Jewish Records in the Czech Republic

Jewish records from Bohemia and Moravia were collected from various regions and put in one place. They are now found in the National Archive and can be accessed online. When accessing these National Archive pages, you may be presented with a list of locations on the right. Scroll through the list and select a location. Once you've selected a location, hover your mouse over the attachment icon (paper clip) for the register of interest until you see an image icon . Select the image icon to bring up the register to view individual pages.

Jewish Vital Events Registers

Židovskė Matriky are the Jewish Vital Events Registers (birth, marriage and death) covering the period 1784 to 1949. They are found at this location. Then click on the right (red image of the basket full of files or folders), the Listování v pomůcce. That should bring you to the alphabetical list of all places containing the Jewish records. It will be in the right column, clickable links in red color. 

These registers contain nearly three thousand volumes. Some of these registers have indexes. The registers from Prague and the Prague area are in a special group.

A description of an individual volume contains the name of the Jewish community that was the seat of the registry district, the kind of registry (N=birth, O=marriage, Z=death), the time span and the registry number. To find a particular locality the user may use a local index listing all places covered in the register and their inventory numbers.

The “master documents of death declaration” were transferred to the National Archive along with the Jewish Vital Events Registries. They include the autopsies from the Terezin/Theresianstadt ghetto from 1941 to 1943 and copies of certificates of presumed death for many victims of the Holocaust issued in the period from 1946-1950.

Jewish Control Registers

Židovskė Kontrolní Matriky are the Jewish Control Registers (birth, marriage and death) covering the period 1784 to 1874 in Bohemia. These registers contain more than 1,000 volumes of records concerning Jews that were originally included in the Catholic records for the areas of residence instead of in Jewish records. They are found at this location. Copy and paste the term 'ABECEDNÍ SEZNAM ŽIDOVSKÝCH KONTROLNÍCH' into the search box and press return to see the list of volumes. Select the row that has ' SEZNAM ŽIDOVSKÝCH KONTROLNÍCH MATRIK' with a red icon near the top. Then click on the right (red image of the basket full of files or folders), the Listování v pomůcce. That should bring you to the alphabetical list of all places containing the Jewish records. It will be in the right column, clickable links in red color. These records are for Bohemia; comparable documents for Moravia have not been preserved. 

Books of Jewish Families

Knihy Židovských Familiantů are the Books of Jewish Families kept by regional authorities and manorial authorities pursuant to a decree of February 28, 1823. They are found at this location.  It is sufficient to type the word 'familiant' into the search field on the top. After the search, select the row on the left near the top which has a red icon 'e' inside it and begins with KNIHY ŽIDOVSKÝCH. Once you've selected the row, then select the Listovani v pomucce (red drawer with files) to bring up the list of all the families by regions on the right. These records include the 8,600 Jewish families officially permitted to live in Bohemia at that time and fill 194 volumes of records kept by regional and manorial authorities.

The archive also includes 94 volumes of records from Moravia kept by manorial authorities and former Jewish communities. These books do not have a uniform format.

Census Lists of Jews

Soupisy Židů are the census lists of Jews settled in Bohemia in 1724, 1783, 1793, 1799 and 1811. They are found at this location. It is sufficient to copy and paste the words 'Soupisy Židů' into the search field on the top. After the search, select the row of interest.

These census records provide information on the number of Jewish residents and families in each location, as well as on the structure, size and livelihoods of Jewish families.