Ministerstvo vnitra - Londýn

  • Ministry of Interior - London
  • MV - L
Identifier
828
Language of Description
English
Dates
1940 - 1945
Level of Description
Fonds
Languages
  • Czech
Scripts
  • Latin
Source
EHRI

Extent and Medium

53,25 linear metres from which 53,25 linear metres of documents are processed and inventoried and 0,0 linear metres are unprocessed. The fonds is partially accessible.

Biographical History

The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile consisted of the President, the Goverment and the State Council (which should represented the Czechoslovak parliament) - Edvard Beneš the former President of the Czechoslovak Republic was accepted as the President of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile. The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile consisted of 7 ministries: Ministry of the National Defence, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Economic Recovery, Ministry of Agriculture.

Documents in this fonds come from the activity of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior in Exile which was established in 1940 and functioned to 1945.

Archival History

The documents were transffered to Prague after the end of WWII in 1946. There is a possibility that a part of the fonds was lost during the moving from London or that some documents were shredded. According to the inventory (written in 1952) the fonds was divided into 363 boxes. The fonds was transported into the State Central Archives (= the National Archive) in 1988 and the documents were arranged according to the content in the groups and the groups were organised according to its activity.

Scope and Content

The fonds consists of documents of the Ministry of Interior and its departments. The state-security department kept records of all Czechoslovak citizens living in the Great Britain during the WWII and provided passports and visas and also their extension or verifications. The administrative and juristic department edited standpoints of the Ministry to the bills. The educational department took care about all matters of the Czechoslovak schools in Great Britain and also in foreign countries. The Ministry of Interior also cooperated with Czechoslovak intelligence service in the matters of security by keeping record about internees, or deported persons also about Czechoslovak traitors and collaborators in the Protectorate or abroad. It also collected information about Czechoslovak home resistence and resistance overseas. In 1943, the Ministry started to cooperate with the Ministry of the Social Welfare in the matter of reapatriation of the Czechoslovak citizens.

The Jewish and holocaust related documents are in several boxes concerning the matters of emigration, persecution and deportation of Jews. Documents about the preparation of post war repatriation of Jews can be also found in this fonds as well as various reports about the situation of Jews in concentration camps. There are also documents related to the military service of Jews in the Czechoslovak army in the Middle East, various newspaper and other printed material such as statutes of different jewish organisations and reports from their negotiations with the Czechoslovak Governement-In-Exile.

Finding Aids

Archivist Note

Written by KS, 18.12.2014, edited by JV.

Sources

  • KUKLÍK, Jan: Londýnský exil a obnova československého státu 1938-1945. Praha, 1998.

    REES, Neil: Prezident Beneš v Anglii: československá vláda v exilu v Londýně a Buckinghamském hrabství za druhé světové války. Praha, 2006.

    NĚMEČEK, Jan (ed.): Zápisy ze schůzí československé vlády v Londýně. Praha, 2008.

Rules and Conventions

EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0