Metadata: Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Hungarian Unit
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Vera és Donald Blinken Nyílt Társadalom Archívum
- Postal address:
- Arany János u. 32, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
- Phone number:
- 36-1-327-3250
- Web address:
- https://osaarchivum.org/
- Email:
- info@osaarchivum.org
- Reference number:
- Sub-fond HU OSA 300-40
- Title:
- Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Hungarian Unit
- Creator/accumulator:
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute
- Date(s):
- 1949/1995
- Language:
- English
- French
- German
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 2680 Archival boxes; 335.0 linear meters; 28 Archival card boxes; 8.82 linear meters; 3 Oversized boxes (40 cm), 1.2 linear meters
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Audio
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The sub-fond contains material (press clippings, news agency releases, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty research papers and background analyses, information items, index cards, samizdat and émigré publications, posters, leaflets, photo negatives and prints, and audio tapes) collected by research specialists and analysts at the Hungarian Unit of the RFE/RL Research Institute. The sub-fond contains the archival series Information Items that originate from unofficial and non-public but usually reliable sources (interviews with refugees, escapees, and dissidents). The records of the Hungarian Unit give a broad picture of the postwar Hungarian political life, economics, culture and arts, religions, media, social and military issues. The files on the 1956 Revolution are of outstanding interest: in the Hungarian and English language Subject Files there are useful cross-references documenting this crucial event of the contemporary Hungarian history. The three types of biographical series, together with the biographic sections of the Subject Card Files, contain invaluable information on thousands of individuals playing major or less important roles in Hungary's political, economic, and cultural life.
Materials concerning Jewish history and culture can be found in 36 folders dispersed throughout 4 archival series out of 16 series that the sub-fond contains. This material informs about lives of Jewish communities in socialist Hungary (Hungarian People's Republic) and beyond, from 1948 to 1990. 1) Archival series HU OSA 300-40-1 Subject Files contains 30 folders with information about the religious life of Jews in socialist Hungary and after 1989, in 1948-1990, including folders on the Eichmann trial and its perception in the 1980s seen through the lens of Hungarian and foreign press and other material. 2) Archival series HU 300-40-2 Subject Files in English contains 2 folders that inform about Jews and Protestants in socialist Hungary in 1966-1989. 3) Archival series HU 300-40-3 Subject Card Files contains 2 folders that inform about the Cultural Association of Hungarian Jews and Judaism in socialist Czechoslovakia and beyond, in 1957-1988. 4) Archival series HU 300-40-4 Information Items contains 1 folder that informs about the religious life of Jews and Judaism in socialist Hungary in 1972.
- Archival history:
- The sub-fond was transferred to the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in May 1995 under the initial mandate to preserve over 2.5 linear kilometers of documents accumulated in the archives of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Hungarian Unit was established as part of the RFE/RL Research Unit in order to collect and prepare for publication information and analytics about ongoing affairs and developments in socialist Hungary. Establishment of the RFE/RL was related to informational confrontation in the Cold War. The material was processed and revised at the Blinken OSA in 1999 and 2002.
- Access points: locations:
- Hungary
- Subject terms:
- Jewish community
- Jewish daily life and religious practices
- System of arrangement:
- The sub-fond includes 16 series systematized according to legacy structure of the sub-fond.
- Access, restrictions:
- Reproduction is allowed for non-commercial purposes.
- Finding aids:
- The catalog (folders/items level) is available online.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/jDen7zJm#context
- Yerusha Network member:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Author of the description:
- Anastasia Felcher; Blinken OSA; 2022 based on Miklos Banyasz, Viktor Labos, and Csaba Szilagyi; Andras Mink; Blinken OSA 1999; Csaba Szilagyi, Blinken OSA; 2002.