Records of the Central National Authority for Controlling Foreigners, Presidential Records, 1936-1944

Collection description

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

Title:: Records of the Central National Authority for Controlling Foreigners, Presidential Records, 1936-1944

Title (official language):: Külföldieket Ellenőrző Országos Központi Hatóság, Elnöki iratok, 1936-1944

Scope and content:: KEOKH records are relevant for the study of antisemitic radicalisation and the Holocaust in Hungary for two chief reasons: it typically suspected foreigners and its reports on raids it held tend to list the number of Jews concerned and expelled. In certain cases, so-called Ostjuden are mentioned separately in these reports. Secondly, in 1941, KEOKH initiated and implemented the deportation of Jews from Hungary who could not prove their citizenship to newly occupied Galicia. This Hungarian anti-Jewish action eventually led to the first Nazi mass murder with over 10,000 victims. The collection of presidential papers is from the years 1936 to 1944 and they mostly concern the organisation of KEOKH, its personnel and its operation.

Archival history:: The collection was acquired by the Hungarian National Archives in the early 1950s.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Külföldieket Ellenőrző Országos Központi Hatóság (Central National Authority for Controlling Foreigners, or KEOKH) exercised the rights of the Minister of the Interior in relation to non-citizens staying in Hungary. Formally, the Central National Authority for Controlling Foreigners functioned as a subdivision of VII (it was VII/c), the public security department of the Ministry of the Interior. KEOKH held authority regarding the right of foreigners to reside in the country as well as in cases of expulsions: in the capital city of Budapest, the Central National Authority for Controlling Foreigners exercised exclusive authority, while in cases from other parts of the country it had a more supervisory role. The Central Authority was originally established by law in 1930 and started to operate in 1931. It opened and operated bureaus in a host of localities such as Esztergom, Kassa (Košice), Máramarossziget (Sighetu Marmației), Kolozsvár (Cluj), Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc), Újvidék (Novi Sad) and Nagyvárad (Oredea). As can be seen from the list, its activities were concentrated in territories (re)acquired by Hungary between 1938 and 1941. KEOKH also had bureaus in Gyula, Makó and Munkács (Мукачеве) but these were closed in 1940.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Holocaust; Holocaust--Deportation; Legal status of Jews; Migration; Refugees; Residency issues of Jews

System of arrangement:: The materials are arranged by year and by item within each year.

Finding aids:: No finding aids exist. The material requires item-level research.