Department of Landsmanshaftn Associations of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma

Title:: Department of Landsmanshaftn Associations of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Title (official language):: Wydział Ziomkostw Centralnego Komitetu Żydów w Polsce

Creator/accumulator:: Department of Landsmanshaftn Associations of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Scope and content:: The collection comprises documents generated in 1946-50 by the Department of Compatriots’ (Landsmanshaftn) Associations operating within the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (CKŻP), its regional sections and compatriot (homeland) associations across Poland.

Organisational dossier (circulars, correspondence): units 1-12.

Personal and personnel files (instructions and rules, circulars): unit 13.

Foreign aid (correspondence, minutes and records, various lists): units 14-19.

Records of compatriot associations’ sections affiliated to Jewish committees in Poland (name lists, reports, correspondence): units 20-34.

Organisational and personal dossier of the compatriot (homeland) associations (lists of members, lists of former residents of specified localities, correspondence, distribution of donated goods): units 35-164.

Archival history:: With the dissolution of the CKŻP in 1950, the documentation of the Department of Landsmanshaftn Associations was moved to the Jewish Historical Institute’s (ŻIH) collection. The original volume of the archive and details of the initial ordering or rearrangement work and the sorting out of the collection remain unknown.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Department of Landsmanshaftn Associations was set up in August 1946, its statutory task being to “make appropriate use” of the financial assistance received from foreign ‘homeland associations’. To this end, a compatriots’ association section (referat ziomkostw) was to be set up within each provincial and district Jewish committee across post-war Poland, with the corresponding associations being subordinate to these sections within their respective areas. The department operated till 1950.

Finding aids:: A catalogue in Polish was compiled in 2010 and is accessible online.

It includes indices of personal and geographical names.

Author of the description:: Monika Taras; Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma; 2015