Metadata: Town Hall and Popular Council of Gheorgheni
Collection
- Country:
- Romania
- Holding institution:
- Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Serviciul Judetean Harghita al Arhivelor Nationale
- Postal address:
- Bulevardul Frăției 6, Miercurea Ciuc 530112, jud. Harghita
- Phone number:
- 0266-312598
- Reference number:
- Fond 1
- Title:
- Town Hall and Popular Council of Gheorgheni
- Title (official language):
- Primăria și sfatul popular al orașului Gheorgheni
- Creator/accumulator:
- Town Hall and Popular Council of Gheorgheni
- Date(s):
- 1693/1975
- Language:
- German
- Hungarian
- Latin
- Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan
- Extent:
- 74.5 linear metres (896 files)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains the records of the Town Hall and Popular Council of the town of Gheorgheni from the period 1693-1975, concerning the economic, social, political and cultural life of the town and its surroundings. Many documents concern the rights of Armenians to open shops, pubs and butcher’s shops and to use the pastures of the town. Other records refer to the commercial relationships with Moldavia. From the end of the 19th century onwards many industrial and trade licences appear as evidence of the modernisation of the town’s economy.
Documents of Jewish interest can be found in particular in the following files: No. 182 (concerning the building of the synagogue, 1927), No. 212 (census of the population of the town according to ethnic origin, 1940); No. 213 (prohibition of access to fairs and markets for Jewish merchants, 1941), No. 224 (statute of the Jewish Democratic Committee, 1945), No. 225 (Jewish properties, 1945), No. 226 (registration of death of those deported in Holocaust, 1946) and No. 230 (problems of nationality rights).
Jewish references also appear in the registers of the merchants and craftsmen from the interwar period, in nationality registers, in electoral lists from 1925 and in the draft registers from 1901 to 1925.
- Archival history:
- The fonds was transferred to the Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives in 1969 and 1984, where it was inventoried and made available to researchers. A part of the records referring to the period 1850-1895 is held at the Cluj County division of the Romanian National Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The town of Gheorgheni was the residence of the Szekler district of Giurgeu (Gyergyo) until the modern reorganisation of the territorial administration in the second half of the 19th century. In 1668 an Armenian community was accepted into the town, which gave a specific impulse to the local economy. Around 1850 there were over 40 Armenian shops. In 1876 Gheorgheni became the centre of the district of the same name within Ciuc county.
In the interwar period, the timber industry developed in town, employing over 3,500 people. There was a significant Jewish community, which was heavily affected by the Hungarian antisemitic legislation between 1940 and 1944. The community was deported to Auschwitz in May-June 1944.
After the institution of the Communist regime in 1948 the Town Hall was replaced by the so-called Popular Council.
- Access points: locations:
- Ciuc
- Gheorgheni
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is organised in three series: loose leaves, files and registers, each of which is arranged in chronological order.
- Finding aids:
- Inventory No. 1, held by the Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Romanian Institute for the Research of National Minorities
- Author of the description:
- Levente Tóth (archivist, Protestant Theological Institute Cluj), Ladislau Gyémánt (emeritus professor), 2017