Okresný úrad Ružomberok

The District Office Ružomberok was a state administration body. It was established during the period of 1st Czechoslovak Republic (1918 – 1938) and it existed also during the period of the Slovak state/ Slovak Republic (1939 – 1945). This office was originally enforced by the Law No.126/1920 Coll., which entered into effect on 1 January 1923. The District Office Ružomberok, was subordinated to the Podtatranská County (Podtatranská župa), which was seated in Liptovský Mikuláš in the years 1923 – 1928, and the Ministry of Interior. After the 1928 reform of state administration in Czechoslovakia resulted in the repeal of counties and County Offices, district offices in the Slovak territory were subordinated to the Country Office in Bratislava (Krajinský úrad v Bratislave). Soon after the creation of the Slovak state (March 14, 1939) its state administration was reorganized and the District Office in Ružomberok was subordinated to the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic (pursuant to the Law No. 190/1939 effective from 1 January 1940). In matters falling within the competence of other ministries, regulations and instructions of these ministries were implemented. Since 1 January 1940, this district was incorporated into the newly established Tatranská County (Tatranská župa) and the city of Ružomberok became the seat both county and district, too. Main representative of the district was called the District Chief (Okresný náčelník) who was responsible for the state administration in the district. From 1 January 1940 District Chief was subordinated to the respected County Office and the Ministry of Interior. District Offices were superior to the notary offices which were the lowest level bodies of the state administration in Slovakia 1938 – 1945. To the competence of the District Office Ružomberok belonged 11 notary offices with 26 municipalities. Due to the fact that in the period 1938 – 1945 the majority of anti-Jewish measures in Slovakia was realized by the state administration bodies archival documents of District Offices represent some of the most important sources for the research of Holocaust in Slovakia, both on the state and regional levels. Fonds of the District Office Ružomberok, as the state administration body at the regional level, contains the documents concerning political, economic, cultural and social situation in this district during the period 1923 – 1945. Fond contains various particular information about the history of Jews before 1938 and mainly during the period of the Hlinka Slovak People´s Party regime (1938 – 1945) when the anti-Semitic measures came in force and Jewish community was systematically persecuted. Documents provide with numerous information about the gradual limiting of rights of Jews in Slovakia such as banning the Jewish Party in Ružomberok, forced rehousing of the Jewish inhabitants from the city living on the streets and squares named by Adolf Hitler and Andrej Hlinka or cancellation of the Jewish associations in Ružomberok. Some documents are dedicated to the various steps of the process of Aryanization and organization of the deportations in 1942 on the district level, including the list of Jews from this territory. Fonds contains also the Pastoral letter of the Catholic bishop referring to the “Jewish question” from 1943. Jewish persecution in the district after the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 can be followed by the activities of the Government´s Commissary (Vládny poverenec) and especially by his order not to help rebels and Jews. Documents of the District Office from 1945 are only fragmentary, dozens of them were destroyed according to the order of Government´s Commissary. Accessible.