Miriam Weiner and the Routes to Roots Foundation

Weiner’s Unique and Extensive Archival Collection part of JRI-Poland.org

In 1989, Miriam Weiner traveled to Poland where she met with the director of the Polish State Archives. As a result, Weiner was given unprecedented access to archives throughout Poland for the purpose of identifying, translating, coding and creating a catalog to Jewish and civil records, later published in Weiner’s book, Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. Further, they agreed that her material would be submitted to the various archives for verification and updates.

In 1993, Weiner signed a historic agreement with Prof. Jerzy Skowronek, then director of the archival system in Poland, in confirmation of the above verbal agreement.

Miriam Weiner and Prof. Jerzy Skowronek sign historic agreement wherein Weiner receives permission to identify and publish an inventory to Jewish and civil records throughout Poland, 1993 (Photo Source: Miriam Weiner Archives)

About six weeks prior to publication, Prof. Skowronek was tragically killed in an automobile accident and his position was filled by Dr. Daria Nalecz who stated “This publication is the first effort to present a comprehensive listing of our archival holdings and documents relating to Jewish people together with the documents in the Urzad Stanu Cywilnego offices (local town hall offices holding vital records) and the Jewish Historical Institute.”

Beginning in the late 1990s, many articles from Jewish Roots in Poland were posted to the Foundation website which is very important since the book is now out of print.

JRI-Poland and Miriam Weiner’s and Routes to Roots Foundation Cooperation

In 2016, JRI-Poland entered into a cooperative agreement with Miriam Weiner, founder of Routes to Roots Foundation.

The initial concept was for much of Miriam Weiner’s Archive inventories, Jewish community names lists, Holocaust lists and booklets, and other materials from Poland to find a home on the JRI-Poland website as the Miriam Weiner Collection.

In the years following the Agreement between JRI-Poland and Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Roots Foundation, each party began work on important projects to improve and expand their respective websites.

Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Routes Foundation initiated a Surnames Database Holocaust List database, and other improvements. JRI-Poland launched the NextGen project to develop a new website, database, search facility, and an extensive data management system. As a result of these two independent initiatives, the data and information originally to be included in the Miriam Weiner Collection at JRI-Poland will reside on Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Roots Foundation website.

The following name lists and publications represent a massive amount of material that are now or soon will be in the collections of Miriam Weiner’s Surname Database and Holocaust List Database.

Name Lists of Various Jewish Communities in Poland

• PKO Bank Records – 1936 list of account holders for all of interwar Poland
• Jewish Community of Bedzin – 1939 Census List
• Burials in Jewish Cemetery in Bialystok – list of about 2,000 burials
• Births in Bialystok – 1860-1883 index of names
• Jewish Community of Chelm – 1936 Tax List
• Jewish Community in Chelm Powiat (district) – 1922 list of religious buildings and officials
• Jewish Community of Hrubieszow – 1930 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Irena Bobrowniki – 1930 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Krasnystaw & Environs – 1936 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Krasnystaw & Environs – 1928 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Lubartow – 1930 Membership dues to Jewish Council
• Jewish Community of Lubartow – 1940 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Lublin – 1914 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Lublin – 1924 Jewish Council Member List
• Jewish Community of Lublin – 1936 Tax List
• Jewish Cemeteries in Lublin – various articles and pamphlets
• Burials in Lublin Jewish Cemetery – 1941-1942 list
• Death Incidents Register of Lublin – 1941/1942 list
• School records in Lutowiska – 1874-1911 list of students
• Burials in Lvov Jewish Cemetery – 1941-1942 microfilm of book
• Jewish Community of Piaski – 1927 Membership dues to the Jewish Council
• Naturalizations of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Posen – 1836 Index
• Burials in Poznan – 1914-1924 index
• Jewish Community of Pulawy – 1929 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Rejowiec – 1928 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Turobin – 1936 Tax List
• Telephone book for city of Vilnius in 1980
• Jewish Community of Zamosc – 1928 Contributions to community
• Jewish Community of Zamosc – 1934 Tax List
• Jewish Community of Zamosc – 1936 Tax List

Holocaust Lists, Booklets, etc.

• Transport list of Jews from Bezirk Bialystok to Majdanek – 1942-1943
• Surviving Jews in Czestochowa – booklet
• Surviving Jews in Kielce – list
• Surviving Jews in Kielce District – booklet
• Surviving Jews from Kolomyja – list
• Surviving Jews in Lublin – booklet
• Jews in the Lublin Ghetto from Belzycz, Rejowiec, Siedliszcz – March 1941 list
• Jews in Lublin Ghetto, Majdan Tatarski district – 1942 list
• Liberated Jews in Sweden – 1945 list
• Survivor Reunion in Shanghai – 1980 list
• Surviving Jews in Siedlce – list
• Surviving Jews in Warsaw – booklet

Miriam Weiner has graciously agreed to allow JRI-Poland to supplement its vital records with other town based data and information with chapter excerpts and important articles from her award winning book Jewish Roots in Poland as follows:

Chapter Excerpts from Jewish Roots in Poland

• Chapter 1 – Introduction to Polish-Jewish Genealogical Research
• Chapter 2 – Cities and Towns in Poland: Pages from the Past and Present (This chapter focuses on the 28 cities within the current borders of Poland that had pre-Holocaust population of 10,000 or more Jewish inhabitants)
  • Bedzin
  • Bialystok
  • Chelm
  • Czestochowa
  • Gdansk
  • Kalisz
  • Kielce
  • Krakow
  • Lodz
  • Lomza
  • Lublin
  • Miedzyrzec Podlaski
  • Nowy Sacz
  • Otwock
  • Piotrkow Trybunalski
  • Plock
  • Przemysl
  • Radom
  • Radomsko
  • Rzeszow
  • Siedlce
  • Sosnowiec
  • Tarnow
  • Tomaszow Mazowiecki
  • Warszawa
  • Wloclawek
  • Wroclaw
  • Zamosc

Articles from Routes to Roots Foundation website (Chapters 3-6 originally published in Jewish Roots in Poland)

• Chapter 3 from Jewish Roots in Poland: Jewish Genealogical Research in the Polish State Archives by Professor Jerzy Skowronek
• Chapter 4 from Jewish Roots in Poland: Urzad Stanu Cywilnego Warsaw Srodmiescie (with Jewish Documents from Galicia) by Kazimierz Kotlarski, Director
• Chapter 5 from Jewish Roots in Poland: Jewish Historical Institute (Zydowski Instytut Historyczny) by Miriam Weiner
• Chapter 6 from Jewish Roots in Poland: Concentration Camp Archives by Miriam Weiner
  • Chapter 6a: Majdanek Museum Archives by Janina Kielbon, Archives Director
  • Chapter 6b: State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, The Archives by Barbara Jarosz and Helena Sliz, Archivists
  • Chapter 6c: State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Regulations for Access to Archival Documents by Jerzy Wroblewski, Director
• Archival Collections at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum by Teresa Swiebocka, Executive Director
• Jagiellonian University: The Research Center on Jewish History and Culture by Joachim S. Russek, Assistant Director

JRI-Poland is grateful to Miriam Weiner for the Polish town information, maps, and photos that greatly supplement the presentation of JRI-Poland’s data for 28 Polish towns.

The addition of Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Routes Foundation’s Surname Database and Holocaust Lists is an extremely important addition to the resources available for researching your Jewish roots in Poland. JRI-Poland urges all researchers to search Weiner’s Surname Database in addition to the JRI-Poland online database.