il-002798-m 3
type: RecordSet
archivist note: JL according to the RG description in the YV system
biographical history: The Jewish Self Aid organization (in Polish: Zydowska Samopomoc Spoleczna [ZSS]; in German: Juedische Soziale Selbshilfe) was set up in Krakow in 1940; it went by this name until July 1942. After that date, the organization's welfare activities were cut back by order of the German authorities, and they mainly consisted of the transferring of medicines to Jews in labor camps until this activity, too, was discontinued in mid-1944. ZSS documentation includes correspondence between the administration of the organization in Krakow and the branches throughout the Generalgouvernement, and correspondence with the German goernmental authorities, the Judenrats, and various Jewish relief organizations, such as Centrala Opieki nad Sierotami (CENTOS -Federation of Associations for the Care of Orphans), Obchestvo Remeslenogo Truda (ORT- Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades-World Union for the Vocational Training of Jews), Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia Ludności Żydowskiej (TOZ-Society for Safeguarding the Health of the Jewish Population) and welfare organizations outside of Poland, mainly the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Background: The principle and immediate problem was the need to give aid to the multitude of Jewish refugees who had been deported from their places of residence and for the most part were left without anything and without a roof over their heads, and gradually, the need to help local Jews who were disinherited from their property and remained without sources of income. Along with the ghettoization process, a need arose to provide an answer to the harsh living conditions, the lack of sanitary conditions and the outbreak of diseases, including a typhus epidemic at a time when there was a shortage of equipment and medicine in the Jewish medical institutions. In the beginning, the"Assistance Committee" worked in the relief and welfare areas within the framework of the Judenrat or alongside them, and as time went by, they became the local representativ…
has or had script: Hebr
has or had script: Latn
location of copies: YV archives USHMM ZICH Warsaw
other finding aids: file O.300/95 in the YV archives (digitized)
has beginning date: 1939
has end date: 1943
has or had holder: il-002798
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: pol
has record set type: RecordGroup
identifier: M.3
record resource extent: 38 microfilm reels
scope and content: In the documentation: The ZSS documentation includes correspondence between the administration of the organization in Krakow and the branches throughout the Generalgouvernement, and correspondence with the German governmental authorities, the Judenrats, and various Jewish relief organizations, such as CENTOS, ORT, TOZ and welfare organizations outside of Poland, mainly the JDC. In the correspondence there are requests for social welfare in various areas, itemization of aid and welfare activities including assistance to those in need and Jewish refugees, the establishment and maintenance of soup kitchens, care for children and the elderly, public health, vocational training courses, provision of medicines, distribution of food and clothing in the communities, reports and monthly balance sheets of the local ZSS branches, the transfer of funds and medicines, the way the various resources were allotted and their distribution. Along with the lists of names of Jews in need of assistance who received aid in the distribution of food, clothing and heating supplies, of members of Assistance Committees and local branches of the ZSS, there are also lists of the receipt and distribution of food and clothing (some of them contributions transferred from Jewish organizations abroad by the ZSS) and itemization of assistance funds, medicines and medical equipment. The material in the Yad Vashem Archives appears in Microfilms 1546-1551 and 1560-1592. [What follows is] a partial summary of the information: - JM/1546 contains, among other items, forms regarding financial assistance from the JDC, correspondence between the ZSS administration in Krakow and various companies regarding the transfer of gifts from abroad and the transfer of parcels within Poland, the transfer of funds, invoices and receipts, 1941-1944; - JM/1547-1548 contains, among other items, correspondence between the ZSS administration in Krakow with the Judenrats, local ZSS branches throughout the Generalgouvernement, t…
title: Zydowska Samopomoc Spoleczna (ZSS-Jewish Self Aid) activities in the Generalgouvernement, 1939-1943