Metadata: Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS)
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- +48 22 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 312/211
- Title:
- Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS)
- Title (official language):
- Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS)
- Date(s):
- 1939/1944
- Language:
- Polish
- German
- Yiddish
- English
- French
- Extent:
- 1190 files (part I); 280 files (part II) photographic records; 15 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes materials produced by the Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS) and organisations cooperating with it. It consists of the organisational records of the ŻSS Headquarters (statutes, regulations, circulars, instructions); financial records (reports, budgets, accounts); correspondence, reports, letters about the Orphans' Home in Warsaw, appeals sent by the Association of Societies for the Care of Children and Orphans "CENTOS"; correspondence with Jewish organisations; correspondence and lists sent by the Medicine Distribution Point and soup kitchens; correspondence with Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik and labour camps; correspondence with Beniamin Zabłudowski, Józef Jaszuński, Gustaw (Gamzaj) Wielikowski, Marek Alter, Jakub Sternberg; correspondence of Chaim Hilfstein, Judy Zimmerman, Józef Diamant.
The largest part of the collection are the records of the ŻSS local offices, arranged in alphabetical order according to place name. They include: reports, statements, letters from representatives of the Jewish population and private persons; and name lists of the products distributed. The collection includes post-war copies of ŻSS documents, as well as processing documents of the ŻSS archive (list of records from the ŻSS archives).
In the collection, the folder with ref. no. 16A, which contains applications signed by Janusz Korczak, is of exceptional value, containing appeals signed by him: “Do Obywateli Chrześcijan” (To Christian Citizens), “Do Żydów!” (To the Jews!), “Odezwa nr 3”, “Odezwa nr 4”; an anonymous personal account about Janusz Korczak and a letter from Stefania Wilczyńska. Copies of some of these letters are also included in ŻSS Appendix filed under ref. no. 259.
- Archival history:
- ŻSS headquarters were located in Kraków, and correspondence from its representative offices in cities and towns in the General Government was sent here. The documentation gathered during the occupation was taken over after the war by the Provincial Jewish Historical Commission (WŻKH) in Kraków, which in 1947 transferred it to the archives of the newly created Jewish Historical Institute. Before handing over the documents, WŻKH employee made a very cursory list of records, thanks to which the basic contents of the collection was known.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Jewish Social Self-Help/Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna, ŻSS (German: Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe, JSS; Yiddish: Aleynhilf), was an organisation of voluntary social care for the Jewish population in the General Government that was established in May 1940 by the German occupation authorities. The presidium members were Michał Weichert (chairman), Emanuel Ringelblum (secretary general) and Marek Biberstein, Chaim Hilfstein, and Eliasz Tisch. Local and municipal Jewish Welfare Committees were the local branches.
ŻSS at first only coordinated the work of various welfare organisations, but with time it incorporated them into its structures; TOZ and CENTOS continued their activities under the ŻSS umbrella. ŻSS activities supported 400 care centres. It ran food centres, as well as the distribution of products, clothes, medicines, and financial aid. It organised and subsidised inpatient care facilities, with special care for children. Before the US entered the war, its main source of funding was the AJDC. ŻSS was dissolved by the German occupying forces on 29 July 1942, and was replaced by the Jewish Self-Help Office, which operated from the beginning of 1943 to the spring of 1944. It was headed by Michał Weichert, and for this reason he was accused of collaboration after the war, but was formally exonerated.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Korczak, Janusz
- Subject terms:
- Aid and relief
- Forced labour (of Jews)
- Orphans
- Welfare
- System of arrangement:
-
The collection consists of two parts: the first was put in order in 2000, and the second (Annex) was added to it in 2010 (marked with the letter A):
Ref. nos. 1-9 and A 1-21: general organisational files;
10-17: CENTOS files;
18-87 and A 22-100 correspondence with Jewish organisations;
88-100: distribution of medicine, soup kitchens;
101-107: correspondence with Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik and labour camps;
A 101: receipt for a residence permit in Krakow;
A 103-121: material assistance;
108-111: forms, press clippings, certificates;
112-165: correspondence;
A 122-135: financial records;
116-184: notes on meetings of the presidium and departments of the ŻSS;
185-1190 and A 136-274: files of local offices (alphabetically by place name);
A 275-280: miscellaneous, post-war copies of ŻSS documents, processing of the ŻSS archives.
- Finding aids:
- A digital catalogue (2000-2010) is available in Polish. There is a geographic index. Selected archival units have a database of names (45,870 records).
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Monika Taras; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; April 2018
