Metadata: Ministry of the Interior, Presidential Records, 1867-1949
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:
- K 148
- Title:
- Ministry of the Interior, Presidential Records, 1867-1949
- Title (official language):
- Belügyminisztérium, Elnöki iratok, 1867-1949
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ministry of the Interior
- Date(s):
- 1867/1949
- Extent:
- 6 boxes, 1202 fascicles, 406 volumes, 196.77 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
This collection holds the surviving parts of the confidential records of the Ministry of the Interior, which are among the key collections pertaining to the history of Hungarian Jewish communities held in the National Archives.
The material from the years 1867 to 1938 requires file-level research, as the cases of Jewish citizens were not handled separately. The subjects in this part of the collection include but are not limited to the following issues: payment of and various other matters concerning taxes, fees and revenues, matters of tradesmen, merchants, doctors and other professionals, various matters concerning the industrial and commercial enterprises of Jews, including trade permits, trade certificates of Jewish individuals and companies, matters of Jewish communities, schools and organisations, accrued community tax and other tax issues, decisions concerning the municipal and local financial support of Jewish communities, schools and organisations, inspection of schools, kosher butcheries, baths and other community institutions.
In the records from the years 1938-1944 the relevant parts include matters under the direct jurisdiction of the minister and matters of the houses of the parliament and the municipal administration, among them documents pertaining to the Hungarian extreme right-wing movements, including the Arrow Cross, reports concerning Hungarian minority policies on the territories re-annexed between 1938 and 1942, lists of and decrees concerning non-resident aliens, expulsion procedures, including the deportations of “non-resident aliens” in August 1941, internment of Jews, material concerning the implementation of anti-Jewish laws, decisions concerning trade, naturalisation and citizenship cases of Jews, decisions and requests concerning Jewish landholdings, cases of Jewish tradesmen, merchants, shop- and innkeepers and other individuals and companies who violated regular economic laws or discriminatory laws (petty offences), including cases of bureaucratic antisemitism, lists and conscriptions of Jewish traders, companies, real estate, stocks and lands, as well as memoranda, requests and petitions reflecting the antisemitic public mood, denunciations, reports against and investigation of the cases of Jewish individuals and companies, withdrawal of weapon permits, matters of residence permits, social aid to Jewish individuals, various matters concerning military labour service, conscription lists, antisemitic incidents, activities of extreme right wing organisations and parties, bans of Jewish organisations, including Zionist groups.
The Holocaust-related part of the collection includes the implementation of the anti-Jewish decrees, internment of Jewish individuals, ghettoisation, transit camps, the social-economical problems caused by the deportation of Jews, including the lack of doctors and other specialists, 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, appointments of wardens and guardians, reports and inventories on factories, stores, shops, vehicles, etc. of Jews, cases of escape, rescue and mitigation, exemption cases, antisemitic propaganda (posters, fliers), reports and denunciations against Jews, dissolution of Jewish communities and institutions and decisions about their real estate and moveable property, and many other issues.
- Archival history:
- During WWII, the collections of the Ministry of the Interior, especially the general records were severely damaged. With the Red Army approaching Budapest in December 1944, all departments of the Ministry were evacuated to Sárvár in Western Hungary. The presidential records of the Ministry of the Interior were obtained by the Hungarian National Archives in 1949.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Created by Acts III of 1848 and VIII of 1867, the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior operated from 11 March 1867 until the end of March 1945. Its sphere of jurisdiction included all internal matters of the country, public law, law enforcement, health care and social network as well as personnel matters. Besides, the Ministry of the Interior served as supreme authority over the entire administration of the country and the authority of third instance of all administrative matters. The sphere of action and tasks of the Ministry of the Interior was extended several times: in 1867, the Ministry had 10 departments; by 1944 it had 22.
- Finding aids:
-
Contemporaneous finding aids, including registries and indexes are available for the collection.
Szinai Miklós, ed. A Belügyminisztériumi Levéltár 1867–1945 /1949/. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1973.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
