Source Information
This collection was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, RG-15.098M: Starosta Miasta Krakowa,1939-1945. Wykazy dowὀdow osobistych (Kennkartenlisten) wydanych Żydom ( Sygn. 450). For more information about this collection, click on the collection title above to access the USHMM's catalog record, or email [email protected].
The World Memory Project is part of the Ancestry World Archives Project. Click here to see additional World Memory Project collections.
Original data:Stadthauptmann der Stadt Krakau (Starosta Miasta Krakowa), 1939–1945. RG-15.098. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
About Kraków, Poland, Jewish ID Card Applications During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM)
This database contains details extracted from questionnaires of Jews in Kraków, Poland, who applied for personal identification cards from 1940 to 1941.The original questionnaires are held by the Polish State Archives in Kraków.
Historical Background
After invading Poland, the German army occupied Kraków in the first week of September 1939. Military authorities initiated immediate measures aimed at isolating, exploiting, and persecuting the Jews of the city. They required Jews to report for forced labor, form a Jewish Council, identify themselves by means of a white armband with a blue Star of David, and register their property.
In May 1940, the Germans began to expel Jews from Kraków to the neighboring countryside. By March 1941, the SS and police had expelled more than 55,000 Jews, and forced the remaining 15,000 Jews in Kraków to live in a ghetto in Podgórze, located in the south of the city.
The SS and police conducted the first large-scale deportations of Jews from the Kraków ghetto to killing centers in June 1942, and destroyed the ghetto in March 1943. Only about 2,000 Jews of Kraków survived the war.
What's in the Records
Details vary widely by form, but details in this index may include the following:
- name
- maiden name
- birth date
- birthplace
- nationality
- marital status
- occupation
- dates lived in Krakow
- ID card number and issue date
- residence location
- relationship to head of household
- document place and date
- whether a photo appears in document
- appointment date
- street address
- document type
- household members
These records are in German and Polish.
Ordering Records
Additional details about these victims may be included in the original records. While the index is freely accessible from Ancestry.com, the images of these records are not available in this database. Copies of the images can be ordered at no cost from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Click here for ordering information.
More information about Jews in Kraków during the Holocaust is available in the online Holocaust Encyclopedia.
Films of prewar Jewish life in Kazimierz, Krakow's Jewish quarter, and street scenes in Krakow are also available on the Museum’s website.
Click here to watch the video testimony of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Pole who ran a pharmacy within the confines of the Krakow ghetto.
