Barnavdelningen

  • Children Department
Identifier
Barnavdelningen
Language of Description
English
Dates
1938 - 1948
Level of Description
Collection
Languages
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Swedish
Scripts
  • Latin
Source
EHRI

Extent and Medium

6,3 linear meters of textual records, financial reports and photographs.

Biographical History

After the November 1938 pogrom, the Jewish Community of Stockholm negotiated with the Swedish authorities and government to receive a number of children, as part of the Kindertransport through which Jewish children from Germany and Austria were rescued to the UK and other countries. In total, the Swedish quota came to include 500 Jewish children. To administer the reception and care of the children, a special committee was formed, which from spring 1938 was called the Children's Department. It was made responsible for the placement and care of the children and ran boarding schools and orphanages in Sweden, provided grants to foster families and provided financial and advisory support for the children in terms of education and vocational training.

In 1941, the Jewish Community's Refugee Section coopted the Children's Department and other sub-divisions of the Relief Committee. In 1945, the Children's Section also became involved in caring for survivor children in boarding schools and juvenile homes, established by the State Foreigners Commission.

When the Refugee Section was reorganized on 1 October 1948, the Children's Department ceased to exist. Most of its remaining tasks relating to the homes were transferred to the General Section of the Board of Support.

Archival History

The archive is organized as an individual sub-archive of the Jewish Community's archive, which was deposited with the National Archives in 1983, with several additional deliveries later.

Scope and Content

The archive includes documents from 1938 to October 1948, when the department was closed. The archive's correspondence series (E) contains correspondence with guardians in Sweden and remaining parents, mainly in Germany and Austria, as well as correspondence with the Swedish immigration authorities. In volume K1: 1 there are alphabetically organized photographs of the children.

There is also a card index (series D1 a-d) of refugee children who arrived before 1945, as well as one of the children among the "1945 rescued".

System of Arrangement

The archive has a hierarchical and thematic structure. It is catalogued according to the Swedish Archive standard:

A = minutes; B = documents generated by the authority, outgoing documents; C = diaries and diary registers; D = ledgers, lists, registers, inventory registers, etc.; E = correspondence, incoming documents; F = subject-specific documents; G = accounts; H = statistics; J = maps and drawings; K = photographs; L = newspaper clippings; Ö = other documents.

The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the name of the child.

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the archive must be approved by the general secretary of the Jewish Community of Stockholm. The application form can be found on the community’s website: https://jfst.se/fler-tjaenster/oevriga-tjaenster/slaekt-och-personforskning/

Finding Aids

  • The index can be found in a folder at the archive and in the archive’s database NAD (Nationell Arkivdatabas): https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/fcPy1rsLzL7Zm0Bzfz0EbC

    Carlsson, Carl Henrik. Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige: arkivguide. Täby: Riksarkivet, 2022. pp. 157-158.

Sources

  • Aagard Jensen, Merethe, "Judiska barns och ungdomars räddning från Österrike till Sverige i ett skandinaviskt perspektiv." In Andersson, Lars M. Müssener, Helmut & Pedersen, Daniel (eds.), Heimat Sverige? Tysk-judisk emigration till Sverige 1774-1945. Stockholm: Faethon, 2021, pp. 409-425.

    Carlsson, Carl Henrik. Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige: arkivguide. Täby: Riksarkivet, 2022.

    Lomfors, Ingrid. Förlorad barndom - återvunnet liv. De judiska flyktingbarnen från Nazityskland. Göteborg, 1996.

    Rudberg, Pontus, "'Rädda våra barn!: Svensk-judisk hjälp till flyktingbarn från Nazityskland'", In På flykt från krig - asylsökande, ensamkommande och internflyktingar i Sveriges historia Stockholm: Armémuseum, 2017.

    Rudberg, Pontus. The Swedish Jews and the Holocaust. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2017.

Rules and Conventions

EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0

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