Readers need to reserve a terminal in the reading room to access the digital version of this archive Dr Bela Berend was born in Budapest on 12 January 1911, the son of Adolf Presser and Regina Máriás. As a young Rabbi he was regarded as a non-conformist, anti-assimilationist, Zionist who, later with the threat of deportations, advocated emigration as the way to save the Hungarian Jewish population. His role on the Hungarian Jewish Council brought him into contact with elements of the extreme, anti-Semitic Hungarian Right, in particular Zoltán Boznyák, who, paradoxically, shared the same desire to remove Hungary's Jewish population. This association resulted in his becoming one of the most controversial figures in the Hungarian Holocaust. In 1946 he was tried for war crimes by the newly installed communist government, where he faced accusations of collusion with the Gestapo, stealing Jewish property and collaborating with the extreme right. After appeals he was finally exonerated and settled in the United States, where he changed his name to Albert B. Belton. However, despite the court's final ruling he faced numerous accusations and libels over the course of the next few decades. He was also a witness in war crimes trials and referred to in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, 1961. He was an ardent Zionist and defender of the state of Israel.
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Readers need to reserve a terminal in the reading room to access the digital version of this archive This collection contains the personal papers of Dr A.B. Belton, formerly Bela Berend, Rabbi of the Budapest Ghetto, 1944. The papers document, in part, his activities in Hungary during the war; his trial by the Hungarian authorities for war crimes; his involvement with post war libel cases relating to his role as leader of the Jewish Council in Budapest, 1944; his relationship with prominent figures in the United States; his views about Israel and politics in the Middle East. According to a note dated 26 July 1977, the collection comprises a number of separate deposits. This collection of papers contains, in hard copy, a copy of the trial judgement, in Hungarian, and an English summary of the contents, of his trial by the Hungarian government for war crimes, 1947. The remainder of the collection is on microfilm, arranged in no particular order, a description of which follows.
Dr Bela Berend: Trial Judgement and other papers