"Opole" Death Certificates

Background

This database lists death certificates for Jews, primarily Polish Jews who perished between 1941 and 1943.  The Polish Jews were resident in areas of western Poland which had been annexed to Germany, while the "German" Jews were residents in various parts of Germany who did not have German citizenship.

These Jews perished in their towns of residence and were not deported.  Primary towns included are Będzin and Sosnowiec.

During World War II, copies of documents, including death certificates, from various parts of Germany were often sent to Berlin and then forwarded for storage to different locations, in this case Opole — the German city of Oppeln before the war — the capital of Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia).  Copies of the death certificates ended up in Opole, but none of these persons perished there.

The database includes family, maiden and given names, as well as places of birth and death.  The certificates themselves include marital status, so researchers interested in individual names should go the Opole website, http://robertbachara.com/bazaaptest, to confirm information and determine whether additional information exists on each certificate.  Requests for copies of certificates may be sent to the Polish State Artchives branch in Opole, Archiwum Państwowego w Opolu, where Polish procedures and privacy laws would apply.

Database

The database is an index of 2,118 death certificates.  The fields for this database are as follows:

• Surname
• Given Name
• Maiden Name
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth
• Date of Death
• Place of Death

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from files at the Opole Archives.  As mentioned above, please visit http://robertbachara.com/bazaaptest for more information.  This information is accessible to you today thanks to the efforts of Peter Landé.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen, Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible, especially to Nolan Altman, VP Data Acquisition and coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altman
Coordinator - Holocaust Database
Dec 2015

Searching the Database

This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database and the JewishGen's All Poland Database.