Guide to the Territorial Collection, Poland, 1939-1945 RG 116. Poland 2

Processed by Solomon Krystal. Edited by Rivka Schiller, 2007

Collection rearranged with the assistance of a grant from the Conference of Jewish Materials Claims Against Germany (New York) and the Fondation pour la Memoire de la Shoah, Paris. Finding aid edited, encoded and posted online thanks to a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD version 2002 by Yakov Sklyar in January 2007. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Territorial Collection, Poland, 1939-1945 RG 116. Poland 2

ID: RG 116. Poland-2

Extent: 4.3 Linear Feet

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged topically and according to locality in 229 numbered folders, with towns and cities appearing according to their Polish names (e.g., Rzeszow—as opposed to Reyshe in Yiddish).

There are 10 series in this collection:

Languages: Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German, English, French, Hebrew, Swedish, Danish

Abstract

The Territorial Collection, Poland 2 is comprised of documents that were amassed at the YIVO in New York City. The collection is of mixed provenance and is fragmentary in nature, consisting of miscellaneous materials dating back to World War II and its immediate aftermath. The Territorial Collection Poland 2 is a portion of the greater Territorial Collection (RG 116), which incorporates materials that are relevant to over 42 different countries and geographical regions. The overarching theme of the collection Poland 2 is the annihilation of the Jewish life in Poland under the Nazi rule. Chronologically, the Territorial Collection Poland 2 follows the Territorial Collection Poland 1, which pertains to pre-World War II Poland; and precedes the Territorial Collection Poland 3, which pertains to post-World War II Poland.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection includes texts of German decrees and anti-Jewish laws; press articles written after the war about the fate of the Polish Jewry; materials relating to communities, ghettos and concentration camps; materials on Jewish resistance; records of war crimes trials of 1946-1950; letters from Nazi-occupied Poland sent abroad; texts of poems and songs written in the ghettos. The latter part of the collection contains materials pertaining to Holocaust memorial observances and commemoration meetings. A large section pertains to Warsaw and the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Files on communities contain personal documents and correspondence.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions:

Open to researchers.

For more information, contact:

Chief Archivist

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street

New York, NY 10011

email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Acquisition Method: Various donors.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should read as follows:Identification of item, date (if known); YIVO Archives; Territorial Collection, Poland, 2; RG 116-Poland 2; folder number.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: German Anti-Jewish Decrees in Poland, 1939-1944,
Series 2: Series II: Warsaw Ghetto, 1939-1944,
Series 3: Series III: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 19th 1943, 1942-1948,
Series 4: Series IV: Jewish Communities Under the German Rule, 1938-1967,
Series 5: Series V: Concentration and Death Camps, 1939-1965,
Series 6: Series VI: War Crime Trials, 1944-1949, 1955, 1964, 1978,
Series 7: Series VII: Eyewitness Accounts of Survivors, 1939-1958,
Series 8: Series VIII: Holocaust Memorial Observances After World War II, 1944-1973,
Series 9: Series IX: Newspaper Clippings, 1939-1969,
Series 10: Series X: Miscellaneous, 1939-1973,
All

Series V: Concentration and Death Camps 1939-1965

Language of Material: German , English , Polish , Yiddish , French

Folder 129: Oświęcim/Auschwitz 1942-1945: Verification form from the Polish Red Cross stating that Rukhl Niklas was imprisoned and tattooed with the number 81310 in 1944.
Photocopied verification form from Auschwitz stating that Johann Dabrowski, bearing the tattooed number 18306, was arrested on 7/8/1942.
Notice re: Villis Kirsners (German).
“A Constructive Answer to Auschwitz and Judenfeindschaft (Hatred of the Jews)” address by Boland Hughes, M.D., 2/11/1945.; Language of Material: some materials are German
Folder 130: Auschwitz undated: “German Extermination Camps-Auschwitz and Birkenau,” issued by the War Refugee Board, Washington, D.C.
Folder 131: Auschwitz undated: Report on Auschwitz by Dr. Charles Susskind.; Language of Material: English
Folder 132: Auschwitz undated: “My Sojourn in the Auschwitz (Oświęcim) Extermination Camp and My Escape” by Martin Steg, Paris.; Language of Material: English
Folder 133: Auschwitz undated, 1944, 1947: “Report on Conditions in the Concentration Camps of Oświęcim and Birkenau” by Sargent H. Ripka, 7/4/1944.
Memorandum (copy) undersigned by Jozef Sandel, Chaim Hanft, and Anatol Wroblewski in Katowice, 11/14/1947 re: their concern for the fact that Jewish Auschwitz victims are frequently represented as “Poles”—and not as Jews (Polish).
Handwritten Yiddish statement re: the Jewish uprising staged in Auschwitz - to be used for the collective book on Auschwitz (“Zaml-bukh: Oyshvits”).; Language of Material: Polish and Yiddish
Folder 134: Auschwitz-Newspaper Clippings 1947: “Kurier Wieczorny,” 11/28/1947, 11/30/1947.
“Kurier Codzienny,” 11/26/1947
Folder 135: Auschwitz-Newspaper Clippings undated: “Yom Kippur in Auschwitz” by Genia Silkes
Folder 136: Auschwitz-Newspaper Clippings undated: “The Jewish Uprising in Auschwitz: The Women and Children of Auschwitz.”; Language of Material: French
Folder 137: Auschwitz-Newspaper Clippings undated: “Six Years in Hitler’s Hell” by B. Appel.; Language of Material: Yiddish
Folder 138: Auschwitz-Newspaper Clippings 1946, 1957, 1959: “Session of the International Oświęcim Committee,” 1/31/1957.
“There Should Never Again Be Another Oświęcim,” “Folks-shtime,” 6/4/1957.
“Regarding Compensations for Those Persecuted in Oświęcim and Their Families,” “Folks-shtime,” 12/18/1957.
“Oświęcim-The Grave of Millions of Jews,” “Folks-shtime,” 1/29/1957.
“272 Projects from 30 Countries for a Monument at Auschwitz,” “Folks-shtime,” 4/15/1959.
Photostat of an article written in English by Nelly Kalecka, a 14-year-old girl from Grodno, which was published in the English edition of the New York “Tog,” 1946.; Language of Material: Yiddish
Folder 139: Treblinka 1942: Schedules of the transport routes used to transport Jews from various Polish cities to Treblinka
Folder 140: Treblinka undated, 1944: Eyewitness testimonies of Jews who had been imprisoned in Treblinka given in the court in Łódź , 12/3/1944.
Jewish survivors of Treblinka: Samuel Reizman, Henryk Poswolski, Stanislaw Kon.
A copy of the plan for the crematory ovens.
English articles from the Polish press agency, “Polska Agencja Prasowa"
Folder 141: Treblinka undated, 1958: “Treblinka” by Elia Rozenberg.
“At the Graves of Our Fathers in Treblinka” by I. Edelman. Recollections of former inmates.
“The Uprising in the Treblinka Extermination Camp,” “Folks-shtime,” Y. Wiernik, 4/15/1958.; Language of Material: Yiddish
Folder 142: Majdanek and Sobibor undated: Reprint from the “Saturday Evening Post” entitled, “How the Nazi Butchers Wasted Nothing” by Edgar Snow.
Article, “`Kol Yisrael’ Receives an Interview from Radio Moscow an Interview Regarding the Uprising in Sobibor”.
Armband bearing Star of David, worn by the Jewish police in Sobibor.; Language of Material: Yiddish and English
Folder 143: List of German concentration camps in Poland. undated: Language of Material: German
Folder 144: Sobibor 1965: Letters from Alexander Pechorsky, a Soviet Army officer and former Sobibor inmate sent from Rostov to Reuben Ainsztein in London.; Language of Material: Russian
Folder 145: Janowska Camp, Lwów 1943: Janowska concentration camp in Lwów, Poland-Letters from an inmate, “Tusiek,” who perished in 1943, written to his mother.; Language of Material: translated from Polish to English
Folder 146: Lublin 1939 November 15: The Lublin District
Folder 147: Majdanek 1944: Dispatches from Konstantin Simonov re: the extermination camps in Poland