Metadata: General Documentation – Concentration camps
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-
- Title:
- General Documentation – Concentration camps
- Title (official language):
- Algemene Documentatie – Concentratiekampen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Directie-Generaal Oorlogsslachtoffers; Direction Générale Victimes de la Guerre
- Date(s):
- 1910/1955
- Language:
- German
- Dutch; Flemish
- French
- English
- Polish
- Extent:
- several hundred folders
- Scope and content:
- We firstly note the large collection of documents (originals and microfilm copies) related to mainly German but also French, Dutch, Italian, Belgian and other concentration, extermination and internment camps, and prisons. Material exists for i.a. the camps Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Natzweiler, Dachau, Mittelbau-Dora, Flossenburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Mauthausen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. Buchenwald is the camp for which we find the most documents. The (incomplete) series contain lists of deceased, missing, transferred, repatriated etc. prisoners but also (final) reports on the camps, death certificates, registers (i.a. of serial numbers, of payments to prisoners, of the monthly prison population, the results of medical tests and experiments on prisoners), reports (e.g. medical reports), subject files, fiches of prisoners, reports and questionnaires of interrogations of former prisoners, notes and various other documents dating back to the war years and the immediate post-war period. We often find lists and excerpts from documents related to Belgian prisoners or to prisoners residing in Belgium.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The early predecessor of today’s Directie-Generaal Oorlogsslachtoffers / Direction Générale Victimes de la Guerre (DGVG)(Directorate-General War Victims) was the Belgisch Commissariaat voor de Repatriëring, created in late June 1944 with the aim of repatriating the many Belgian prisoners, forced labourers and refugees. In August 1945 the Commissariat (which was being liquidated) was integrated in the Ministry for War Victims, created in February of the same year. This ministry was charged with immediate assistance to Belgian war victims, but it was also responsible for their pensions, medical treatment etc. A number of new services – including a service for medical and pharmaceutical care and the Nationaal Werk voor Oud-Strijders – were added to the ministry in 1945. In April 1946, the duties and services of the Ministry for War Victims and the Ministry for War Damages were transferred to the newly created Ministry of Reconstruction. The Bestuur der Schade aan Personen (‘administration for damage to individuals’) of this ministry took over the competences related to war victims. The evaluation and granting of the status of ‘political prisoner’ was added to its duties. Its division into three main sections (statuses, pensions for civilian victims of the war, documentation) dates back to 1949. From 1946 until 1952 the Bestuur der Schade aan Personen almost continuously formed part of the Ministry of Reconstruction. Afterwards the Bestuursafdeling voor Oorlogsslachtoffers successively became a part of the Ministry of Public Health (1952-1995) and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Public Health and Environment (1995-2001). Since the division of this last ministry (2002), the Directorate-General War Victims belongs to the Federal Public Service (FPS) Social Security. Today, the DGVG has a dual mission. On the one hand, the execution of the law regarding civilian war victims, notably the granting of the various statuses of national recognition (e.g. political prisoner, hidden Jewish child, defaulter (werkweigeraar), fisherman in wartime) and processing of related pension applications. On the other hand, the DGVG manages its archives and documentation service. This voluminous body of documents is mainly the result of the field work of the Service de recherches en Belgique in the immediate post-war period – in particular the work carried out by its liaison officers and missions abroad. The personnel of the service often collaborated with a number of Jewish organisations, including Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre. (http://warvictims.fgov.be/nl/about/origine.htm; P. Nefors, Inventaris van het Archief van de Dienst voor de Oorlogsslachtoffers – Inventaire des Archives du Service des Victimes de la Guerre, Brussel, 1997.)
- Access points: locations:
- Belgium
- Buchenwald
- Access, restrictions:
- The files can be consulted by the concerned individuals and their descendants. Consultation for research purposes is authorised on the basis of a research declaration. Files related to hidden children can only be consulted on authorisation of the concerned individual. Files relating to medical experiments can not be consulted.
- Finding aids:
- There is a thematic and geographic card index. In addition, for some of the larger camps there are card indexes (ordered by camp, and by name and serial number). There is 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.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
