Records of Minister of Defence Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy, 1915-1994

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára

Title (official language):: Nagybaczoni Nagy Vilmos honvédelmi miniszter iratai, 1915-1994

Date note:: The collection also holds an undated ennoblement document from the 18th century.

Scope and content:: The collection holds the records of Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy, anti-Nazi Hungarian Army general, minister of defence and Righteous Among the Nations. The thematic groups include his private and official correspondence, documents pertaining to the ennoblement of the family and granting Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy the title of “vitéz” (“valiant”, a kind of knightly order established by Regent Miklós Horthy in 1920 to reward war veterans loyal to the regime), records concerning the building of the home of the Nagybaczoni Nagy family in Piliscsaba and the nationalisation of the house in the 1950s, records of the family estate in Ipolyvisk, press clippings about the political and professional activities of Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy, including articles of extreme right wing journals condemning Nagybaczoni Nagy from 1944, records pertaining to granting him the title of Righteous Among the Nations and various publications of Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy, including his recollections, the manuscript of his memoirs “Fateful Years” (published in Hungary in 1986), military studies, and maps, several newspaper clippings pertaining to the career of Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy from 1928-1994, and private files of his family members, including his brother and son, Béla Nagybaczoni Nagy and Dr. Béla Nagybaczoni Nagy. The collection also includes private and family photographs and newsreels from the war years.

Archival history:: The Nagybaczoni Nagy family donated the collection to the Pest County Archives as permanent deposit in the 1990s.

Administrative/biographical history:: Vilmos Nagybaczoni Nagy (1884–1976) was a Hungarian army general and Minister of Defence of the Kállay cabinet from September 1942 to June 1943. Because he tried to abolish the hitherto brutal treatment of Hungarian Jewish military labour servicemen and made no attempt to satisfy the Germans’ military demands in a speedy manner, Prime Minister Miklós Kállay dismissed him upon pressure from the Nazis and the Hungarian extreme right. Following the Arrow Cross takeover, he was arrested and taken to Germany. After the war, he lived in Piliscsaba, Hungary until his death in 1976. Yad Vashem granted him the title “Righteous among the Nations” in 1965.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Forced labour (of Jews); Holocaust; Holocaust--Rescue and resistance; Holocaust--Righteous Among the Nations; Military; World War II

System of arrangement:: The collection is arranged in thematic units. Within these units, the files are arranged chronologically.

Access, restrictions:: The collection is only accessible with the permission of the Nagybaczoni Nagy family.

Finding aids:: An offline item level description is available for the collection in Hungarian.

Ernő Lakatos, ed. A Magyar Állami Levéltárak fondjegyzéke, Vol. III. A Területi Levéltárak fondjegyzékei Part 13. A Pest Megyei Levéltár fondjainak jegyzéke. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1975.

Author of the description:: László Csősz; Hungarian National Archives; 19-12-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)