Metadata: Centre of Financial Institutions Presidential Records, Records on Restitution 1944-1979
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-L-20-r
- Title:
- Centre of Financial Institutions Presidential Records, Records on Restitution 1944-1979
- Title (official language):
- Pénzintézei Központ Elnöki iratok, Restitúciós iratok 1944-1979
- Creator/accumulator:
- Centre of Financial Institutions
- Date(s):
- 1944/1979
- Extent:
- 104 boxes, 12.48 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
The Records on Restitution comprise a key special collection pertaining to Holocaust-era compensation and financial restitution in Hungary, most of all to the history of the so-called Gold Train carrying the confiscated valuables of Hungarian Jews to Germany in the spring of 1945. The temporal extent of the documents covers the period from 1944 to 1979, with the bulk of the materials from the period of 1947 to 1949.
The documents in the collection include notes and minutes, circulars and internal exchanges of relevant official Hungarian bodies. The collection also includes documents that supported Hungarian and Hungarian Jewish claims, including individual claim sheets, completed questionnaires that were meant to summarize experiences of the Holocaust, both of survivors and their deceased relatives, statistical surveys, and materials on the distribution of the compensation that was eventually made available by the Federal Republic of Germany. Moreover, the collection includes the correspondence between Hungarian organs and various German authorities, organisations, and companies. There are also financial and administrative documents and correspondence items of both the Germany Federal Compensation Law of 1957 (Bundesgesetz zur Regelung der rückerstattungsrechtlichen Geldverbindlichkeiten des Deutschen Reichs und gleichgestellter Rechtsträger, short form Bundesrückerstattungsgesetz - BRüG) and the Germany Federal Restitution Law of 1956 (Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung - BEG) programs that are relevant for the study of compensation in Hungary.
Additionally, the collection includes the restitution cases of the victims of Nazi pseudo-scientific experiments from the years 1964-1975. Many deported Hungarian Jews were victims to these human experiments that were conducted by the Nazis, most notoriously in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex. Prisoners were coerced into these experiments that would often result in death, disfigurement or permanent disability. This collection is based on documents that were created in the post-war period as a result of the introduction of so called compensation measures. This part of the collection includes documentation of legal claims made by Hungarian Jewish victims of these Nazi pseudo-scientific experiments, their medical documentation, and their administrative records.
- Archival history:
- The records in this collection originated from various state bodies and organisations that were involved in the restitution process, including the departments of the Ministry of Finances and their representations in foreign countries. The records were stored in the archives of the Centre of Financial Institutions and handed over to the Hungarian National Archives on 12 February 1997.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- At the end of World War II, a vast amount of valuables, equipment, artworks and other moveable property was evacuated from Hungary by the retreating German and Hungarian armies, law enforcement, civil state organs and civilians. This included the entire gold deposit, bonds and currency of the Hungarian National Bank and other major financial institutions, major public and private collections, and also the assets of Jews confiscated and collected by the Hungarian state in spring-summer of 1944. In 1945, the Department of Hungarian Property Taken Abroad (Külföldre Vitt Magyar Javak Ügyosztálya) was established at the Hungarian Ministry of Finances in order to gain back these assets, which had been seized by Allied armies or remained on the territory of the former Nazi Germany. This department was in charge of the exploration of these properties and representing their owners in the restitution procedure.
- Access points: locations:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Finding aids:
- Registry cards, registry books and alphabetical card indexes are available for the entire collection. An item-level description (raktári jegyzék) is available in Hungarian, except for a fragment of 11 boxes. A separate record-level description is available for the records pertaining to the “Gold Train” (Box no. 72).
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
