SI Merksplas, German section

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: State Archives in Antwerp

Holding institution (official language):: Rijksarchief te Antwerpen

Postal address:: Sanderusstraat 81, 2018 Antwerpen

Phone number:: +32 (0)3 236 73 00

Web address:: http://www.arch.be/index.php?l=nl&m=praktische-info&r=onze-leeszalen&d=antwerpen

Email:: rijksarchief.antwerpen-beveren@arch.be

Reference number:: SAA-Beveren-511-788

Title:: SI Merksplas, German section

Title (official language):: SI Merksplas, Duitse afdeling

Creator/accumulator:: Gevangenissen; Prisons

Date(s):: 1940/1944

Language:: Dutch; Flemish; French; German

Extent:: 28.3 linear metres

Scope and content:: This fonds consists of archival material produced by the ‘German section’ of the prison of Merksplas. We notably find correspondence, orders, various types of lists regarding the prison population, population registers, instructions and regulations, records of the bookkeeping and medical departments, etc. With regard to the political prisoners in this institution we primarily point out the series of individual opsluitingsdossiers (detention files), ordered by date of release. These files cover the years 1941-1944; see the nos. 72-245 (totalling 174 bundles). They often contain documents from the post-war period, for example documents produced in the context of the post-war procedure for the official recognition of the status of ‘political prisoner’.

Administrative/biographical history:: Today, Belgium has 32 prisons – 16 in Flanders, 14 in Wallonia and 2 in Brussels. The Belgian prison system mainly dates back to the French period, when the corporal punishment of the Ancien Régime was abolished and replaced by prison sentences. Traditionally, a distinction is made between the sections reserved for uncondemned individuals (the arresthuis for suspects, justitiehuis for the accused, later also the huis van bewaring for so-called passers-by) and convicts (the strafhuis, with its various sections). The distinction between detained civilians and military personnel (the latter being locked up in the provoosthuis) dates back to the Dutch regime. These five departments, usually centralised in one single penitentiary complex, were collectively called verzekeringshuis in the 19th century, and later gevangenis (‘prison’). In Ghent and Leuven, where also tuchthuizen (created during the Ancien Régime) existed, the prisons were called hulpgevangenissen (‘auxiliary prisons’). The tuchthuizen were renamed ‘central prisons’. Since 1832, the administration of the prison system is one of the main tasks of the Ministry of Justice – in charge of, among others, the establishment and abolition, management, the staff and the infrastructure of the prisons, internment centres, welfare colonies (weldadigheidskolonies), etc. In the 19th century the prison system underwent only minor changes. The evolution from a communal system (in which the prisoners lived in large common rooms) to a cell-based regime led to a thorough reorganisation of the prison infrastructure. Criticism of this narrow concept resulted in the creation, in the course of the 20th century, of open and half-open prisons better suited for the rehabilitation of the inmates. A second important evolution was the ‘discovery’ and isolation of specific categories of prisoners (e.g. women, minors, vagabonds, beggars, mentally ill, recidivists, …). The specialisation of the prison system was a logic consequence of this evolution – as exemplified by the creation of anthropologic services (in the 1920s), psychiatric departments (from 1930), social services (1930s) etc. It should be noted that the organisation of (productive) prison labour is a significant aspect of today’s penitentiary system. Prison archives are of particular interest for genealogical research, social history, historical criminology etc. See for example the rollen of the different departments, various types of registers, and series of individual files (incl. correspondence, reports, often photographs) such as the ‘detention files’ of the prisoners and the anthropological files. In the context of this guide, it is noteworthy to point out that in the late 1930s many foreigners (notably German and Austrian refugees) deemed ‘subversive’ or unwanted were detained in various Belgian penal institutions. (http://justitie.belgium.be/nl/themas_en_dossiers/gevangenissen/belgische_gevangenissen/gevangenissen/; I. Rotthier, De gevangenisgids. Archiefgids betreffende de archieven van de Vlaamse penitentiaire instellingen, Miscellanea Archivistica Studia no. 142, Brussel, ARA-AGR, 2001.)

Access points: locations:: Merksplas

Subject terms:: Jewish self-defence and resistance; Prisoners; World War II

Access, restrictions:: Consultation of documents containing personal information requires the authorisation of the Algemeen Rijksarchivaris or his representative, as well as the signing of a research declaration.

Finding aids:: B. Willems, Inventaris van het archief van de Strafinrichting Merksplas, Duitse afdeling, I 78 (Rijksarchief te Antwerpen), ARA-AGR, 2014. There is a more detailed finding aid for the series of individual detention files.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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