USC Rare Books & Manuscripts
Collection 9

HUNGARIAN HISTORY PROJECT

2 Boxes

Scope/Content:

Extended essays by various authors, in English or Hungarian, on the modern political history of Hungary, especially during World War II. The essays were gathered, ca. 1964-65, as part of USC's "Living History" project.

Some examples of studies in the Hungarian History Collection are:

• Gabriel de Baross, a member of Parliament for several decades -- events witnessed by him before and during the War
• Desire de Collas, former Advisor to the minister of Finance -- several short papers of events observed by him in his official position and others related to him by participants.
• A former minister in the Hungarian Reformed Church who prefers to remain anonymous for a few years - the status of that Church and its changes from 1945 to 1956.
• Aurel Krause, a former manager of a 160,000 acre estate in Hungary -- a description of the development and conditions of agriculture between the two World Wars.
• Joseph Lassany, former Inspector-in-Chief of a district of the Statewide Chamber of Agriculture, in charge of quality and increased production -- reform and improvement of agriculture through the Statewide Chamber of Agriculture.
• Jeno Szemak, former President of the Royal Hungarian Curia -- observations and opinions of the constitutional and political situation in Hungary after the War.
• Frank de Balogh, former Secretary to the Royal Hungarian Misister of Finance -- first-hand accounts of the visits of the Hungarian Minister of Finance to Italy, and the Reichsminister for Economic Affairs to Hungary.

History:

After World War II and particularly after the Revolution in Hungary in 1956 there was a great influx of Hungarian refugees to the United States and to California. In 1961, the University of Southern California Library, realizing that this was an important source of knowledge of recent history of that nation, contacted one of the more influential and knowledgeable Hungarians in Los Angeles, Dr. Frank de Balogh, and told him we were concerned about the vast amount of information possessed by many of the refugees who once held official government positions or who were otherwise in a position to know unpublished historical facts.

Dr. de Balogh, former Secretary to the Royal Hungarian Minister of Finance, recognized the value of the idea and contacted several of his friends, and together they drew up a select list of Hungarians in Europe and the US who were able to contribute to the writing of this history. The Library wrote to some and Dr. de Balogh personally wrote and talked to others. The response was gratifying, with enough participation to insure the success the project. Professor Colin Lovello, of the Department of History at the University, represented that department and gave us advice and direction. Dr. de Balogh accepted the task of accurately translating the papers into an English style comparable to the original Hungarian. All papers needed either translating or editing.

The project was under the direction of Dr. Robert Knutson, Special Collections Head and a Ph.D. in history (Columbia University).