Metadata: General Documentation - General
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 - General
- Title (official language):
- Algemene Documentatie - Algemeen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Directie-Generaal Oorlogsslachtoffers; Direction Générale Victimes de la Guerre
- Date(s):
- 1937/1987
- Language:
- German
- Dutch; Flemish
- French
- Extent:
- ca. 19 binders, 14 volumes, 3 folders
- Scope and content:
- In this general description of the larger collection “Algemene Documentatie – Documentation générale” we mention the archival material that, for various reasons, is not included in separate descriptions. R.184/tr.109.359/2 consists of 9 binders (1940-1944) and contains records (fiches) of Belgians (and probably also Jews originating from Poland) who were forced to work for the Organisation Todt and who were insured by the health insurance fund of OT West in Saarbrücken and Saarbrücken-Campagne. R.497/tr.31.259 (1944) contains the register of charges against the Devisenschutzkommando. In r.184/tr.87.542/89 (1940-1944) we find documents from the Belgian embassy in Paris, i.a. a list of Belgian Jews living and France who were arrested on the orders of the occupier as well as correspondence with various Belgian, French and German institutions related to Belgian Jews in France. Various (copies) of material originating from the archives of secretary-general Oscar Plisnier (preserved in the General State Archives) related to i.a. anti-Jewish measures can be found in r.695. We also note registers of Jews hospitalised in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-hospitaal in Mechelen (1940-1944; r.497/tr.151.393) and the Hospice d’Anderlecht (1943-1944; r.497/tr.69.075). R.497/tr.126.714 and r.497/tr.126.611 (1943-1944) contain registers of the Hôpital Israélite de Bruxelles, including a register with death certificates, exit register and registers of the children’s, women’s and men’s sections. In r.123/tr.229.575 (1939-1975), r.497/tr.201.386 (1940-1947) and r.123/tr.234.261 (1940-1944) we note i.a. various German and Belgian documents related to certain Jewish individuals during the war, lists of the DGOS-DGVG about Jews escaped from transports from Mechelen, correspondence of the Service Social juif, material on the diamond trade in Belgium and the Netherlands during the Occupation. R.497/tr.181.910 (1943-1964) consists of 2 folders containing reports and lists of i.a. the municipal administration of Tienen, the DGOS-DGVG and the AIVG concerning Jews who escaped during the attack on the XXth transport and were shot by the Germans. A collection of weekly bulletins (April-December 1945) of Ofipresse can be found in r.123/tr.148.442. R.123/tr.228.568 (1956-1957) contains testimonies of Jews about their war experiences. A copy of Maurice Kubowitzki’s 3 – 22 septembre 1943. Extraits de mes souvenirs is found in r.123/tr.228.880. In r.757/tr.266.689 (1976) we note documents concerning the trial against Ernst Ehlers (head of the ‘Jewish section’ of the Sipo-SD), incl. judicial documents (concerning the indictment), press clippings etc. Documents about the trial (i.a. the verdict of the Landsgericht Kiel and the rejection of the demand for revision by the Bundesgerichtshof) against Kurt Asche is found in r.497/tr.272.323 (1981-1982). We note the publication M[öbel]-Aktion Frankreich, Belgien, Holland und Luxemburg 1940-1944 (1958), edited by the United Restitution Organisation, in r.497/tr.152.609. R.184/tr.83.856 (1951) contains notes of rapporteur Marie-Céline de Dorlodot about individuals, incl. a register of Jews deported through Mechelen or Drancy who had stayed in the hospital of Monowitz. Lastly we mention r.671-693, r.713-720 and r.722-739, containing documents of a varied nature incl. a list of the files “Verwaltung biens juifs” (Verwaltung des Jüdischen Grundbesitzes), at the time in possession of the Ministry of Public Works and Reconstruction, documents about Jews in the resistance, a register of 4630 persons domiciled in Belgium and deported from Drancy to Auschwitz (who disappeared or died there), a list of members of the Comité de Défense des Juifs made by Professor Perelman, a list of rescued Jews and of persons and institutions who hid them, a list of people who helped Dom Bruno Reynders, various relevant press articles and other documents.
- 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: persons/families:
- de Dorlodot, Marie-Céline
- Kubowitzki, Maurice
- Plisnier, Oscar
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic measures
- Health and medical matters
- Health and medical matters--Hospitals
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Concentration camps
- Holocaust--Deportation
- Holocaust--Hiding
- Holocaust--Righteous Among the Nations
- Jewish self-defence and resistance
- Nazism
- Nazism--Nazi parties and organisations
- Plunder
- Post-WWII trials
- Restitution and compensation
- Trade and commerce
- Vital records
- Vital records--Death records
- War crimes
- 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.
- 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.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
