Státní úřad pro válečné poškozence, Praha

The collection’s documents represent an important source for uncovering the wartime fates of individuals persecuted between 1938 and 1945, including direct participants in the Czech resistance, imprisoned persons, victims and survivors of air raids, and Holocaust survivors. If a personal file on a war-disabled person has survived and was not discarded due to the ten-year retention period after the death of the disabled person or deemed unnecessary within a statistical sample, it contains detailed information on the reason for the individual’s persecution, place of imprisonment, health consequences, family members, and membership in post-war associations of war-disabled persons across the republic. Care for war-disabled persons and the survivors of victims of war and Nazi persecution continued after 1945 as a direct extension of the care provided for war-disabled persons already during the First Republic. The group of individuals entitled to assistance due to harm suffered to life, body, or health from September 17, 1938, was defined by Presidential Decree No. 54/1945 Coll. on the registration and determination of war damages and damages caused by extraordinary circumstances. Although the legislative establishment of care for war-disabled persons did not occur until July 1946, the State Offices for War-Disabled Persons in Prague and Brno, which continued the work of the regional offices for war-disabled persons, were retroactively established as of January 1, 1946. The State Office for War-Disabled Persons in Prague had jurisdiction over Bohemia. The Ministry of Social Care served as the second-instance authority, performing appellate and supervisory functions. For individuals residing in the Czechoslovak Republic, jurisdiction over a specific State Office for War-Disabled Persons was determined by their permanent residence, while for persons living abroad, the competent office was the State Office for War-Disabled Persons in Prague.