1. I would like a copy of my birth, marriage and death certificate.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not have any civil status records of people of Jewish origin. If they have survived, they are kept in registry offices (death certificates are kept for 80 years, birth and marriage certificates for 100 years). Older books are in the state archives. Record books of the Jewish population of the so-called territories beyond the Bug River are kept at the Third Department of the Warsaw Registry Office (Księdza Ignacego Kłopotowskiego 1/3 Street, 03-718 Warsaw) [III Wydział Rejestracji Stanu Cywilnego i Ksiąg Zabużańskich USC m.st. Warszawy (ul. Ks. Ignacego Kłopotowskiego 1/3, 03-718 Warszawa)].

  1. I would like to check the name on the list of Jews who lived in Poland before the war.

There is no name list of Jews living in Poland before World War II.

  1. I would like to check the name on the list of Jews who died during the war.

There is no name list of Jews who died during the war. Individual institutions have at their disposal rudimentary lists of people who were murdered.

  1. I would like to check the name on the list of Jews who survived the Holocaust.

There is no name list of Jews who survived the Holocaust. Individual institutions have incomplete lists of people of Jewish origin who survived the war.

  1. I would like to get the current address of the person I am looking for.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not have the current addresses of the wanted persons or their relatives.

  1. I would like to receive a certificate stating that a person did not survive the war.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not issue such certificates. The Archives only certify that the documents in its collection are true to the original.

  1. I would like to receive a certificate stating that the person concerned was of Jewish origin.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not issue such certificates. The Archives only certify that the documents in its collection are true to the original.

  1. I would like to receive a certificate stating that the person was victimized during the war.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not issue such certificates. The Archives only certify that the documents in its collection are true to the original.

  1. I would like to receive the land registers.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not have land registers or other documentation containing information about real estates and their owners.

  1. I would like the archive to conduct a research query in its collections on the topic of interest to me, because I am writing a master's / doctoral dissertation.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not conduct scientific research. The Archives make its collections available to researchers in the Institute's reading room.

  1. I would like the archive to help me with my research and to contact other institutions with inquiries on my behalf.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not mediate in searches in other scientific units, archives or state institutions.

  1. I would like the archive to perform a genealogical query.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not conduct genealogical searches. This activity is handled by the Genealogical Department of the Jewish Historical Institute.

  1. I would like the archive to represent me in front of offices in Poland.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not act as an attorney / representative before offices in Poland. This type of activity is the responsibility of law firms and researchers.

  1. I would like the archive to translate the documents, as I do not know Polish.

The Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute do not translate documents. This type of activity is the responsibility of sworn translators.

  1. Are the archival documents translated into English?

The documents in the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute are not translated into English.

  1. Are there scans of reports and diaries on the Internet?

The scans of diaries or reports belonging to the JHI collection are not available online. The website Central Jewish Library https://cbj.jhi.pl/ contains, however, some scanned items our collection: files of Jewish religious communities of Włocławek, Bydgoszcz, Żychlin, Wrocław, Praga; collection of documents of Masonic lodges; pre-war file of the Jewish population of Gliwice (it is a fragment of the set of documents of the Jewish Community in Gliwice); a collection of pre-war announcements and leaflets concerning the social and political life of the Jewish population; collection of documents from ghettos and camps in Central and Eastern Europe 1939-1944 [Judenrats]; a collection of death certificates for those who died in the Warsaw ghetto (this is documentation that accounts for only about 2% of the murdered Warsaw Jewish population); The Union of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland; Jewish Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts; Jewish Cultural Society in Poland; documents from the Ringelblum Archive. 

  1. Are your databases with names posted on the Internet?

Due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), our database of names is not available on the Internet.

  1. Can the archive send me documents from the Yad Vashem Institute?

The Archives do not have any documents from the Yad Vashem collection, nor do they act as an intermediary in obtaining copies of them. To do this, please contact the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.

  1. Does the archive have access to the Bad Arolsen Archive database?

As of today, the JHI Archives do not have access to the Bad Arolsen Archive database.

  1. I would like to receive copies of the photos of the Warsaw ghetoo / Kraków ghetto / other ghettos.

At the Jewish Historical Institute, the photographs are under the custody of the Jewish Heritage Documentation Department. Please contact this department for further information. In the Archives, you can find photographs, as long as they are part of the archival collections, incl. photographs of people as part of personal documents (passport, ID card, certificates, etc.), as well as photo collections in family legacies, photographs from the Ringelblum Archive.