Metadata: Administration of Gurahonţ prefecture
Collection
- Country:
- Romania
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Romania, Arad county directorate
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arhivele Nationale Române. Direcţia judeţeană Arad
- Postal address:
- Strada Piotr Ilici Ceaikovski 2-6, 310052 Arad
- Phone number:
- 0040-257-233818
- Reference number:
- 773
- Title:
- Administration of Gurahonţ prefecture
- Title (official language):
- Pretura plăşii Gurahonţ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Administration of Gurahonţ prefecture
- Date(s):
- 1941/1950
- Language:
- Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan
- Extent:
- 91 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The fonds comprises the files created during the activity of the administration of Gurahonţ prefecture in Arad county between 1941 and 1950. The files contain records of the local council, of the administrative conferences of the mayors of the prefecture’s localities, reports concerning the inspections and controls in mayor’s offices, and provisions and instructions sent by the county authorities. As this area had a considerable Jewish population, the records refer to their status both during and after the Holocaust era, particularly the enactment by the local administration of the antisemitic legislation introduced by the Antonescu regime. This included especially the so-called “Romanisation” process of Jewish properties, forced labour detachments and restrictions concerning the autonomy of the Jewish communities (see files No. 7/1941 and No. 7/1942). There are also records concerning the restitution process after 1945 and the situation of the Jewish population in the early period of the Communist regime.
- Archival history:
- The fonds was preserved by the mayor’s offices of the localities of Gurahonţ prefecture. It was then transferred to the Arad county directorate of the Romanian National Archives, inventoried and made available to researchers.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Gurahonţ prefecture was part of Arad county, which was reorganised after 1867 in accordance with the law of administrative structure of the Hungarian half of the newly constituted Austro-Hungarian Empire. This organisational system functioned until the end of the First World War, being subordinated to the provisions of the government and parliament in Budapest. After 1920 the local administration was reorganised in the framework of the Romanian Kingdom. In the inter-war period it was subject to various modifications dictated by the laws adopted by parliament in Bucharest. In 1940 the dictatorship of general Antonescu began, which reorganised the local administration in a military manner with a strict subordination of local and prefecture institutions to those of the county, with the counties being under strong central control. The objective was to mobilise the local resources completely for the necessities of the war and to implement all central policies, including antisemitic regulations. After 1945 the inter-war system of administration was restored for several years, until in 1950 the newly installed Communist regime fundamentally changed the model of local administration.
- Access points: locations:
- Gurahonţ
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is organised in thematic sections, within which the files are arranged in chronological order.
- Finding aids:
- Inventory no.1026, held by the Arad county directorate of the Romanian National Archives.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Romanian Institute for the Research of National Minorities
- Author of the description:
- Attila Gidó, researcher, Institute for Study of National Minorities Cluj-Napoca - 2018; Ladislau Gyémánt, emeritus professor - 2018
