Metadata: Records of the Subprefect of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County, 1876-1944
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Pest County Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára
- Postal address:
- Pf. 141., H-1450 Budapest, Hungary
- Phone number:
- +36 1 455 9050
- Web address:
- http://mnl.gov.hu/pml/
- Email:
- pml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- IV.B. 408
- Title:
- Records of the Subprefect of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County, 1876-1944
- Title (official language):
- Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun vármegye alispánjának iratai, 1876-1944
- Creator/accumulator:
- Subprefect’s Office of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County
- Date(s):
- 1876/1944
- Language:
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 1121.09 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The fond of the records of the Subprefect is one of the key collections pertaining to the history of the Jewish communities in Hajdú County. The most relevant parts are the following:
IV.B. 408.a-b. Classified and Administrative records, 1876-1944 (23 boxes, 6 vols., 2.75 linear metres; 530 boxes, 334 vols., 1025.98 linear metres) Relevant records from the period of 1876-1937 include the cases of magyarisation of names, citizenship cases, promulgation of diplomas/degrees (diplomák kihirdetése), conscription of soldiers and exemption cases, supervision of associations, press regulations, right of assembly, construction regulations, administration of trades and commercial matters, matters of funds, banks and other financial institutions, relations with religious denominations, issues of community taxation, school matters, including permits and financial support, trade permits and various other matters of Jewish businesses, including shops, inns, factories, warehouses, workshops and pharmacies.
The surviving material from the years 1938-1943 (Boxes 240-259) includes records concerning the implementation of the anti-Jewish laws and instances of bureaucratic and illegal antisemitic measures, including the withdrawal of trade licences and permits, quitting rental agreements of Jews, exclusion of Jews from the municipal committees and social organisations, registration and expropriation of Jewish landholdings; administrative procedures against Jewish communities; Jewish responses, including requests for exemption, cases of magyarisation of names, citizenship cases, petitions for birth certificates and other family documents, activities of Zionist organisations (Pro Palestina Alliance of Hungarian Jews, Hungarian Zionist Alliance); activities of the national socialists and other extreme right-wing movements, hate speech and propaganda.
The Holocaust-related part of the collection (boxes 642-687) includes the implementation of the anti-Jewish decrees, internment of Jewish individuals, ghettoisation, transit camps, cases of Jewish doctors drafted for labour service, expropriation of Jewish wealth, petitions of non-Jewish individuals and organisations for Jewish apartments, shops and other property, decisions of the municipal authorities concerning Jewish apartments and other assets, cases of escape, rescue and mitigation, exemption cases, antisemitic propaganda (posters, fliers), as well as reports and denunciations against Jews.
Post-Holocaust records include petitions of returning survivors for social aid and restitution, the re-establishment of Jewish organisations, participation of Jews in the social and economic life, including the restart of enterprises and reports about abandoned property.
IV.B. 408.c. Records of Petty Offences, 1884-1944 (178 fasc., 130 vols., 32.52 linear metres) This part of the collection includes cases of Jewish tradesmen, merchants, shop- and innkeepers and other individuals as well as industrial and commercial companies who violated (or were falsely accused of violating) economic laws. Jewish-related cases can be located by the registries and indexes.
IV.B. 408.d. Passport issues, 1904-1944 (56 boxes, 108 vols., 11.52 linear metres) The collection includes documentation pertaining to the requests for passports as well as lists of passport holders (útlevéljegyzék) for the years of 1904-1927 and registries and indexes of passport holders (útlevél mutató és iktató nyilvántartás) for the years 1920-1944 as well as the name indexes. The documents of extensions of passports are arranged into a separate thematic sub-group. Vol. 164 contains the list of passports issued for people of “swastika sentiments”, that is, pro-Nazi activists and sympathisers. Several personal files contain original photos (portraits of the applicants and their family members).
IV.B. 408.e. Naturalisation and citizenship, 1882-1944 (13 vols., 0.56 linear metres) This subgroup includes registry books on naturalisation cases, cases of individuals deprived of Hungarian citizenship and declarations of individuals holding Hungarian citizenship.
IV.B. 408.f. Public welfare (154 fasc., 20 vols., 27.98 linear metres) The collection holds lists and registries of traders and shopkeepers, declarations of stocks of Jewish companies, appointments of authorised wholesalers and traders (discrimination against Jewish companies), social aid to Jewish individuals, including war widows and orphans and family members of military labour servicemen, documents on ration cards, and many other social matters.
IV.B. 408.g. Mobilisation (8 boxes, 13 vols., 1.58 linear metres) This part of the collection contains plenty of information on the social and economic problems caused by the deportation of Jews, including doctors and other specialists.
IV.B. 408.i. Records from 1944 handled separately (1 vol.) Only one registry book survived from this part of the collection, holding 472 cases from the fateful year of 1944.
IV.B. 408.u. Collection of quarterly reports (15 boxes, 2.30 linear metres) Subprefects regularly submitted quarterly reports to the Municipal Committee, which covered all aspects of the political, social and economic life of the county. These provide researchers with plenty of information on the implementation of anti-Jewish laws and decrees and anti-Jewish measures in 1944, including disenfranchisement, expropriation of property and ghettoisation.
Key person in the collection is László Endre (1895-1946), a lawyer, prominent civil servant and one of the most influential extreme right wing politicians of the Horthy era. As subprefect of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County from 1938 to 1944, he was the first to initiate anti-Jewish measures and bureaucratic procedures, which preceded and went beyond the existing discriminatory laws, triggering similar antisemitic measures in other counties. As administrative state secretary of the Ministry of the Interior of the Sztójay government from April 1944, he initiated and directed the deportation of the Hungarian Jews. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes, sentenced to death and executed.
- Archival history:
- Due to several instances of archival sorting (selejtezés) and war damage, a significant part of the collection has been lost, especially the records from the era before 1914. The collection was taken to the Pest County State Archives in 1950. During the 1950s, a selection of records pertaining to the “workers’ movement” (including several files of political relevance from the interwar years and WWII) was taken over by the Institute of Party History. Records concerning the paramilitary youth levente movement were taken to the Archives of the Institute of Military History.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Subprefect (alispán) was the chief of the administration of Hungarian counties between 1870 and 1950. Elected by the municipal committees for a term of 6 years, subprefects were granted independent general administrative rights (önálló általános közigazgatási jogkör) by Act 42 of 1870. The administrative power and authority of subprefects were modified by Act 21 of 1886, Act 30 of 1929 and Act 22 of 1942. The term of subprefects was extended to ten years in 1929 and they were appointed by the Minister of the Interior from 1942. The main task of the subprefect was the implementation of the decisions of the Municipal Committee and the Small Assembly (kisgyűlés), as well as of governmental decrees. He was the superior of all offices and administrative bodies in the county, except special offices appointed directly by ministries. The administrative scope of authority of first instance of the subprefect (elsőfokú közigazgatási hatáskör) included the matters of social associations, regulating the press, and the office issuing passports. Besides, the subprefect was entitled to overrule the decisions of the chief constables (administrative heads of county districts) and the village clerks.
Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County was created by the unification of the historical Pest-Pilis-Solt County and the special administrative district of Kiskunság in 1876. It was the largest and most populous public administration unit of post-World War I Hungary. Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County was dissolved in the 1950 administrative reform.
- Access points: locations:
- Bács-Kiskun
- Access points: persons/families:
- Endre, László
- Subject terms:
- Agriculture
- Antisemitism
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic legislation
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic measures
- Assimilation, acculturation
- Forced labour (of Jews)
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Collaboration
- Holocaust--Ghettos
- Internment
- Jewish political activity
- Law enforcement
- Law enforcement--Gendarmerie
- Law enforcement--Police
- Migration
- Military
- Passports and visas
- Plunder
- Plunder--Aryanisation
- Residency issues of Jews
- Trade and commerce
- Zionism
- Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties
- System of arrangement:
- The records of the Mayor’s Office were arranged into 21 provenance subgroups (állag) by departments or special functions, numbered from 408. a. to 408. u-2., of which the most relevant are the following subgroups: a (classified records), b (administrative records), c (records of petty offences), d (passport issues), e (naturalization and citizenship), f (public welfare), g (mobilization), i (records from 1944 handled separately), u (collection of quarterly reports). Within these groups, the files are arranged chronologically, the number of files re-started each year. Initially, each record had an individual number, but later the office introduced the system of basic numbers (alapszámok), in which the number of the file was identical with the number of the latest document within the folder pertaining to the same case. Passport records from the years 1921-1938 are arranged in alphabetical order.
- Finding aids:
-
Indexes and registry books are available for the entire collection, except for the general records from the years 1899-1902 and classified records (408.a), which require file-level research.
Ernő Lakatos, ed: A Magyar Állami Levéltárak fondjegyzéke, Vol. III. A Területi Levéltárak fondjegyzékei Part 13. A Pest Megyei Levéltár fondjainak jegyzéke. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1975.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
- Author of the description:
- László Csősz; Hungarian National Archives; 08-11-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)