Kárpátaljai Kormányzói Biztos Hivatalának iratai (1939-1944)

One of the territories Hungary (re)acquired from Czechoslovakia around the time of the latter's destruction was Carpatho-Ruthenia (known also as Subcarpathian Rus′ or Kárpátalja in Hungarian). The largest part of this territory was not integrated into the Hungarian county system but acquired its own Regent Commissariat. The territory has special significance for the history of the Holocaust in Hungary. In 1941, when Carpatho-Ruthenia became a staging area of the Hungarian army during its attack on the Soviet Union, the region soon became the site of the first mass deportations from Hungary. These deportations were implemented as early as the summer of 1941 and concerned Jews who could not prove their Hungarian citizenship, which many of them actually did possess. The anti-Jewish actions from this territory, initiated by Hungarian authorities, resulted in the mass murder at Kamenets-Podolsk, the first Nazi mass murder with over 10 000 victims. Deportation of the remaining Jews of this region was resumed in the earliest stages of mass deportations from Hungary in the late spring of 1944. The records of the Office of the Regent Commissioner for Carpatho-Ruthenia are especially important for the study of the events of 1941 which constitute the integral first chapter of the Holocaust in Hungary.