Michel Nejszaten archives

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Institut d’histoire ouvrière, économique et sociale

Scope and content:: In this fonds we firstly note various newsletters, periodicals, brochures, articles, magazines, propaganda material and other documentation from/on socialist and radical left wing organisations (i.a. communist party, Amada), the green movement (ECOLO-VEGA), the refugee- and anti-racism movement, etc. The file D8 titled “Seconde guerre mondiale et les Juifs” contains the following interesting texts (related to the resistance, testimonies, concentration camps, the Second World War etc.): (copies) of the memoirs of Dov Lieberman, “La marche de la mort” by Kamiel Verhaegen, “Témoignage de Radwanski sur la guerre d’Espagne”, “Joseph Berman”, “Mémoires van Abraham Nejszaten” and “Chronique du Groupe Zorro (Armée secrète de Liège Ouest)”.

Administrative/biographical history:: Michel Nejszaten was born in 1946 to a family of communist militants – his parents, grandfather, uncle and aunt were all active within Jewish-communist associations and later the armed resistance. Nejszaten himself first joined the Union des Jeunes Juifs (ca. 1959). While studying at the ULB he became a member of the communist party of Jacques Grippa. After the split within grippism (1967), in which Nejszaten was involved, he became active in i.a. the Université-Usine-Union, the Union des Communistes Marxistes-Léninistes and the Parti Communiste de Belgique (Marxistes-Léninistes). Together with his father Abraham he played a role in the controversy surrounding Maxime Steinberg’s work on the Jewish resistance L’etoile et le fusil. (A. Lapiower, Libres enfants du ghetto, Bruxelles, Points Critiques – Rue des Usines, 1989, pp. 242-243; J.-P. Schreiber, "Nejszaten Josek et Nejszaten Abraham ou Abram Michel", in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2002, p. 258.)

Subject terms:: Communism; Communism--Communist parties and organisations; Communism--Communists; Holocaust; Holocaust--Concentration camps; Holocaust--Rescue and resistance; Jewish political activity; Jewish self-defence and resistance; Refugees; Socialism; Socialism--Socialist parties and organisations; Testimony