Nyilas Külügyminisztérium

A main but failed ambition of the Arrow Cross government of Hungary that acquired power through a German-backed putsch in mid-October 1944 was to gain diplomatic recognition. Even though the Arrow Cross government pursued a pro-German policy in the war, its ambition to acquire international recognition influenced a number of its policy choices and this included the treatment of Hungary's remaining Jewish population. Hungarian Jews were murdered in thousands in Budapest and tens of thousands of them were forced on deadly marched westwards but they who were no longer systematically deported and annihilated at this late stage of the war. The Arrow Cross Foreign Ministry operated first in Budapest and later in Szombathely. It was headed by Gábor Kemény (1910-1946), a politician and publicist who joined the Arrow Cross party in 1939 and was promoted to be its leading foreign policy expert in 1941. He was appointed Foreign Minister in the government of Szálasi and officially held the position until March 27, 1945. Kemény was captured by the Americans and extradited to Hungary where he was executed in 1946. The relatively small collection of the Arrow Cross Foreign Ministry feature materials that are of relevance to understanding the "Jewish policy" of the Szálasi government that led to the continuation of mass murder against Hungarian Jewry now also within the territory of Hungary but also also resulted in the survival of substantial numbers of those who were still alive when the Arrow Cross took power.

The records were only partially organized at the time of the operation of the Ministry and the materials in the collection were even less organized shortly after the end of the war. The collection thus had to be organized at the Hungarian National Archive in accordance with the departments of the Ministry.