German Registrations - 1941
In February and March of 1941, identity cards (kennkarten) were issued to
over 20,000 Jews in Krakow. Photographs and personal details of all these individuals were
kept in a large register. Many of these individuals were not residents of Krakow, but
were rounded up and expelled there in late 1939/1940. The register thus has entries dealing
with Jews from all over Poland (as well as some from Austria, Hungary and Germany).
The original details - including a photograph! - were recorded 4 to a page. These are
considered 'prime' entries. Alongside the photograph is a typewritten description of
the individual which includes family members. Navigate to the Shoreshim Gallery to see an example. (Note:
the scanned images are of better quality than that shown in the Gallery).
Any family member born before 1926 (ie., aged over 15) will also have his own prime
entry in the Register, and alongside his
photograph may be the name of his/her mother or father. It follows that there
are many duplicate entries. eg., Reuven KATZ might have his own entry in which
his son, Shimon, is mentioned. And Shimon KATZ will have his own entry in which
his father, Reuven, is mentioned. (To complicate the transcription process, prime
family members did not always follow each other in consecutive order. Sometimes,
a gap of over 1,000 Register records occurs between different prime
family members).
Although the Register was compiled in the beginning of 1941, minor alterations (such as
dates of death) were made to the Register as late as December 1941
Ordering Images: High-resolution scans of the original photo as well as the accompanying
text can be ordered by contacting the Krakow Archives. These scans can be enlarged and
printed with a high degree of quality. For reasons that are beyond our control, these orders
may take some to be processed. Please check with the Krakow Archives regarding delivery
times, prices for single/multiple images, method of delivery, method pf payment etc.
The original document contains additional information which has not been transcribed. This
often includes occupation, annual income, employer, work address etc. Those ordering scans
will be able to see this data (written in German) on the original text.
The following fields are accessible on Shoreshim:
Record #: This number must be quoted if you decide to order a scanned image from the Krakow Archives. Each entry number represents a specific 'prime' individual. The text accompanying that prime individual might indicate several family members, some of which will have their own 'Record number' elsewhere in the database. There is thus considerable duplication of data.
Photo?: Each page in the original register has 4 'prime' entries. On average, about 3 of these entries will have photos. The photos are usually in pristine condition, but have a staple on the right edge. They are black-and-white portraits (i.e., head and shoulders only) and passport-size. Images can be ordered by contacting the Krakow Archives and quoting the Record #.
Last name: Since members of the family will often have different Last Names (maiden names, cousins, in-laws etc), a search or a specific Last Name will return ALL individuals in the family group. In many cases where the parents did not have a civilian marriage, the children took on the last name of the mother, or else took on both parents last names. Wherever last names of children were not mentioned, the last name of the parent has been added. The original document has some cases of a son-in-law or daughter-in-law being incorrectly written as 'son' or 'daughter'. In such cases the last name might be inaccurate.
First names: Due to the duplicate entries, there are many instances where true names were recorded in one entry, and a nickname recorded in the duplicate entry e.g., Rozalia or Regina is often used as a nickname for Ruchel. Also, double names may be reversed in duplicate entries e.g., Dawid Hirsch and Hirsch Dawid. These minor discrepancies are usually self-evident.
Maiden name: This is often inferred from the duplicate entry. All inferred data is [bracketed] and does not appear on the actual prime record entry.
Relationship: The relationship is always given relative to the prime individual. Relationships are invariably written on the prime record, but many relationships were inferred from the duplicate entries. Although inferred data is usually written in [brackets], there were so many inferred relationships, that [bracketing] was not used for this field. The term 'r/u' stands for 'relationship unknown'. It is apparent that these 'r/u<' individuals represent the family head, the family breadwinner, or possibly the apartment/house owner.
Family group: This number probably refers to the actual ID document number that was issued to the prime individual. All members of a family unit will share the same 'Family Group' number. e.g., The numbers 1234, 1234/1 and 1234/2 will all represent the same family group.
Date of birth: (Format: dd/mm/yyyy). This is usually the actual date, but sometimes the age in years. Inferred birth dates, which come from duplicate entries, are shown in [brackets]. Where there are dates discrepancies between two duplicate entries, both dates are shown. There was some confusion in differentiating the number 11 (written in Arabic numerals) from the number II (written in Roman numerals). This might result in date inaccuracies (February vs. October).
Place of birth: Usually Krakow and surrounding towns, but many other Polish towns also found. Inferred places of birth are shown in [brackets].
In Krakow since: Although the original document usually specifies the exact date (ie., dd/mm/yyyy), only the year has been extracted for the database.
Address in Krakow: The address of all family members will be that of the 'prime' member. Sometimes, a child who has his/her own prime record will live at a different address. In such a case, there will be two different addresses, for the individual. Also note that during the occupation, some street names were changed. The following Table shows some of the more commonly used street name changes:
Notes: self-explanatory
Alte Weichselstrasse Starowislna Adolf Hitler Platz Rynek Glowny Alte Brucken Mostowa Westring Podwale Ring Platz Rynek Podgorze
