Declared Dead and Recognition of Death in the Judgments of Bialystok Municipal Court in the Years 1946–1950

Abstract

Between 1946 and 1950, municipal courts in Poland declared dead or pronounced dead persons missing and died during World War II on a large scale. The basis for these rulings was primarily the 1945 Law on Persons Decree, created as a result of the great unification process of civil law in Poland. The decree was intended to regulate the civil and property status of the population in connection with wartime personal losses. In the Bialystok Municipal Court, such proceedings involved 2,278 people. Most of them were civilian victims of the war, which makes clear the nature of World War II. About half of the proceedings concerned the Jewish population, as more than 90% of Bialystok Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. The preserved court case files are a very important historical source for the history of the war in Bialystok County. The article presents court proceedings in the case of Jozef Ostruszka, the last president of the Bialystok District Court before the war, being declared dead. He was deported by the Soviets to the Komi Republic and died of exhaustion there. The proceedings were held at the request of his wife, who survived the war. Jozef Ostruszka was one of more than a dozen Bialystok courts officers who lost their lives during the war. Their fate requires further research.