Földvári Books

Extremely important document on post-Holocaust transitional justice in Hungary.

Endre Hajdu. (Edited by)

Népbírósági Közlöny. Az Igazságügyminisztérium Hivatalos Lapja. 1945-1946. [Gazette of the People’s Tribunal. Official Journal of the Hungarian Ministry of Justice. 1945-1946] (44 issues. Complete set.)

Budapest: Igazságügyminisztérium Sajtó-Osztálya. 1945-1946. First edition. In contemporary half cloth. Two years, 44 issues in total, bound together in one volume. I. Year 1-7 Issues. November – December 1945. II. Year 1–37 Issues. January – September 1946. Complete set of the journa. Fine condition.

Extremely important document on post-Holocaust transitional justice in Hungary.

The Gazette of the People's Tribunal was a weekly journal in which the Hungarian Ministry of Justice informed the legal profession and the Hungarian public about the cases before the People's Tribunals, which tried crimes committed during the Second World War.

The People's Tribunals were special courts set up in 1945 as part of the post-war policy of retributive justice. The aim of these courts was to bring the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice. The first People's Tribunal began its work in January 1945 - when the war was still raging on the territory of Hungary - and later that year a total of 24 People's Tribunals were established. However, it was not until September 1945, after the People's Tribunals had already been in operation, that the legislation providing the legal framework for the functioning of these courts came into force. The members of the People's Tribunals were delegated by political parties and most of them had no legal qualifications - hence they were called 'people's judges'.

The first issue of the Gazette of the People's Tribunal (8 November 1945) contained an article entitled 'To the Reader', which defined the aims of the journal. According to this article, the journal was to report regularly on the horrific historical events revealed in the courtroom; to inform the general public about the brutal or malicious atrocities committed by officials and civilians; to publish the indictments and judgements in the most important cases; and to provide lawyers and people’s judges with articles on the most important legal questions that arose during the trials. In addition, on the last page of each issue, all the scheduled hearings were listed in order to give everyone who had relevant information or evidence the opportunity to appear in court.

In line with the above-mentioned aims of the journal, it contains a wide variety of cases: from the high-profile cases of Hungarian right-wing politicians (for example, the cases of Prime Ministers László Bárdossy; Béla Imrédy; Ferenc Szálasi or State Secretary László Endre) to the vicious anti-Semitic crime cases of ordinary people. This makes the complete set of the Gazette of the People's Tribunal an exceptionally rich historical record of the heinous crimes committed in Hungary during the Second World War.

This complete set of Gazette of the People’s Tribunal comes from the collection of László Körmendy, who worked as a lawyer in Hungary from 1946.

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Price: €5,000.00