Horváth Rita: A magyarországi zsidók Deportáltakat Gondozó Országos Bizottsága (DEGOB) története - Magyar Zsidó Levéltári Füzetek 1. (1997)
Summary The History of the National Relief Committee for Deportees [NRCD]
taken not according the guidelines, were also collected later by the employees of the NRCD. Among the great international organizations the Sochnut was especially interested in the work of documentation. Consequently, on 29 August 1945 it took over the section of the NRCD which was concerned with the taking of the protocols. Later, on 15 June 1946, the World Jewish Congress took possession from the Sochnut of all the documents associated with the NRCD, including the few thousand protocols. There are now 3662 numbered and about 50 unnumbered protocols in the Hungarian Jewish Archives. Most probably we can state that among the documents which the NRCD prepared the protocols are the most important sources of historical research, since the experiences of the survivors were recorded immediately after their return and they contain a massive amount of diverse information. From this source it is possible, for instance, to reconstruct the routes of deportation, to record the operation of certain concentration camps, to reveal the participation of certain people and organizations in the process of the deportation of the Jews from Hungary, to gain an insight into the lives of the people in different ghettos, to document rescue-operations, etc. Furthermore, the protocols contain crucial information for other branches of sciences. For example, those who constructed the guidelines for conducting the interviews were making an effort to record not only the details of the witnesses’ experiences, but their personal and their community’s psychological reactions. This study, thus, aimed at writing the history of an organization which was one of the most important organizations of Jewish life in Hungary immediately after the Holocaust. This work provides a necessary framework and basis for the research of the protocols themselves, which were created by the NRCD. 59
