Documents on the Jewish Genealogy in the collections of the National Historical Archive of Belarus
18
JULY
2012
The National Historical Archives of Belarus is the largest archival repository in the Republic of Belarus and one of the largest archives in Central andEastern Europe. Many of the documents held at the archives reflect the history and culture of the Jewish population living in Belarusian territories. The archives contain nearly half a hundred archival funds from Jewish organizations and institutions. The first group of such funds includes the funds of synagogues, kahals and Jewish societies. The second group consists of the funds of Jewish educational institutions. The third group includes the funds of institutions established by Russian authorities in order to monitor compliance with the residence regulations within the Pale of Settlement. The history of the funds can (more or less accurately) be traced back to 1944, when Belarus was retaken by the Soviets. Until 1963, they were kept in two main archival institutions − the Central State Historical Archives of BSSR in Mahilyow (Mogilev) and the State Archives of the Minsk Region. After CSHA of BSSR moved to Minsk in 1963, all the funds were concentrated here.
Every year, the archives carry out several dozens of Jewish genealogical requests coming from various countries. The peculiarity of conducting research on Jewish genealogy is the chronological framework. Generally, our search does not extend beyond the lower chronological boundary which is the time when the Russian Empire came into possession of the Belarusian lands (the year of 1772 – for Eastern Belarus and 1795 – for Central and Western Belarus).
| Speaker | Location |
|---|---|
|
Dzianis LISEICHYKAU |
Seine A |
