Metadata: Records of Minister of the Interior Miklós Kozma (1897-1941)
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 429
- Title:
- Records of Minister of the Interior Miklós Kozma (1897-1941)
- Title (official language):
- Кozma Miklós miniszter iratai (1897-1941)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kozma, Miklós
- Date(s):
- 1897/1941
- Extent:
- 85 fascicles, 11.9 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
Miklós Kozma was one of the most influential figures of the political life of interwar Hungary. The massive collection of his papers is divided into four main parts.
Part I holds Kozma's political records, which includes a uniquely rich collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, notes and other files documenting Kozma’s visits, speeches and other political activities between 1916 and 1940. It also holds his diary entries and his correspondence with several key members of the Hungarian political life (mostly race protectionist and extreme right wing individuals, including Gyula Gömbös, Tibor Eckhardt, Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and many others) and with domestic and foreign journalists and telegraph agencies. The administrative records, diary entries, notes, and correspondence from his term as Minister of the Interior (1935-1937) is also attached to this part of the collection. The most relevant part for the history of the Holocaust is the records of his term as Regent’s Commissioner for Carpatho-Ruthenia in 1940-1941 (fasc. 34-40). In the summer of 1941, when Carpatho-Ruthenia was a staging area of the Hungarian army during its attack on the Soviet Union, the region soon became the site of the first mass deportations from Hungary. These deportations affected Jews who could not verify their Hungarian citizenship, which many of them actually did possess. High-ranking political and military leaders, including Miklós Kozma initiated an action to expel these people, whom they deemed “unsuitable aliens”. As a result, Hungarian authorities deported some 20,000 Jews to the occupied Soviet territory, where they fell victim to the Nazi Einsatzgruppen. Most of them were murdered at Kamenets-Podolsk in late August 1941.
Part II holds the records related to the Hungarian News Agency and the operation of firms belonging to it. In the interwar period, the News Agency became a large firm and Kozma’s influence increased accordingly. He was to report personally on the most important local and international news to Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, the Prime Ministers in office and other members of the government. Next to his presidential papers, his confidential reports, summaries and analyses thus also amount to a huge corpus and can be found among his personal papers, although they are an integral part of the workings of the Hungarian News Agency of the time. The records include domestic and foreign correspondence in press, radio and telegraph agency matters, correspondence with reporters and news agencies, memoranda and reports.
Parts III and IV comprise records on Kozma’s social activities, private correspondence, letters of support and other documents of a more personal nature.
- Archival history:
- The inheritors of the papers of Miklós Kozma donated the collection to the Hungarian National Archives in 1942. They intended to open it for researchers after twenty years. The collection was opened to researchers after 1945.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Miklós Kozma (1884-1941), politician, the director of Magyar Távirati Iroda (Hungarian News Agency, MTI), Minister of the Interior, the Regent’s Commissioner for Carpatho-Ruthenia (Kárpátalja). Kozma served as an army general during the First World War and began his public career as a member of the counterrevolutionary National Army of 1919. He was the Head of Department for National Defence and Propaganda at the Supreme Command and later served as the rapporteur for military affairs at the Military Office of the Regent. In 1920, Kozma was appointed head of the semi-official Bureau of the News Agency (although the News Agency was operated as a public company, the government also intended to exercise control over it). Kozma practically directed all matters at the public company, including those of political relevance. He was appointed member of the Upper House of Parliament and Minister of the Interior during the 1930s. In 1939, Kozma was appointed Regent’s Commissioner for newly re-annexed Carpatho-Ruthenia, a post which he held until his death in December 1941.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Kozma, Miklós
- Finding aids:
-
A file-level description is available for the collection in Hungarian.
Szinai Miklós, ed. A Belügyminisztériumi Levéltár 1867–1945 /1949/. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1973.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
