Zett, Chocolate and Sweets Factory, Ostrava

Collection

Scope and content:: Only a small volume of documents have survived. These materials mainly relate to the beginnings of the Jewish firm Zuckermann and construction of the factory in the 1920s. The period of the German administration of the firm and its new owner Walter Pindur is also covered by only a small number of documents, mainly of an accounting nature. There are more documents covering the post-war era. Amongst the most interesting of these are the files on the restitution requests of heirs for the return of confiscated Jewish property, protests of employees against return of the factory and court proceedings in this matter (inv. № 3). The period of national administration is documented by documents associated with the nationalisation of the enterprise.

Archival history:: The documents were transferred to the State Regional Archives in 1977 from the company archive of Opavia, plant Opava as unarranged. Another unarranged addition was transferred in 1999 from the company archive of national enterprise Oděvní průmysl, Prostějov via the Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno. In 2007 the fonds was arranged and an inventory was created.

Administrative/biographical history:: In 1900 Isidor Zuckermann founded a small plant for the production of boiled sweets and oriental goods in Ostrava. In 1914 he used the money he had made to buy the Hebling print works in Ostrava. He gradually built up a factory for the production of boiled sweets and chocolate called Zett, chocolate and sweet factory I. Zuckermann. After Isidor Zuckermann's death in 1939, his children took over the business. In spite of the fact that the owners claimed to be of German nationality, the firm was “Aryanised”, and in 1939 the forced administrator Ludwig Lorenz took over its running. It was purchased in 1943 by Walter Pindur, the owner of a chocolate works in Ostrava. After the war the firm continued in the production of sweets until 1948, when it was nationalised and incorporated into Silesian Fine Pastry Industry in Opava. After the war the only living heirs Julius Zuckermann and MUDr. Erich Steiner requested their inheritance. In spite of all evidence proving Jewish heritage, the property was not returned to them.

Subject terms:: Financial records; Legal matters; Manufacturing; Plunder; Plunder--Aryanisation; Restitution and compensation; Trade and commerce

System of arrangement:: The fonds is arranged according to an artificial system as follows: I. Files, II. a) Management and administration, b) Investments and construction; II. Accounting material: 1. Accounting books, 2. Accounting files, 2. III. Construction - technical documentation: 1. Construction documentation, 2. Technical documentation.

Finding aids:: Jahnová A.: Zett, továrna na čokoládu a cukrovinky Ostrava, 1919-1949. Inventář, 2007, 12 s., č. p. 1595. An inventory is available online.