Archival Sources on Jewish Community of Strážnice

Archives in the Czech Republic

Archives in the Czech Republic are organized in a three-tier system at the national, provincial, and local levels. A guide to the overall organization is given in a Wiki entry at FamilySearch.org.

• National Archives (Národní archiv) in Prague.
  We are indebted to PhDr. Lenka Matušíková as the long-time custodian of the entire Jewish collection.
• Moravian Land Archive (Moravský zemský archiv) in Brno.
• State District Archive Hodonín (Státní okresní archiv Hodonín) in the nearby district seat, Hodonín.
  

Each tier in the system has its own focus, but certain collections may be found in more than one location. We abbreviate [NACR] for the National Archives, [MZA:Brno] for the Moravian Land Archive, and [SOkA:Hodonín] for the State District Archive Hodonín. If you can offer corrections or additions to our list, write to the Webmaster.

• Birth, marriage and death registers (matriky) for 1784-1942. [NACR]
• Familiant lists [MZA:Brno] (Example from 1832)
  
• Census records [SOkA:Hodonín] (Example from 1880)
  Moravian census conducted in 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
• Gemeinde-Matrik [SOkA:Hodonín] (Example from 1905)
• School records [SOkA:Hodonín]
• Polizeiliche Anmeldung [SOkA:Hodonín] (Example)
  These are Holocaust era police registration forms.
• Todesfallanzeige [SOkA:Hodonín] (Example)
  Death certificates for Strážnice deportees who died in Theresienstadt.
• Cadastral maps of 1827 and 1876. [MZA:Brno]
  

VadeMeCum

The Jewish registers (Židovské matriky) are held in the fond Matriky židovských náboženských obcí v českých krajích (NAD 167, Číslo pomůcky 1646). Unfortunately, for Strážnice the years 1847-1873 are unavailable. In the listings below, N is for Births, O for Marriages, and Z for Deaths.

• Inv. č. 1958: N 1784-1846
• Inv. č. 1959: Z 1942
• Inv. č. 1960: OZ 1784-1846
• Inv. č. 1961: NOZ 1874-1942
• Inv. č. 1962: Index N 1845-1942
• Inv. č. 1963: Index O 1789-1846
• Inv. č. 1964: Index Z 1788-1896
• Inv. č. 1965: Index Z 1789-
• Inv. č. 1966: Index NOZ 1874-1925

Jewish Museum of Prague

The JMP has quite a lot of material on Strážnice, including lists of community members and what their annual payments were, synagogue seating plans and books of community donations. The collection is held at the Archive building in Prague 5.

We will try to gather more information on the holdings at the JMP. If you visit the JMP, we'd like to hear what you find. Write the Webmaster!

This extraordinary collection of Jewish community records of Eastern Europe was amassed by Rabbi Louis Lewin (biography) in the early part of the 20th century. Most of the collection pertains to towns in Posen and Silesia. The collection covers only a single town in the Czech Republic, and this happens to be Strážnice. Material on Strážnice includes:

• Minutes of meetings of the Jewish town council
• Tax records
• Synagogue seating records
• Voting records
• Records of incoming and outgoing mail.

The Special Collections are housed in the Mendel Gottesman Library off Amsterdam Avenue in the northeastern corner of Manhattan. Shulamith Berger is curator.