Records of the Pest District Law Court, 1945-1950

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára

Scope and content:: The collection holds the records of Pest District Law Court including the records of the civil court and the records of criminal court as well as administrative records of the Court (presidential, secret and classified records). In the collection of trials, Jewish-related cases can be located only by item-level investigation of the files.

XXV.1. 3. General administrative records I.A./17. comprises records pertaining to war crimes trials, including legal procedures of Holocaust perpetrators from all walks of life, including employees of municipal and state administration, military and law enforcement officers and intellectuals. It contains plenty of information on antisemitic policies and incidents, the implementation of Jewish laws and decrees and the Holocaust, the behaviour and activities of local perpetrators and bystanders. I.A./43. holds administrative files concerning the inheritance procedure of Holocaust victims.

Archival history:: The records of the Pest District Law Court were taken to the Pest County Archives in the 1950s. The material was rearranged and described at the end of the 1980s.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Pest District Royal Law Court was created in 1876 and had authority over all the towns and municipalities in Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County, excluding the capital city Budapest. The members of the Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County were elected judges. The Royal Law Court included a Civil Court and a Criminal Court. In 1945, the court was re-named Pest District Law Court and continued to operate until 1950, when it was replaced by the Pest County Court (Pest Megyei Bíróság).

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Antisemitic legislation; Holocaust; Holocaust--Collaboration; Legal matters; Legal records; War crimes

System of arrangement:: The collection is arranged into three main provenance groups: Presidential records, trials of the civil court and the criminal court (XXV.1. a-c.). XXV.1.a. is divided into five additional sub-groups: secret records, classified records, and general records (1-3), charts, plans and lists (4.) and statistics (5.). Presidential records also hold the presidential records of Pest County Court, the successor of the Pest District Law Court.

Finding aids:: An offline collection-level description is available for the collection in Hungarian.

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.

Author of the description:: László Csősz; Hungarian National Archives; 19-12-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)