The Notary Chamber of Pécs between 1938 and 1945

Abstract

The writings of the Notary Chamber of Pécs are important documents of the epoch between 1938 and 1945. In particular, the word-for-word reports of the annual ordinary general meetings reveal the reactions of the highly educated chamber members to the historical and political changes. It is also important for legal historians to study the outlawry in the 2nd half of the Horthy era and to consider the following questions: Which rhetorical methods were used in the chamber accounts? What was the opinion of the royal notaries (”the wards of the constitutional state”) about the violation of equality under the law? Did the outlawry have an impact on the membership in the chamber? If so, how did the royal notaries evaluated these changes? The report of the annual ordinary general meetings began every year with the opening speech of the chamber president, Béla Angyal. Surprisingly Angyal analyzed the political changes instead of professional questions. In 1938 he spoke about the 900th jubilee of the death of King St. István and about the glory of his empire. In 1939 he rejoiced over the annexation of North Hungary (Felvidék) and Subcarpathia, which he called the ”resurrection of Hungary” after the tragical peace treaty in Trianon 1920. In 1940 Angyal considered it necessary to celebrate the 20th jubilee of the governor's reign, who was honored as ”Savior of Hungary sent by God” and achieved the annexation of East Hungary and a part of Transylvania. The general meeting began this year with a common ”prayer”. This so-called Magyar Hiszekegy (”I believe in one God, I believe in one mother country, I believe in the eternal godlike verity, I believe in the resurrection of Hungary”) was not really a prayer, but more like a kitschy and chauvinist quatrain. In 1941 the main topic of the opening speech was the annexation of South Hungary and the chamber president blessed the ”wise governor”. In 1942 Angyal mourned for the son of the governor, the ”young hero of the nation”, who died in plane accident in the eastern front lines. In 1943 Angyal designated Word War II (and unexpressed also the convention of Hungary with the Nazi Germany) ”a fight against communism for Christianity”. In 1944 the Notary Chamber of Pécs did not hold the general meeting, and finally in September 1945 the rhapsody of Angyal broke off. Neither in the opening speeches of the chamber president nor in the chamber reports can we find protest against the harm of the principle of equality before the law. The outlawry, especially the anti-Jewish statutes and orders were no problematic for the members at the general meetings or they simply remained quiet. When the number of the Jewish notaries was limited in the chambers, Angyal suggested the introduction of the notary identity card and in 1945, when he informed the membership that the notary of Mohács, Győző Krausz, did not return from the extermination camp, he did not use the word ”unfortunately”.