Records of the National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund, 1947-1988

Collection

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

Scope and content:: The National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund dealt with issues of restitution and compensation in Hungary. This collection contains decrees, studies, correspondence, memorandums, records of sales and legal procedures concerning Jewish property, and notes and administrative background materials of the Rehabilitation Fund. It includes the correspondence of the National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund with a host of Hungarian Jewish individuals as well as with various Hungarian state authorities and other institutions regarding compensation and restitution. Individual claims that Hungarian Jewish survivors submitted to the Government Commissioner for Abandoned Property (Elhagyott Javak Kormánybiztosa) in 1945 are also part of this collection. Furthermore, there are documents of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites from the years 1946-1947 that concern the property Hungarian Jews used to own, but that was confiscated and transported out of the country during the Holocaust in 1944-1945. This part includes various documents regarding the so-called Gold Train carrying the valuables taken from Hungarian Jews to Nazi Germany in the spring of 1945 upon the order of the Arrow Cross cabinet.

Archival history:: Following the liquidation of the National Office for Church Affairs (Állami Egyházügyi Hivatal) in 1989, the records of the National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund were handed over to the Hungarian National Archives.

Administrative/biographical history:: The National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund was created by Act XXV of 1946 on condemning the persecution of Jews and mitigating its consequences, which was the most important act of legal rehabilitation in post-war Hungary. According to this law, the inheritance of Holocaust victims was handed over to a separate fund, which was an independent legal entity and served as an agency for the aid and support of survivors and their institutions. The National Jewish Rehabilitation Fund began to operate in October 1947. It was renamed National Rehabilitation Fund in 1951 and merged into the National Office for Church Affairs (Állami Egyházügyi Hivatal) in 1954.

Subject terms:: Holocaust; Plunder; Real estate; Restitution and compensation

Finding aids:: A contemporaneous card index (névmutató kartonok, 22 boxes), registries and indexes as well as a detailed item-level archival finding aid (raktári jegyzék) are available for the collection.