Archives of the Belgian bureau for information and documentation INBEL in London

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society

Holding institution (official language):: Centre d’Études et de Documentation Guerre et Sociétés Contemporaines

Postal address:: Luchtvaartsquare 29 / Square de l’Aviation 29, 1070 Bruxelles (Anderlecht)

Phone number:: +32 (0)2 556 92 11

Web address:: http://www.cegesoma.be/

Email:: cegesoma@cegesoma.be

Reference number:: CHRDWConS-Brussels-AA 418, AA 1325

Title:: Archives of the Belgian bureau for information and documentation INBEL in London

Title (official language):: Archives du bureau belge d'information et de Documentation INBEL à Londres

Creator/accumulator:: Belgisch Bureau voor Documentatie en Voorlichting; Office belge d’information et de documentation; Belgian News Agency

Date(s):: 1940/1945

Extent:: 1,362 files

Scope and content:: This fonds contains documentation assembled by INBEL. We mainly note press clippings, excerpts from articles, (partial) transcriptions of radio broadcasts, summaries of legal texts, etc. By means of the decimal classification system established by INBEL and the filing plan made by CEGESOMA (both are included in the inventory mentioned below) documents relevant for this guide can easily be retrieved. See the inventory for more information. We note classifications such as 132 (“political internees”), 220.5 (“resistance to activism, Rexism, antisemitism”), 226.1 (“persecutions – Jews”), 229.5 (“repression – concentration camps – prisons”), 229.6 (“repression – deportations”), 941 (“persecutions of the Jews”), etc. The series of “dossiers particuliers” contains a no. 979 consisting of (sub)files about the persecution of the Jews in occupied Belgium. They mainly contain press clippings, reports with gathered intelligence, partial transcriptions of the broadcasts of i.a. Radio Bruxelles (Sender Brüssel), etc.

Administrative/biographical history:: The plans for setting up a Belgian information office date back to September 1940. Following the arrival of Prime Minister Pierlot and Minister of Foreign Affairs Spaak in London this initiative was put to practice. The Belgisch Bureau voor Documentatie en Voorlichting / Office belge d’information et de documentation (INBEL)(Belgian News Agency) was created as a semi-public institution (parastatale) by legislative order of 5 December 1940; it was under the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later of the Ministry of Justice and Information. The objective of INBEL, in a way the successor to the news agency Belga in Brussels, was to provide the press with information about the Belgian support to the Allied war effort, the situation in occupied Belgium, the activities of Belgians living in unoccupied areas, the Belgian Congo, etc. Its three main missions were carried out by different departments and consisted in providing information, collecting documentation and engaging in propaganda. INBEL used various sources such as foreign press and press agencies, diplomatic channels, correspondents abroad, Allied press services and clandestine newspapers, intelligence received from the occupied territories, press and radio broadcasts controlled by the enemy, etc. News from INBEL was distributed daily in English, French and Dutch through printed press releases and radio broadcasts (via Leopoldstad). The service published different periodicals, including La Belgique Indépendante / Onafhankelijk België distributed from London. INBEL received considerable support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Belgian embassy in London and the British press agencies Reuters and Press Association. The service also cooperated with the State Security and the Second Directorate of the Ministry of National Defence, in order to avoid published information endangering Belgians in occupied regions or elsewhere. INBEL was dissolved in 1948. (H. Masson, Office belge d’information et de documentation (INBEL) Londres 1940-1945, inventaires 10, Brussel, CEGESOMA, 1981.)

Access points: locations:: London

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Holocaust; Holocaust--Concentration camps; Holocaust--Deportation; Jewish self-defence and resistance; Newspaper clippings; Radio and television; World War II

Finding aids:: H. Masson, Office belge d’information et de documentation (INBEL) Londres 1940-1945, inventaires 10, Brussel, CEGESOMA, 1981.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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