The Holocaust Memorial Center houses Hungary’s only public collection dedicated exclusively to preserving personal memories, photographs, artifacts, and documents from the period of the Shoah. The Memorial also conducts, processes, and presents life story interviews.

The collection is based on the material preserved by the Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation, established in 1990, which was transferred to the Memorial Center on Páva Street in 2004. Thanks to donations from private individuals — typically survivors and their descendants — the collection continues to grow to this day.

OPENING HOURS OF THE COLLECTION

Visiting the collection and registering names of victims is possible in person by prior appointment.

To schedule an appointment, please email gyujtemeny@hdke.hu for the collection and nevek@hdke.hu for the names of victims.

OUR COLLECTION

The museum’s collection includes sources related to racial, ethnic, and/or political persecution in Hungary during the period of the Holocaust — before and during World War II — including anti-Jewish laws, decrees, forced labor, ghettos and deportations, as well as sources related to liberation, repatriation, and the rescue of people.

ABOUT THE DONORS

Over the past few years, nearly a thousand individuals have contacted our staff by email, phone, or in person with the intention of donating Holocaust-related documents to the Memorial Center, that they themselves, or a deceased relative or ancestor, had collected and carefully preserved. Our donors are not limited to the Budapest area. We have also received fascinating items from small towns across the country and from abroad.

PROCESSING

We store the items in our collection in a climate-controlled, compact storage facility using acid-free storage materials, in accordance with current storage and conservation requirements. To date, we have filled roughly 200 boxes with more than 800 memoirs and diaries, 5,500 documents, 3,500 photographs, and 1,800 artifacts.