Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co., Personnel and Organisational Departments, 1847-1949

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára

Title:: Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co., Personnel and Organisational Departments, 1847-1949

Title (official language):: Magyar Általános Hitelbank Rt. Személyzeti és szervezési osztály, 1847-1949

Scope and content:: The collection mostly holds records, accounts, personal dossiers, files and card indexes of the employees of Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co., one of the largest and most important financial institutions in modern Hungary. The subjects include, but are not limited to, salaries and other payments, regulations of work time, social aid, benefits, pension funds and disciplinary matters.

The most relevant Holocaust-related part of the collection is the records related to the “Aryanisation” of the staff following the first anti-Jewish law in 1938. These records include the private correspondence of director György Vajda relating to Jewish laws (1938-1940), administrative files concerning the implementation of Jewish laws, the texts of relevant decrees and laws, various accounts and name lists of employees declared Jewish, who were dismissed at the Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co. and many other institutions under its umbrella, appointments of non-Jewish employees, employment cards and other personal files of the persons concerned. Most of the files concern the superannuation, pension issues and other matters of former employees and their family members. The material also contains extensive information on the fate of bank employees during the Holocaust, including labour servicemen, deportees and those who were murdered or perished during the siege of Budapest in 1944-45.

Archival history:: The records of the Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co. were handed over to the Hungarian National Archives between 1952 and 1955. The material was rearranged several times between 1961 and 1976. The first edition of the finding aid was finished in 1980, but could not be published until 2005 due to privacy regulations.

The records also include a part of the personnel files of institutions that were merged into Hungarian General Credit Bank, including Industry Bank Co., Hungarian General Savings Bank Co., and Hungarian National Central Savings Bank Co.

Administrative/biographical history:: Founded in 1867 by the Austrian Rothschild group, Hungarian General Credit Bank, Co. was one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in Hungary, which played a great role in the modernisation of the country, with several business interests in Hungarian commerce and industry. The Hungarian General Credit Bank was nationalised in 1947 and merged into the Hungarian National Bank.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Antisemitic legislation; Antisemitism--Antisemitic measures; Financial matters; Financial matters--Banks, banking, and bankers; Forced labour (of Jews); Holocaust

System of arrangement:: The personnel files are organised in alphabetical order.

Finding aids:: Sárközi, Zoltán, ed. Magyar Általános Hitelbank Rt. Budapest: MOL, 2005.

A detailed item-level archival description is available for the collection in Hungarian.

Links to finding aids:: http://mnl.gov.hu/bal_menusor/hasznalat/kiadvanyok/kiadvanyok/segedletek_repertoriumok/magyar_altalanos_hitelbank_rt.html