Metadata: Police Service
Collection
- Country:
- Estonia
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Estonia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Eesti Rahvusarhiiv
- Postal address:
- Madara 24 (Rahvusarhiiv Tallinnas), 10613 Tallinn
- Phone number:
- (+372) 693 8668
- Web address:
- www.ra.ee
- Email:
- tallinn@ra.ee
- Reference number:
- ERA.1
- Title:
- Police Service
- Title (official language):
- Politseitalitus
- Creator/accumulator:
- Police Service of Estonian Republic
- Date(s):
- 1918/1940
- Language:
- Estonian
- Russian
- German
- Extent:
- 21,653 folders
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises materials from the Police Service (also known as the Police Directorate) of the Estonian Republic from 1918 to 1940. There are twelve Jewish-related folders, most of them related to migration issues of Jewish residents.
The earliest case is dated 1920-1921. It contains correspondence with police authorities about the financial situation and political views of Jewish residents living in Estonia. There are also lists of Jews with foreign citizenship who lived in Estonia; the lists contain personal data such as date of birth, occupation, time spent in Estonia, etc. (see: ERA.1.9.434). There is also a folder containing lists of Jews who had received visas for transit through Estonia in 1923 (ERA.1.10.316).
The collection includes materials about Jewish migrants who arrived in Estonia towards the end of 1920s and in the 1930s. These are materials about Latvian Jews in Estonia (two folders: ERA.1.1.7442, dated 1927; ERA.1.1.7851, dated 1936-1937), as well as two folders about Jews who had arrived from Germany in 1933 (ERA.1.1.7772, a report of the commissioner of the Railway Police) and in 1938 (ERA.1.1.7946, a report from the Commissioner of the Port of Tallinn). One folder includes a letter from the Estonian Embassy in Rome regarding Jews who were forced to leave Italy (ERA.1.1.7947, dated 1938). Two folders contain correspondence concerning Jewish immigrants entering Estonia in 1938 (ERA.1.1.7944) and between 1938 and 1940 (ERA.1.1.7945. In particular, this folder includes materials about Jews who had arrived from Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Norway). There is also an investigation file from the Estonian Border Guard regarding a case on 16 Jewish refugees from Sweden who were hiding on Saaremaa Island in 1939 (ERA.1.1.7988)
In addition, there are two folders with materials on the registration and issue of the Gazette of the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority of Estonia (“E.V. Juudi Kultuurvalitsuse Teataja”) in 1927 and 1933 (ERA.1.7.463, ERA.1.7.539).
- Archival history:
- The collection was accessioned by the State Archive in Tallinn in 1940. It was reorganised during the period between 1949 and 1963 when the State Archive was governed by Moscow. Currently the collection is held at the National Archives of Estonia in Tallinn. The collection was added to the Estonian Archival Information System (AIS) in the 2000s.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Estonian Police was established in 1918. From 1919 to 1940 it was a national agency subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. The present collection contains files from the police governing body which was renamed several times and known as Police Headquarters (Politsei Peavalitsus; 1918-1934), Police directorate (Politseivalitsus; 1934-1938), Police Service (Politseitalitus; 1938-1940); the collection is named according to the last official name of the agency. The Police Service was abolished in 1940 at the start of the Soviet occupation.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is structured in thematic sections, within sections the folders are arranged chronologically. There are 11 inventories in the collection, Jewish-related cases are in inv. 1, 7, 9, and 10. In AIS the cases should be found in the sections “Secretariat, Aliens committee” (est. Sekretariaat, Välismaalaste toimkond), “Political Police Inspectorate > Newspaper and journals registration files” (est. Poliitilise politsei inspektuur > Ajalehtede ja ajakirjade registreerimistoimikud), “Border control government and Border Police > Registry books, lists of aliens” (est. Piirikontrolli Valitsus ja piiripolitsei > Registratuurraamatud, välismaalaste nimekirjad).
- Finding aids:
- On the organisation of the Estonia Police, see: Lindmäe, H. “Eesti Vabariigi Politseiorganisatsioonist.” Tartu Ülikooli Toimetised, Vol. 916 (Kriminaaljuristike Küsimusi), 1990, pp. 50-57.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Antonina Martynenko