Centre of Financial Institutions, Department of Restitution, 1941-1975

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:: XIX-L-20-o

Title:: Centre of Financial Institutions, Department of Restitution, 1941-1975

Title (official language):: Pénzintézeti Központ Kártalanítási osztály, 1941-1975

Creator/accumulator:: Centre of Financial Institutions

Date(s):: 1941/1975

Extent:: 1643 boxes, 150 volumes, 215.21 linear metres

Scope and content:: The Records of the Department of Restitution at the Centre of Financial Institutions comprise one of the most important collections pertaining to Holocaust-era compensation and financial restitution in Hungary. The temporal extent of the documents covers the period from 1946 to 1998, with the bulk of the materials concerning 1957 to 1975, the main period of compensation programs run by West Germany when agencies and individuals in communist Hungary would already be among their recipients. The documents in the collection include notes and minutes, circulars and internal exchanges of relevant official Hungarian bodies. The collection also includes documents that supported Hungarian and Hungarian Jewish claims, including individual claim sheets, completed questionnaires that were meant to summarise experiences of the Holocaust, both of survivors and their deceased relatives, statistical surveys and materials on the distribution of the compensation that was eventually made available by the Federal Republic of Germany. Moreover, the collection includes the correspondence between Hungarian organs and various German authorities, organisations, and companies. There are also financial and administrative documents and correspondence items of both the Germany Federal Compensation Law of 1957 (Bundesgesetz zur Regelung der rückerstattungsrechtlichen Geldverbindlichkeiten des Deutschen Reichs und gleichgestellter Rechtsträger, short form Bundesrückerstattungsgesetz - BRüG) and the Germany Federal Restitution Law of 1956 (Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung - BEG) programs that are relevant for the study of compensation in Hungary.

Additionally, the collection includes the restitution cases of the victims of Nazi pseudo-scientific experiments from the years 1964-1975. Many deported Hungarian Jews were victims to these human experiments that were conducted by the Nazis, most notoriously in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex. Prisoners were coerced into these experiments that would often result in death, disfigurement or permanent disability. This collection is based on documents that were created in the post-war period as a result of the introduction of so called compensation measures. This part of the collection includes documentation of legal claims made by Hungarian Jewish victims of these Nazi pseudo-scientific experiments, their medical documentation, and their administrative records.

The collection also holds the documentation of Austrian compensation measures such as administrative papers, claims and correspondence. The collection contains reproductions of alphabetised indexes to the BRüG and BEG cases.

Administrative/biographical history:: At the end of World War II, a vast amount of valuables, equipment, artworks and other moveable property was evacuated from Hungary by the retreating German and Hungarian armies, law enforcement, civil state organs and civilians. This included the entire gold deposit, bonds and currency of the Hungarian National Bank and other major financial institutions, major public and private collections, and also the assets of Jews confiscated and collected by the Hungarian state in spring-summer of 1944. In 1945, the Department of Hungarian Property Taken Abroad (Külföldre Vitt Magyar Javak Ügyosztálya) was established at the Hungarian Ministry of Finances in order to gain back these assets, which had been seized by Allied armies or remained on the territory of the former Nazi Germany. This department was in charge of the exploration of these properties and representing their owners in the restitution procedure.

Access points: locations:: Auschwitz-Birkenau

Subject terms:: Holocaust; Holocaust--Concentration camps; Plunder; Plunder--Aryanisation; Restitution and compensation

System of arrangement:: BRüG records are organised by case number while BEG cases are arranged in alphabetical order of claimants.

Finding aids:: Registry cards, registry books and alphabetical card indexes are available for the entire collection.

Yerusha Network member:: Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives

fullscreen: Centre of Financial Institutions, Department of Restitution, 1941-1975

Collection

Downloads

Full record

Image fragment

Formats and links

Formats