Records of the Subprefect of the Administratively Temporarily United Counties of Bars and Hont, 1939-1944

Subprefect (alispán) was the chief of the administration of Hungarian counties between 1870 and 1950. Elected by the municipal committees for a term of 6 years, subprefects were granted independent general administrative rights by Act 42 of 1870. The administrative power and authority of subprefects were modified by Act 21 of 1886, Act 30 of 1929 and Act 22 of 1942. The term of subprefects was extended to ten years in 1929 and they were appointed by the Minister of the Interior from 1942. The main task of the subprefect was the implementation of the decisions of the Municipal Committee and the Small Assembly, as well as of governmental decrees. He was the superior of all offices and administrative bodies in the county, except special offices appointed directly by ministries. The administrative scope of authority of first instance of the subprefect included the matters of social associations, regulating the press, and the office issuing passports. Besides, the subprefect was entitled to overrule the decisions of the chief constables (administrative heads of county districts) and the village clerks. Bars and Hont counties were administrative units of Hungary from the early middle ages until 1918. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the counties were attached to the successor state Czechoslovakia, apart from a few villages in Hont County. According to the First Vienna Award on November 2, 1938, Hungary re-annexed the southern part of the counties, including the town of Léva (Levice) and it was named the Administratively Temporarily United Counties of Bars and Hont (Prime Minister’s Decree no. 9330 of 1938 and Law 34 of 1938). As a result of the Soviet-Hungarian armistice agreement of January 20, 1945, Hungary lost these territories again, and the above mentioned Hont county villages were re-integrated into Nógrád-Hont County and in 1949 into Pest County (Prime Minister’s Decree no. 4330 of 1945 and Decree of the Council of Ministers no. 4343 of 1949).

According to the Article 11 of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 on the exchange of cultural goods, and the subsequent Czechoslovak-Hungarian agreements on the exchange of archival records, the part of the administrative records of the subprefect and Administrative Committee of Bars and Counties pertaining to the municipalities that remained in Hungary after 1945 were handed over to Hungary. These included the records of the Szob district and certain municipalities of the Ipolyság district, namely Bernecebaráti, Helemba, Ipolydamásd, Ipolytölgyes, Kemence, Kóspallag, Letkés, Márianosztra, Nagybörzsöny, Nagymaros, Perőcsény, Szob, Szokolya, Vámosmikola, and Zebegény. The material was taken to the Pest County State Archives in 1950. The fond of the Subprefect’s Office of Bars and Counties was sorted, arranged and divided into thematic groups during the 1950s and 1960s.