List members may be interested in this which arrived via the Royal Historical Society.

Apologies for any cross-posting.

Sally Horrocks


Sally Horrocks (Dr)
School of Historical Studies
University of Leicester
LE1 7RH
0116 252 5070



***********************************************************************************
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Hungarian archives in danger
> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:50:23 +0000
> From: Christopher Adam <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> To: the Royal Historical Society
> 17 February 2011
>
> As a lecturer in history at Carleton University and having conducted
> research in archives across North America and Europe, I would like to
> let the Royal Historical Society know of a deeply problematic piece of
> legislation currently in the works in Hungary, which would allow for
> the destruction of a significant portion of the country's national
> archival heritage. In December 2010, Hungary's parliamentary secretary
> for justice announced that his government believes that a democratic
> state cannot "preserve the immoral documents of an immoral regime." By
> November 2011, the Government of Hungary plans to introduce
> legislation that will permit the removal and destruction of Hungarian
> communist secret police, interior ministry and state security files
> currently held at the Historical Archives of Hungarian State Security
> in Budapest, and available to researchers, as well as to survivors and
> effected communities.
>
> The new law will allow survivors to remove original and irreplaceable
> files from the archives and do as they wish with them, including
> selling them or destroying them at home. As copies will not be kept of
> these
> original documents, researchers and future generations will no longer
> have access to tens of thousands of files. Additionally, the logistics
> of removing and scattering these documents is deeply flawed,
> considering that most of these files refer to groups of people, rather
> than just individuals, raising the question of who will be able to
> walk away with the original of any single document.
>
> As of this morning, 414 Canadian, American and European academics have
> signed the petition that I launched in an effort to convince the
> Government of Hungary to reconsider its decision which, I strongly
> believe, serves as a very dangerous precedent for all archives and all
> archivists.
>
> I would like to invite members of the Royal Historical Society to sign
> the petition as well, and to also explore the website that I have
> created on this issue:
>
> Website: http://hungarianarchives.com/
>
> Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hungarianarchives/
>
> Please also read my article in Toronto's National Post newspaper on
> this issue:
>
> http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/01/13/christopher-adam-hungary-erases-the-past-and-whitewashes-the-future/
>
>
> I do hope that your members will be able to support this very
> important initiative, as it is crucial for the Government of Hungary
> to see that historians and archivists in both Europe and North America
> and around
> the world are concerned and paying attention to this issue. Should you
> be interested in receiving the Hungarian government's perspective or
> comments, I would suggest that you contact the first secretary of the
> Embassy of the Republic of Hungary in Ottawa, Mr. Tamás Király, who is
> aware of the petition. Mr. Király's e-mail address is: [log in to unmask]
> . I expect to submit a paper copy of this petition to the embassy by
> the end of the month.
Thank you very much for your attention.
> Sincerely,
>
> Christopher Adam
> Lecturer
> Department of History
> Carleton University
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
**********************************************************************************
Sue Carr
Executive Secretary
Royal Historical Society
UCL
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Tel. 020 7387 7532
http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org