Records of the Eger Financial Directorate, 1870-1956

Replacing financial districts of the Habsburg-era administration operating directly under the imperial Ministry of Finances, the modern-era financial directorates in Hungary were established by Act XXVIII of 1889 (modified by Act XI of 1909 and Act IV of 1924). Headed by a financial director appointed by the head of state, financial directorates operated in the seats of counties and were subordinated to the Ministry of Finances. It was the main supervisory authority in financial and taxation matters of state and municipal authorities. The sphere of authority of the Eger Financial Directorate was the entire territory of Heves County. In 1950, the Eger Financial Directorate was dissolved and replaced by the Financial Department of the Heves County Council. However, the fond also includes records from the periods before and after the legal existence of the Eger Financial Directorate. Between 1938 and 1944, financial directorates played a crucial role in the implementation of anti-Jewish laws and in the state-controlled campaign to systematically seize the assets of Hungarian Jews. http://lnyr.eleveltar.hu/MNLQuery/detail.aspx?ID=638965 Letter of support from an academic institution is required Hungarian data protection laws apply The collection of the Financial Directorate covers all financial matters of companies and individuals, including but not limited to all kinds of taxation, salaries and pensions, monopolies and excises, licensing, fees and tolls, land mortgage and release, and insurance matters. The most relevant Holocaust-related part of the collection is the Records of the Department No VIII. from 1944, including declarations of Jewish citizens on their assets and inventories of Jewish property. Following the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Prime Minister’s Decree no. 1600/1944 issued on 16 April on the declaration and sequestration of Jewish-owned property stipulated that all those defined as Jewish had to deposit their jewellery, bonds and other valuables in a bank belonging to the Centre of Financial Institutions. Besides, they had to report their valuables at the local Financial Directorates. This fond holds a complete collection of these declarations, arranged by towns and districts, and in alphabetical order of localities and owners, respectively (26 boxes). Records of the Department no. VIII. also contain the texts of anti-Jewish decrees, records on selling Jewish property, individual cases, including the petitions of Jews for their property and the petitions of non-Jews for Jewish property and various cases concerning “abandoned property after 1945. Records of the Chief (VI. 102.a) as well as the records of other specialized departments no. II-VII. (Consumption tax, Financial directorates, Turnover tax, Licensing, Fees, Taxation and Land Release) also contain plenty of information on implementation of the anti-Jewish laws and decrees between 1939 and 1944, including supervision and termination of the official permits of Jewish businesses for the sales and purchase of goods and materials monopolized by the state, such as petrol alcohol, tobacco, sugar, etc., cases of petty offences and various matters concerning land policy and Jewish landholdings. A broad selection of the Holocaust-related records from 1944 is available at the Hungarian National Archives in the special collection prepared on behalf of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites (MIOI) in the 1960s, known as ‘Series I’. Series I is held by the Óbuda section of the National Archives of Hungary. Copies are available in the YVA and the USHMMA.