Matters of Jewish synagogues and cemeteries shortly after the war in documents of the Ministry of Public Administration Cover Image

Sprawy synagog i cmentarzy żydowskich tuż po wojnie w dokumentach Ministerstwa Administracji Publicznej
Matters of Jewish synagogues and cemeteries shortly after the war in documents of the Ministry of Public Administration

Author(s): Julia Machnowska
Subject(s): Jewish studies, Public Administration, History of the Holocaust
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów & IFiS PAN
Keywords: abandoned property; synagogues; cemeteries; Ministry of Public Administration; Central Committee of Polish Jews; Jewish Denominational Congregations; Dawid Kahane;

Summary/Abstract: The question of property of pre-war Jewish communities was an important issue after the war for both Jewish survivors and non-Jewish inhabitants of small towns, as well as for the public administration structures, which were slowly stabilizing. While the real estate and personal effects the Jews had left behind quickly found new residents or users the buildings which had belonged to the religious communities – synagogues, cemeteries, and mikvehs – had been and still are been much more visible signs of the former multi-denominational communities of those towns. Analyzing documents of the Department of Denominations of the Ministry of Public Administration and the documents of the Legal Section of the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce, CKŻP), the author describes the official mode of transfer of real estate, types of decisions made, and relations between the institutions of Jewish life and the central and local administration.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 555-574
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish