Népbíróságok Országos Tanácsa, 1945-1950

People's court (népbíróság) is a term referring to special criminal courts established by the decree of the Interim National Government of Hungary on January 25, 1945. The primary function of people’s courts was to initiate criminal proceedings against the perpetrators of war crimes and the so-called crimes against the people. Their sphere of jurisdiction extended to Hungarian citizens, including the members of the army and law enforcement agencies as well as to foreign citizens captured in or extradited to Hungary. The supreme appellate court of the people’s courts was the Budapest-based National Council of People’s Courts (Népbíróságok Országos Tanácsa). Its presiding judge was the superior authority of all People’s Courts.

In 1949, all the people’s courts were disbanded and the records of open criminal proceedings were allocated to the Budapest Criminal Court (Budapesti Büntetőtörvényszék). In the 1950s, the bulk of the trial materials were taken into the custody of state security organizations, which often re-organized the files. The material was taken to the archives in several phases in the 1970s-1990s. The bulk of the records of the People’s Courts are in the Budapest Municipal Archives.