Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče - repatriace, Praha

This fonds consists of various documents from different periods and different administrative creators. History of the fonds dates back to 1938 when after the signing of the Munich Agreement, the Czechoslovak government issued an order No. 292 to establish the Institute for the Care of Refugees at the Ministry of Social Welfare (Ústav pro péči o uprchlíky při ministerstvu sociální péče). The Institute was created to take temporary care of refugees from the border areas of Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland) ceded to Nazi Germany and later from Slovakia. (Jewish refugees were also supported by the Social Institute of Jewish Religious Communities of Greater Prague and other Jewish aid organisations as well.) During the existence of Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1945), the Institute worked under the Nazi control and served also to displace Czech nationals from regions and cities which were selected by the Nazi authorities for various purposes such as resettlement of Czechs out of the Jihlava/Iglau "language island" (Iglauer Sprachinsel) or resettlement of Terezín inhabitants befote the Teresienstadt Ghetto establishment. After the end of WWII, the Institute (renamed as the Institute for the Care of Immigrants) and a new founded Repatriation department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare took care of returning emigrants (MOPSP), refugees and survivors of concentration camps (the majority of whome were Jews). In 1949, the activity of the Institute was stopped and its competences were transferred to the Repatriation department of MOPSP. Finally in 1950, the Czechoslovak government declared the post-war reemigration concluded and the department was gradually closed.

Documents from the administration of Ministry of Labour Protection and Welfare/Repatriation department were transferred to the Ministry of Interior in 1953 and then to the State Central Archives (today the National Archives). The fonds was partly processed in 1953, with material being moved into boxes, but without regard to the creation periods and institutions. Consequently in 1962 when the fonds was gradually processed again, it was not possible to correct some of the inaccurate arrangements of the material. In 1962, many duplicates and copies, useless notes as well as some copies from the bookkeeping were shredded. As a result, the fonds decreased to the half of its former extent.