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The books that form the Mediaș library were found in the Mediaș synagogue and Jewish community offices. The majority of the German and Hungarian-language volumes were catalogued by local high school students in the course of a project in 2016-2017. The volumes appear to be a mixture of private and communally-owned books. Though they are mostly religious books including siddurim and Jewish religious texts, some secular volumes were also found. In cases where owner information was inscribed or stamped in the book, a note was made in the catalogue record and, in general, a photo of the personal inscription was made. Please click on the individual titles below for more information.

Please note that this collection is being constantly updated. Please check back regularly for new additions. 

This collection contains minutes of meetings, reports, correspondence, speeches, members' biographies and other memos written by or about or sent to the Jewish Democratic Committee of Timișoara and/or Lugoj. There are also documents from Zionist organizations not necessarily related to the committee but related to Jewish life in general. The committee had a wide range of responsibilities, surpassing basic political tasks. There are a total of 26 folders each containing many hundreds of documents. The collection may be of interest to those studying Jewish life in the immediate post-war period and especially those looking at questions of identity.

This collection primarily contains documents from 1945-1950. The two items listed in the inventory from 1909, a cadastral book and accompanying property registration forms, are not accessible at the National Archives. According to the local archivists, this material was retained by the Valea Lungă town hall. It could be interesting for researchers due to the fact that Valea Lungă had a relatively large Jewish community with its own synagogue, which is presumably recorded in such cadastral documents. There is one document registering animals from 1928 and otherwise the rest of the material is from after World War II and generally consists of administrative paperwork. There is one folder from 1945 on expropriated property and goods in the course of the agrarian reform of 1945. It contains lists of the people from whom property including farming equipment, etc was expropriated and lists of people who received this property. It is not entirely clear but it seems that the property was expropriated from the Germans, by and large (this list does not include a note on ethnicity), and given to Romanians and Roma, as well as on occasion a "poor" Hungarian or Saxon. Though Valea Lunga once had a significant Jewish community and its own synagogue, the Jews were "evacuated" to nearby towns during World War II and as such, there appear to be no Jews involved in these transactions, though it is possible that the list of expropriated property also contains Jewish property owners (this is not clear since Saxon and Jewish names were often similar/the same and because the Jewish property may have already been expropriated before and during the war).

This folder contains a variety of documents to and from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania and smaller community branches. Included are notes from Deva and paperwork regarding the firing or laying-off of Jewish workers from metal factories in Cugir and Copșa Mica. There is also an original letter (dated 19 August 1941) to a government minister from Filderman (president of the community) laying out details as to who has been deported or interned to date and from which localities as well as describing other injustices (mandatory wearing of Jewish "sign" in certain towns). The other documents refer to locations in the Regat.

This folder contains three documents related to anti-Semitic measures taken by the Romanian government in World War II. The letters are authored by Romanian governmental authorities (department for Romanianization and Ministry of Internal Affairs). One refers to the requirement to draw up lists of all properties owned by Jews in Timișoara and Arad. One refers to the imprisonment of Jewish leaders, both religious and communal and one refers to disputes in the small town of Beiuș (Bihor county) regarding Jews evacuated in the area and their housing.

This folder contains a collection of documents apparently put together by the Federation of Jewish communities. The documents testify to abuse of Jewish property or person in some way or record worrisome developments by the local police (creation of lists of men of males of working age). Included are documents from or about Radăuți, Suceava, Vama (Bukovina), and Făgăraș.

This folder contains a collection of documents apparently put together by the Federation of Jewish communities. All the documents testify to abuse of Jewish property or person in some way. Included is a testimony from Alba Iulia and a bill of sale (from a Jewish man to the Legionnaires) from Brașov.

This folder contains a collection of documents apparently put together by the Federation of Jewish communities for submission to government authorities in order to illustrate the difficulties facing Jewish communities across the country. Included are two pages regarding Jewish property in Suceava which were seized by the various military and administrative authorities. The other documents generally refer to Jewish loss of citizenship rights and internment or forced labor of rabbis and other community leaders (not specific to Transylvania or Bukovina).

The Jewish Communities of Romania Collection (sometimes also described by the Romanian National Archives as the Documents Collection of the Jewish Communities of Romania) contains documents created and received by Jewish communities and organizations functioning in Romania from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century.

The documents until World War II are composed of a variety of items reflecting community life, including statutes, correspondence, reports, and membership lists. Documents from the World War II period generally address the plight of Romanian Jews during this period. This material includes reports on persecutions and expropriations, correspondence and other documents related to deportees, and emigration paperwork. The post-World War II material generally deals with the repatriation of Jewish deportees to the Romanian-organized camps in Transnistria, the welfare of survivors, emigration, and the activities of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania and of the Jewish Democratic Committee (communist Jewish organization). For the complete inventory list of the collection, please see this link (in Romanian only). 

JBAT archivists surveyed folders containing material related specifically to Bukovina and Transylvania. For details on the contents of these folders, please see the list below and click on any link.

Please note JBAT archivists did not survey this material directly. The folder description provided by the CNSAS inventory reads (please note no specific towns are mentioned in this description): Telegrams and ordinances regarding the evacuation of citizens of Jewish ethnicity and the punishment of those who rob or kill them; the context of the events taking place at Iași; documents regarding the Romanianization of some firms in the county of Târnava Mică.

The collection includes the paperwork and material collected by the Mureș county Securitate (Romanian Communist Secret Police) offices under communism. The material includes select folders from the pre-communist period; these folders were presumably in the possession of the police and seized by the Securitate at some point in time. At the time of the JBAT survey (2015), the inventory for this collection was accessible only at the physical location of the CNSAS and only in digital form on the computers of the CNSAS reading room. The inventory provided no indication as to the linear extent of the collection and gave no additional details as to its history, content, or the number of pages in individual folders. The collection is large, over 1,000 files, and as such there are many hundreds of folders which are obliquely titled and may contain reference to Jewish residents. It was beyond the scope of the present survey to inspect the contents of all such folders. There are, however, a number of folders with titles specifically referencing the Jewish content. Several of these contain material from World War II and others contain histories of the local Jewish communities. For details on folders mentioned above and others with material clearly related to the Jewish population, please click on the link(s) below.

This file contains a variety of civic records and correspondence regarding communal property. Sheet 6 contains a list of real estate presumed abandoned by former Jewish residents and a resolution by the municipal government to take over these properties. The list provides the name of the former owner, a reference to the land registry number, size and address of the property.

This file contains various announcements, requests, and correspondence, the bulk of which pertains to rentals and auctions of market stalls. Many Jewish names appear, and notably many of the market stalls being auctioned off appear to have been owned by Jews.

This file contains various civic ordinances, documents and correspondence, many of which pertain to the manufacture and distribution of flour and the issuance of certificates pertaining to Romanian citizenship. The latter category includes both requests for proof of Romanian citizenship and renunciations of citizenship, especially in cases of emigration. Many of those making these requests are Jewish. Finally, of especial note is a group of documents scattered throughout the folder, but especially in the final 20 pages, which relate to requests made by Jewish businessmen and tradesmen for reductions or exemptions from various taxes and fees since they are no longer permitted to work. Although it does not specifically mention Jews, a request from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bucharest, signed by a Legionary Commander, encourages the increase of “ethnic Romanian element” in certain branches, either through the “creation of new enterprises” or through the “replacement of minorities” (sheet 155). Elsewhere, sheet 39 refers to Jewish property sold to non-Jews during the period before the state seizure of Jewish property. Several documents, such as sheet 73, refer to rental agreements for market stalls, wherein a Jewish tenant's stall is often rented to a new tenant after the expiration of the lease, which in almost all cases appears to be December 31, 1940.

This collection contains a wide variety of papers created by the Town Hall of Radăuți during the Austro-Hungarian period until the early community period. The material covers all areas of town administration from elections to property administration to overseeing of professional organizations and so forth. Material specifically related to the Jewish population includes information on cultural and professional organizations (many Jewish), files related to the deportation of Jews (euphemistically called "evacuation") and handling of the remaining property, bids for market stalls (many of which were made by Jews), various files on impoverished survivors of Transnistria requesting welfare or proof of citizenship. For details on these files, please click on any link below.

This file contains legal documents and maps pertaining to the seizure of the Sillex timber mill, including some of its buildings, rail facilities and machinery, for the building of a public electric grid. According to the documents, the owner S.I. Leibovici had abandoned the property and the firm upon emigration to Palestine.


This file contains correspondence, registers, requests, reports, and other civil documents, largely concerning property in the Gura Humorului district. Several of the documents mention Jewish landowners. An example of other types of documents pertaining to Jews in this district are permits for Markus vel Mortche Wein to give dance lessons in the district (beginning on page 52).

This folder contains paperwork and correspondence regarding the expropriation of Jewish property in Târnăveni. It includes official instructions, reports on Jewish property holdings, census forms from 1948 (appear to be mistakenly included in the folder), reports on property of Jews of Hungarian citizenship, reports on forest property owned by Jews, charts of Jewish property in the city of Târnăveni, inventories of and reports on Jewish propery taken over by Romanians, charts of property transfer (Jewish owner, size, usage, new Romanian owner), instructions regarding property and treatment of Jews of foreign nationality.

Contrary to the title of this folder, the contents relate entirely to forced labor measures for the Jews of the town of Târnăveni and surrounding region. Included are lists of men and boys required to do forced labor (lists include name, age, address), official announcement regarding the forced labor times and requirements, petitions for the cancellation of forced labor requirement for certain individuals, reports on the progress of the work undertaken by the forced laborers, reports on absences amongst the workers, instructions regarding treatment of the forced laborers (from the county authorities), correspondence regarding whether the Jews will be forced to work on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur or not, a petition regarding an individual who had converted from Judaism to Reform (Protestant) to be excluded from the forced labor.

This folder contains paperwork related to the "evacuation" of Jews from rural communities and their relocation to local towns within the Târnăveni area. The documents include numbers of people relocated, orders, objects "donated" by the Jews to the local authorities, official posters announcing antisemitic laws, records of items taken from Jews (radios), and other such material.

This folder contains documents which refer primarily to Romanian refugees from northern Transylvania living in Tarnaveni or the surrounding towns or villages. Several documents however do also refer to Jewish confiscated goods or contain information regarding leases between Jewish inhabitants and other citizens.

This folder contains correspondence, declarations, and charts related to expropriated property in Reghin in 1947. The expropriations mentioned here appear to have mainly been of German (Saxon) property.

This folder contains a chart of "war criminals" from the county of Mures. Included in the chart are the name, occupation, age (generally blank) and residence. The chart was created by the prefecture of Mures and sent to the Reghin town hall, apparently in order to assertain what property and goods existed which had been the possession of the men condemned for war crimes.

This folder contains documents related to the agrarian reform of the interwar period. It includes a legal case to expropriate Mendel Schwarz of forest property and also has correspondence regarding workers associations for youth in the region.

This folder contains forms about the new street names in Reghin. The charts are of interest as they contain many Jewish landmarks in the town, such as the Jewish sanatorium, the 2 Jewish "churches" (or second Jewish church, difficult to know what was intended), the Jewish quarter (called Plangerilor, or quarter of tears/wailing) and the newly named Street of Jewish Martyrs (which was quickly changed to something else). There are also lists of inhabitants who emigrated illegally in 1947, the majority going to Hungary or Palestine. Included on the lists are the names, occupation, date of departure, and destination.

Amongst other documents, this folder has lists of people with outstanding electricity bills who left for Palestine or are otherwise absent.

Folder contains miscellaneous documents regarding collectivization measures, friendship with the USSR, workers holidays, and so forth. There is one "confidential" memo regarding a change of usage for prayer houses or synagogues and stating that no changes of usage are allowed.

The folder contains lists of properties owned by the city and churches, including property of the Jewish community. It is unclear why the synagogue and cemeteries are not included on these property lists. There is also correspondence regarding the desire of the Orthodox church and town hall to construct a new cemetery and the response from the neighbors, who opposed this measure (including some Jewish neighbors). There is likewise a report from a health official advising against the new construction of a Jewish cemetery for the same reasons (as given by the neighbors who opposed the Orthodox cemetery).

The folder contains requests and petitions from various organizations and individuals in Reghin to the Town Hall. There are notes from or to Zionist organizations and the Jewish community.

This collection contains documents typical of a municipal authority though please note that there are few documents from the Austro-Hungarian period. Of interest to those researching the Jewish history of the region are primarily files from the World War II period which deal with anti-Semitic measures taken including the evacuation of Jews from villages to the cities, the expropriation of Jewish goods, forced labor measures, and so forth. For details on these files and others specifically related to the Jewish population, please see below and click on any link.

Please note that this collection comprises three inventories: "Primaria Orasului Reghin" (1829-1950) with 704 items; Sfatul Popular al Orasului Reghin (1951-1955) with 111 items; and Consiliul Popular al Orasului Reghin (1950-1968) with 634 items. These titles reflect the changes of governmental organisation within the country. The present survey focused primarily on the contents of the first inventory. The material within the second two inventories deals largely with the restructuring under communism and rarely do the contents move beyond bureaucratic and administrative announcements and records. The first inventory however contains numerous files with information relevant to Jewish history. The collection contains material customary for a municipal authority including administrative and financial files, documents regarding permits and professions, and regulating schools, religious institutes, and so forth. Specific to the Jewish population, there are files with material on synagogues, Jewish organizations, Jewish professionals and apprentices, and numerous files regarding Jewish citizenship or property of Jews who were deported or emigrated. For details on these files and others with material related specifically to the Jewish population of Reghin, please see below and click on any title.

This file contains various documents and correspondence pertaining to the permits and licenses issued to the owners and employees of the Jewish lumber firm Froim Charas și Leon Brotman for automobiles.

This collection contains a variety of administrative records and correspondence regarding staffing, budget, and other general business, as well as a number of materials regarding the policing of the community. The latter category includes a variety of registers of infractions and of individuals arrested or wanted for arrest, some of whom, owing to the substantial regional Jewish population, were Jewish. Elsewhere, there are various papers and correspondence regarding permits and licenses for various activities and events, especially for automobile permits and licenses. There are also some files on military conscripts and citizenship. For details on a select number of items individually surveyed within this collection, please click on any link below.

This collection contains papers created by the Jewish Democratic Committee for the county of Mureș and town of Târgu Mureș and for the local branch of Reghin. The folders contain meeting minutes, reports, surveys, and other written material. It is not clear how the county of Mureș differed from the region of Mureș (there is also a collection for the Regional Jewish Democratic Committee for Mureș). The committee had a wide range of responsibilities, surpassing basic political tasks. The reports and meetings record decisions about secular and religious holidays, the Jewish school, teachers, emigration matters, unresolved events (missing persons) from World War II, religious staff (butcher, teachers), cultural events, and general happenings in community life. There are surveys on the community, including data on community numbers, language, occupations, and so forth. There are reports on the receptiveness to communist ideology versus Zionism and specific numbers are given for those who have requested to emigrate. There may also be speeches made by the leadership on holidays or for other gatherings. The collection may be of interest to those studying Jewish life in the immediate post-war period and especially those looking at questions of identity, Zionism, and Jewish roles in early communist Romania.

Please note that the inventory for this collection was missing in 2015, so the precise contents are not known. Two folders were requested, one dealt with the regional committee, as per the title of the collection; the other folder was from the Sighișoara committee. The folders contain meeting minutes, reports, surveys, and other written material created by the Jewish Democratic Committee for the region of Mureș (or Sighișoara). It is not clear how the region of Mureș differed from the county of Mureș (there is also a collection for the Jewish Democratic Committee for Mureș County). The committee had a wide range of responsibilities, surpassing basic political tasks. The reports and meetings record decisions about secular and religious holidays, the Jewish school, teachers, emigration matters, unresolved events (missing persons) from World War II, religious staff (butcher, teachers), cultural events, and general happenings in community life. There are surveys on the community, including data on community numbers, language, occupations, and so forth. There are reports on the surrounding towns and the respective population's receptiveness to communist ideology versus Zionism. There may also be speeches made by the leadership on holidays or for other gatherings. The collection may be of interest to those studying Jewish life in the immediate post-war period and especially those looking at questions of identity, Zionism, and Jewish roles in early communist Romania.

This collection contains minutes of meetings, reports, correspondence, speeches, and other memos written by or about the Jewish Democratic Committee of Târnăveni. The committee had a wide range of responsibilities, surpassing basic political tasks. The reports and meetings record decisions about secular and religious holidays, the Jewish school, teachers, emigration matters, unresolved events (missing persons) from World War II, religious staff (butcher, teachers), cultural events, and general happenings in community life. There are surveys on the community, including data on community numbers, language, occupations, and so forth. The collection may be of interest to those studying Jewish life in the immediate post-war period and especially those looking at questions of identity.

The Collection of Cadastral Records includes seven different inventories. The collection is vast and access to documents is frequently denied on the grounds that the contents contain property information. Nevertheless, there are folders pertaining to a number of villages and towns with significant Jewish populations and, in certain cases, data can be gathered from the documents as to the location of the synagogue or other Jewish spaces. In general the documents include such items as lists of house-owners or property owners, as well as agricultural surveys of the land. There are folders for the following villages and towns which had demonstrable Jewish populations: Acățari, Adămuș, Nazna, Agrișteu, Cetatea de Baltă, Mediaș, Dumbrăveni, Ernei, Miercurea Nirajului, Ormeniș, Reghin, Sighișoara, Sâncraiul de Mureș, Sovata, Teaca, Târgu Mureș, Toplița, Ungheni, Valea (Iobageni), Luduș. Please note that the collection contains folders for many villages and towns outside of the current Mureș county borders, in particular there are countless folders for Saxon villages to the south, today in the county of Sibiu or even Brașov. Please note that inventory 691 was missing in 2015.

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The Medias Jewish Community Collection contains material spanning the life of the community, with documents dating from the late 19th century until the end of the communist era as well as general administrative paperwork into the 1990s (when the community, for all intents and purposes, no longer existed). The bulk of the material is from the mid-20th century (1940s-1970s) and of administrative or financial nature. Several extensive items of particular historic significance have been digitized and are available below in Series III: the 500-page book of meeting minutes covering board member and community meetings from 1930-1947 (Box OS21); hundreds of registration forms created by the Jewish Council (Centrala Evreilor) during the war which recorded an individual's family background up to the grandparents (names, birthplaces and date) (Box OS18 and OS19); the burial registry with details on tombstone location, date (and sometimes cause) of death and accompanying index of names (OS13); and the cemetery map (last item in Series III). The original statutes of the community, in Hungarian from 1894, as well as later German and Romanian versions, are also digitized and can be found in Series V (SD2/folder 2). The material in this collection may be of interest to those researching Jewish life, identity, and culture in southern Transylvania before and during World War II and Jewish life under the Romanian communist government. For additional details on the contents of each series, please see the comprehensive container list below. The collection is arranged by series and chronologically within each series.

Despite its name, the majority of this file has little to do with items stolen from the Jews of Solca. There are a few documents related to things taken – lamps, radios, etc – but most of the contents have to do with other administrative matters.

This file contains various documents and correspondence pertaining to property belonging to Germany and Jewish residents of Siret which was seized by the state. Most documents appear to refer to former German property but there are also several pieces that outline the position of the town or state regarding all such expropriated property.

Contrary to its description in the inventory of the Suceava archives, this file contains documents spanning the late 1930s to the early 1940s (not just 1941). Most of the correspondence is from federal authorities requesting information regarding possession of property in the town and county, especially church property. Few of the responses presumably dispatched by the Câmpulung authorities are included, though it is possible these may be found in archival repositories in Bucharest. Information requested included architectural plans and other cadastral data and is potentially of significant interest. There is one letter from the Chevra Gach synagogue association. The last pages of the file date from 1938 and contain various inspection reports made by the Câmpulung sanitation office in which they order individuals to repair, tear down, clean, or otherwise alter existing structures on private property. All of the individuals receiving such citations are Jewish residents.

This file contains a comprehensive list of all shopkeepers and artisans in Câmpulung Moldovenesc in 1917. The list contains 160 names, along with the respective individual's trade and tax levied. The file also contains several applications for reimbursement of losses or damages suffered on account of the war.

This file contains a variety of correspondence and contracts relating to property held by the municipality and leased to various small merchants or artisans. Reflecting the diversity of the town population at this period, the lessees include Germans, Jews, and Romanians. There are also some shop inventories from merchants who apparently fled to Câmpulung during World War I from other parts of Bukovina (referred to as refugees).

This file contains charts and correspondence regarding property stolen from Jews that were deported (the euphemism ”evacuated” is used in Romanian). This property technically became state property and the state then sold it through auctions. Auction results are recorded including bidders and prices. There are charts of original Jewish owners and of Romanians who had taken custody of the items. The property in this file deals exclusively with animals, mostly cows and horses.

These files contain all construction permit applications for the respective year including the architectural plans and schemes required for securing a permit. The first several pages of the file list the contents, by applicant name, so one can even quickly discern what names are included in any respective file. To take 1928 as an example, many or perhaps most of the major building projects were proposed by Jewish residents, of interest is that within that number there was a noticeable number of female applicants. Most applications from this year are for houses or storage sheds, but there are also applications for shops or additions to houses.

From 1889 to 1918 there are thirteen files entitled ”correspondence in German.” A survey of about half of these files indicates that they generally contain sale-and-purchase contracts between individuals and the town hall, communications from Austrian Imperial officials from Vienna or Czernowitz to local town officials in Câmpulung, plans for the construction of municipal utility facilities, beautification measures or petitions, and various documents or charts of residents violating certain rules or regulations (ie. Insufficient chimney operation). Given the significant Jewish population, Jews are generally represented in these files in all sorts of capacities: as municipal officials, as private businessmen, as shopkeepers, artisans, and the like. Some files contain only a few documents, some up to a hundred or more. The call number for the respective file is generally 1/YEAR but please consult the inventory for the Câmpulung town hall collection (Primăria orașului Câmpulung Moldovenesc) for the exact number.

At the time of this letter Suceava had recently become part of the Austrian Empire. The priest requests the money to be ”German” money.

This item is a poster regulating the process for restitution of goods taken as a result of “recent racist laws”.

This item is a poster outlining rules for transportation of goods expropriated from Jews, for example advising that permits are required from the office for the administration of goods expropriated from Jews (administrarea bunurilor expropriate dela evrei).

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