Metadata: Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka
Collection
- Country:
- Serbia
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Vojvodina
- Holding institution (official language):
- Архив Војводине (Arhiv Vojvodine)
- Postal address:
- Žarka Vasiljevića 2а, 21101 Novi Sad
- Phone number:
- (+381 21) 4891-800
- Web address:
- https://www.arhivvojvodine.org.rs/index.php
- Email:
- info@arhivvojvodine.org.rs
- Reference number:
- F. 20
- Title:
- Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka
- Title (official language):
- Komesarijat za Srednju i Donju Bačku
- Creator/accumulator:
- Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka (Sombor)
- Date(s):
- 1849/1853
- Language:
- German
- Hungarian
- Latin
- Extent:
- 3.5 linear metres (28 boxes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka from 1849 to 1853 include records on Jewish citizens. The most important documents were related to the Jewish school fund. According to the decision of 1851 all Jews were obliged to contribute 20 forints to the fund. A survey in the collection gives detailed specifications of the contributions for each county and town. The majority of the documents show the dynamics of the contributions paid into the fund: problems that arose related to the delay of payments; Eugen Radišić reported to the Land Administration about the payments of certain Jewish communities; the Jewish religious community of Čonoplja and Krnjaje complained about Jozef Lebl, a community treasurer, for demanding contributions that were too high in 1851; Commissioner Radišić reported to the Land Administration that the Commissariat for the Upper Bačka directly provided information on payments and debts to the Jewish School Fund, which in 1852 totalled 22,000 forints. Several documents testified to the problems with the payment of the third and the fourth instalments in 1852 to the Jewish School Fund.
The collection includes the bank statements of the fourth instalment to the fund for the municipalities of Bač, Baja, Bezdan and Palanka, as well as the report of the Commissariat in Sombor from 1852 related to payments. Numerous orders were made by commissar Radišić to the county officials in 1853 charged to collect debts made by the Jewish religious communities which were to be contributed to the fund. There are also reports of Jewish communities from Odžak, Srpski Miletić, Crvenka, Krušćića, Bukin and Veprovac related to school contributions; documents referring to the closing of unauthorised Jewish schools in Bezdan and Bačka Palanka and sending pupils to regular schools; documents on the Jewish school in Novi Vrbas; some rich Jews refused further to help poor students in the Jewish school in Bačka Palanka.
The collection also contains information related to war taxes collected from Jews: the supreme commissioner Isidor Nikolić communicated to commissioner Eugen Radišić that the war taxes which had to be collected from the Jewish citizens would be delayed for a short time; commissioner Eugen Radišić in 1850 forwarded to the commissioners of the districts the order of the Command of the Third Army to exempt from tax all Jews who did not take part in the Hungarian uprising; commissioner Radišić‘s Notice of 1851, sent to the commissioners of the districts, to allow Jewish religious communities to collect voluntary contributions for subjects of Jewish religion living in the Holy Land (Palestine), but with the approval of the Land administration and without sending a collector; report on the movements of Protestant priests and Jewish rabbis. There are also a court file of a case against a Jew, the holder of a permit to serve alcohol drinks, and a record related to the master exam of a Jew, a tailor’s apprentice who had not participated in the uprising.
- Archival history:
- The records of the Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka Sombor (1849–1853) are categorised as being of exceptional importance. The collection was deposited in the Historical Archives of Sremski Karlovci in 1956.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- After the collapse of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848/49, the chief commander of the Imperial army, Haynau, appointed commissars in military districts of the counties of Southern Hungary. The Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka (Regierungs-Commissariat für Nieder- und Mittel-Batschka) was established and Isidor Nikolić (1849-1852) was appointed chief commissar in Bačka, Toronal and Vršac county. Evgenije Radišić, an experienced administrator, was appointed supreme commissar of the Commissariat and successfully implemented all instructions, until his mandate was taken over by the newly formed administration of Serbian Voivodeship and Tamish Banat. The Commissariat for Middle and Lower Bačka ceased to operate in 1853.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Lebl, Jozef
- System of arrangement:
- The documents were arranged according to the principle of provenance.
- Finding aids:
- The following finding aids are available: summary catalogue; analytical catalogue; indices.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Author of the description:
- Snežana Božanić; Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad; 2019
