Katpol
| Honvédelmi Minisztérium Katonapolitikai Osztály | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 1945 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Dissolved | 1 February 1950 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Headquarters | Hadik Barracks, 38 Bartók Béla street, XI. district, Budapest |
| Agency executive |
|
The Katpol, an abbreviation for Katonapolitikai Osztály (Military Political Department in Hungarian), and it was the main security agency of the Ministry of Defence in Hungary from January 1945 until its break-up in 1950.
In the first months of 1945, the Interim Government of Hungary, that time based in Debrecen, started to reorganize the Ministry of Interior, the police and the state security agencies, as part of the democratization of Hungary.
The 40th Department of the Ministry of Defence was formed at the end of February 1945, as a military security agency. Its mission was to search and arrest those who committed military or war crimes, to screen and verify the officers of the former Royal Hungarian Army, to assess the remained military industrial capability of the country, to search the lost military equipments taken by the Germans or the Szálasi Government and to provide a close protection for the Defence Minister.
General János Vörös, Defence Minister of Hungary wrote to Kliment Voroshilov, the chairman of the Allied Control Commission on 12 March 1945: "I ask for your kind permission to organize the Military Offensive and Defensive Political Department inside the Ministry of Defence. (...) Its goal would be the fight against the fascist and reactionist activity inside the army, to hinder the enemy's intelligence activities, and to gather information from the occupied territories."
After the Allied Commission approved the plan, the Military Political Department established its central office with a counterintelligence unit, an intelligence unit, verifying unit (to screening and verifying the returning officers), guard unit, logistical unit and a personnel affairs unit. The department also had offices in every division, military district, at the border checkpoints and in the internment camps for the returning soldiers.
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