online reading room of the archive is available at ebadatelna.cz, however access to the documents is restricted to registered and authenticated users only. At this moment, only citizens of EU countries possessing an electronic ID can get access to the databases. Therefore, we decided to make an independent index of the data and provide it to the public worldwide.

If the researcher requires official certified copy of such a document, he/she can contact the archive directly here: https://www.abscr.cz/en/contact-list/

The database contains the following fields:

Town names are recorded in the contemporary valid variant, however, the historical Hungarian and/or German town names could also be used for easier search experience (so e.g. if someone searches for "Nagymihaly" the result will also deliver the matches for “Michalovce”, without having to repeat the search with another language name variant).

Notes on Searching the Database

Researchers need to remember that these are index files, no attempt was made to replicate all the data in the original documents.  Researchers should go to the source record to obtain additional information.

This database is a unique contribution of Peter Absolon (JGID 532207) and Dusan Lucansky (JGID 867885), two Slovakia-based researchers that invested their free time into this project. In addition, thanks to JewishGen, Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.

January 2025

This database can be searched via the JewishGen Holocaust Database or the JewishGen Unified Search