Metadata: Bolków City Deposit
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archives Wroclaw
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu
- Postal address:
- ul. Pomorska 2, 50-215 Wrocław
- Phone number:
- +48 71 3288101
- Web address:
- http://www.ap.wroc.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ap.wroc.pl
- Reference number:
- 82/1029
- Title:
- Bolków City Deposit
- Title (official language):
- Depozyt miasta Bolkowa Dep. Stadt Bolkenhain
- Creator/accumulator:
- Administrative authorities of Bolków
- Date(s):
- 1416/1697
- Language:
- Latin
- German
- Extent:
- 51 folders
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains: 1. Documents (1416-1659) Privileges for the city and district, property disputes, property and financial transactions, grants and donations, taxes, market privilege, hospital property matters. 2. Register (1697) desmesne in the Bolków district. There are no Jewish-related documents as during this time the "de Judaeis non tolerandis" law applied in the city. At some point Jews may have been allowed to appear as witnesses which, however, could not be confirmed within the scope of a preliminary query.
- Archival history:
- The records were held in the Bolków town archives. At the initiative of the state authorities in the second half of the 19th century, the documents were transferred in the form of a deposit to the State Archives in Wrocław and were referenced here as Rep. 132. They were taken to Wrocław during World War II. After the war, the records were taken over by the archival authorities of East Germany (later the German Democratic Republic). They were then taken back to Wrocław in 1980. A new inventory was compiled in 2017.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Bolków is a town in the Jawor district, seat of the old medieval castellany with castles in Bolków and Świny, located near the town. The first mention of the town dates from 1276 and of the castle from 1277. The local market was owned by the Lubiń monastery, and part of the income from its fair belonged to the local parish. The castle was erected by the prince of Świdnica, Bolek I the Strict (died 1301). His grandson, Prince Bolko II the Small (died 1368) left the town with the castle to his daughter Anna, who later became the wife of Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg. From 1392, the castle with the town came under Czech rule. The castle desmesne was left to Gotsche II Schaff (gotsch). In the 15th century, the castle was the seat of robber knights, including Hans von Tschirn. In 1444, the castle was stormed by the Hussites and seriously damaged along with the town. In 1463 it was in the hands of King George of Poděbrady. King Maciej Korwin settled Stefan Zapolia and Jerzy von Stein, his county sheriffs, here. In the years 1494-1540, the castle desmesne was in the hands of the Tschirnhaus family, and then the von Salz and Zedlitz families (until 1700).
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the castle and town were the site of fierce battles. After the reconstruction, new streets were marked out, a market was built, the town hall was built, and the castle was rebuilt, first in the Renaissance style (J. Parr), and then in the baroque style, with classical elements being added in the 19th century. During World War II, it was the headquarters of a branch of the Gross Rosen labour camp.
There is no record of Jews settling here in the Middle Ages; they probably appeared in the 19th century, but only as a very small community of 8 people in 1900, 11 in 1905, and 20 in 1925. The community was most probably too small to have an independent synagogue, and neither was there a cemetery. During World War II, a branch of the Gross Rosen concentration camp was set up here. A Haganah training camp functioned here from 1947-1949.
- Access points: locations:
- Bolków
- Subject terms:
- Legal status of Jews
- Finding aids:
-
A printed inventory is available in the archive.
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:
- Leszek Ziątkowski, University of Wrocław, 2018