The Collection of Certificates and Diplomas houses more than 10,000 documents from the first half of the 19th century to the present day. The earliest relics are guild certificates and journeymen's travel books. The period before the First World War is represented by, among other things, decorative certificates of civic associations and labour union groups, sickness and burial benefit societies, and decorative diplomas of industrial and agricultural exhibitions. The world of the Horthy era is characterised by documents related to revisionism, certificates of right-wing parties and organisations, Order of Vitéz certificates, and documents of the scout movement. The most tragic period in our history, the Holocaust, is illustrated by ghetto certificates, letters of protection, concentration camp certificates, and labour service records.
The bulk of the collection consists of documents related to the Hungarian workers' movement from the turn of the century to the late 1980s. A large number of memorabilia documenting the everyday life of socialism are also preserved. Memorabilia of the 1956 revolution and documents related to the political transition and its aftermath are continually added.
Documents on important historical figures are also included in the collection, among others Imre Nagy, the Horthy family, József Antall, Károly Grósz, László Rajk, Vince Vörös, among others.
Contact: Ágota Kemenczei, kemenczei.agota@hnm.hu
Diploma of the Faculty of Medicine of the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences to Mrs József Hauser Zsófia Horváth. In 1875, Ágoston Trefort Minister of Religion and Public Education, issued a decree setting out the framework of midwive's education, the duties, rights and obligations of those involved. The midwives were trained separately from medical students.
The Festetics are an old Hungarian noble family, who received their coat of arms from Matthias II at the end of the 16th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Augustus Festetics established a trust from the family estate, thus declaring his property inalienable of the family from then on. The approval of King Franz Joseph was required for its entering into force. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 21 entailed estates in Hungary, covering an area of 2 313 499 cadastral acres.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his premiership, Count István Bethlen (October 8, 1874, Gernyeszeg – October 5, 1946, Moscow) Prime Minister of Hungary between April 14, 1921–August 24, 1931) was awarded an honorary citizenship certificate by the "mayoralty and public" of Kaposvár at the general assembly of May 9, 1931.
László Rajk was Minister of the Interior and later Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Rákosi government. He was arrested on trumped-up charges by Rákosi on May 30, 1949 and sentenced to death in a trial that began on 16 September. Rajk was rehabilitated in July 1955 and publicly reburied in Kerepesi cemetery on October 6, 1956.
After the German occupation, embassies of the neutral states, including Sweden, under the leadership of Raoul Wallenberg, granted protection to tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews. In August 1944, 4500 protection passes were issued.
The Party of Hungarian Communists was founded on November 24, 1918. In September 1944 it adopted the name Hungarian Communist Party. On 25 May 1945 Imre Nagy was elected as member of its Political Committee. From the summer of 1945, he was a member of the National General Council, temporarily acting as head of state, and of the Central Executive Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party.
