United Royal Curia, General Records

Collection description

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

Scope and content:: The collection includes various civil and criminal law cases, inheritance and property issues, declarations of death (holttá nyilvánítás), political and common criminal cases, and lawsuits in press matters (sajtóperek) as well as the personal files of attorneys and public notaries. The most important Jewish-related parts of the collection are thematic unit no. 64 that holds cases of violations of the anti-Jewish laws (Fascicles 45, 112, 182 and 235), mostly the First Jewish Act and the Second Jewish Act (Act XV of 1938 and Act IV of 1939), and thematic unit no. 69 that holds “racial defilement” (fajgyalázás, Rassenschande) cases (Fascicles 113, 183 and 236), that is, lawsuits against violators of the Nuremberg-style Hungarian race protectionist law (Third Jewish Act, Act XV of 1941), which forbade marriage and sexual relations between Jewish men and non-Jewish women.

Archival history:: The records of the Royal Ministry of Justice were obtained by the Hungarian National Archives in the early 1950s. The Archives were set on fire during the Soviet siege of the city in the early days of November 1956 and most of the collection was destroyed.

Administrative/biographical history:: Established in 1882, the United Royal Curia was the supreme court of Hungary. It was dissolved and replaced by the Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of Hungary in 1949.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Antisemitic legislation; Antisemitism--Racial laws; Legal matters; Legal records

System of arrangement:: The part of the archive that remained after the fire of 1956 was arranged thematically.

Finding aids:: A file-level finding aid (raktári jegyzék) is available for the collection.