Poland Jewish Records
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Historical Background
The history of Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in 1025 until the early years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created in 1569, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe, and became a shelter for Jews persecuted from various European countries.
Between 1772 and 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided between three of the surrounding major powers: the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria), Kingdom of Prussia (Germany), and Russian Empires.
Prior to World War II, over 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland, the largest Jewish population in Europe. Over the course of WWII, nearly all of Polands Jews were murdered during the holocaust. Only close to 11% of Poland's Jews (about 369,000 people), survived the war. Today, just over 3,000 Jews remain in Poland.[1]
For more information about the history of Jews in Poland, consider the following sources.
- To read the Wikipedia.org article History of the Jews in Poland, click here.
- Take the Poland Virtual Jewish History Tour.
- Explore the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.
Importance of and Locating the Town
In order to research your family in Poland, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. It is not enough to only know 'Poland;' you must know the shtetl, or town, they came from. It will also be useful to determine which partition of Poland your ancestors came from as genealogical research in each of these three areas or partitions of Poland is a bit different. This Wiki page includes general records that can be used for research in Poland as a whole, while the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Jewish records pages contain resource and information specific to research in that area. Use the map and the links below to access the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Jewish records pages. If you aren't sure which partition of Poland your ancestors came from, see the heading How do I know which partition of Poland my ancestors came from? below.
How do I know which partition of Poland my ancestors came from?
JewishGen Gazetteer
- The JewishGen Gazetteer can help you determine which partition of Poland your ancestor came from. To view an entry page, search for your town name, then click on the Jewish star to the left of the town name. Pay special attention to the jurisdictions Before WWI. The Country column will let you know which partition of Poland. If there are multiple towns with the same name in different parts of Poland, see the heading below for more information.
Records in Country of Immigration
One of the best ways to determine information about your ancestor's pre-immigration origins is to investigate records in the country of immigration. Records that might give clues about your ancestor's birthplace include vital records like marriage or death, vital records of children or spouses, census, church records, obituaries, naturalization/immigration and so on. Find a Wiki page for the country, state, or county that your ancestor immigrated to in order to discover what types of records might be available for the area they lived in.
As you locate your ancestor in records in their country of immigration, you might notice some variation in their birthplace. The list below illustrates some of the commonalities you might encounter that will help you determine which partition of Poland your ancestor was from.
- Austrian Poland: Austria, Austro-Hungary, Galicia, Poland
- Prussian Poland: Germany, Poland, Prussia, names of provinces including:
- Brandenburg, East Prussia (Ostpreußen), Pomerania (Pommern), Posen (Poznan), Silesia (Schlesien) West Prussia (Westpreußen)
- Russian Poland: Poland, Russia, names of provinces including:
- Grodno, Kalisz, Kielce, Łomża, Lublin, Piotrków, Plock, Radom, Suwałki, Warszawa
Jewish Records [Akta żydowskie]
- Chiefly these consist of transcript records created in accordance with the laws of each of the governments that controlled Poland after the partitioning.
- Prior to the introduction of civil transcript laws (and occasionally after), Jews were sometimes included in Christian church books. In Russian Poland, for example, between 1808 and 1826, Jews may have been recorded in the records of the Roman Catholic Church. By 1826, Jewish congregations kept their own records.
- By the 1820s and 1830s many Jewish congregations were keeping their own distinct civil transcript records.
- Other types of Jewish records include circumcision records, marriage contracts, as well as holocaust memorial records, There was little consistency to the keeping of birth, marriage, and death records which was by the whim of the local religious Jewish leaders until the introduction of civil transcript laws. See below for more information about record types and content.
- Civil transcripts and/or civil registration: record contents are similar to Christian civil transcripts.
- Circumcision records (Mohalim books): given Hebrew male names of children, circumcision date (Hebrew calendar), father’s given Hebrew name, sometimes surname.
- Marriage contracts (Ketubbot): marriage date, names of groom and bride, contractual agreements.
- Divorce records (Get or Gett): a document in Jewish religious law which effectuates a divorce between a Jewish couple. The document frees the woman from the marriage, and consequently, she is free to marry another.
- Death memorial records: names of deceased individuals and death date in Hebrew calendar with month and day but sometimes not year.
- Kahal records: Records of the Jewish governing bodies, including lists of those who voted for the head rabbi, lists of community inhabitants, etc.
JewishGen Resources
JewishGen is one of the most important sources in Jewish genealogical research worldwide. The site is free and easy to use, but requires registration. For video tutorials on many of the resources of JewishGen, see the following free, virtual classes:
- Intro to JewishGen.org and Jewish Genealogy
- JewishGen.org offers both archival and networking components that are relied upon by thousands of people each day. Explore common challenges that people encounter when researching their family history, and how JewishGen can help.
JewishGen Family Finder
The Family Finder is a database of both ancestral hometowns and surnames that have been researched by their descendants world wide. The Family Finder allows you to connect with others who are researching similar ancestors and origins and collaborate your research.
To add the surnames and locations you are researching:
- Click on Modify (Edit your existing entries) or Enter (Add new entries).
- Type in the surnames and/or locations of interest and hit Submit.
To search the database and see if you can connect to family members and other researchers:
- Choose Search (Search the database) from the Town Finder home page. You can search for a surname and/or a town.
- Search results will appear in a chart format giving you the surname, town, country, and researcher information (often includes contact information) and the date they last logged into JewishGen.
JewishGen Given Names Data Bases (GNDB)
Explains Primary-Subsidiary double given names (e.g., Aleksander Ziskind or Yehuda Leyb) and legal double (Primary-Subsidiary) given names which were composed of a classical Hebrew name plus an "Old" and/or "NEW" name, as the rabbis called them. Includes a database for searching Jewish given names.
Help with Poland Jewish Research: Special Interest Groups (SIG)
- The following JewishGen Special Interest Groups (SIGs) includes links, helps, and other resources to help with Jewish Research in Poland:
- Białystok Region SIG
The city of Białystok and nearby towns and villages, currently in Poland, formerly in the Russian Empire's Grodno Gubernia. - Danzig/Gdańsk SIG
Danzig/Gdańsk, and its precursor communities of Alt Schottland, Langfuhr, Mattenbuden, Weinberg, and Danzig in der Breitgasse, and Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański). - Gesher Galicia SIG
Austrian Poland, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1772 until 1917, now in southern Poland and western Ukraine. - German-Jewish SIG
Germany and German-speaking areas of Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland, and Poland. - Łódź area SIG
The city of Łódź, Poland, and localities within a 40-mile radius – in Congress Poland's gubernias of Piotrków, Płock, Warszawa, or Kalisz. - Suwalk-Łomza SIG
Publisher of Landsmen, covering these two northeastern gubernias of Russian Poland, now in northeast Poland and southwest Lithuania. - Warszawa SIG
The capital city of Poland, Warszawa (Warsaw).
- Białystok Region SIG
- Get ideas and help with the Facebook Polish Genealogy Research Community here.
Record Sets and Indexes
Ancestry.com
- Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Births, 1550-1993, index
- Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Deaths, 1808-1942, index
- Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Marriages, 1798-1939, index
- Poland, Jewish Prisoners of War Registration Cards, 1939-1945, index
- Holocaust: Records from Ten Ghettos, index
- Poland, Business Directories, 1926, 1930, 1932 and 1935, index
- Poland, Martyred Jewish Physicians, 1939-1945, index
- Poland, Jewish Children Survivors of the Holocaust, 1945, index
JRI - Poland
Jewish Records Indexing - Poland is the largest fully searchable database of Jewish vital records accessible online. 4 million records from more than 500 Polish towns are now indexed. More are being added every few months.
- On finding an indexed record of interest, there will usually be three options for obtaining the original record:
- a link to the digital image (or one nearby)
- a Family History Library microfilm number
- the contact information for the archive (follow the links at the page bottom)
Order these records directly from the Regional Archive where the records are maintained. Instructions and further information are found here. Use the Order Form for your inquiry.
Indexing is incomplete! Sometimes only part of the available record set is indexed (e.g., births and not deaths). Carefully watch the place names, record types and date ranges listed in the search results.
The Knowles Collection: Jews of Europe
Genealogies of many Jews who appear in the records of the countries of Europe. The great advantage of the Knowles Collection is that it links together into family groups, thousands of individual Jews (over 380,000 for this database as of Jan 2015). Use the above link to search the collection. To view a description of the collection, click here
Yad Vashem Shoah Database
The YadVashem.org Central Database of Shoah (Holocaust) Victims’ Names is searchable by name and by community with “synonym” or “Soundex” options.
Shabbat goy
A new website Shabbat Goy that provides information about more than 200 concentration camps, Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Poland. The site is in French, but the home page provides a link to Google Translate so that it can be read in any language. To read the locality list in your native language, invoke the language conversion feature on the home page and then click the words “All Sites” on the black bar near the top of the page. The list of localities is not in alphabetical order, so an alphabetical list appears below:
- Annopol, Auschwitz, Bedzin, Belzyce, Biala, Biala Podlaska, Biala, Bialystok, Bielsk Podlaski, Blechhammer, Bochnia, Bojanowo, Buk, Byczyna-Biskupice, Chelm, Chelmno, Chrzanow, Czeladz, Czerniejewo, Czestochowa, Dabrowa Tarnowska, Debica, Drawsko Pomorskie, Elk, Gdansk, Gliwice, Glogowek, Glubczyce, Gogolin, Goleniow, Gryfice, Jarocin, Jaworzno, Jedwabne, Karczew, Katowice, Kazimierz Dolny, Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Kepno, Klimontow, Konin, Kornik, Koscian, Koszalin, Kozmin, Krakow, Krapkowice, KraSnik, Krasnystaw, Krotoszyn, Kuznica, Lancut, Leczna, LeSnica, Leszno, Lodz, Lomza, Lublin, Majdanek, Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Mikolajki, Milowka, Miroslawiec, Mosina, Mszczonow, Niezdrowice, Nisko, Nowy Dwor, Nowy Sacz, Opatow, Opole Lubelskie, Orla, Ostrow Wielkopolski, Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Oswiecim, Otwock, Ozarow, Piaski, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Plaszow, Pobiedziska, Pogorzela, Polczyn Zdroj, Poznan, Prudnik, Przeworsk, Przysucha, Pszczyna, Pyskowice, Radymno, Radzyn Podlaski, Ropczyce, Rozwadow, Rymanow, Rzeszow, Sandomierz, Sanok, Sawin, Sedziszow Malopolski, Sejny, Skoczow, Slomniki, Slupca, Smigiel, Sobibor, Sokolow Malopolski, Sosnowiec, Stary Sacz, Strzegom, Strzegom, Strzelce Opolskie, Stutthof, Sulawki (sic), Swarzedz, Swidnica, Swidwin, Szczebrzeszyn, Szczucin, Szczuczyn, Szydlow, Tarnobrzeg, Tarnow, Tarnowskie Gory, Toszek, Toszek, Treblinka, Trzebinia, Tuczno, Tyczyn, Tykocin, Ujazd, Ulanow, Uzarzewo, Warszawa, Wieliczka, Wlodawa, Zabrze, Zamosc, Zary, Zator, Ziebice, Zyrardow.
The International Tracing Service
International Tracing Service was established at the end of World War I to help people in Europe to find family and friends who had been lost as a result of the war. The archives of the ITS were opened to the public in November 2007. The collections of the ITS are written in German. Two of the collections of the ITS have information of particular value for researching Jewish families. These records are the T/D files, and the Central Name Index.
T/D Files
The T/D (Tracing Document) files contain inquiries made by individuals after the war seeking to know the fate of their friends or relatives. The writer often provides valuable information such as family relationships ages, birthplaces, and locations where the family lived. Any documents or future correspondence related to the initial inquiry are included in the file. Even if the missing person was never found, the inquiry and associated documents may provide valuable information and lead the researcher to other relatives.
Central Name Index
This file indexes the over 17 million names found in the collections of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen. Most of the documents in the ITS are World War II era documents such as arrest papers and concentration camp lists. Names from these lists, along with the those in the T/D, are contained in the Central Name Index. Genealogists with a rare surname may even want to do a general search in the Central Name Index, as this may provide a more complete picture of the family.
Overlaps and Differences between ITS and Yad Vashem Databases
Read The International Tracing Service (ITS) and Yad Vashem to fully understand the relationships between the two. Most of ITS holdings may be found at Yad Vashem.
ITS Contact Information
The Address for the International Tracing Service is as follows:
International Tracing Service
Grosse Allee 5-9
34454 Bad Arolsen
Germany
E-mail: email@its-arolsen.org
The German Red Cross Tracing Service
The GRC Tracing Service supports people who have become separated from their family due to armed conflicts, natural disasters, escape, displacement or migration. It helps to trace family members, to put them back in contact and to reunite families.
Select region and branch office to find contact information.
The PRADZIAD Database
PRADZIAD stands for "Database Registration Program Vital Records and Civil Status." It is a catalog of record sets found in Polish archives. Search by name of town, denomination “mojżeszowe,” etc. Here is a fast link to all Jewish records found in the PRAZIAD database (over 3000 record sets). However Jews will also be found in other historical and civil record sets not designated as "Jewish" record sets. You may wish to search through all the record sets for your towns.
Regional Archives
Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie (National Archive in Krakow)
Includes online scans of census records, civil registers etc. For civil registers, search “Akta stanu cywilnego Izraelickiego”.
Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie (State Archive in Szczecin)
Includes civil registry records by community, designated “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego” and linked from the left-hand sidebar. Browse images.
Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) (Central Archive of Historical Records in Warsaw, records of Galicia)
Online images of the registry books of Jewish communities in the area of the Bug River from 1789-1943. The Bug River ran through Galicia and presently forms part of the border between Ukraine and Poland. Some, but not all, of these records are indexed at JewishGen.
The records of 137 Jewish communities are to be found at AGAD. Those with digital images (most of them) are identified by a “galeria ze skanami” (gallery of scans) link. Contact the archive about those without scans. The access page begins with general information, lists all 137 communities, and then re-iterates record set by record set with record type and dates covered.
Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu (State Archive in Wrocław)
Search for scans of civil registers using “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego.”
Metryki Genealodzy (Genealogical Records Indexing Project)
Click on the current Administrative Division for your community, then the county (info from your community page). Look for “Denomination: mojżeszowe” and/or “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego” meaning “Civil Registry Office,” and then follow the links to browse the online images.
Geneteka
Search indexed records by name, place, event, and date.
National BaSIA Database (Wielkopolska Genealogical Society)
Covers Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomerania. Includes civil registry records. Click on map to see what is indexed. Search by name.
Miscellaneous Resources
The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation
Data regarding locations of Polish Jewish records originally published in books by Miriam Weiner is now on this website with periodic updates. Contains articles, essays, maps, archivist insights, and archival inventory for Jewish research in Poland. The website also contains a database of documents that is searchable by town. The search for documents in Eastern Europe ancestral towns is complicated, partly because of the destruction of documents during the Holocaust and changing borders and names. Only the first few letters of the town needs to be known, as all towns beginning with those letters will appear in the list. Some towns will even be cross-referenced with spelling variations or name changes. However, to determine the current spelling of a town, consult Where Once We Walked by Mokotoff and Sack (Avotaynu, 1991). The database will note the types of documents that has survived for that town, including army lists, Jewish vital records, family lists, census records, voter and tax lists, immigration documents, Holocaust material, school records, occupational lists, and more. The span of years covered by these documents and where to find them will also be provided. Records in the archives can be accessed on various websites or databases (such as JewishGen) in person at the archives, by writing to the archives directly, or by hiring a professional researcher to do the work. By consolidating data from five Eastern European countries, researchers can easily determine which records are kept by which archives or repositories.[2]
- See Routes to Roots Foundation and hover over Poland for a Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe
- See also the book, Jewish roots in Ukraine and Moldova by Miriam Weiner (FamilySearch Catalog call no. 947.71 F2w 1999)
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
"YIVO is dedicated to fostering knowledge of the ongoing story of Jewish life, with a focus on the history and culture of East European Jewry." Includes a significant collection of records from Vilna, Lithuania, which was a part of Poland for a time.
Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland
The foundation's primary mission is to protect and commemorate the surviving sites and monuments of Jewish cultural heritage in Poland.