The Ghetto Fighters' House, Israel
Most descriptions of the files are available online in the Archives section of the GFH website, searchable by text elements, keywords or the name of the collection. All file descriptions are available on-site in the GFH Archives Researchers’ Room.
Those archival materials which have been digitized and made available for viewing -- accessed on this site or through the GFH Archives' website -- may be downloaded for personal use and classroom presentation, but not for distribution in any media. High-resolution images of the original archival materials are available by order; there is a fee for this service. Due to privacy rights and copyrights, some of the materials in this collection cannot be accessed through the internet. Researchers wishing to gain further information are invited to contact the archive.
**Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek** was an historian of East-Central Europe, particularly of Slovakia. He focused primarily on the history of the Jews in Slovakia, autochthonous fascism and antisemitism, the Holocaust, the tensions and overlaps between nationalism and communism, the German-Israeli relations. Yeshayahu Andrej Jelinek, born in Prievidza, Czechoslovakia, in 1933, was the younger son of Vojtech and Regina Jelinek. Together with his older brother, Jakov Erich (b. 1931), Yeshayahu attended the local Jewish school. Following the deportations of the Jews in Slovakia in 1942, the school continued its activity with a single classroom of eight pupils, one from each grade level. Among the schoolteachers were Arnold Schwartz and Helena Deutelbaum. All students, including the Jelinek brothers, came from families that were not deported because of being deemed essential to the Slovakian economy. According to Jelinek, Jozef Sivak, the Minister of Education at the time and a native of the town, had taken the school under his patronage. As part of the curriculum the children read texts in Slovakian, Czech, German & Hungarian. They also worked on a bulletin between February 1943 - January 1944 titled “Mogen David”, which issues were handwritten on notebooks. Later on, the material was typewritten by Erna Kohn - Koler. With the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising (August 1944) the Jelinek family fled to the forest. Yeshayahu, his mother and brother hid in several places until the end of the war. His father, Vojtech Jelinek, separated from his family when he joined the Slovak partisans in December 1944. After the war, the family reunited in Prievidza. Yeshayahu and Jakov joined the *HaShomer HaTsair* Jewish youth movement and became founding members of the *Achdut* group in Prievidza. In 1948 they began their journey to Eretz Israel as part of the *El-Al* training commune (*garin aliya*), which settled in 1949 in Kibbutz Ma'anit. Prof. Yeshayahu Jelinek studied history at the Hebrew University. He received his PhD at Indiana University in the United States in 1960s. His dissertation focused on “Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1939 - 1945” and was supervised by Prof. Charles Jelavich. Prof. Yeshayahu Jelinek taught in several universities in United States, Germany and Israel. He died in 2016.
The materials from this collection were part of Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek's personal archive. Most of the children bulletins "Mogen Davi") written in 1943-1944 at the Prievidza Jewish school were donated directly by Prof. Jelinek in 2015, who provided at the time crucial contextual information. Yeshayahu and Jakov Jelinek studied during those years with: Lili Goldberger, Eva Adler, Daisy Adler, Zana Nagel - Zimmerman, Erika Kats - Kohn, Jakov Kopelo - Nagel. Lili, Eva and Daisy were killed in 1944. Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek also deposited materials concerning his historical research and academic activity (correspondence, newspapers clips, historical materials etc.). In 2023, the collection was expanded by his family. His wife, Miriam Jelinek, and daughter, Noa Jelinek, donated to the GFH Archives, among others, family documents and photographs, a notebook of the"Mogen Davi" bulletin from 1943-1944, as well as materials about the *She'arit Hapleta* (the Surviving Remnant) in Slovakia: *HaShomer HaTsair* and the *Achdut* group in Prievidza in 1947, the *El-Al* training commune and the group immigration to Israel. They also deposited testimonies of Holocaust survivors from Slovakia collected by Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek.
Documents: - personal documents of the Jelinek family, 1925 - 1950. - notebooks of several issues of the “Mogen David” bulletin handwritten by Jewish children in the Prievidza Jewish school between February 1943 - January 1944; typed versions of several issues. - an issue of the newspaper published by the Judenrat in Bratislava (*Vestnik Ustredna Zidov*) on January 28th, 1944, and delivered to Prievidza. - materials concerning the *Achdut* group of *HaShomer HaTsair* in Prievidza, including two diaries written by Jakov Jelinek between 1947 - 1948; - various materials concerning the *El-Al* training commune which settled in kibbutz Ma'anit in 1949: texts and protocols written by members between 1947 - 1953; lists of the members; questionnaires filled in 2008 for a commemorative project marking 60 years since the group's arrival to kibbutz Ma'anit. - memoirs written by Yeshayahu Jelinek in 2014. - the"Arbeit Macht Fre" catalog of 16 charcoal drawings made by the artist Franz Frantisek Reichental, published in Bratislava in 1946. - various materials concerning Jelinek's historical research and academic activity, including: Jelinek's correspondence, 1973 - 1978; testimonies of Holocaust survivors from Slovakia collected by Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek; copies of documents about the Ustasa Organization (Ustasa − Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret) in Yugoslavia, Croatia, 1933 – 1945; a booklet titled “This is Artukovic” about the fascist Andrija Artukovic. Photographs: - family photographs. - *Achdut* group of *HaShomer HaTsair*.
Prof. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek Collection