General Documentation – Fonds Hidden Children - European Jewish Archives Portal

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Directorate-General War Victims, Archives and Documentation Department

Holding institution (official language):: Direction Générale Victimes de la Guerre, Service Archives et Documentation

Postal address:: Luchtvaartsquare 31 / Square de l’Aviation 31, 1070 Brussel (Anderlecht)

Phone number:: +32 (0)2 528 91 57

Web address:: http://warvictims.fgov.be/

Email:: archidoc@minsoc.fed.be

Reference number:: DirGenWarVic-Brussels-Algemene documentatie – Fonds Ondergedoken Kinderen

Title:: General Documentation – Fonds Hidden Children

Title (official language):: Algemene documentatie – Fonds Ondergedoken Kinderen

Creator/accumulator:: Service Social Juif

Date(s):: 1944/1946

Extent:: 3 boxes (with index cards), 3 registers and 26 notebooks

Scope and content:: This fonds consists of the original registers (notebooks), index cards and card index used by the CDJ during and after the Second World War to manage, identify and trace the group of Jewish children hidden by the organisation with private individuals and in various institutions during the war. Occasionally we find correspondence, i.a. about the restitution of the notebooks (containing the registers). The registers generally mention (depending on the type of notebook) the following information: pseudonym, real name and date of birth of the child, number accorded by the CDJ for its post-war filing system, post-war address of the child, name and address of the institution/person that has hidden the child. See the notebooks titled: “A/ref. orig. IV”, “D. Liste alphabétique … des noms d’emprunt …”, “L VII”, “B1 & B2: Liste numérique des enfants juifs…”, “I 1 – 2”, “F1 et 2”, “C1 et C2”, “E1 & 2”, “M VIII…”, “N VI: présenté sous forme d’un relevé…”, “H 1 – 2…”, “O I et II…”, “Carnet P, ref. orig. IX …”, “Carnet Q ref. orig. X …”, “J 1-2-3: 3 listes alphabétiques … après guerre”, “K: carnet ayant trait … après guerre”, “Carnet R., réf. orig. V”, “G: quelques exemplaires de fiches…” and “Enfants cachés. Comment effectuer une recherche – relevé”. These are resp. the nos. 3744-3763 from the inventory by Nefors. Lastly, the card index (3 boxes in total, Nefors no. 3762) mentions the serial number (referring to the pseudonym), pseudonym and person/institution that has hidden the child.

Archival history:: The fonds was donated by the Service Social Juif, successor of the CDJ, in 1973.

Administrative/biographical history:: The organisation Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)(AIVG) was created for the purpose of helping Jewish war victims, notably those who were deported or robbed, and facilitating their social and economic rehabilitation. Its statutes were published in the Moniteur belge in October 1944. This association tried to respond to the distress and urgency of the needs of Shoah survivors. The AIVG was composed of several departments: the Service Recherches et Rapatriement (‘tracing and repatriation service’), the Service Enfance (‘childrens department’), the children’s homes, the legal department, the medical service, the social service, the labour service and the Petite caisse de prêts (‘small loans fund’). The AIVG collected information and cared for the survivors of the camps, both those who lived in Belgium before the war and survivors passing through the country. The organisation provided them with relief in the form of goods and money, housing and job assistance, and loans to purchase equipment and start a professional activity. The AIVG contributed to the reconstruction effort, and to the rehabilitation of the survivors of the camps, including by offering them legal support in their efforts to be compensated for spoliation and to defend their rights to compensation. The organisation was in particular dedicated to helping seniors and children whose families had perished during the Shoah. The AIVG ensured the care for these children by means of a dozen homes, opened since April 1945. The association managed the Home de Linkebeek, the Home d’Auderghem, the Home des Poussins, then the Home des Aiglons, the Home des Hirondelles, the Home de Lasne, the Home de Profondsart, the Home de Miravalle, the Home de Ronquières; by 1955, it only operated the Home de Rhode-Saint-Genèse. At first the AIVG was financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint). This funding decreased and finally ended in 1972, because the successor of the AIVG, the Service Social Juif, had started receiving subsidies from the Belgian state. After having responded to the most urgent needs in the immediate post-war years, the aid provided by the AIVG evolved and adapted to the situation of the Jews in Belgium. It primarily served the needs of the elderly, of the sick and of individuals needing social or psychological assistance. This evolution was reflected in the name change to Service Social Juif, in March 1961. The available services were also adjusted. A Centre Médico-Psychologique was opened in 1962, as well as Club Amitié for seniors. At present, the SSJ is dedicated to providing assistance to Shoah survivors and people in need. The institution includes several services: the Club Amitié for the elderly; the Centre d’Action Sociale Globale, composed of social workers, has developed a homework support program and an advocacy group for the genocide of Tutsis; a café for the Russian-speaking community; and the Centre Médico-Psychologique, that organised psychological consultations, speech therapy, and social services. The SSJ published a monthly magazine called Carrefour. (D. Dratwa, Libération et Reconstruction. La vie juive en Belgique après la Shoah, Catalogue de l’Exposition 18/08/1994, Bruxelles, Musée Juif de Belgique, 1994 ; C. Massange, Les archives de l’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre conservées au Service Social Juif (1944-1960), Bruxelles, Fondation de la Mémoire Contemporaine, 2006 ; C. Massange, Bâtir le lendemain. L’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre et le Service Social Juif de 1944 à nos jours, Bruxelles, Didier Devillez, 2002.)

Subject terms:: Aid and relief; Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity; Children; Holocaust; Holocaust--Hiding; Holocaust--Survivors; Vital records

Access, restrictions:: In principle, the fonds can only be consulted by the concerned individuals and their descendants. Consultation by researchers and students requires submitting a letter of recommendation from the institution with which they are affiliated, as well as the authorisation of the concerned individual or his/her family. The card indexes and notebooks have been digitised; the originals are no longer available for consultation.

Finding aids:: There is a thematic and geographic card index. There is also a (partially outdated) inventory: P. Nefors, Inventaris van het Archief van de Dienst voor de Oorlogsslachtoffers – Inventaire des Archives du Service des Victimes de la Guerre, Brussel, 1997. The folder “Enfants cachés. Comment effectuer une recherche – relevé” contains a contemporary inventory of the fonds, as well as a report on how to search through the registers and notebooks of the CDJ related to Jewish children hidden during the war.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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