Metadata: 1940-1945 archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Study and Documentation Centre of the Grand Orient of Belgium
- Holding institution (official language):
- Centre d'études et de documentation maçonniques du Grand Orient de Belgique
- Postal address:
- Lakensestraat 79 / Rue de Laeken 79, 1000 Brussels
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 217 93 69
- Email:
- cedom@skynet.be
- Reference number:
- GrandOrient-Brussels-Fonds 1940-1945
- Title:
- 1940-1945 archives
- Title (official language):
- Fonds 1940-1945
- Creator/accumulator:
- Grootoosten van België; Grand Orient de Belgique
- Date(s):
- 1934/1995
- Date note:
- ca. 1936-1995
- Extent:
- 5 boxes and 1 bundle
- Scope and content:
- In the (untitled) box no. 1 we find the folder “Notes biographiques FF. – liste des FF. décédés”, consisting of lists of Freemasons who died in the Second World War. They contain summary biographical notes and are divided into categories, including the category “deported Jews”. This box also contains a number of original issues of the antisemitic and anti-Masonic publications Le Rampart (organe officiel de l’Épuration, Ligue anti-maçonnique belge) and its counterpart (in Dutch) Volkswacht – Actie ter vrijwaring van ons volksch en nationaal erfgoed. Verweer tegen Jodendom, Vrijmetselarij en Bolsjewisme. The box labelled “WOII notes biographiques” contains, apart from lists of Freemasons who died during the Second World War, also a file titled “items from the Mercader file” (pièces extractes du dossier Mercader) in which we find ‘intelligence’ gathered by Gestapo spy Luis Mercader. This information often concerns individuals designated as ‘Jews’ by Mercader. The box titled “40-45 tenue mai 1995 préparation” contains correspondence related to a remembrance ceremony regarding (the anniversary of) the liberation of the concentration camps. It includes replies of individual Freemasons to a survey about their war experiences, undertaken in the early 1990s. Occasionally the replies contain autobiographical notes and photos. Lastly, the bundle “résistance 1945” consists of small individual files with biographical information, arranged by Masonic lodge; they concern i.a. individuals from the category “deported Jew” (cfr. the previously mentioned lists).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Grand Orient of Belgium (GOB) was created in 1833 as an umbrella organisation of Freemasonry in Belgium. Most lodges were affiliated with the GOB, apart from a number of dissident lodges in Liège and Ghent, which would join later (in 1854 and 1883 respectively). The GOB is a federation for so-called “Symbolic” Freemasonry only and not of “Scottish” Freemasonry, which has 33 instead of 3 degrees, and which has been governed by the Supreme Council (Suprême Conseil, Opperraad) since 1817. Although many Belgian Freemasons were Catholics, Liberalism became predominant after the episcopal condemnation of Freemasonry (1837). The Belgian lodges played a key role in secular, anticlerical ‘Latin’ Freemasonry. The issue of allowing political discussion within the lodges, as well as the irreligious or more deistic nature of the rituals formed points of conflict. By the end of the 19th century, notably as a result of modifications in suffrage and the advent of new political ideologies, political discussion was increasingly less accepted. The secularisation of the rituals, however, gave rise to major conflicts notably with the United Grand Lodge of England. In 1959 the Grand Lodge of Belgium (Grande Loge de Belgique, Grootloge van België), loyal to the requirements and rituals of the United Grand Lodge of England and recognised by it between 1965-1976, seceded from the GOB. In turn, the Grand Lodge faced a split of ‘regular’ lodges in 1979. The Supreme Council (Opperraad) too was split up in several smaller federations. Since 1989 a “friendship agreement” (vriendschapsconventie) exists between the obediences of the various Symbolic lodges, in which their disagreements are recognised and accepted. Relevant for this guide is the persecution of Freemasonry by the occupier during the Second World War, because of the alleged ties between Judaism, Freemasonry and Bolshevism. To “prove” this link, the archives of the GOB were confiscated; eventually they ended up, like so many other archives, in Moscow. Several German and collaborationist organisations (including REX and the Antimaçonnieke Bond l’Épuration – De Bezem) occupied the premises of the GOB in Lakensestraat in Brussels. (J. Koppen, Passer en davidster. De strijd van de Duitse bezetter en de collaboratie tegen de vermeende samenzwering van vrijmetselaars en joden in België (1940-1944), Brussel, VUBPress, 2000; J. Tyssens, “Vrijmetselarij en vrijzinnige organisaties”, in P. van den Eeckhout & G. Vanthemsche (ed.), Bronnen voor de studie van het hedendaagse België 19e – 21e eeuw. Tweede herziene en uitgebreide uitgave, Brussel, Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis / Commission Royale d’Histoire, 2009, pp. 1149-1164.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Mercader, Luis
- Access, restrictions:
- Researchers are required to contact the MADOC-CEDOM prior to consultation.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
