Metadata: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peace Treaty Preparations Department, 1945-1951
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:
- XIX-J-1-a
- Title:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peace Treaty Preparations Department, 1945-1951
- Title (official language):
- Külügyminisztérium Béke-előkészítő Osztály, 1945-1951
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Date(s):
- 1945/1951
- Extent:
- 177 boxes, 6 volumes, 21.54 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Peace Treaty Preparations Department Ministry of Foreign Affairs engulfs several thematic groups and units that are relevant in modern Jewish history and the Holocaust.
General Issues (thematic group II) holds studies on Hungarian history, the study of Political Police Chief József Sombor-Schweinitzer on the extreme right wing movements, summaries on the war losses and damages, summary on the economic and financial situation of Hungary, statistical data, maps and surveys, as well as a collection of documents on rescue and resistance, including the efforts of the Christian churches and the US government, a study summarising the situation of the Jews and Germans in Hungary between 1920 and 1946, report on the Zionist movement, documents pertaining to the political, military, economic and cultural affairs of Hungary holds Administrative and Citizenship Cases, including activities of the Hungarian administration, military and law enforcement in the occupied and annexed territories, various legal and financial matters, affairs of agriculture and commerce, minority affairs, including studies on educational and cultural policy and detailed statistics.
Thematic group no. IV holds studies, reports and other documents on the foreign policy of the Horthy era, Hungary’s relations with the neighbouring states, which includes detailed report on the situation of Jews in these countries and the anti-Jewish policies.
Thematic group no. VII holds a sizeable collection of press clippings.
- Archival history:
- The material was acquired by the Hungarian National Archives probably in the 1960s.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Peace Treaty Preparations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established in June 1945 under the leadership of Ambassador István Kertész. However, the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been active in same tasks since the summer of 1943, mostly clandestinely. The head of the latter was Aladár Szegedy-Maszák, who assigned the pro-English diplomat István Kertész to the task of preparations for peace. The main objective of the Peace Treaty Preparations Department was collecting documentation and data, as well as the preparation of memoranda and proposals for the Hungarian delegation. More than one hundred civil servants, scholars and experts contributed to this work.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Sombor-Schweinitzer, József 1895-1953
- Finding aids:
- A detailed archival unit-level description in Hungarian (prepared in 2009) is available for the collection.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
