Vichy-i követség iratai, 1940-1944

With the defeat of France in 1940 and the signing of the armistice, the so called French State with its capital in Vichy emerged. The Hungarian state appointed an Ambassador to this nominally sovereign entity in unoccupied France. Its Embassy processed hundreds of cases which are part of this collection. Most of these cases concern questions of citizenship and passport-related requests. There are documents concerning visa and travel requests, requests to return to Hungary but also certificates of birth, marriage and change of religion. Other documents concern cases of the arrest, internment, forced labor and deportation mostly of Hungarian Jews. Some documents address questions of provisioning and aid, such as packages and money sent to the interned and the activities of the Red Cross. Last but not least, there are documents concerning Hungarians in the French army and Hungarian Jewish university students who were enrolled at universities of the French State. The collection also has some internal documents that help contextualize these cases such as Hungarian reports on French anti-Jewish measures, on Hungarian passport policy, including the extension of the passports of those abroad, the German-Hungarian agreement on transporting Hungarian Jews back to Hungary from Western Europe from December 1943 as well as a more specific document on the return of Hungarian Jews from France from June 1944.