Nyilaskeresztes Párt, 1932–1945

A registry book is available for the records from 1938. The bulk of the material, however, requires item-level research. The first part of the collection (Boxes1-3) contains the survived records of the Hungarian National Socialist Party and its successor, the Arrow Cross Party, mostly from the war years. The material includes the documents of party administration (registered as well as unregistered fragments), cashier’s and registry books, regulations, orders, circulars and other internal correspondence, an undated brief history of the party, programs and flyers of the Hungarian National Socialist Party and various extreme right wing splinter groups, speeches, studies and other publications of party leader Ferenc Szálasi, and other prominent figures, including Pál Vágó, Ödön Málnási, Gábor Vajna, László Budinszky and Lajos Gruber, bills (törvényjavaslat), proposals, interpellations by and correspondence of the party MPs, reports to the Great Council (nagytanács, the central governing body of the party) and meetings of county leaders, newspaper clippings, flyers and other party publications. The second and largest part of the collection contains the personal files of party members arranged into a card index (Boxes 4-56) in an alphabetical order from the years 1939–1945. The card index is only accessible for researchers holding a special permission (letter of support) from an academic institution. Arrow Cross Party was the most popular right-wing extremist movement in Hungary before and during WWII. The party was founded in 1935 under the name of Party of National Will. Its leader, former officer of the General Staff, Ferenc Szálasi was imprisoned (1938-1940) and his party dissolved several times, however, managed to return to political life. In the last pre-war elections in 1939 the Arrow Cross gained 29 seats, making it the second largest party in Parliament. The party was re-named to Arrow Cross Party-Hungarist Movement in 1942. After Regent Miklós Horthy’s attempt to extricate from war on October 15, 1944, the Arrow Cross Party assumed power with Nazi support. From October 16, 1944, until March 28, 1945, Ferenc Szálasi was prime minister of Hungary as well as its plenipotentiary head of state, bearing the title “Leader of the Nation.” Paramilitary forces of the Party, known as Party Service (pártszolgálat) and Armed National Service (fegyveres nemzetszolgálat) committed several atrocities and war crimes during their short reign, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, mostly Jews and Roma. Following the war, Szálasi and several other Arrow Cross leaders were sentenced to death and executed. The collection also contains the files of various national socialist parties and splinter groups that existed in Hungary between 1932 and 1945.