Information on data processing: Restitution files of the Financial Directorate Tyrol

Terms of reference

In February 2002, Wilfried Beimrohr provided the General Settlement Fund with a “list regarding persons indexed in the current file holding Restitution of the Financial Directorate Innsbruck”. This list was processed by the staff of the General Settlement Fund for claim related research and has been incorporated into its internal database as an aiding tool. In November 2010 the Tyrolean Provincial Archives provided the General Settlement Fund with the repertory (inventory, directory) B732 regarding compensation files of the Financial Directorate Tyrol. This finding aid was updated by Rita Lerch in 2009 and constitutes the current version of this list.
It contains information regarding restitution claimants (surname and forename, definition of the legal entity), as well as the objects of the restitution proceedings, whereby no distinction has been made between the procedures pursuant to the Ersten Rückstellungsgesetz (“First Restitution Act”) and the Zweiten Rückstellungsgesetz (“Second Restitution Act”).
The records regarding restitution procedures in the Province of Tyrol pursuant to both the “First Restitution Act” as well as the “Second Restitution Act” not only provided access to relevant information on restitution, but also extended the existing database regarding the aforementioned restitution acts throughout Austria.

Digitization

In 2011 the repertory B732 was transcribed into an Excel list as basis for the acquisition of records regarding restitution files of the Financial Directorate Tyrol for the Findbuch.
The finding aid contains 242 signatures which are listed in ascending numerical order and, in addition to the indication of the restitution claimants, also consists of the objects of the restitution procedures, whereby no distinction was made between the “First Restitution Act” and the “Second Restitution Act”.
The fact that no material is available for some signatures indicates that the files were, for instance, assigned to higher decision-making bodies in the course of appeal procedures and have never been returned to the Financial Directorate Tyrol. As some signatures appear several times, the records of the repertory B732 add up to a total of 254 data entries.

Processing the digitized data

The only signatures included in the Findbuch are those which reveal indications required for their retrieval (meaning signatures provided with the annotation “fehlt” [“missing”] and signatures which do not contain any relevant information for the search in the Findbuch were not included).
Surnames and forenames, as well as legal persons were entered into separate data fields, in accordance with the Findbuch standards.
References to the object of restitution proceedings and their old signatures were summarized in the data field remarks.
As a rule, a record has been compiled for each natural person (or legal person), whereby the total number of these records in the Findbuch was increased from its initial amount of 254 records to a total of 321 data entries.
The formal processing standards conventionally developed by the working group were applied and the data entry fields were adapted according to the information available.