Documentation from the State Archives of the Chernivtsi Region, Ukraine, 1940-1945

Documentation from the State Archives of the Chernivtsi Region, Ukraine, 1940-1945 The Archives was established in November 1907, and was closed in early 1918 following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The northern area of Bukovina and the Khotin district in the Bessarabia area were included in the Romanian kingdom. By order of the Romanian Ministry of Education and the General State Directorate of the Archives of Romania, the State Archives of Bukovina was established in Chernovtsy in 1924, according to the Romanian Law in July 1925, regarding the unification of the State Archives. The Archives was reorganized in 1938 into the Regional Administration of the State Archives in Chernovtsy, which was active until June 1940, when the Khotin district in Bessarabia and the northern area of Bukovina became part of Soviet Ukraine. In July 1941, following the German and Romanian occupation, the Romanian State Archives resumed its activities but was closed again in March 1944. The establishment of a network of state archival institutions in the Soviet Union also changed the status of this archive. The documents of the Archives became public property, and the archives received the status of scientific-research institutions. In 1957, groups were established for the disinfection, insects-control, renovation and repair, which became workshops later on, and the storage situation of the documents improved. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Republic, the administrative committee decided in 1988 to transfer the administration of the matters of the region to the regional archives in actuality. Since September 1995, the State Archives of the Chernovtsy Region has been active under the auspices of the head administrator of the Archives of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine. Protocols of meetings of the Chernovtsy municipal council, 1940-1941: Decrees and orders of local councils during the period of the annexation of the area to the Soviet territories; transfer of private property to the public sector; mentioned in the protocols are Jews in leadership positions, and Jews who lost property. Included in the Yad Vashem Archives are documents regarding the M.52.DAChrvO Sub- Record Group - the State Archives of the Chernovtsy Region. See microfilms: JM/11290 -11302, 11307-11322, 11339 -11349, 33630 and paper files: 27-105, 130-134, 718-720. Included in the reels and files: Documentation of the Chrezvychaynaya Gosudarstvennaya Komissiya-ChGK (Soviet Extraordinary State Commission) active in the Chernovtsy region, 1944-1945: Questionnaires of survivors including descriptions of the damage to their property, 1944-1945; Reports by the municipal committee for the investigation of Nazi and Romanian crimes in the city of Cernauti, regarding the murder of Jews during 06-08 July 1941: Drowning of Jews in the Prut River; abuse and murder of rabbis; establishment of the Cernauti Ghetto; mass burial [of the victims] in the Jewish cemetery; Documentation regarding the deportation of Jews from the Chernovtsy region to camps in Transnistria, and names of Romanian collaborators; photograph of the opening of mass graves on the bank of the Prut River, from the "Radyanska Ukraina" newspaper, published on 19 August 1944; - List of Jews from Sokiryany who committed suicide in 1941; - Lists of Nazi criminals and Romanian collaborators; Documentation of the military government of Bukovina in Chernovtsy: Order by the Romanian Minister of the Interior to the Police battalion in Sadagura, regarding the use of POWs and Jewish inmates from camps for forced labor; Murder of escapees, and the limitation of food allotments of inmates who carried out acts of sabotage in 1941; Romanian government legislation on 19 September 1942, published in Royal Proclamation N22 in Bucharest on 22 September 1942, regarding the execution of Jews who returned from camps in Transnistria to their former places of residence, and regarding punishment of those who help Jews; excerpt from a report prepared by the regional government in Bukovina, regarding its activities during 05/07/1941-31/10/1942, including a notation of the number of residents including Jews who were transferred to Sadagura camp; reports and decisions by the committee for the examination of clerks who remained under the Soviet authorities; list of Jews who were skilled workers, including statistical charts regarding salaries; list of Soviet citizens who were in the Chernovtsy district in 1942; - Lists of Jews from the Chernovtsy region who were drafted to forced labor; Personal files of Jews who were deported to concentration camps for various crimes: for underground and Communist activities, spying on behalf of the Soviets, crimes related to the Racial laws, escaping from ghettos, propagation of propaganda, and other crimes; Documentation of the Jewish community in Cernauti, 1941-1944; Included in the collection is documentation of the Centrala Evreilor din Romania (Jewish Center of Romania) in Cernauti: - List of names of Jews; request by the Jewish community to cancel the transfer of Jews to forced labor, and a request to receive work permits; Information regarding the sending of help to the Transnistria area: - Lists including names of senders and receivers of banking securities from cities in the Balta region and Mogilev Podolski; - Request by a Jew named Alfred Sigal to receive assistance; the request was referred to the administration of the Jewish community; - Personal declarations of Jews who are Cernauti residents, regarding their place of residence; - Registration forms of Jews from Cernauti, from the Central Office of the Jewish Center; - Documentation of the military government of Bukovina in Cernauti, including requests received from various factories related to the employment of Cernauti Jews; - Certificates of Jewish pupils from the elementary and high school in Cernauti; - Letter from the Office for Jewish matters in Poland, sent to the Jewish community in Czernowitz; Documentation of the Romanian authorities in the Bukovina and Transnistria areas, 1941-1942: Included in the collection: - Letters by inmates in camps in the Bukovina area, sent to their family members in Cernauti, 1941; - Regulations of Sadagura camp related to inmates in the northern Bukovina area; - Report prepared by commander Chelmeniti, related to the abuse of Jews who were transferred from Edineti camp to forced labor; - Order by the Minister of the Interior of Romania, sent to the Police battalion of Sadagura, related to the use of POWs and Jews from camps for the purpose of forced labor, 11 August 1941; - Excerpt from the order given by the commander of the Police in the Cernauti district, sent to the local police, dealing with the transfer of Jews who are Communists to camps in the Transnistria area along with their family members; Documentation of the Romanian government in the Bukovina region, 1941-1944: The Bukovina region was a territorial-administrative unit of the Romanian occupation authorities during the World War II period; The region was created in the area of the Chernovtsy region in 1941; The region was occupied by the Red Army as part of the Yassko-Kishiniovskaya operatsiya (Iasi-Kishinev campaign) in late August 1944; - Correspondence of the Romanian Army headquarters, regarding the decisions of the National Center for Romanization; - Documentation regarding the confiscation and theft of Jewish property; - Documentation regarding the draft of Jews to forced labor; - Documentation of the Romanian government in the Bukovina region, related to Edineti camp; - Documentation of the Romanian government in the Bukovina region, related to Zionist organizations; - Report prepared by the governor of the Bukovina region, related to Jews who arrived to Romania from Poland and the handing over of the Jews to the German authorities; - Documentation related to Jews who were deported to Sadagura camp; - Lists of Jewish residents from the Bukovina region; - Lists of Jews who were transferred to forced labor; Documentation of the Romanian authorities in the Cernauti district, 1941-1942: Included in the collection: - Documentation regarding the transfer of Jewish craftsmen and skilled professionals to forced labor; - Reports prepared by the local authorities, regarding the location of Jews in their territory; - Reports prepared by the Romanian authorities, regarding the attitude among the local population following the liberation from the Soviet occupation; Documentation of the headquarters of the Romanian Police in Cernauti, 1941-1944; The Romanian military government in Transnistria - documentation from the regional archives in Cernauti, 1941-1944; Documentation of the Railroad Police station in Cernauti, 1941; - Letters written by deportees to the Transnistria area, and sent to their relatives in the Bukovina area; Documentation of the office of the regional supervisor of the Romanian Police in Cernauti, 1940-1941; Protocols of meetings of the Chernovtsy municipal council, 1940-1941: Decrees and orders of local councils, from the period of the annexation of the area to the Soviet area; Transfer of private property to the public sector; mentioned in the protocols are Jews in leadership positions and Jews who lost property; Documentation of the Chrezvychaynaya Gosudarstvennaya Komissiya-ChGK (Soviet Extraordinary State Commission), active in the Chernovtsy region during 1944-1945: Questionnaires of survivors, including details regarding the damage caused to their property, 1944-1945; The documentation arrived to Yad Vashem and to the Yad Vashem archivist Marie Ginsburg during 2005-2015 thanks to cooperation with the USHMM.