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Series 3 - Központi Zsidó Tanács korszaka (Period of the Central Jewish Council)
Reports

Part of V. Magyarországi Izraeliták Országos Irodája iratai

Identity area

Reference code

HU HJMA V-3

Title

Központi Zsidó Tanács korszaka (Period of the Central Jewish Council)

Date(s)

  • 1944 - 1945 (Creation)

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Name of creator

Löwinger Sámuel (1904-1980)

Biographical history

Archival history

The documents have been in the possession of the Jewish community since their creation.

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Scope and content

This body of documents holds the records of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites. After the March 1944 German occupation of the country the bureaucracy of the Central Jewish Council partially integrated the administration of the Office, which, however, kept its partial independence. As part of the Jewish Council’s structure, the administration of the Office maintained contact with the countryside communities through an extensive correspondence regarding the disenfranchisement, plunder, ghettoization and deportation of the countryside Jews. Notable documents include, among others:
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites with the Kőbánya Jewish Community regarding the occupation of the Community’s offices by the Central Jewish Council and the implementation of the anti-Jewish decrees issued by the Sztójay-government (April 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Szolnok Jewish Community regarding the obligation of registering the Community’s properties as stipulated by the decrees issued by the Sztójay-government (April 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and Israelite Community District XVI regarding the question of the Mezőtúr Jewish Community pertaining to the obligation to register Jewish wealth as stipulated by the decrees issued by the Sztójay-government (April 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Pest Jewish Community regarding the supply of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary (April 1944); correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, the Ministry of
• correspondence of attorney-at-law Róbert Pap and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding Pap’s appointment as head of the Szeged Jewish Council (April 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Pécsvárad Jewish Community regarding the financial aid provided by the Office to the Community (April-May 1944)
• letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the Újpest Jewish Community regarding the (false) information according to which the families of those Jews who perform forced labor for the German military authorities are exempt from the ghettoization (May 2, 1944)
• correspondence between the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Orthodox Jewish Newspaper (Orth. Zsidó Ujság) regarding the newspaper’s merge into the official journal of the Central Jewish Council (Journal of the Jews in Hungary - Magyarországi Zsidók Lapja) (April-May, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Békéscsaba Jewish Community regarding the financial consequences of the rich community members’ conversion to Christianity (May 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Szolnok Jewish Community regarding the implementation of certain anti-Jewish decrees of the Sztójay-government (May 1944);
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Siófok Jewish Community regarding some of the local Jews’ intention to convert to Christianity (May 1944)
• joint letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Central Jewish Council to the Győr Jewish Community regarding the sample certificate of free movement (May 15, 1944)
• correspondence of Director of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary Sámuel Löwinger, students of the Seminary performing labor service and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the exemption of the students from labor service (May
• letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the Director of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary Sámuel Löwinger regarding possibilities of religious practice in labor service camps (May 19, 1944)
• correspondence of the Keszthely Jewish Community, the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Countryside Department of the Central Jewish Council regarding the operation of the community after the ghettoization of the local Jews (June 1944)
• letters of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the Orthodox Israelite Central Office regarding the financial matters between the two offices (June-July, 1944)
• letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the military authorities regarding the labor service of rabbi trainees (June 12, 1944)
• circular letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the Jewish communities requesting all the available certificates of the communities’ rabbis and assistant rabbis (June 13, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, the military authorities, the Tapolca, Zalaegerszeg and Szombathely Jewish Councils regarding the labor service of rabbis (June 1944)
• correspondence of the Budafok Jewish Community and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the arrest of President of the Community Mór Klein (June 1944)
• letter of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to the Central Jewish Council requesting the obtaining of free movement permissions for its leaders and employees ( (June 27, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and Zionist leader Ottó Komoly regarding the Office’s employees’ intentions to emigrate in the framework of the Zionist rescue action (name list attached) (July 1944)
• letter of the Social Department and the Countryside Department of the Central Jewish Council to the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the deportation of the Esztergom, Körmend, Veszprém, Zalaegerszeg, Sárvár, Szombathely and Sopron Jews (July 12, 1944)
• cash registry book of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites (January 1944 – July 1946). The attached sheets include: financial documents of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites: lists of salaries, aid and expenses (October 1944); protocol taken at the opening of the safe of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites (October 30, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, Salamon Spitz and the Office for Support of Hungarian Israelites regarding Spitz’s report on the conditions of the Topolya internment camp (March 17, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Veszprém Jewish Community regarding the occupying German authorities’ disbanding the Veszprém Jewish Community, setting up a Jewish Council in Veszprém, and imposing a travel ban on all Veszprém Jews (March 26-29, 1944)
• letter of the Ministry of Defense to the National Office of Hungarian Israelites informing the Office that leave from the labor service have been suspended (March 29, 1944)
• correspondence of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites and the Szigetvár Jewish Community regarding the Community’s request to be provided with 250 pieces of yellow stars (March 30 – April 30, 1944)
• correspondence of Israelite Community District XVI and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the correct interpretation of various disenfranchising decrees of the government (April 3 – April 6, 1944)
• correspondence of President of the Békéscsaba Jewish Community Ernő Prónai and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the arrest of Prónai’s daughter and her imprisonment in the Kistarcsa internment camp (including a leaflet printed by the Békéscsaba Jewish Community calling up all local Jews to pay their community taxes and contributions as stipulated by the order of the Central Jewish Council (April 19-20, 1944);
• correspondence of the Central Jewish Council and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the imprisonment of Jews arrested on trams and trains after the German occupation (April 14-18, 1944)
• correspondence of the Szolnok Jewish Community and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the occupying German authorities’ order to compile the name list of all communities in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County (April 13 - April 16, 1944)
• correspondence of President of the Békéscsaba Jewish Community Ernő Prónai, the Mezőberény Jewish Community, Israelite Community District XXI and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the arrest of Jews in Budapest after the German occupation (April 4-11, 1944)
• correspondence of President of the Székesfehérvár Jewish Community (and later Central Jewish Council member) Miklós Szegő and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites regarding the Jewish leadership in Fejér County (April 7-17, 1944)
• correspondence of the Ungvár branch of the Office for Support of Hungarian Israelites regarding the setting up of the Ungvár Jewish Council by the local German authorities and the sealing of Jewish shops by the Hungarian authorities (April 6-11, 1944)
• letters of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites to various Pest, Buda and countryside community leaders (Gyula Unger – Győr, Imre Wesel – Szombathely, József Greiner – Pécs, Ernő Munkácsi – Pest, Ernő Pető – Budapest, Samu Csobádi – Buda, Samu Meer – Nagyvárad, József Fischer – Kolozsvár, Emil Friedländer – Pest, Mikós Szegő – Székesfehérvár, Ákos Kolos – Kassa, György Polgár – Office for Support of Hungarian Israelites, Bertalan Büchler – Pest, Lajos Vajda and Róbert Czeisel – Kecskemét) informing them about their appointments by the March 13, 1944 meeting of the presidents of the Israelite Community Districts to various positions of the Office, and response of some of them regarding the appointment (Lajos Vajda, Róbert Czeisel, Gyula Unger) (March 28 – April 2, 1944)

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