Juridiska byrån

Identifier
Juridiska byrån
Language of Description
English
Dates
1947 - 1954
Level of Description
Collection
Languages
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Polish
  • Swedish
Scripts
  • Latin
Source
EHRI

Extent and Medium

3 linear meters.

Biographical History

After the Second World War, the Jewish community of Stockholm set up various bodies to provide refugees with information on legal matters and to refer them to lawyers if necessary.

In early 1948, the Jewish Community of Stockholm established Byrån för juridisk information (the Bureau for Legal Information). It mainly assisted refugees in making restitution claims in Germany and other countries but also answered other legal questions. The Director of the Office was Dr. Jur. Kurt Stillschweig.

In May 1947, the community had also set up a department for restitution claims in Poland, Avdelning för restitutionsanspråk i Polen (Polish Restitution Claims Department). A Polish lawyer, Pawel Friedman, was responsible for this department. In January 1949, the Polish Restitution Claims Department was coopted by the Legal Information Bureau.

In 1950, the Byrån för ersättningsfrågor Office of Restitution was established jointly by the Swedish Section of the Jewish Community of Stockholm and World Jewish Congress.

Archival History

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

Scope and Content

The archive contains documents from the Bureau for Legal Information, the Polish Restitution Claims Department, and the Office of Restitution. The archive contains personal files, registers of individual files, and correspondence.

The archive contains personal files from 1947 to 1954, divided into “general” cases (21 volumes) and cases concerning property in Poland (13 volumes). The archive also contains a card index to the personal files.

The sub-archive contains documents 1947-1954 (3 linear meters in total) from all three agencies mentioned above:

  • Register of personal files (series D 1), 1947-1954 (2 vols.).
  • Register of fees paid for legal aid (series D 2), 1947-1949 (1 vol.).
  • Correspondence (series E 1), 1947-1954 (4 vols.).
  • Personal files, general (series F 1 a), 1948-1954 (21 vols.).Registers, see series D 1.
  • Personal files, Polish property (series F 1 b), 1947-1950 (13 vols.). The files in volumes F 1 b:1-3 are arranged alphabetically. The files in F 1 b:4-13 are numbered; indexes to them are in series D 1.

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

Related Units of Description

  • See also in the Jewish Community of Stockholm's archive: URO-byrån för rättshjälp (the URO Legal Aid Office), which was set up in 1953 to assist those wishing to claim compensation ('Wiedergutmachung') under a law adopted by the Federal Republic of Germany on the obligation to compensate victims of Nazism.

    In the archives of the Jewish Congregation in Malmö in Malmö Stadsarkiv (Malmö City Archives), in the series Correspondence with the World Jewish Congress (J VII), 1948-1953, there are, among other things, in vol. 2, reports concerning compensation for lost (stolen) property.

Sources

  • The archivist Mikaela Nybohm's archival description and index in NAD: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/VhUpjM5de4I0fRsIONG3p3

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

    Hansson, Svante. Flykt och överlevnad. Flyktingverksamhet i Mosaiska Församlingen i Stockholm 1933 - 1950. Stockholm: Hillelförlaget, 2004.

    Michaeli, Wilhelm. Ersättning åt offer för nationalsocialistisk förföljelse (Bundesentschädigungsgesetz) och därmed sammanhängande spörsmål. Stockholm: Nordiska Bokhandeln, 1957.

    Rudberg Pontus. 'Holocaust Testimonies in Jewish Compensation Claims in the United Restitution Organisation’s Archive in Stockholm.' In Johannes Heuman and Rudberg, Pontus (eds.) Early Holocaust Memory in Sweden : Archives, Testimonies and Reflections. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2020. p. 93–117.

Rules and Conventions

EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0