Metadata: Records of the Orphans’ Court of the town of Nagykőrös, 1872-1952
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:
- V. 477
- Title:
- Records of the Orphans’ Court of the town of Nagykőrös, 1872-1952
- Title (official language):
- Nagykőrös város árvaszékének iratai, 1872-1952
- Creator/accumulator:
- Orphans’ Court of the town of Nagykőrös
- Date(s):
- 1872/1952
- Language:
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 568 boxes, 367 vols., 78.61 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection holds the matters of Jewish orphans and other persons under guardianship from the town of Nagykőrös between 1872 and 1952. Jewish-related parts are scattered throughout the material. As for the pre-1944 parts, Jewish-related files can be located by family names and actual cases. The material requires file-level investigation. The records of the Orphans’ Courts from 1944-1945 is one of the key sources pertaining to the nationalisation of the wealth of Hungarian Jews in spring/summer of 1944. According to decree no. 230.000/1944 of the Ministry of Interior on 10 April 1944 on the handling of the assets of “absent” Jews (that is, those who were promptly taken to the ghettos and collection camps after April 16 and therefore could not report their property as prescribed in governmental decree no. 1600/1944 issued on the same day) fell on the Orphans’ Courts of the counties and cities. They were entitled to appoint public trustees (közgyámok) and guardians to take over and handle all the property of the Jews. The decree quoted above referred to Act 20 of 1877, which allowed (in urgent cases) to put those people under guardianship, who were “absent, staying in an unknown locality, or hampered from returning home and handling their property.” Soon after, government officials realized the task was far beyond the ability of the Orphans’ Courts. At the beginning of May, Financial Directorates were made responsible for the appropriation, inventorying and safekeeping of Jewish property.
Post-1944 records contain plenty of information pertaining to the inheritance of citizens murdered during the Holocaust. Under the terms of Article 27 of the Treaty of Peace with Hungary signed at Paris on 10 February 1947, Hungary was committed to restore the property, legal rights and interests of all those who suffered persecution based on racial origin or religion, or, if restoration was impossible, make fair compensation. Any property that remained heirless or unclaimed for six months after the coming into force of the Treaty was to be transferred by the Hungarian government to organizations representing the victims. The value of the property was to be used for relief and rehabilitation of survivors in Hungary. (See: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/us-treaties/bevans/m-ust000004-0453.pdf) As a result, the Hungarian state initiated legal procedures in 1947 in order to identify heirless or unclaimed property of people who fell victim to Fascist persecution, overwhelmingly Jews. The Orphans’ Courts were the key administrative bodies in this process.
Relevant records of the Orphans’ Court of Nagykőrös from this period include General records (V.277. b. C.) and the records of the Guardians’ Cashier (gyámpénztári iratok, V. 277. c.), holding various name lists of orphans and inventories of their property, registries of persons under guardianship and guardians.
- Archival history:
- The records of the Orphans’ Courts were handed over to the Pest County Archives in the early 1950s. The material was re-arranged and newly found parts were added to the collection during the 1970s and 1980s. The collection reached its present form in 1986.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Orphans’ Courts were administrative bodies serving as public trustees in the counties and cities in Hungary between 1877 and 1950. According to Act 20 of 1877, Orphans’ Court was declared the public trustee of first instance (elsőfokú gyámhatóság). The Orphans’s Court consisted of a chair, at least two members and a notary as well as the Public Prosecutor (tiszti ügyész), but the latter did not have a right to vote. Act 35 of 1923 modified this system and from this time on one assessor (előadó ülnök) handled the matters of orphans and other clients, under the supervision of the chair. The Orphans’ Court was entitled to appoint guardians and wardens (gyám; gondnok) and to supervise them, to make decisions concerning the wealth of the wards, boarding, and the maintenance and other matters concerning the children of divorced parents, and various other matters.
- Access points: locations:
- Nagykőrös
- System of arrangement:
- The records of the Orphans’ Court of Nagykőrös were arranged into the following provenance subgroups (állag): Minutes of council meetings (V. 277 a.), Records (V. 277 b.), Records of Guardians’ Cashier–Gyámpénztári iratok (V. 277 c.), Records of Orphans’ Prosecutor–Árvaügyészi iratok (V. 277 d.), Records of Public Guardians (közgyámok, (V. 277 e.). Within these groups, the files are arranged chronologically, the number of files re-started each year. Records in V. 277 b. were arranged by basic numbers of the files in 1872-1877, by thematic groups in 1878-1902 and by numbers (sorszámok) of files between 1903 and 1944.
- Finding aids:
-
Original indexes and registry books are available for the entire collection.
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; 06-12-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)