Hungary opens secret police files to public search
A database made details about around 60,000 people newly accessible, while incomplete records and names that may not identify informants complicate how the files are read.
Hungary opened communist-era secret police files to public search on 4 November 2026, making names and personal details about around 60,000 people accessible online, according to BBC News. The release fulfills a campaign promise by Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The disclosure affects people named in the records and families who may encounter difficult information about their past.
What Hungary’s released files contain
BBC News reported that the records are available through nyitottaktak.hu. A typical Form 6 card lists a person’s real name, codename, date of birth, address and mother’s name, along with a stated recruitment motive and the name of the handling officer. The cards provide personal and administrative details, but a name in the records does not by itself establish that someone acted as an informant.
BBC News reported that an estimated 150,000 to 160,000 people were recruited as informers in Hungary between December 1944 and February 1990. Recruitment could involve coercion, including threats affecting work, education or access to medicine, or threats to expose private information. Those circumstances are relevant when interpreting what a record says about an individual.
A further group of records, called B-dossiers, is being digitised. BBC News reported that they were scheduled for release on 25 February 2027; POLITICO also reported that more files were expected by 25 February next year. The BBC said the dossiers would provide more detail about recruitment and the value of information people provided.
Why access to Hungary’s secret police files was contested
Efforts to open the files were repeatedly stalled after Hungary’s post-communist transition, Deutsche Welle reported. Earlier rules allowed agencies to block transfers to the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security when they considered disclosure a national security concern. DW said selective access also left files vulnerable to political power struggles, including leaks of compromising information about politicians.
The records are incomplete and may not reliably establish the circumstances behind a name. BBC News reported that many files were incomplete and others had been shredded. Deutsche Welle quoted state security archives director Bendegúz Gergő Cseh cautioning that people should not believe everything the agencies’ files claim. POLITICO reported that some names in the records could belong to people of interest rather than actual informants.
Magyar urged the public to treat the release with “dignity and humanity,” POLITICO reported, because families could encounter difficult information. The government has presented publication as a way to help society confront the trauma of communist rule, while critics warn that incomplete records can be misunderstood and cause anguish.
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Sources and context
- Hungary opens secret police files, 37 years after fall of communismBBC News
- 36 years later: Hungary opens Communist-era secret service filesDeutsche Welle
- Hungary releases secret police files from communist eraPOLITICO Europe
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.