A large and rare collection of 50 official identification documents of Jews from the city of Kielce (Kielce, central Poland). The documents were all handwritten in the mid-1930s, before the Nazi occupation of the city. Polish.
Official certificates confirming the identity of the Jewish man or woman holding the document; the forms are printed and filled out by hand, including the name of the holder along with other personal details, accompanied by a passport photograph. They bear official seals of the Polish authorities. These documents were, in fact, applications submitted to the authorities in Kielce before the outbreak of World War II as part of the process of obtaining a valid identity card. The applicant filled in their personal details, which were intended to appear in their personal passport booklet. Some of the documents in this collection include the applicant’s birth certificate to verify their date of birth.
It appears that these documents were hidden shortly before the Nazi occupation of the city by a municipal worker who feared for the fate of the Jews, attempting to conceal their personal information and residential addresses from the Nazis. Each form contains, alongside the name and personal details, the home address of the Jewish applicant. Some of the forms were completed just months before the city’s occupation in 1939.
Among the names appearing in these documents: Chaya Esther Zoterdi, Chaim Shmuel Kiers, Roza Chaya Shor, Avraham Rotter, Chaya Yaris, Avraham Ber Zeibeld, Nachum Liberman, Chaikel Ostrowetzka, Paul Leslau, H. Breslowitz, Wolf Yosef Wilenberg, Paul Leslau, Ostrowski, Esther Moskowitz, Yosef Volkomirer, Sarah Teitelbaum, Mendel Alovitz, Avraham Reisman, Yisrael Wolf, and others.
The fate of the Jews listed in these forms, whether they perished or survived the Holocaust, has not been verified by us.
The city of Kielce in central Poland was occupied by the Germans in September 1939. Immediately following the occupation, anti-Jewish measures began, including property confiscation, fines, forced labor, and other repressive actions. In April 1941, the Kielce Ghetto was established, housing at its peak approximately 27,000 Jews, including Jews from surrounding areas, 2,000 Jews from Lagów, and even Jews from Vienna. Most of the Jews in the ghetto were employed in forced labor. In August 1942, the liquidation of the ghetto began, lasting five days: except for about 2,000 Jews who were transferred to labor camps, the majority were deported to Treblinka in three transports and murdered there. Nearly 2,000 others, mainly children, the elderly, and pregnant women, were murdered within the ghetto itself. On July 4, 1946, after World War II, following a blood libel alleging that Jews had kidnapped a Christian child to bake matzah, 47 Jews were murdered in what became known as the Kielce Pogrom.
50 forms. 33×23 cm. Some documents have minor tears along the edges. Overall good condition.
