Consiliul Naţional pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securităţii

The Archive of The National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) is one of the most important repositories of Holocaust-related records in Romania. The Securitate, the political police of the communist regime, gathered, between 1945-1989, collections of documents from various institutions or extracted original documents from the state archives (especially from The National Archives and The Military Archives) to create an operational archive which it used to get totalitarian control over the Romanian society.

Among the transferred documents one can mention the files of „Siguranța”, the political police in the interwar period and during the Second World War and the Holocaust, referring to Jews, communists and different democratic or fascist movements and parties; personal files and documents about persons – politicians, civilian and uniformed decision-makers and relevant actors from the Government and the state administration, the Army, the Police, the Gendarmerie, the secret services; the documentation of postwar trials against war criminals and perpetrators of the Holocaust etc.

The Securitate’s archive was gradually transferred to CNSAS after the institution was established in 1999.

The main collections of the archive are: The Penal Collection, with files comprising criminal investigations and the subsequent trials conducted during the communist regime, including those organized against war criminals and perpetrators of the Holocaust; The Documentary Collection, with files created by the Securitate to document different aspects of interest, including Jewish communities and organizations, Communist, Fascist and democratic organizations and parties, different political, social and economic events and phenomena; The Informative Collection, with files about people who were surveilled by the Securitate, including those who were involved in antisemitic activities; The Network Collection, with files of people who were recruited by the Securitate.

CNSAS has a large photo collection, with some of the most relevant and well-known photos on the Holocaust in Romania. In most cases, the photographs are spread throughout the files, being glued to paper or rarely being collected in albums.

The archive holds several old film rolls, with footage from the Bucharest Pogrom (January 1941) and the trial of Ion Antonescu (May 1946).

Access is granted to all those who obtain accreditation from the Collegium of CNSAS after an application is sent to cercetare@cnsas.ro. A research topic and an intended form of publication should be specified. The researcher must protect the private life of the people mentioned in documents, according to the national and European legislation.

Catalogue of the Library: http://www.cnsas.ro/documente/arhiva/Biblioteca%20Securitatii.pdf

Digitized documents: The trial of Ion Antonescu: http://www.cnsas.ro/P%20013250.html

Documents about the coup of August 23, 1944, when Ion Antonescu was removed from power: http://www.cnsas.ro/23_aug_1944.html