Metadata: Białystok Voivodship Office
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archives in Białystok
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe w Białymstoku
- Postal address:
- Adama Mickiewicza 101, 15-257 Białystok
- Phone number:
- +48 85 743 56 03
- Web address:
- http://www.bialystok.ap.gov.pl/
- Reference number:
- 4/71
- Title:
- Białystok Voivodship Office
- Title (official language):
- Urząd Wojewódzki Białostocki
- Date(s):
- 1937/1959
- Date note:
- 1937-1938, 1944-1950, 1951-1959
- Language:
- Polish
- Extent:
- 33.92 metres (2,814 documents)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes the following:
The general department, which includes records on matters arising from the duties of the voivode, e.g., briefings, conferences, reports on territorial division, reclaimed lands, decorations and awards. In addition, within the department there are documents from the administrative department, which dealt with the registration of abandoned property, granting citizenship certificates, and changing names for the years 1944–1950.
The next series are the records of the personnel department containing, among others, documentation on the staffing of managerial positions at the voivodship office, local government at the level of municipal and commune, lists of village heads [voyts], mayors and secretaries, 1949 - 1950.
The next series is documentation from the budget and economic department containing documentation produced within the scope of its activities.
The administrative department contains documents on the activities of: the general administrative department dealing with expropriation, abandoned property, real estate of Jewish religious communities, border protection, resettlement, acquisition of real estate in the border zone; and contains documentation of the vital records department and population register - decisions, recognitions, granting of citizenship, registration of indigenous people, registration of Roma, lists of registry offices.
The social and political department includes matters related to public safety, public referenda and elections to the Legislative Sejm, matters of repatriation and citizenship, matters of religious denominations, matters of national minorities and Polish citizenship, matters of associations.
The local government department contains relevant documentation, including that of executive bodies of the local government.
The reconstruction department includes documents relating to the reconstruction of public buildings, including schools, hospitals, residential buildings, spatial development plans, blueprint of the street network of the town centre of Białystok.
The following records relate specifically to Jews:
4/71/0/5/690 Matters of the Jewish national minority in the years 1946-1950;
4/71/0/4/412 Administrative and legal matters, files on real estate property of Jewish religious communities for the period from 1945 to 1948;
4/71/0 / - / 1910 Project for rebuilding the former Druskin Jewish School into the State Economic Secondary School and the Secondary School of Gastronomy Industry;
4/71/0/28/2618 War damages according to an Order of the Ministry of Public Administration - registration of damages done ex officio; data from individual counties and former Jewish communities, census from 1945-1946.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In accordance with the decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) of 21 August 1944, Voivodship Offices functioned as executive bodies of the general administration of the first and second instance. The head of the office was the voivode appointed by the PKWN on the basis of a proposal from the head of the department of public administration and the opinion of the Provincial National Council. At the first meeting of the Provincial National Council in Białystok, held on 28 August 1944, it was proposed that the Council should nominate Dr. Jerzy Sztachelski as candidate for Voivode. In voting, the Council unanimously adopted the resolution. The organisation of the Office began immediately. At the third meeting of the Provincial National Council (WRN) on 21 October 1944, Dr. Sztachelski resigned as chairman of the WRN, finding it impossible to combine the management of the Provincial Office with the function of chairman of the WRN.
Thus, there was a clearer division between the power of state administration and local self-government. During the 5-year period of the Office's operation, its organisational structure changed with a clear tendency to expand and increase the number of cells. The internal structure of the Office was regulated several times by organisational statutes, which were drawn up only for official use. An organisational chart of the Białystok Voivodship Office, most probably from 1949, lists 16 departments with a division into departments without any further characteristics. The Voivodeship Office had a chancellery instruction of 12 January 1946, which was reproduced a second time in 1948 without any significant changes. In 1949 an archival manual was also prepared. It provided for the existence of a common archive for the entire Office, being part of the General Department and reporting directly to the head of the Organisational Department. The Białystok Voivodship Office operated until the end of May 1950, when, as a result of the implementation of the Act of 20 March 1950, centralised organs of people's authority were established, and the functions of the Voivodship Office were taken over by the Presidium of the Voivodship National Council in Białystok.
- Access points: locations:
- Białystok
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is divided into 29 series.
- Finding aids:
-
Printed inventory published by the State Archives in Białystok.
An online finding aid is also available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Urszula Gierasimiuk, 2018