Archives of De Antwerpse Morgen

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Amsab – Institute of Social History

Holding institution (official language):: Amsab - Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

Postal address:: Bagattenstraat 174, 9000 Gent

Phone number:: +32 9 224 00 79

Web address:: www.amsab.be

Email:: info@amsab.be

Reference number:: AmsabISH-Ghent-532

Title:: Archives of De Antwerpse Morgen

Title (official language):: Archief van De Antwerpse Morgen

Creator/accumulator:: SM Het Licht

Date(s):: 1962/1991

Extent:: 126 boxes

Scope and content:: In this fonds we find a number of files concerning the Jewish communities in Antwerp. We note documentation (press folders, clippings etc.) but also photographs. File no. 44.466 consists of documentation and photographs (from the years 1979-1988) i.a. regarding the damage and aftermath of the terrorist attack on the synagogue in Van den Nestlei-Oostenstraat on 11 November 1986. In file no. 68.588 we also find documentation and photos related to this attack (1986-1987), as well as material concerning the press conference of the National Israeli Centre for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust (1988), notes of the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium about Jewish schools and photos of the Jewish quarter in Antwerp. Lastly we mention the file no. 38.423, containing press clippings and the text of a speech concerning the Maccabi games (1983).

Administrative/biographical history:: The cooperative Het Licht was founded in 1908 by the Ghent federation of the Belgian Labour Party. Before the creation of SM Het Licht, similar attempts had already been tried – cfr. SM Volksdrukkerij. In addition to the daily Vooruit, SM Het Licht also published the weekly Koekoek, De Radiobode and (with SV Ontwikkeling) ABC. The society expanded after the First World War, but stagnation set in by the end of the inter-bellum period. At the beginning of the Second World War, the editorial staff fled. Already in May 1940, a collaborationist, ‘stolen’ Vooruit appeared. In 1941 Verwalter Gaston De Vos took over management of the society. The first new Vooruit was published in September 1944, a few days after the Liberation. SM Het Licht expanded rapidly in the 1950s, but from the early 1970s the company was once again struggling to make a profit, necessitating the financial intervention of the socialist party on more than one occasion. By 1978 its former legal structure was abandoned; the newspaper De Morgen was created out of the fusion of the social-democratic newspapers Vooruit and Volksgazet (a daily from the Antwerp region). The crisis continued, however, and the company remained in financial difficulties, eventually resulting in the bankruptcy of SM Het Licht in January 1986. The editorial headquarters annex printing offices in Ghent, with the iconic façade designed by Brunfaut, was listed as a monument. (R. de Coninck, Overzichtslijst van het archief van SM Het Licht., AMSAB Werkinstrumenten 8, Gent, AMSAB-ISG, 1997.)

Access points: locations:: Antwerp

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Holocaust; Holocaust--Survivors; Jewish community; Jewish press; Jewish quarters; Newspaper clippings; Photographs; Sports; Sports--Sports clubs; Synagogues

Finding aids:: There is an (unpublished) list.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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