Odbočka Ústredne štátnej bezpečnosti pri Policajnom riaditeľstve v Prešove

The State Security Headquarters (Ústredňa štátnej bezpečnosti) was a political police of the Slovakia (1939-1945). It was created in December 1939 as a department of the Slovak Ministry of Interior. The State Security Headquarters was mainly focused on the domestic intelligence and state security matters. These included monitoring of all political matters (Social democrats and Communists, Jews, Ethnic minorities, but also matters of the ruling Hlinka Slovak People´s Party, Deutsche Partei , Hlinka Guard, Hlinka Youth, Freiwillige Schutzschtaffel and Deutsche Jugend), but also censorship of press and defense intelligence. In 1940 the State Security Headquarters created its branch in Prešov. Its official title was: State Security Headquarter´s Branch at the Police Directorate in Prešov (Odbočka Ústredne Štátnej Bezpečnosti pri Policajnom riaditeľstve v Prešove, abbreviation: UŠBO). This branch of the political police was responsible for its operation at the territory of two East-Slovak counties: Šariš-Zemplín County and Tatranská County.

Following the end of the Second World War all documents of the State Security Headquarter´s Branch at the Police Directorate in Prešov were transferred to the buildings of the Ministry of National Security in Prague. The exact date, however, remains unknown. It is known that documents were subsequently put into the boxes and marked "A SO MNB". Since there are gaps in between preserved files, archivists from the State archive in Prešov assumed that some files had been partially shredded. The Study Institute of the Ministry of Interior in Prague transferred all boxes to the Archival Administration of the Ministry of Interior (in Bratislava) in September 1961. From there it was in the same month transferred to the State archive in Košice and subsequently to Prešov. The State archive in Prešov created the catalogue of the fonds in 1997.