Akta sądów grodzkich (1944–1950) jako źródło do badań strat osobowych okresu II wojny światowej
Municipal Court Records (1944–1950) as a Source for Research on Personal Losses from the Period of World War II

Summary/Abstract: The general goal of the article is to present the use of juridical files as a source for research on the issue of the social effects of World War II. It focuses on their most important dimentiosn – the personal losses. This is an extremely important issue, as it refers to the highest casualty a country’s community can suffer as a result of warfare. Importantly, for this last of the world conflicts, it is still an open topic. After all, we do not have detailed data based on archival sources, regarding the final number of casualties, let alone possibly determining their personalities. However, this text is not intended to make definitive statistical summaries in this regard. It is not even an attempt at such a treatment of the subject of Polish wartime losses. It presents only a certain fragment, in absolute terms perhaps not very impressive and referring to one city, but concerning specific people who fell victim to the war activities of 1939–1945, and whose personal details, fate and circumstances of death were precisely determined. The main task of the article is to show the usefulness of court files in fragmentary research aimed at determining the final number of victims of World War II. The records of the Municipal Court in Białystok served as an example in this area.

• Details
• Contents