General Records of the Ministry of Finance, 1867-1945

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 269

Title:: General Records of the Ministry of Finance, 1867-1945

Title (official language):: Pénzügyminisztérium Általános iratok, 1867-1945

Creator/accumulator:: Ministry of Finance

Date(s):: 1867/1945

Extent:: 516 fascicles, 35 volumes, 73.84 linear metres

Scope and content:: The collection of the General Records of the Ministry of Finance covers all financial matters, including but not limited to taxation, salaries and pensions, monopolies and excises, and insurance matters. Before 1938, the cases of Jewish companies and individuals require file-level research and scattered throughout the material as “Jewish matters” were not dealt with or registered separately. From the years 1938-1945, the most important thematic groups are the following:

no. 271-272. Implementation of the decrees terminating the official permits of Jewish businesses for the sales and purchase of goods and materials monopolised by the state (hasznot hajtó hatósági jogosítványok), such as petrol alcohol, tobacco, sugar, etc., between 1940 and 1944 (fascicle 259)

no. 303. Supervision of official permits of Jewish businesses at provincial Financial Directorates between 1939 and 1944 (in alphabetical order of county seats where the Financial Directorate had local offices, fascicles 283-287.)

no. 313. Supervision and termination of the sales permits of Jews for alcohol (italmérési jövedékügyek), petty offences in alcohol selling matters between 1942 and 1944, in chronological order of the cases (fascicle 298-301)

no. 377. Various matters concerning land policy and the matters of Jewish landholdings (fascicle 350.)

no. 510. “Cases of Jewish wealth”, sequestration and inventory of Jewish property, including a proposal on the “Aryanisation of the capital” (Javaslat a tőke keresztényesítéséről) (fascicle 434).

Archival history:: The papers of the Ministry of Finances from 1944 were transported to Sopron (Western Hungary) at the end of 1944. The bulk of the collection disappeared after the end of the Second World War. A part of the material from the previous period was sorted out in 1949-1950. The surviving records were taken to the National Archives in 1950 and 1958.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Ministry of Finances played a crucial role in the state-directed and state-controlled campaign systematically to seize the assets of Hungarian Jews between 1938 and 1944. During this period the Ministry was headed by Lajos Reményi-Schneller (1892-1946), who was appointed Minister in March 1938 and kept his post (uniquely in Hungarian political life) in all successive governments until the end of the war, including that of Darányi, Imrédy, Teleki (his second term), Bárdossy, Kállay, Sztójay, Lakatos and Szálasi. Reményi-Schneller even held the position of economic superminister (gazdasági csúcsminiszter) in the governments of Teleki, Bárdossy and Kállay. His policies were strongly in favour of Nazi Germany during the war years. In 1946, he was sentenced to death and executed as war criminal.

Subject terms:: Financial matters; Financial matters--Banks, banking, and bankers; Holocaust; Legal status of Jews; Plunder; Plunder--Aryanisation; Real estate; Taxation; Trade and commerce; Trade and commerce--Alcohol trade

Finding aids:: A detailed inventory is available for the collection in Hungarian.

Yerusha Network member:: Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives

fullscreen: General Records of the Ministry of Finance, 1867-1945

Collection

Downloads

Full record

Image fragment

Formats and links

Formats