Metadata: City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee
Collection
- Country:
- Serbia
- Holding institution:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Holding institution (official language):
- Историјски архив Београда (Istorijski arhiv Beograda)
- Postal address:
- Palmira Toljatija 1, 11070 Belgrade; PAK 190446
- Phone number:
- (+381) 11 2606-336
- Web address:
- https://www.arhiv-beograda.org
- Email:
- office@arhiv-beograda.org
- Reference number:
- IAB-42
- Title:
- City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee
- Title (official language):
- Народни одбор I рејона града Београда
- Creator/accumulator:
- City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee
- Date(s):
- 1945/1952
- Language:
- Serbian
- Extent:
- 100.5 linear metres (312 volumes, 606 boxes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection comprises the records of the City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee, including those of the Executive Board of the Committee, Department of General Affairs, Department of Finance, and Department of Housing, Commission for Voters’ Register and Department of Trade and Supplies.
The Department of General Affairs was organised in several units: Inheritance Division, Civil Status Office and Commission for War Damage Claims, and its documentation is of exceptional importance for studying the Jewish community in Belgrade. The documents provide evidence of the devastation of the entire Belgrade Jewish community during the Second World War, as well as the property Jews owned before the war.
The records of Inheritance Division include those related to deceased persons who had possessed properties on the territory of the First Belgrade District. Among other records, 335 records proving property rights of Jews who had perished during the war were preserved. Each record contains the death certificate of the victim (death certificates were issued after the war for persons executed at the beginning of the war), property inventory, property evaluation and occasionally property deeds to the house. Death certificates contain the personal data of the victim and of his or her family, home address, any surviving heirs if known; data on personal belongings and property. Many death certificates reveal the circumstances in which a person died or in which concentration camp he or she was killed.
The Civil Status Office documents includes renunciations of citizenship of Jewish citizens after 1949 due to their relocation to Israel. These records also contain personal data on the individuals and their family members, and property they left behind in Yugoslavia (which was nationalised as property belonging to foreign citizens).
The Commission for War Damage Claims produced a large amount of documents related to Jews in Belgrade and claims that Jews who survived filed for compensation for the war damages they had suffered, personally or on behalf of the family members who had died during the war. On behalf of families with no surviving members the City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee itself, the People’s Property Management Office or the Jewish Community in Belgrade filed the property claims. Each war damage claim contains personal data of a citizen who suffered damage: first and last name, father’s name, profession, date of birth, nationality. The same data are available for the person who submitted the claim. The claims contain detailed information on damage caused to real estate and other property, often accompanied by the lists of belongings confiscated or destroyed in the war. Financial losses in terms of income not received were calculated and recorded as well. In some cases, emotional and physical damage was claimed for compensation, too. Persons or authorities who caused the damage and the total amount calculated for the damage compensation were recorded. Some claims preserve information on how a person survived the Holocaust. The Commission for War Damage Claims also gathered data on citizens who were killed in World War II. Death reports for Jewish citizens were submitted by surviving relatives, neighbours, by the City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee or by Jewish Religious Community. All death reports contained personal information of the victim: first and last name, father’s name, age, profession, permanent residence prior to the war. The report described how the person died and sometimes they indicated the eminent members of his/her family. Reports of death also contained data on the person who submitted them.
- Archival history:
- The People’s Committee of the Municipality of Stari Grad and the Secretariat of the General Administration of the Municipality of Stari Grad handed over the records in 1956 and 1974. The collection is incomplete.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee was founded in May 1945 by the Decision of Executive People’s Committee of the City of Belgrade. District People's Committees were the first civil authority in Belgrade after the Second World War. The 1st District Committee comprised the territories within the boundaries of Second and Third People’s Liberating District Committee i.e. territory spreading from the Sava and the Danube river fronts to Zeleni Venac. The City of Belgrade 1st District People's Committee was abolished by the Decision of People’s District Committee at the end of 1952. All functions of the Committee were taken over by People’s Committee of the Municipality of Stari Grad.
- Access points: locations:
- Belgrade
- System of arrangement:
- The documents are arranged according to the principle of provenance.
- Access, restrictions:
- The archive material of the fonds is available according to the regulations of the Historical Archives of Belgrade.
- Finding aids:
- The following finding aids are available: summary inventory; analytical descriptions.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.arhiv-beograda.org/en/fonds-and-collections/search
- Yerusha Network member:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Author of the description:
- Tijana Kovčić; Historical Archives of Belgrade; 2019
