Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in polnischen Archiven 1: Ehemalige preußische Provinzen: Pommern, Westpreußen, Ostpreußen, Preußen, Posen, Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen, Süd- und Neuostpreußen. München: K.G. Saur, 2003. XLIV + 632 S. EUR 138.00, gebunden, ISBN 978-3-598-11649-0. Reviewed by Jill Wooten Published on H-German (June, 2005) In Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in polnis‐ tury, the constraints of Prussian absolutism and chen Archiven, editor Stefi Jersch-Wenzel and her its stress on economic utility limited the settle‐ co-editors Annekathrin Genest and Susanne Mar‐ ment of Jews in East Prussia and Pomerania to quardt bring together a massive collection of wealthy Jews able to obtain Schutzbriefe. The archival documents on the Jews in the former power and resistance of local guilds further limit‐ Prussian provinces now housed in Polish state ed the economic activity of Jewish merchants. In and city archives. The book, published on behalf contrast, Poland was a place of economic opportu‐ of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences nity for large numbers of Jews who migrated and in collaboration with the Leo Baeck Institute there during the early modern period to become in Berlin, was inspired by the six volume series traders, merchants, and economic middlemen for Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in den Archiven the Polish nobility (szlachta). der neuen Bundeslnder (1996-2001), also edited by Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in polnis‐ Jersch-Wenzel, along with Reinhard Rrup. It is the chen Archiven is an indispensable research tool first volume in a future series intended to stimu‐ for any German scholar planning to do archival late research on the combined history of Ger‐ work on the Jewish community in the eastern mans, Jews, and Poles in East Central Europe. The provinces of Prussia. Its representative overview region's complicated history, along with the limit‐ of sources from the nearly 1.5 million German ed access to Polish archives before 1990, have and 1.8 million Polish documents in these prov‐ contributed to the neglect of its voluminous ar‐ inces will aid scholars in determining which re‐ chives on the part of non-Polish scholars. The cur‐ gional archives have material appropriate to their rent volume, along with a forthcoming volume on interests. Silesia to be released in 2005, hope to correct this The coverage of the archives in each province oversight by providing German researchers a bet‐ corresponds to its size and its history under Prus‐ ter idea of what sources, particularly German sian rule. Jersch-Wenzel stresses how the differ‐ ones, are housed there. ent political situations in the east Prussian prov‐ In the introduction, Jersch-Wenzel contrasts inces influenced demographic patterns. Whereas the historical situation of Jews in Pomerania and Jews in the older provinces of East Prussia and East Prussia with Jews in the newly annexed parts Pomerania lived almost entirely in cities where of Poland, including Posen. In the eighteenth cen‐ they spoke German, in Posen Jews remained in H-Net Reviews smaller market towns where they retained lin‐ ma when addressing a linguistically distinct mi‐ guistic and cultural difference by speaking Yid‐ nority living in an area that was already multilin‐ dish. The region's comparative lack of restrictions gual. The bilingual German/Polish headings for and high level of communal autonomy encour‐ each section are helpful, especially for a German aged the creation of larger communities. speaker working in Polish archives. The attempt Section A provides a representative overview to be multilingual, however, can tend to obscure of Jewish sources in Pomerania, East and West important information about the language of the Prussia, South and New East Prussia, and Posen. It document. Jewish sources in Poland are primarily includes both large archives in provincial capitals in Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, and German. While and smaller branches. Divided by provinces and some documents in Hebrew and Yiddish are des‐ then further subdivided alphabetically by cities, ignated in parentheses, the volume does not pro‐ the section derives its method and organization vide the original Hebrew or Yiddish or even from the Polish archives themselves. To aid the re‐ transliterations. Through historical knowledge searcher, each subsection begins with a brief his‐ and archival experience, one can hazard a guess tory of both the region and the archive. Also pro‐ as to the language of a source, but many times it is vided is practical information, including each ar‐ hard to tell. In large part this difficulty results chive's address, e-mail, and hours of operation. from the inconsistency of earlier fnding aids, which listed the item either in its original lan‐ In addition to listing the local call number for guage or in Polish translation. Because the each item, the editors also create their own num‐ present volume is largely based on the informa‐ bering system to facilitate use of its three indexes tion in such fnding aids, it inherited some of of people, places, and institutions. Particularly these shortcomings. useful is a guide to Polish and German names for towns and cities (pp. xxxvii-xliv). Section B takes a Nonetheless, the editors do a decent job of closer look at the large collection of Jewish ar‐ harmonizing the methods of a disparate archival chives in Posen. It is an archival experiment (an system with obvious historical gaps. The fnal sec‐ "exemplarisches Vorgehen," p. xxvii). That this tion brings into clearer focus the effects of early- more in-depth exploration is, with 2,000 pieces, twentieth-century history on Jewish archival only 25 percent of the available inventory, speaks sources. Entitled "A Digression (Exkurs): An At‐ to the sheer volume of Jewish sources available in tempt to Reconstruct the Communal Archives of Polish archives. the Jewish Community in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz)," Section C assembles the extant communal ar‐ In order to locate pertinent sources, the edi‐ chives of Bromberg, a mid-sized city on the Vistu‐ tors encourage their readers to use this volume in la River frst gained by Prussia during the First conjunction with the Polish State archive's online Partition in 1772. In the late nineteenth century, database SEZAM (http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/ Bromberg had a Jewish population of less than sezam). Unlike a published work, an online re‐ 2,500. From this interesting exercise, we see in source is constantly updated. SEZAM, however, is miniature the degree to which the tragic history tough for the non-Polish speaker to navigate. It of Central and Eastern Europe destroyed and was also quite difficult to match up any listings or moved not only people and communities but also inventory numbers in Quellen zur Geschichte documents. The records of the Jewish community with those in SEZAM. of Bromberg are in fve places. Some remained in One of the main complications this volume the State Archive in Bromberg; others made their and researchers in general face is the problem of way to the New Synagogue in Berlin or to the Jew‐ language. This is perhaps an unavoidable dilem‐ ish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Still other 2 H-Net Reviews pieces managed to fnd their way to the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow or to the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem. For each East Central European city, the story of its Jewish archives and where they eventually ended up is different. Hopefully in the near future we will have taken full stock of these archival sources. This guide is a step in the right direction. If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: Jill Wooten. Review of Jersch-Wenzel, Stefi; Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in polnischen Archiven 1: Ehemalige preußische Provinzen: Pommern, Westpreußen, Ostpreußen, Preußen, Posen, Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen, Süd- und Neuostpreußen. H-German, H-Net Reviews. June, 2005. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10685 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.