Productivisation Department of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma

Title:: Productivisation Department of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Title (official language):: Wydział Produktywizacji Centralnego Komitetu Żydów w Polsce

Creator/accumulator:: Productivisation Department of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland

Scope and content:: The collection contains materials generated between 1945 and 1948 by the Productivity Department of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (CKŻP) and its autonomous agency, the Cooperative Bank for the Productivisation of Jews (Bank Spółdzielczy dla Produktywizacji Żydów) from 1945 to 1950.

Organisational dossier (circulars, minutes and records, reports, statistical materials, correspondence): units 1-50.

Personal files (staff, individual employment referrals for workplaces across Poland, lists of loan applicants, loan applications): units 51-63.

Financial dossier (including budget estimates): units 64-70.

Dossier of the Cooperative Bank for the Productivisation of Jews (statute; circulars; minutes and records; correspondence; lists of loan applicants; loan applications; membership declarations): units 71-102.

Dossier of the cooperatives (including statute-related material; lists of cooperatives; materials related to various cooperatives): units 103-109.

Dossier of the Agrarian Coordination Commission (correspondence): unit 110.

Records of regional branches (including reports; correspondence; name lists; applications): units111-175.

Annex (organisational dossier; financial dossier; regional branch records): units 176-183.

Archival history:: With the dissolution of the CKŻP in 1950, the documents of the Productivisation Department and of the Cooperative Bank for the Productivisation of Jews were made part of the Jewish Historical Institute’s (ŻIH) collection. The original volume of the archive and details of initial ordering or rearrangement work and sorting out of the fund are unknown. The bank’s archive has been significantly trimmed, mainly of documents of no historical value, such as cash vouchers.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Productivisation Department, initially named the Department for Productivisation Affairs, was set up in February 1945. Its task was to “recognise, supervise, and coordinate any and all doings in the area of productivisation and economic restoration of the Jewish population in Poland”. Specifically, the unit was to create and run employment offices, production cooperatives, individual workshops, (specialised) agricultural farms and vocational skills update courses. The department’s autonomous agency was the Cooperative Bank for the Productivisation of Jews, which was intended to support private and collective business activities of Jews in Poland. The department was wound up in February 1948, its tasks being taken over by other agencies of the CKŻP, and the bank was dissolved in March 1950.

Subject terms:: Financial matters--Banks, banking, and bankers; Trade and commerce

Finding aids:: A catalogue in Polish was compiled in 2009-11 and is accessible online.

It includes indices of personal and geographical names.

Author of the description:: Monika Taras; Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma; 2015