Okupační vězeňské spisy
- Occupation prisoners files
- OVS/KT-OVS
Extent and Medium
160,8 linear metres from which 160,8 linear metres of documents are processed and inventoried and accessible and 41,8 linear metres are unprocessed and probably not accessible.
Biographical History
The collection mostly contains documents related to Czechoslovak citizens who were imprisoned in German jails and in the concentration camps between 1938 and 1949. This collection has several different creators, for example: The Administration of German Prisons and Concentration Camps (a part of personal files and the card file of prisoners), the Administration of the Jewish Affairs (lists of deported Jews to Terezín and to the concentration camps), the Investigative Committee of UNRRA (lists of the Czechoslovak citizens who performed forced labour), and the various post war social and repatriation institutions (lists of repatriated of prisoners).
Archival History
The collection was mostly created by the Investigative and Registration Department of the Ministry of Labour Protection and Social Care and by the Ministry of the Interior. It was placed into the archive of the Ministry of the Interior in 1949. Later it was given into the State Central Archive (the National Archives) and divided into two parts. The first one was arranged in 1956, the second part was inventoried in 1966. As It was written above, the fonds have several different creators.
Scope and Content
In this collection, there are documents related to Czechoslovak citizens who were imprisoned in German jails and in the concentration camps. There are also files related to (Czechoslovak) Jews, or persons of Jewish nationality, who were gathered and then deported to the Terezín ghetto and the concentration camps. Furthermore in these files, there are information about "death marches" and about post-war repatriation.
System of Arrangement
The collection was divided into two parts. The first one was arranged in 1956, there are documents from prisons (23 different prisons) and courts operating on the territory of the Protectorate Czech and Moravia, documents from the Volksgericht in Berlin and jail in Wroclaw. In the collection there can be found personal files, lists of arrested citizens, records of various subjects. The collection consists from 426 boxes, files are sorted by the date of arrest and then in the alphabetical order. The second part of the collection was arranged in 1966 and mostly contains original files from Nazi concentration camps, jailhouses and prison transports, files were used and processed soon after war. In the documents there are original letters from prisoners, cremation protocols, exhumation protocols, lists of repatriated persons (there are more files concerning the matter of repatriation mission from the Great Britain to Czechoslovakia or from Czechoslovakia to Palestine). This part of the collection is sorted in alphabetical order (according to local names) and then according to factual units. In the collection, there are a lots of Jewish-related documents - card files of imprisoned (Czechoslovak) Jews in different concentration camps, final numbers of people in transports, their names and addresses, and names of those who survived the war. There are also files related to imprisoned Jews of different nationality, who were deported to Terezín ghetto and to concentration camps. All is sorted by surnames in alphabetical order.
Finding Aids
The finding aid is divided into 3 parts:
No. 88 is available online on: http://www.badatelna.eu/reprodukce/?fondId=119&zaznamId=1026984
No. 569 is available online on: http://www.badatelna.eu/reprodukce/?fondId=119&zaznamId=1026985
No. 1177 is available online on: http://www.badatelna.eu/reprodukce/?fondId=119&zaznamId=1026983.
Existence and Location of Copies
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a microfilm copy of selected records from the fonds in the Prague National Archives http://collections.ushmm.org/findingaids/RG-48.010M.pdf
Note(s)
This collection is very extensive, however, it is a unique source for studying and finding original documents about life of Jews (people of Jewish nationality) and other arrested Czechoslovak citizens.
Archivist Note
written by KS
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0