Records of György Bakách-Bessenyey 1926-1971

Collection

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

Scope and content:: The collection holds the private and official records of the diplomat György Bakách-Bessenyey, including his correspondence, reports, speeches, as well as articles and studies written or collected by him. The most relevant parts of the collection are the records from the period when Bakách-Bessenyey served as Hungarian ambassador in Berne from the summer of 1943 to 19 March 1944, as well as records from 1944-1948. The material includes reports and dispatches of Bakách-Bessenyey to the Foreign Ministry and the replies sent from the ministerial offices, records on his meetings in Switzerland, his correspondence with several Hungarian dramatis personae of the era, including Prime Ministers Miklós Kállay and István Bethlen, and diplomat Aladár Szegedy-Maszák, the daily reports of the dissident group of anti-Nazi Hungarian diplomats, reports of military attaché in Berne, Colonel László Rakolczay from the period between August and October 1944, English translations of the reports of Bessenyey and other dissident diplomats, including Andor Wodianer in Lisbon, György Barcza in Switzerland, Antal Ullein-Reviczky in Stockholm, and Gábor Apor in the Vatican, as well as the text of a protest against the deportation of the Jews. The post-1948 part of the collection also holds relevant data and information concerning WWII and the Holocaust, but this part of the collection requires document-level research.

Archival history:: The collection was acquired by the Hungarian National Archives in March 1993, following a two-year long preparatory procedure and correspondence with Mr. Ferenc Bakách-Bessenyey, the son of György, who donated the collection. In 1994 and 1995 he donated further documents, which are in thematic groups 130-134.

The collection is generally in good condition. However, about 30 to 50 files (folios) require attention and should be restored in the near future.

Administrative/biographical history:: György Bakách-Bessenyey (1892‒1959) was a Hungarian diplomat, who served as secretary of the Hungarian embassy in Vienna (1931-1934), counsellor of the embassy (1938) in Belgrade and finally as the Hungarian ambassador in Bern (Summer 1943-19 March 1944). A confidante of Prime Minister Miklós Kállay, he was one of the major figures who negotiated a separate peace treaty between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Western Allies. Following the German occupation of his country in March 1944, he resigned and joined the Ambassadors’ Committee formed by dissident anti-Nazi Hungarian diplomats. He played an instrumental role in drawing the attention of the West to the deportation of Hungary's Jews. After WWII he emigrated to the United States, where he was active in the organisation of Hungarian emigrant groups. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Hungarian National Committee and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission (1948-1956).

Access points: persons/families:: Bakách Bessenyey, György 1892-1959; Barcza, György; Bethlen, István, gróf, 1874-1946; Kállay, Miklós; Szegedy-Maszák, Aladár 1903-1988; Ullein-Reviczky, Antal, 1894-1955

System of arrangement:: The material is arranged in dossiers mostly by correspondents and sometimes by organisations or certain topics. Within the dossiers, the files are arranged chronologically.

Finding aids:: There is a detailed item-level inventory on the collection in Hungarian.