Metadata: Chojnów town archives
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archives in Wroclaw
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu
- Postal address:
- ul. Pomorska 2 50-215 Wrocław
- Phone number:
- 4871 3288101
- Web address:
- http://www.ap.wroc.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ap.wroc.pl
- Reference number:
- 82/1031
- Title:
- Chojnów town archives
- Title (official language):
- Depozyt miasta Chojnowa Depositum Urkunden der Haynau (Rep. 132a)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Administrative authorities of Chojnów
- Date(s):
- 1390/1737
- Language:
- Latin
- German
- Extent:
- 361 folders
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of documents that were once stored in the municipal archives. The documents were issued for the town of Haynau/Chojnów or submitted to the municipal office as an office of public credibility. Documents / 1390-1737 / concern the purchase and sale of hereditary rents, confirmation of former privileges, certification by the town council of Chojnów and merchant jurors, settlement of property disputes, wills, foundation and maintenance of altars in the parish church, notary instruments, complaints, documents regarding the maintenance of the hospital in Chojnów, approval of town rights, the Hussite movement and the fight against the Hussites, receipts, exemptions from various fees and taxes.
The "de Judaeis non toleriandis" law was enforced in the town until the beginning of the 19th century; and though Jews were eventually allowed to appear as court witnesses, there is no evidence for this in the collection.
There are no entries related to Jews in the index attached to the registers from the 19th century. The term "Judenborn" appears only in archival unit ref. no. 106 in a document relating to the year 1429.
- Archival history:
- On the initiative of the state authorities, the documents stored in the Chojnów town archives were transferred in the second half of the the nineteenth century in the form of a deposit to the State Archives in Wrocław and placed in collection Rep. 132a; they were moved out of Wrocław during World War II. After the war, the materials were taken over by the archival services of East Germany (later the German Democratic Republic); they were transferred back to Wrocław in 1980.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Chojnów is currently located in Legnica county. It was established on the trade route leading from Lusatia to Silesia. From 1291, the town was the seat of the castellany. It receive its first charter from Henry V, Duke of Legnica, before 1288, which was confirmed in 1329. In the 14th century, the town had a weavers' guild, traded in cloth, and had the right to trade in salt and ore. Quarries were active in the area in the 15th and 16th centuries. An Augustinian monastery was founded in the town at the end of the 13th century, and a school was mentioned in 1313. In the 16th century, Lutheranism was introduced by the princes of Legnica. The town experienced a long period of stagnation from the Thirty Years War to the middle of the nineteenth century. In the second half of the 17th century, attempts at re-Catholicization encountered strong resistance from the town council, resulting in the election - under pressure from the emperor - of a new council made up of Catholics. A railway line to Wrocław was built in 1845. The paper, sugar, and metal industries developed over time in the town, which was severely damaged during World War II.
The Jewish community is mentioned for the first time in documents from 1320. A small community was probably established here sometime in the first half of the fourteenth century. It survived until the persecutions associated with the "trial of John Capistran", when the Jews were expelled and the "de judaeis non tolerandis" privilege was enforced. The community revived after 1812, with the population growing to 123 individuals in 1890, followed by a slow decline, to 14, in 1939. In the years 1893-1938, the synagogue functioned and there was a cemetery with a funeral home. After World War II, there was a re-settlement of 391 people in 1947.
- Access points: locations:
- Chojnów
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of documents.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is currently accessible in the reading room of the State Archives in Wrocław.
- Finding aids:
- A pre-World War II inventory is available in the archive in the form of registers.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/zespol/-/zespol/89535
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Leszek Ziątkowski, Marcin Wodzinski University of Wrocław, 08-10-2018
