Metadata: Archives of the Diamantcentrale – Diamandcontrole and of the Bedrijfsgroepering Diamant
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Belgium
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archives Générales du Royaume
- Postal address:
- Ruisbroekstraat 2-6 / Rue de Ruysbroeck 2-6, 1000 Brussel
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 513 76 80
- Web address:
- http://www.arch.be/
- Email:
- archives.generales@arch.be
- Reference number:
- NAB-Brussels-510-III.0283
- Title:
- Archives of the Diamantcentrale – Diamandcontrole and of the Bedrijfsgroepering Diamant
- Title (official language):
- Archief van de Diamantcentrale – Diamantcontrole en van de Bedrijfsgroepering Diamant
- Creator/accumulator:
- Diamantcentrale; Centrale du Diamant
- Date(s):
- 1929/1948
- Language:
- French
- Dutch; Flemish
- German
- Extent:
- 26.1 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains archival material produced by, in total, nine archival creators – all of them involved in the diamond industry before, during and shortly after the Second World War. It contains a mass of information on the reorganisation and spoliation of the Belgian (mainly Antwerp) diamond industry during the Occupation. We note i.a. correspondence, lists related to registered members and companies, registers concerning brokers to whom diamonds were entrusted, bookkeeping documents, … The material related to the activities of the Diamantcentrale-Diamantcontrole are by far the most interesting. We especially note over 1300 individual files related to applications and licences for transactions in diamond, and the documents related to buying, selling, processing, giving in custody / depositing etc. of diamonds. The archival material produced by the Vereniging van Belgische Diamantnijveraars en Handelaars and the Syndicaat der Belgische Diamantnijverheid (later forced to merge and form the Belgisch Diamant Verbond (BDV)) contains material expected in the archives of similar professional associations such as correspondence, documents related to the creation of the organisation, membership administration, reports, subject files on activities and so on. For the war years, the archival material formed by the BDV is most relevant – see i.a. important series of correspondence, and pieces related to registered members. From the material produced by the archival creators Bedrijfsraad van de Diamantnijverheid en -handel, Antwerpse Diamantbank NV, Belgian Tool Company S.A., Import- en Exportbedrijf of Maria de Waele, Kriegsverwaltungsrat Tidemann-Ulrich Lemberg (Feldkommandantur 520 Antwerpen) and Commissariaat voor Prijzen en Lonen, mainly a number of bundles of correspondence are to be found in this fonds. Lastly, we point out material from the archives of the Krijgsauditoraat Antwerp, mainly related to the post-war epuratie (purification) after the Second World War.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Diamantcentrale was created – albeit somewhat under pressure from the German occupier – on 30 January 1941 by the company Forminière and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The predecessor of the Diamantcentrale was the Diamant-Kontrollestelle, a special department of the German Oberfeldkommandantur 672 headed by the notorious diamond trader William Frensel. The administrative headquarters of the Diamantcentrale was called Diamantcontrole and located in Antwerp; Forminière was put in charge of its management. The aim of this whole operation was to seize control of the strategically important Belgian diamond sector by reshaping it along corporatist lines. Initial (partially successful) attempts were made to carry out this transition as much as possible with the collaboration of the diamond industry, notably to avoid the evasion of large supplies of diamonds from the occupied country. In a later stage, the ‘safe deposit’ of rough and cut diamonds was made compulsory. From the beginning, the antisemitic policy of the occupier was a factor in the reorientation of the industry. In 1942, the actual ‘dejudaisation’ (‘Aryanization’) of the diamond industry commenced. A total of 1271 ‘Jewish businesses’ were effectively liquidated, in addition to the roughly 700 Jewish diamond traders who had already fled Belgium and whose stocks had been seized. (Studiecommissie betreffende het lot van de bezittingen van de leden van de Joodse gemeenschap van België, geplunderd of achtergelaten tijdens de oorlog 1940-1945, De bezittingen van de slachtoffers van de Jodenvervolging in België: spoliatie, rechtsherstel, bevindingen van de Studiecommissie, Brussel, Diensten van de Eerste Minister, 2001, pp. 95-118.)
- Finding aids:
- K. Devolder, Inventaris van archieven betreffende de Belgische diamantsector tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog waaronder het archief van de Diamantcentrale – Diamantcontrole en van de Bedrijfsgroepering Diamant (1929-1948), I 407, Brussel, ARA-AGR, 2007.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
