Metadata: Records of the National Social Superintendent’s Office, 1941-1944
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 564-566
- Title:
- Records of the National Social Superintendent’s Office, 1941-1944
- Title (official language):
- Országos Szociális Felügyelőség, 1941-1944
- Creator/accumulator:
- National Social Superintendent’s Office
- Date(s):
- 1941/1944
- Extent:
- 23 fascicles, 3.53 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
The collection holds the surviving records of the National Social Superintendent’s Office, one of the key institutions of social and land policy in wartime Hungary. Due to the increasingly nationalistic and antisemitic policies of the Hungarian governments during WWII, land reforms and other measures to alleviate agrarian poverty were increasingly financed by discriminatory policies against certain social groups, most of all the Jews. From as early as 1920, land reforms and settlement projects were developed primarily on land requisitioned from Jewish owners. The possibility of requisitioning Jewish-owned property was first made explicit in the Second Jewish Law (Act IV of 1939), which also restricted the rights of Jews to obtain landed property. The process of “Aryanisation” in the agricultural sector was finalised by Act XV of 1942 on Jewish-owned agricultural land and forests, also known as the Fourth Jewish Law. Therefore, the lands offered for the poor farmers and designated for settlement projects by the National People and Family Protection Fund were also primarily taken from Jewish owners. Besides, the Public Welfare Collectives (Közjóléti Szövetkezetek) administrated by the National Social Superintendent’s Office were also involved in the implementation of the Fourth Jewish Law. Therefore, the collection National Social Superintendent’s Office, mostly the General Records, holds plenty of data and information on the confiscated Jewish lands.
This collection includes the following series: K 564 Presidential Records, K 565 Mobilisation Records (Országmozgósítási iratok), K 566 General Records.
- Archival history:
- The fragmented and scattered records of the National Social Superintendent’s Office were obtained by the Hungarian National Archives in the early 1950s.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The National Social Superintendent’s Office was an administrative body to supervise and manage the National People and Family Protection Fund (Országos Nép- és Családvédelmi Alap, ONCSA) was established by Act XXIII of 1940. The Fund’s primary objective was to provide the Hungarian rural population with social aid, including land, equipment and financial support, but it was also active in settlement policy. The National Social Superintendent’s Office was divided into ten districts covering the entire territory of Hungary.
- Finding aids:
- No finding aids exist. The material requires document-level research.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
