Judiska (Mosaiska) församlingen i Malmö

The Jewish Community of Malmö was founded in 1871 as a result of increased Jewish immigration to the city following the liberalization of Sweden’s industrial legislation. At this time, around 250 Jews were living in the Malmö area. Before the creation of the official community, Jews in the area had belonged to the Jewish Community of Gothenburg, but they also had close ties to the Jewish community in the nearby Danish capital, Copenhagen. The Malmö community’s official administration first came into effect in 1873. Thus, the records in the collection are from that year and later. From 1879, the Jewish Community of Malmö had the obligation to keep population records of all its members. The Swedish government abolished this obligation through a law in 1911. However, the community continued to keep records for practical reasons. Like its counterparts in Stockholm and Gothenburg, the Jewish Community of Malmö had extensive aid activities for refugees from Nazi Germany and German-occupied countries, and for survivors of the Holocaust. The city and the surrounding area was generally the place where refugees from Germany and Denmark first arrived in Sweden. The Rabbi, Elieser Berlinger, took the initiative to form a special committee tasked with sending packages with food and medicine to Jews in ghettos and camps in Poland and Nazi Germany. When the Holocaust survivors arrived in 1945, the majority of them also first came to Malmö and the surrounding area, where they were met by the community and social workers from the local branch of World Jewish Congress. Like its counterparts in Stockholm and Gothenburg, the Jewish Community of Malmö had extensive aid activities for refugees from Nazi Germany and German-occupied countries and for survivors of the Holocaust. From 1933 onwards, the community organized aid for refugees fleeing Nazism. In 1938, an aid committee was formed, the Relief Committee of the Jewish Community of Malmö (Mosaiska församlingens i Malmö hjälpkommitté), which raised funds for refugee aid. Among other things, the community organized a temporary home for German Jewish refugee children in Tjörnarp. In the fall of 1943, the Jewish Community of Malmö participated in the reception of a large number of fleeing Danish Jews. In the early summer of 1945, the Relief Committee changed its name to the Post-War Relief Committee of the Jewish Community of Malmö (Mosaiska församlingens I Malmö kommitté för efterkrigshjälp). After the war, the Committee for the Rescued of 1945 (Kommittén för 1945 års räddade) was formed to assist the large number of refugees in various ways. The main finding aid is the archival catalog, published on-line in the National Archives Database, NAD: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/T2r9UfvHgqYioTPDMiLtE2 One of the Jewish Community of Malmö's correspondence series, J VI Correspondence concerning aid to refugees and people in need (Korrespondens angående hjälp till flyktingar och behövande), contains 33 volumes of correspondence from the period 1933-1953 containing information about Jews in countries under Nazi control, refugees, and survivors. Documents relating to the Holocaust are also scattered in JII, Files arranged by subject (Ämnesordnade handlingar), and other archive series. The archive also contains records of other Jewish associations in Malmö, such as Föreningen 1945-års räddade judar (Association of Jews recued in 1945), Judiska Studentklubben (the Jewish Student Club), Malmö Zionist Association (Malmö Sionistförening) , B'nei Akiva (youth association), WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization), as well as the local B'nai Brith club. Access is restricted to researchers with written permission from the Jewish Community of Malmö.