Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on December 8, 2021 that Russia will return to Greece the Jewish Holocaust archives that were moved to Russia following World War ll. The largest part of the archives relates to the once-thriving Jewish community in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city.

During the Nazi regime and occupation of much of Europe, the Nazis plundered the documents and culture a treasures of Jewish organizations which they deemed to be enemies of the Reich. According to official figures, on July 11, 1942, the Nazis, led by the Austrian head of the SS Alois Brunner, surrounded the Jews of Thessaloniki in order to deport them to concentration camps. The community paid 2.5 billion drachmas for the freedom that they had been told would be given to them, but they only managed to delay the deportation until March 1943.

When the Nazis were crushed, many of these looted collections, as well as records of Nazi state agencies that persecuted and murdered Jews, were discovered by the Soviet Army, then transferred to Moscow and held for decades in closed, secret archives.

More than 44,000 Thessaloniki Jews perished in the Nazi death camps. Most were sent to Auschwitz. The few Greek survivors who returned to the country in the early 1950s found most of their sixty synagogues and schools destroyed, their cemeteries looted and their own homes occupied by other people. Once part of thriving communities in several Greek cities, approximately 59,000 Greek Jews were victims of the Holocaust — at least 83 percent of the total number living in Greece at the time of World War II and the German Occupation.

To read more see:

https://greekreporter.com/2021/12/08/russia-greece-jewish-holocaust-archives/

To read more about looted art and Russian State Military Archives go to:

https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4M60512

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

At New York Long Island’s Central Islip Psychiatric Center there is a cemetery that Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center -part of Touro College  (which opened In 2007)  and the Office of Mental Health agreed to care for the Jewish and non-Jewish portions of the cemetery to assist relatives who believe their loved on is buried there. The  Jewish cemtery has about 500 graves. “The Jewish section had been consecrated in 1980 by Rabbi Melvyn Lerer, the former Jewish chaplain at the psychiatric center. He had raised funds for the cemetery’s restoration, the installation of the gate with the Star of David and the purchase of proper headstones for all future internments, which numbered about 100 until the hospital closed.”

In October 2013, the law school and the state signed their agreement in which the Office of Mental Health agreed to restore the cemetery and help relatives identify ancestors who lie under numbered stones. The project was delayed for a number of years before being revived in 2019.  Then COVID-19 came along and it was no longer a priority. James Plastiras, a spokesman for the Office of Mental Health, said that project is once again under way, and would include a historical marker and paving an existing walkway. Families are free to erect approved markers at the graves of relatives “once direct lineage has been established” through the supervising facilities’ Records Department.

Central Islip Psychiatric Center had been one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the United States. The unacknowledged dead include Holocaust survivors, who twice in their lives were given numbers instead of names.”  Touro Law Center, was built on a portion of the psychiatric hospital’s property after it was closed in 1998. The cemetery is all that remains of the hospital, which was opened in 1889. The cemetery holds the graves of an estimated 5,500 former patients from not only the Central Islip facility, but the Kings Park and Pilgrim State psychiatric hospitals. After the Central Islip hospital closed, the state fenced off the cemetery, restricted public access and provided mowing and cleanup.

To read more see:

https://www.jta.org/2021/12/08/ny/numbers-mark-the-graves-at-a-former-psychiatric-hospitals-jewish-cemetery-families-want-names-and-answers

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

The 1921 United Kingdom census will be released on January 6, 2022. This was announced by the IAJGS Records Access Alert on October 30, 2021.  To access the digitized census to view and search you will need to create a free Findmypast account at: 

 https://www.findmypast.com/help/articles/4409232773649-do-i-need-to-sign-up-to-a-findmypast-account-to-view-the-1921-census-

While you can search for free, to view the records one is required to pay  on per view basis using Findmypast micropayments…see: https://www.findmypast.com/help/articles/360009238938-how-much-will-it-cost-to-access-the-1921-census-online-

In the US these charges will be $3.50 for a transcript and $4.90 for an image.

For prices in the United Kingdom, Ireland an Australia see:

UK https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/360009238938-how-much-will-it-cost-to-access-the-1921-census-online-

Ireland: https://www.findmypast.ie/1921-census

Australia:  https://www.findmypast.com.au/1921-census

You will find all the usual things one expects in a modern census: the name, age, sex and birthplace of everyone in a household; their relationship to the head of household; and the marital status for all individuals over 15. New features of the 1921 census are: Divorce was an available as a marital status; children under 15 could report whether their mother, father, or both were dead; and if a person was employed their occupation, employer and the employer’s address were included.

You will be looking at the last census available for England and Wales for 30 years as the 1931 census was destroyed by fire and the 1941 census wasn’t taken due to the Second World War. You will encounter a population deeply impacted by the 700,000 men who were killed during the First World War.

To read the previous IAJGS Records Access Alert postings about the UK 1921 census and more, go to the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alert at:  http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts  You must be registered to access the archives.  To register go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts  and follow the instructions to enter your email address, full name and which genealogical  organization with whom you are affiliated   You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee