Metadata: Secondary Archives
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- State Archive of Basel City
- Holding institution (official language):
- Staatsarchiv Basel Stadt
- Postal address:
- Martinsgasse 2, CH-4051 Basel
- Phone number:
- +41 61 267 86 01
- Web address:
- https://www.staatsarchiv.bs.ch/
- Email:
- stabs@bs.ch
- Reference number:
- IGB-REG
- Title:
- Secondary Archives
- Title (official language):
- Nebenarchive
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community of Basel
- Date(s):
- 1807/2004
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 36 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The secondary archives contain the archive of the Jewish Community of Basel. The holdings are divided into several subdivisions. A Organisation, B Authorities and Administration, C Civil Servants and Employees, D Financial, E Construction, F Cemetery, G Rituals, H Israelite Welfare (former poor people's fund, etc.), J Loan Fund, K Job Placement, L Asylum Hegenheim, M Youth Work, N Education/Library, O Religious School, P Kindergarten/Primary School, Q Associations, R Jewish Communities/Foreign Relations, S Antisemitism/Foreign Relations, T Press Collection, U Zionism, V Photographic Material, W Security, X Age Issues, Z Separate Judaica. The Community Archive contains documents from the period 1807 to 2004, with a focus on the period between 1860 and 1981.
Three account books from the period before 1860 contain information on the financial contributions of the community members from 1807 to 1813 and from 1821 to 1827; there are also accounting documents from 1845 onward. Worthy of special mention are the almost complete minutes of the central community committees (community assembly and board of directors), the documentation of the community elections, the extensive holdings on the synagogue, the community houses and the cemetery, the materials on shechita, the documents on the religious school, youth and educational activities as well as the very extensive files on welfare. Interesting smaller collections on the foreign aid of the community (especially for Alsace in 1945/46) or the defence against antisemitism after 1933 complete the collection. Unfortunately, there are larger gaps in terms of both time and content. This concerns in particular the membership, personnel and tax files. The latter have apparently been destroyed to a greater extent in the course of the delivery.
Of particular historical value are the files on the rabbinates of Arthur Cohn and Arthur Weil. Above all their surviving employment applications of 1883, 1925 and 1954 provide insight into the biographical sketches and professional paths of these German-speaking rabbis beyond their activities in the community. The same applies to the often depressing applications for teaching positions in the 1930s. Personal files on refugees during the Second World War do not exist since the documents in question were centrally administered and are – as far as they have survived – in the archives of the Association of Jewish Welfare Workers in Zurich.
There is hardly any documentation of the manifold activities of the numerous Jewish associations that were important for community life. In addition, the activity reports of the Jewish Women's Association in the Swiss National Library (V BS 2072) as well as various anniversary publications on associations (Shomre Torah Men's Association, Jewish Men's Association Espérance, Jewish Men's Association Chevroh Dowor Tow, Jewish Gymnastics Association) in the library of the State Archive should therefore be mentioned. An exception is the Jewish Youth Welfare Association of Basel (Ezer Lano‘ar) [until 1951: Association for the Education of Israelite Orphans] under Q 11. The minute book documents its activities from 1893-1970 in detail; after that, the minutes of the general meetings until the dissolution of the association in 1990 are available. In addition, there are membership lists that cover the years 1958-1985.
The annual reports of the Israelitische Fürsorge consisting of report, invoice and list of donations under ITUC-REGa H 4 are printed separately up to and including the 1972 annual report. Thereafter, the report and invoice are integrated into the Annual Report of the Jewish Community of Basel (see ITUC-REGa A 4). The list of donations continues to appear separately. The files of individual aid cases under ITUC-REGa H 8.4 (2) are usually rather thin and document mainly short-term support. It is to be assumed that some of the detailed personal files are stored in the archives of the Association of Swiss Jewish Welfare/Refugee Assistance (VSJF) in the Archive of Contemporary History in Zurich. The documents in ITUC-REGa H 11.10.1 to 3 do not contain any personal files but rather correspondence with the Association of Swiss Jewish Relief/Refugee Assistance (VSJF) concerning the refugees to be cared for. Lists of names are enclosed with the corresponding series. The personal files, if still available, are kept in the VSJF's archive in the Archive for Contemporary History in Zurich.
Accrual (3): In January 2005, Noëmi Sibold handed over the typescripts for the commemorative publication on the occasion of the synagogue’s 100th anniversary in 1968. She herself had used these texts in the editing of the volume “200 Years Jewish Community Basel“. In addition, Accrual (3) was assigned a single item without delivery date (ITUC-REGa 6.6 (3).
Accrual (4): These are correspondence files from 1962 to 1964.
Accrual (1): With the exception of tax files, all documents still available in 1980 were taken over.
Accrual (2): Copies of existing correspondence from the administration up to 1980 as well as various invoice and bank documents were collected.
- Archival history:
-
The main part of the collection was transferred to the State Archive in 1980. Following an initial sighting, the files of the Jewish Hospital were taken out and set up separately as PA (Private Archive) 792. Eventually, smaller deliveries from the Jewish Community, from Katja Guth (part of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland) and from the Basel Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (renovation of the synagogue in 1986-87) completed the collection. Originally recorded as PA 793, the archive is now listed as IGB-REG.
The cataloguing work took place in three phases and proved to be extremely time-consuming. At first, the holdings were recorded in a card index. In a second step, a provisional order followed. In order to standardise the inventory, the Old Archive of the municipality, which had been ordered and registered in 1912, was dissolved and assigned accordingly. Once the decision had been made, this situation, which was unsatisfactory from an archival and historical point of view, could no longer be corrected in the final phase of cataloguing. The Old Archive register can be found under signature B 4.3. The old signatures of those volumes that were left in the Old Archive were noted, so that the inventory can be partially reconstructed. In the last phase the provisional order was checked, partly revised and rearranged. Older documents that were previously in the Printed Matter collection (DS SB 189, 460, 461, 462, 674, 840, 840a, 841, 843, 844, 953, 1230, 1332) were assigned.
The documents of Accrual (2) reached the State Archive on 18 September 2003. Plans concerning the constructions of a new community hall, a new funerary hall at the Jewish cemetery and of apartments for the elderly were separated and integrated into the Planarchiv.
Accrual (4): in 2010, four folders with correspondence A-K from 1962, correspondence A-Z from 1963 and correspondence A-K from 1964 were delivered; they were found in the attic of the Small Synagogue (kindergarten). The reason why they were located there and not in the archive‘s basement under the synagogue is unknown. The documents constitute the missing correspondence files of Accrual (2).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The oldest document in the State Archive, a monastery charter, dates back to 1098. The city archive was destroyed in the Basel earthquake of 1356. Since then, administrative activities have been closely preserved in most areas. The online archive catalogue offers numerous research options. Selected photographic and film documents as well as some 420,000 pages of written documents can be viewed online via the archive catalogue.
- Access points: locations:
- Basel
- Access, restrictions:
- Partially closed access. Subject to application.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available, although the information is often rudimentary.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://query.staatsarchiv.bs.ch/query/suchinfo.aspx
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2020