Hungarian Provincial Police Reports in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XIX

Provincial Police Reports: New Insights into Hungarian Jewish History, 1941-1944

In 1941 the Minister of the Interior ordered every town to prepare a monthly political report, including information on the Jewish community. Analysis of 425 reports from 66 towns, between May 1941 and May 1944, reveals the antisemitic attitudes of police officials and the local population. Reports from the regained territories (especially Transylvania) were more hostile than others. The paper describes the restrictive measures taken against Jews, surveillance by police informers and neighbors, the introduction of forced labor in 1941, the deportation of some 20,000 Jews over the Russian border in August 1941, and the massacre at Novy Sad in January 1942 by the Hungarian army. Also discussed is knowledge of the persecution of Jews among the public in Romania, Croatia, and Slovakia, especially in the last. Minor government officials benefited from the discrimination against the Jews and thus favored their removal at the time of the German occupation.