Ruch naturalny ludności parafii św. Kazimierza w Krakowie w latach II wojny światowej

Abstract

Abstract

NATURAL POPULATION MOVEMENT IN ST CASIMIR’S PARISH IN KRAKOW DURING WORLD WAR II The paper is a case study presenting selected issues of demographic research on Kraków’s population during World War II. The use of parish registers kept by St Casimir’s Parish (Parafia św. Kazimierza) covering the Grzegórzki and Dąbie districts of Kraków has allowed for an in-depth statistical analysis of basic demographic rates associated with natural population movement. The outcomes of the analysis made it possible to formulate several hypotheses concerning the natural movement of Kraków’s population in the period 1930–1950, with particular focus on the years of Nazi German occupation. Firstly, the increase of negative phenomena, such as the increased number of deaths, including increased infant mortality, or the decrease of positive phenomena, such as the decrease of age median at the moment of death, or the decreased numbers of births and marriages are comparable in the case of data concerning the period of Nazi German occupation and the mid-1930s, which allows us to assume that the Nazi occupation and the Great Depression of the 1930s in fact had a similar impact on the city’s population. Secondly, the analysis has demonstrated that the decline in population growth rate during the war was to a great degree caused by the increase of deaths, while birth rate remained roughly on the same level, compared to the 1930s. Moreover, the author questions commonly accepted views concerning the size of the postwar baby boom and the increase of widow marriages in the postwar period. Thirdly, the author demonstrates that the births per marriage ratio actually increased during Nazi German occupation, which leads him to conclude that the situation of impending danger stimulated procreation in the given population sample. The analysis of natural population movement in St Casimir’s Parish also demonstrates that demographic research on 20th-century history of the Polish territory based on the study of parish registers is not only possible, but also scientifi cally effective.