Post-war surname changes among Jews in Czechoslovakia

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68378092%3A_____%2F25%3A00645831" target="_blank" >RIV/68378092:_____/25:00645831 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou17/16Dvorakova.pdf" target="_blank" >https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou17/16Dvorakova.pdf</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Post-war surname changes among Jews in Czechoslovakia
Original language description
The study is focused on surname changes of Czech and Moravian Jews who survived the Holocaust and decided to rename directly after the end of WWII. The source material comprises the Fund No. 167 stored in the Czech National Archive. I analysed which surnames were most often changed, what relationship was between the original name and the new one, and what the breakdown of the applicants was by age and gender. The results of this study can be compared with the pre-war situation in the country, as well as with renaming abroad (especially in the surrounding countries which, like Czechoslovakia, have become part of the “Eastern Bloc”). In the first years after the war, a massive wave of renaming could be observed among Czechs bearing German or German-sounding surnames, too. Considering that many Jewish surnames were also of German origin, their changes fit into the overal situation in the majority society at the time. After the rise of the communist regime (1948), fear, a new wave of state anti-Semitism, and political processes in the 1950s were certainly reasons for surname change. The main goal was the effort to remove names perceived as ethnically stereotypical, which could stigmatise their bearers.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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