Háromnyelvű levéltárismertető : The National Archives of Hungary : Das Ungarische Staatsarchiv : Les Archives Nationales de Hongrie

occurred. The distruction and the German field hospital set up in the Archives caused a tragic devastation of the building and the archival material alike; 3100 linear metres of records, about 16 percent of the total material perished. By the turn of 1944 and 1945 the building - opened hardly more than two decades before - laid in ruins and between the ruins burnt and scattered bundles of records were thrown about by the winds. It took nearly two years to improve the situation to such an extent that made possible the receiving of users in a makeshift reading room in late 1946. Slowly, professional activity restarted as well. In 1949 Cyozo Ember (1909-1993) became the new director functioning in this capacity for nearly three decades until his retirement in 1978. During this period, in the days of the defeat of the 1956 revolution, the institution suffered an even greater damage than in 1945. The artillery of the invading soviet forces unexplainably took the building under fire where nearly 9000 linear metres of records perished. Only a decade after World War II the Archives had to be rebuilt from ruins again. Following 1949, the internal structure of the Archives gained In complexity and got specialised, new organisational units were set up. The professional staff grew along with the archival material. Between 1950 and 1970 the size of the material increased from 24701 to 33345 linear metres, and the staff grew from 50 to 129. Thus the Archives soon outgrew its old building and had to obtain new premises. The microfilm and restoration workshops were also enlarged and modernised, accordingly, the 2 million frames of the