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Description of the Collections

A significant part of the Study Institute’s collections consists of textual records that were war spoils at the end of the Second World War. These materials were confiscated by prominent individuals, organizations and political parties, or were handed over to Czechoslovakia; the collections vary extensively. They contain parts of the written materials and card files of organizations, including Vlajka and the Curatorium for the upbringing of youth in Bohemia and Moravia, the NSDAP, and the Freikorps, but also a part of extant documents from German trials in the reich that litigated Protectorate servicemen during the war, as well as papers of Jewish organizations. An additional part of the Study Institute collections constitute papers created in the course of Czechoslovak security and intelligence services’ activities after the year 1945. These valuable materials document the history and organizational development of the Czechoslovak security services and the Ministry of the Interior, particularly after the year 1948 and in the 1950s. Extensive name registers were compiled to accompany the Study Institute collections; these facilitated the efficacious retrieval of information on individuals, but are used to this day as finding aids. Linked with the papers of the Study Institute are organically created collections of central offices of the unitary and federal ministries of the Interior, State Security and Public Security services.

Some of the most interesting of the Study Institute’s collections are:

• Public Edification Service (Veřejná osvětová služba – VOS) (Record Group 44) – Textual records created in the course of VOS activities during WWII. The VOS functioned out of the Ministries of the Interior, Public Edification, and the Protectorate government between 1940-1945. The collection also contains files created in the course of investigations of VOS functionaries in 1946.;
• Collection of textual records from SS departments on the territory of the Protectorate (Record Group 107) – Records created in the course of SS activities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in the countries occupied by the German army between 1938-1945. A greater part of these documents consists of correspondence of SS departments in the Western border region – the towns of Cheb, Aš, Karlovy Vary, etc.; questionnaires with photographs and personal volumes on SS servicemen. Additional written materials primarily contain notes on deployment, guidelines and correspondence of SS departments.;
• Miscellaneous German security services (Record Group 135) – Collection of textual records created in the course of activities of various German security services functioning on the territory of the Protectorate and the Slovak Republic during the period of the Second World War. Contains chiefly organizational materials, lists of Gestapo servicemen, SS (Schutzstaffel) and SD (Sicherheitsdienst), etc.;
• Country Security Division, Prague ( Record Group 300) – Written materials created in the course of activities of the Country Security Division (ZOB – Zemský odbor bezpečnosti) of the Country National Committee (ZNV), Prague. They contain testimonies and investigations of persons functioning in collaborationist, fascist, Nazi and German organizations, including members of Vlajka (a Czech fascist and nationalist movement), the Czech League against Bolshevism, the NOF (National Fascist Community, Czechoslovakian fascist movement led by Radola Gajda), the Freikorps, Hitlerjugend, SA (Sturmabteilung), etc. The collection further contains reports on the activities and organization of the German intelligence services Gestapo, SD and Abwehr – lists of employees, agents and confidants. The collection is accessible in keeping with archival law and other legal statutes.;
• Investigation commission for the national and people’s court at the Ministry of the Interior (Record Group 301) - These textual records comprise investigation files on leading German representatives in the Protectorate, investigation materials on members of the Protectorate government. Further, documents containing information acquired on the activities of German political parties and organizations of the NSDAP, SA, SS, Freikorps, SdP (Sudetendeutschepartei), and Wehrwolf on the territory of the Protectorate. Further written materials testify to the activities of the Gestapo, SD and Abwehr; the activities of Czech fascist or pro-German organizations such as Vlajka, the Curatorium, the NOF, the Public Edification Service (Veřejná osvětová služba – VOS) , the Czech Union of Warmen (a Czech collaborationist organization), etc.;
• Miscellaneous security files after the year 1945 (Record Group 304) – Textual records on so-called “terminated” (“vyakčněný”) SNB servicemen; investigation of individuals prosecuted pursuant to retribution decrees; information on the activities of organizations such as Vlajka, the NOF and the Curatorium. Results of investigations of activities of the Gestapo, SD, Abwehr, their agents and confidants. Documents on measures taken against Germans; investigation of requests for conferral of Czechoslovak state citizenship and national loyalty. Documents on the activities of resistance and partisan groups. Investigation of individuals for illegal border crossings, reports on conditions in the border region and on operations against servicemen of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Intelligence services, daily reports, messages.;
• Central office of the State Security Service (Record Group 305) – Materials of diverse character, mainly consisting of messages and investigations of activities of former members and functionaries of Nazi and collaborationist organizations (including the NSDAP, Freikorps, Wehrwolf, Hitlerjugend, Kuratorium, Vlajka). Screening of national and state loyalty of public and state employees. Enquiries, messages and protocol testimonies of persons detained in illegal state border crossings. Reports and investigations into activities of resistance and partisan groups. Reports on the activities of various associations in the Czech Socialist Republic (ČSR), their characteristics, political focus and findings on functionaries and members, including the Rotary Club, Association of Friends of Democratic States, Association of Friends of the USA, spiritists, Masons, Jewish and Zionist associations, etc.;
• Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Czechoslovakia (Record Group 307) – Documents from the activities of SNB departments deployed in the years 1947-1948 against armed UPA brigades that moved from Poland across the territory of the ČSR to the West. Comprises guidelines, intelligence messages, telexes, messages of SNB stations on the activities of so-called Banderists, personal-name volumes and interrogation protocols of arrested Ukrainians, etc.;
• State Security Service Headquarters (Record Group 310) – Textual records from the secretariat of the StB Headquarters and later the StB Main Directorate. The collection contains materials with data on the organization, development and functioning of the Ministry of the Interior (MV), Ministry of National Security (MNB), Country Security Division (ZOB), individual regional StB headquarters, the Slovak Interior Authority (Poverenictva vnutra), documents of the collegia, decrees, guidelines and orders. Additional written materials concern individual sectors of the StB Headquarters; documents on the organization of the Prison Guard Corps, SNB departments. Also investigations, revelations of individuals’ identities (“ustanovky,” or roughly, “detection,” a term adopted from the Soviet model), protocols of testimonies, etc. The collection is accessible in keeping with archival law and other legal statutes.;
• Country Security Division (ZOB) II (Record Group 315) – Textual records from the activities of the Country Security Division II in Prague and activities of the investigating commissions of national committees on the territory of Bohemia and Moravia. Part of the material consists of personal volumes and documents on persons screened by the ZOB II and investigation commissions for charges against national honor during the period of German occupation. The second part consists of written materials, primarily correspondence and lists of members of Vlajka, the NOF, the Czech Union for Cooperation with Germans, the Public Edification Service (VOS), the Czech League against Bolshevism, etc.;
• Sorted files from the Ministry of the Interior secretariat (Record Group 319) – Written materials from the secretariat of the Ministry of the Interior and its grievances department from the years 1945 – 1960. Investigations of persons carried out pursuant to requests from various institutions, courts, procurators. Reports on the handover of persons with foreign citizenship, admissions of state citizenship, illegal border crossings and returns to foreign countries. Requests and proposals for the granting of pardons by the President of the Republic, requests for moving from the ČSR and relevant investigations, etc.;
• Selection (Kabinet) of StB materials (Record Group 323) – This collection was created pursuant to the Minister of the Interior‘s Order No. 3/61 to gather evaluated materials of terminated state security cases, accompanied by relevant documentation. Acquired materials were used for school purposes and later deposited with the Study Institute. Concerns documents, studies, reports and brochures on the following themes: Trotskyism, church – Vatican, Zionism, Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (Hlinkova slovenská lidová strana – HSLS), fascist movements, Volhynia Czechs, reports and studies on American and British intelligence services, protocol testimonies of arrested agents, etc.;
• Prosecution of Nazi war criminals (Record Group 325) – Background papers collected by documentation and investigation staff of the StB Investigation Directorate on the issue of prosecution of Nazi war criminals from the year 1962. Contains photocopies of documents from various archives and files created on operative and investigative activities.;
• Jewish organizations (Record Group 425) – Textual records created in the course of activities of various Jewish and Zionist organizations operating on the territory of the Czech Socialist Republic (ČSR). Contains materials confiscated from the Jewish religious community and the Central Union of Zionists in Prague. Correspondence and minutes from meetings of the Council of Jewish Religious Communities in Prague, circulars, lists of members, bylaws, and so on. Documents on the organization and implementation of HAGANAH military and flight exercises on Czech territory;
• Section of Political Intelligence of the Ministry of the Interior (Record Group 2 M) – Collection of documents of political intelligence of the Ministry of the Interior. Collected textual records including documents on investigations of individuals, checking up on various denunciations, and the screening of persons (including collaborators, Nazis, and so on);
• Intelligence maps executed by the Ministry of the Interior (MV) Study Institute (Record Group Z) – The Z collection contains so-called intelligence maps executed by the MV Study Institute. Intelligence maps are always executed on individual persons, groups of persons or various organizations or institutions that were subjects of StB interest. Time frame: thematic focal points elaborated in the 1960s and 1970s – from materials of the MV Study Institute and other archives;
• Miscellaneous security services in Slovakia after 1945 (Record Group 215 [S/2]) – This collection contains reports on resistance activities, the progress of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP), activities of Jewish and Zionist organizations, the HSLS, Hlinka Guard (Hlinkova Garda – HG) and the Democratic Party in Slovakia.