Ministry of the Interior, Confidential records, 1876-1944

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Hungary

Holding institution:: National Archives of Hungary, National Archives

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára

Postal address:: Budapest, Bécsi Kapu tér 2-4., 1014

Phone number:: +36 1 225 2843

Web address:: http://mnl.gov.hu/

Email:: info@mnl.gov.hu

Reference number:: K 149

Title:: Ministry of the Interior, Confidential records, 1876-1944

Title (official language):: Belügyminisztérium Rezervált iratok, 1876-1944

Creator/accumulator:: Ministry of the Interior

Date(s):: 1876/1944

Extent:: 327 boxes, 49 volumes, 41.7 linear metres

Scope and content:: This collection holds the surviving parts of the confidential records of the Ministry of the Interior, which are among the key collections pertaining to the history of Hungarian Jewish communities held in the National Archives. The records pertaining to minority groups, workers’ movements and other socially sensitive matters were administrated separately from 1876 onwards. The overwhelming majority of the finding aids of this collection were destroyed, and therefore the material requires parallel research in various thematic units and file-level investigation. The most relevant parts are the sub-collections that form the special series handed over by the Party History Institute of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’s Party, which includes documents relating mainly to Communists and other left-wing movements. These political organisations had quite a few Jewish members in Hungary. Furthermore, the collection holds various matters pertaining to neighbouring states, including the minority policies pursued by and the atrocities committed by Hungarian administration and law enforcement, such as the „anti-partisan raids” in 1941 and 1942, which claimed some one thousand Jewish lives. The documents on various Hungarian extreme right-wing parties and movements, such as the Arrow Cross Party also deserve attention. The collection also holds passport and naturalisation issues; general minority affairs; press affairs; parties and associations affairs; anti-Jewish denunciations; decisions concerning petitions filed at the local administrative authorities; orders imposing police surveillance, round-ups, arrests, internment, deportations, mobilisation, various kinds of documents on the confiscation of property; reports, circulars, decrees and confidential memoranda concerning the territories re-annexed by Hungary between 1938 and 1941, emigration, immigration, citizenship, and residency records; cases of defamation of the Regent or the Fatherland; records of smuggling and the black market; activities of parties, other political organisations, associations of foreigners, religious congregations, and charitable organisations; census on Polish refugees, and many other issues.

Archival history:: During WWII, the collections of the Ministry of the Interior, especially the general records were severely damaged. With the Red Army approaching Budapest in December 1944, all departments of the Ministry were evacuated to Sárvár in Western Hungary.

The records in this series were obtained by the Hungarian National Archives in 1950. Shortly afterwards, the records pertaining to the workers’ movements and other leftist organisations were handed over to the Party History Institute of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’s Party (MSZMP KB Párttörténeti Intézet). One part of this collection was returned to the National Archives between 1972 and 1989; the remaining part was handed over in recent years.

Administrative/biographical history:: Created by Acts III of 1848 and VIII of 1867, the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior operated from 11 March 1867 until the end of March 1945. Its sphere of jurisdiction included all internal matters of the country, public law, law enforcement, health care and social network as well as personnel matters. Besides, the Ministry of the Interior served as supreme authority over the entire administration of the country and the authority of third instance of all administrative matters. The sphere of action and tasks of the Ministry of the Interior was extended several times: in 1867, the Ministry had 10 departments; by 1944 it had 22.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Communism; Communism--Communist parties and organisations; Holocaust; Law enforcement; Legal matters; Migration; Migration--Emigration; Plunder; Refugees; Residency issues of Jews; Zionism; Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties

Finding aids:: Szinai Miklós, ed. A Belügyminisztériumi Levéltár 1867–1945 /1949/. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1973.

Yerusha Network member:: Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives

fullscreen: Ministry of the Interior, Confidential records, 1876-1944

Collection

Downloads

Full record

Image fragment

Formats and links

Formats