Territorial Collection, Poland 2 (1939-1945)
Scope and Content Note
The collection includes texts of German decrees and anti-Jewish laws; press articles written after the war about the fate of the Polish Jewry; materials relating to communities, ghettos and concentration camps; materials on Jewish resistance; records of war crimes trials of 1946-1950; letters from Nazi-occupied Poland sent abroad; texts of poems and songs written in the ghettos. The latter part of the collection contains materials pertaining to Holocaust memorial observances and commemoration meetings. A large section pertains to Warsaw and the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Files on communities contain personal documents and correspondence.
Dates
- 1938-1978
Language of Materials
Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German, English, French, Hebrew, Swedish, Danish.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open to the public. Permission to publish part or parts of the collection must be obtained in writing from the YIVO Archives.
Conditions Governing Use
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
YIVO Archives, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
Extent
4.3 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Territorial Collection, Poland 2 is comprised of documents that were amassed at the YIVO in New York City. The collection is of mixed provenance and is fragmentary in nature, consisting of miscellaneous materials dating back to World War II and its immediate aftermath. The Territorial Collection Poland 2 is a portion of the greater Territorial Collection (RG 116), which incorporates materials that are relevant to over 42 different countries and geographical regions. The overarching theme of the collection Poland 2 is the annihilation of the Jewish life in Poland under the Nazi rule. Chronologically, the Territorial Collection Poland 2 follows the Territorial Collection Poland 1, which pertains to pre-World War II Poland; and precedes the Territorial Collection Poland 3, which pertains to post-World War II Poland.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged topically and according to locality in 229 numbered folders, with towns and cities appearing according to their Polish names (e.g., Rzeszow—as opposed to Reyshe in Yiddish).
There are 10 series in this collection:
- Series I: German Anti-Jewish Decrees in Poland
- Series II: Warsaw Ghetto
- Series III: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943
- Series IV: Jewish Communities Under the German Rule
- Series V: Concentration and Death Camps
- Series VI: War Crime Trials
- Series VII: Eyewitness Accounts of Survivors
- Series VIII: Holocaust Memorial Observances After World War II
- Series IX: Newspaper Clippings
- Series X: Miscellaneous
Acquisition Information
Various donors.
- Articles
- Documents (object genre)
- Getto warszawskie (Warsaw, Poland)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poland -- Personal narratives
- Jewish ghettos
- Letters (correspondence)
- Nazi concentration camps -- Poland
- Newspaper clippings
- Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946-1949
- Stroop, Jürgen, 1895-1952
- Testimonies
- War resistance movements
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration camps
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Deportations
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements
- Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Poland)
Source
- YIVO Archives (Organization)
- Title
- Territorial Collection, Poland 2 (1939-1945), 1938-1978, RG 116-Poland 2
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Solomon Krystal. Edited by Rivka Schiller, 2007
- Date
- © 2007
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Collection rearranged with the assistance of a grant from the Conference of Jewish Materials Claims Against Germany (New York) and the Fondation pour la Memoire de la Shoah, Paris. Finding aid edited, encoded and posted online thanks to a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation.
Repository Details
Part of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Repository
