Metadata: Records of the City of Wieliczka
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- Oddział III, 30-960 Kraków, ul. Sienna 16
- Phone number:
- +48 (12) 422 40 94
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 29/117/0 [A, B, C, D]
- Title:
- Records of the City of Wieliczka
- Title (official language):
- Akta miasta Wieliczki
- Creator/accumulator:
- Council of the Town of Wieliczka; Municipal Board of Wieliczka; Chamberlain [podkomorzy] of Krakow; Starost of Wieliczka; Burgomaster [burmistrz] of the Town of Wieliczka; City Commissioner [Stadtkommissar]; Jewish Council [Judenrat] of the Town of Wieliczka
- Date(s):
- 1393/1945
- Date note:
- 1393; 1423; 1537-1945
- Language:
- German
- Polish
- Latin
- Extent:
- 322 units (9.88 linear metres)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This fonds covers the area of Wieliczka, Lednica, Grabówki, Klasne (Klasno) and Siercza. Wieliczka is a town set up in the 13th century and located today in the Voivodeship of Małopolska [Lesser Poland] (województwo małopolskie), County (powiat) of Wieliczka, Metropolitan Area of Krakow; known for its salt mine. In the Middle Ages, Jews were involved in the local salt mining business. Between the 16th century and the 1780s Jews were officially barred from the city (based on the municipal privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis).
The Jewish-related materials dating to the pre-Partition era primarily include ordinances and municipal privileges kept in the vogt and aldermen’s court records and, basically, (re)confirming the residential ban and ban on pursuit of trade operations in Wieliczka imposed on Jews, as well as factoring privileges granted to those Jews who were excepted from the ban. After Wieliczka became part of the Austrian Partition (from 1772 onwards), Jews began settling in the neighbourhood of Klasno outside Wieliczka. The Jewish-related materials dating to the former half of the 19th century mainly consist of the Municipal Council’s correspondence with criminal courts and salt-mine administration. Most of these materials require good knowledge of German paleography.
The rights of Jews became equal to those of the other residents in 1867; ever since, the Jewish population of Wieliczka and Klasno increased, and consequently more and more mentions of Jews appear in the sources. A Jewish metrical court and district court were set up in Klasno. Three synagogues, kheders, a mikvah and a cemetery have survived in Wieliczka. In the 1918-39 inter-war period, the families of Friedman (wood dealers), Perlberger (tanners, spirits traders) and Gold (paper makers) played a significant role locally. Apart from trade, which was entirely dominated by Jews, the Jewish intelligentsia formed a noticeable group of the town’s community (the barristers Weinberger, Koenigsberger, Horowitz; Spitzel, a physician; Hirsch, a veterinarian; bankers). Members of the Frenkel family were the local rabbis. In the 1920s-1930s Jews held positions with the town council, were members of municipal committees and commissions (for electricity, estimation of the inventory of the Commune’s estate, construction, and law) and joined the county economic council (Rosenzweig, Horowitz). The names often reappearing in the records include Gabriel Wasserberger, Izrael Lax, Berl Fraenkel, Salamon Friedmann, Mojżesz Licht, Samuel Perlberger, Pinkas Mueller, Abraham Rosenzweig, Mojżesz Klinghofer, and others.
For the last decade of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, a considerable quantity of Jewish-related materials is found in announcements of the kaiserlich und königlich (k.u.k.), i.e. Austro-Hungarian, Governorship in Lwów, k.u.k. Governorship in Krakow, k.u.k. Board of Lotteries, and k.u.k. Starosty (administrative authority) of Wieliczka. A considerable part of the interwar material comprises treasury and tax records (including lists of Jewish taxpayers, rents from Jewish stalls and butcheries), budgetary documents showing the municipality’s policies toward Jewish residents, as well as sanitary and construction records. The personal records of the municipal veterinarian Dr Hermann Hirsch form a separate unit. Persecutions of Jews by the German authorities during the Second World War are attested by numerous applications from Jews (several hundred applications in two units), mainly from Krakow and other locations in Lesser Poland, who sought resettlement in Wieliczka as they wanted to avoid being enclosed in a ghetto elsewhere. There are also receipts issued to Jews for administrative fees and quittances for compulsory contributions. The Municipal Board records from 1939-41 are valuable as they precisely show how Jewish people were deployed within the town area (by street).
- Archival history:
- There is no inventory or handover report for the records. The records were probably kept at Wieliczka’s Town Hall or at the archive of the local Municipal Council. The National Archives in Krakow probably took over the collection after the Second World War. Initially, a temporary inventory was compiled for these units.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Before the Partitions of Poland, Wieliczka was governed by the ‘assessorial office’ headed by the vogt and the town council nominated by the royal chamberlain. From the 17th century onwards, the town council office and the town’s commonalty elected the vogt, aldermen, and treasury commissioners. In the Austrian period, after 1772, Wieliczka was the seat of cyrkuł (district administration office), but subsequently was supervised by the cyrkuł of Bochnia. The municipality was headed by a burgomaster. Since the second half of the 19th century, the municipal council was overseen by the District Department of Wieliczka. The town council had between 12 and 36 members. In the interwar period, until 1932, Wieliczka was the seat of a county (powiat). The town was occupied by the Germans from 1939 to 1945 and was a seat of the municipal commissioner that controlled the office of burgomaster. The Jewish people’s affairs were formally left to the discretion of the Judenrat (Jewish council). From autumn 1939, Jews from Lesser Poland were concentrated in an ‘open ghetto’ in Wieliczka’s suburb of Klasno,
- System of arrangement:
-
The fonds is arranged as follows:
A. Old Polish Records, 1393-1788 [1867]
I. Documents, 1393-1788 [1867] (29/117/1-7)
II. Registers/books, 1557-1627 (29/117/8-11)
III. Records re. the town/municipality, 1671-1772 (29/117/12-17)
IV. Records re. burghers, 1614-1788 (29/117/18-32)
V. Records re. the Holy Spirit Hospital, 1537-1713 (29/117/33)
VI. Records of the guilds, 1602-1769 (29/117/34)
B. Municipal Council of Wieliczka (Stadtmagistrat in Wieliczka), 1777-1866
I. Book of normalia, 1794-1806 (29/117/35)
II. Court files, 1777-1795 (29/117/36-37)
III. Records and registers of the municipal administration, 1785-1868 (29/117/38-83)
C. Municipal Board of Wieliczka [1826] 1867-1939 [1940]
I. General Organisational Section, 1848-1939 (29/117/84-175, 323-337)
II. Financial and Budgetary Section, 1826-1939 (29/117/176-225)
III. Communal Management Section, 1868-1939 (29/117/226-243)
IV. Administrative Section, 1867-1940 (29/117/244-269)
V. Chancellery/office aids, 1867-1915 (29/117/270-286)
VI. Correspondence, 1913 (29/117/287)
D. Municipal Board of Wieliczka (Stadtverwaltung in Wieliczka), [1914] 1939-1945
I. General Administrative Section, 1914-1943 (29/117/288-289)
II. Financial and Budgetary Section, 1939-1944 (29/117/290-298)
III. Communal Management Section, 1941-1944 (29/117/299-300)
IV. Administrative Section, 1940-1945 (29/117/301-321)
V. Staff matters, 1924-1941 (29/117/322)
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Przemysław Zarubin, Kraków, 2018