Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče, Praha

The Ministry of Labour Protection and Social Welfare began operations in May 1945, but jurisdictional disputes with other ministries persisted until 1947. Its remit included social welfare and insurance, employment mediation and protection, care of the unemployed, wage policy, building promotion and housing funds, as well as emigration, repatriation and re-emigration, and care for war victims and victims of Nazi persecution. The reorganisation of the ministry was also linked to changes in its name: from 1946 it was the Ministry of Social Welfare as in the pre-Munich Republic, and from 1949 until its abolition in 1951 it was the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. The fonds contains valuable materials on the economic and social issues of Czechoslovakia in the early post-war years. These include matters such as the organisation and deployment of the workforce, wage relations in various sectors of the economy, social security, youth care, aid and assistance to war victims, including those returning from concentration camps, etc. With regard to the issue of the Holocaust, the material of the post-war restitution agenda relating to property confiscated in 1938-1945 (the unprocessed part of the fonds), which was entrusted to the MPSP, is absolutely crucial. Applicants or their legal representatives attached relevant documents to their applications for property restitution, including a questionnaire with personal data and data on confiscated property, certificates of Czechoslovak citizenship and nationality, confirmation of nationality according to the 1930 census, extracts from land registers, bank and insurance statements, etc. In addition to these documents, the files contain Ministry assessments on the result of restitution.