About the Archive

 
The Digital Archive is a new initiative of the Hungarian Memory of the Twentieth Century (HSZE) collections, organizing and making available online smaller and less known private document collections that are not connected with the Hungarian Public Archive system.
 
The contributors of the HSZE have come upon several interesting collections during their research, the owners of which did not (or not yet) wish to place the documents to the public archives. These documents carry very valuable information, but most researchers are unaware of their existence and could not access them until now.
 
The Digital Archive of the Memory of the Twentieth Century wishes to offer a solution to this problem by sorting through and digitalizing these documents. The owners of these collections usually do not wish to keep their documents secret, but they also do not want to part with them. The Digital Archive pacifies this possible conflict between the owners of the documents and the interested public. After the documents have been sorted and digitalized, a copy of the documents is made available on the website of the Digital Archive of the Memory of the Twentieth Century, while the original copies remain in the care of their owner.
In order to make the documents accessible for those who do not speak Hungarian, the Digital Archive of the Memory of the Twentieth Century shall strive to make English translations of the catalogue of the documents and their annexes.
The Digital Archive of the Memory of the Twentieth Century has been launched on a trial basis. As of now, there is only one part of a collection – the documents of an opposition movement, the Fund Supporting the Poor (SZETA), of the ’70-80’ies, owned by Gabriella Lengyel, Hungarian sociologist – available online. The rest of her collection is going to be uploaded on a regular basis.