Metadata: Jan Etrich Limited Partnership, Trutnov
Collection
- Country:
- Czechia
- Holding institution:
- State District Archives Trutnov
- Holding institution (official language):
- Státní okresní archiv Trutnov
- Postal address:
- Komenského 128, Trutnov 1, 541 01
- Phone number:
- 00420 499 829 411
- Email:
- soka-tu@centrum.cz
- Reference number:
- 2462
- Title:
- Jan Etrich Limited Partnership, Trutnov
- Title (official language):
- Jan Etrich k. s., Trutnov
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jan Etrich Limited Partnership, Trutnov
- Date(s):
- 1881/1948
- Language:
- Czech
- German
- Extent:
- 3.38 linear metres
- Physical condition:
- poor
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains records of the Jan Etrich Limited Partnership, Trutnov, including reports of receivables from and liabilities to Germany with supporting documents (some relating to the Gross-Rosen subcamp at Bernartice) from 1945–46; undated time sheets for work done by Jewish female prisoners between 27 September and 10 October at the company's works in Hostinné; a card file of POWs and forced labourers working at the company between 1940 and 1945; weekly time sheets for work done by employees at the spinning mill, including POWs and Russian labourers, between 1944 and 1945; and the employee Arbeitsbuch (labour book) for 1939–45. These sources are important evidence of the exploitation of the labour force by Nazi Germany during the second world war. Also of interest are documents that testify to the attempts at gaining ownership of the Jewish-owned joint-stock company Lnářský a jutařský průmysl (Flax and Jute Industry), formerly known as M. and J. Oesterreicher & Sons, Hostinné. The materials are kept in box 4.
- Archival history:
- Only a fraction of the records in this fonds have been preserved. The fonds was taken from the Texlen 13 Plant in Mladé Buky in 1963, having previously been kept in the business archive of the state-owned enterprise Lenka, where it underwent a temporary inventory in 1958. The inventoried fonds is now kept in the depository of the state district archive in Trutnov.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The flax spinning mill of Josef Etrich was put into operation in 1852. Following the German occupation of the Bohemian lands, the company left the Prague-based group Juta (Jute), labelling it a Jewish enterprise. During the second world war, its production became oriented towards the war effort. As early as 1938, the company tried to gain ownership of the Jewish-owned joint-stock company Lnářský a jutařský průmysl (Flax and Jute Industry), formerly known as M. and J. Oesterreicher & Sons, Hostinné. In order to deal with manpower shortages, the company made considerable use of forced labour, in particular that of Jewish female prisoners and POWs. From 1941 onwards, female prisoners worked in the jute spinning mill in Bernartice, where 300 of them were placed in a barrack camp built for the purpose. After liberation, the company was put under national administration. It was subsequently nationalised and incorporated into the state-owned Czech Flax and Textile Works in Trutnov, later becoming part of the state-owned enterprise Texlen.
- Access points: locations:
- Trutnov
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is arranged as follows: A) Company records - I) Company management and administration, II) Employees (POWs and prisoners), III) Accounting and reporting, IV) Production, V) Construction documents, VI) Photographs. B) Records relating to the company owners I) Hotel Bílý oř, II) Steinbrecher family.
- Finding aids:
- Smutný B., Jan Etrich, komanditní společnost, Trutnov 1901 - 1946. Sdružený inventář, 1981, 53 s., ev. č. 506.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Prague
- Author of the description:
- JMP Survey, 2015.