Államvédelmi Központ Általános iratok, 1942–1944

Szinai Miklós, ed. A Belügyminisztériumi Levéltár 1867–1945 /1949/. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1973. Established in June 1942, the Centre of State Security was a special governmental body under the Ministry of the Interior, whose task was to control and coordinate the activities of military counter-intelligence, the political investigation agencies (gendarmerie and police) and the civil administration. The Centre’s staff included military, police and gendarme officers and a chief prosecutor appointed by the Ministry of Justice. According to the confidential orders regulating its sphere of action, the Centre of State Security was mostly involved in the investigation of conspiracy, sabotage and other actions against the state and internal order, counterintelligence and activities dangerous for public supply and war economy. Hungarian National Archives Microfilm Collection X 65 The survived records of the Centre of State Security mostly contain investigative files, including the cases of corruption, bribery, embezzlement, fraud, falsification of documents, black marketeering, trafficking and other violations of economic laws. A significant part of the suspects of these cases were Jews trying to circumvent the regulations of the anti-Jewish laws, or were trying to escape internment, ghettoization and deportation in 1944, as well as non-Jews who helped or cooperated with them. Besides, the general records of the Center contain plenty of information about the large scale plunder following the ghettoization of Jews in April-May 1944, including attempts at hiding Jewish assets, collaboration at the mock sale of property, cases of corruption, embezzlement and outright plunder during the process, as well as several reports and denunciations filed at the authorities against Jews and their helpers.