Metadata: Political control commission
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Centre for Communist Archives in Belgium
- Holding institution (official language):
- Centre des Archives communistes en Belgique
- Postal address:
- Kazernestraat 33 / Rue de la Caserne 33, 1000 Brussel
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 513 61 99
- Web address:
- www.carcob.eu
- Reference number:
- CComAr-Brussels-CCP
- Title:
- Political control commission
- Title (official language):
- Commission de contrôle politique
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kommunistische Partij van België; Parti communiste de Belgique
- Date(s):
- 1942/1970
- Date note:
- ca. 1944-1970
- Language:
- Dutch; Flemish
- French
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- ca. 5,800 files
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains the series of files produced by the commission of political control of the Belgian communist party (KPB). It includes a series of over 5000 individual files on militants. These usually consist of correspondence, reports and notes on the political attitude and activity of the militants. We find many files regarding known (occasionally former) communists of Jewish descent such as Hertz Jospa (no. 2413), Leopold Flam (no. 5767), Pinkus Broder (no. 0416), Henri Buch (no. 407), Edith Buch (no. 0355), David Susskind (no. 2069) and others. We also point out the “dossiers juifs” (‘Jewish files’; cfr. CCP no. 10). These files contain i.a. press in Yiddish (Unser Wort and Unser Weg, from 1947) with translations by Joseph Szyster, hand written notes, reports, minutes of meetings of Jewish communist militants and of organisations such as Solidarité, as well as various documents concerning: the policy of the KPB with regard to the Jewish population, the Jewish communist resistance, a hold-up in the building of Solidarité Juive (1957), etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Kommunistische Partij van België / Parti communiste de Belgique (Communist Party of Belgium)(KPB) originated in 1921 as a merger (imposed by the Comintern) of Les Amis de l’Exploité (around Joseph Jacquemotte) and a group around War Van Overstraeten. The KPB occupied a modest position in the political landscape before 1940. In 1928 the pro-Trotskyist faction (including Van Overstraeten) was expelled from the party. In the 1930s the KPB steadily grew from two (1925) to nine members of parliament (1936), notably as the result of its role in the miners’ strike of 1932, its anti-fascism, the “Popular Front” policy (1935-1939) and its support for the Spanish Republic. The pre-war KPB directed many secondary and front organisations, such as the International Red Aid. Specific non-Belgian sections (the so-called Main d’Œuvre immigrée, incl. Poles and Italians) existed within the party, as well as sections of Jewish communists. As the Belgian section of the Comintern, its ideology and at times sharply pivoting political line can largely be explained by the foreign policy and interests of Moscow. Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939) for example, the KPB was forced greatly to dilute its anti-fascism. During the Occupation (in particular since the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941) the KPB was heavily involved in the resistance: it de facto controlled the Onafhankelijkheidsfront – Front de l’Indépendance (‘independence front’), the largest resistance organisation. Its resistance activity and the victories of the Soviet Union gave the KPB an enormous prestige immediately after the war. The party uninterruptedly formed part of the Belgian government between 1944 and 1947; it had 23 members of parliament in 1946. Following the outbreak of the Cold War, the KPB became increasingly isolated. Despite a minor resurgence due to its role in the strike against the Eenheidswet (1960-1961), the party has been in decline ever since. In 1964, a Maoist group led by Jacques Grippa split off. The KPB remained a unitary party until 1982, despite earlier regionalisation experiments (cfr. the Vlaamse Kommunistische Partij, 1937-1939) and the existence of Flemish and Walloon sections within its governing bodies. In Wallonia, the Parti Communiste still has some hold in certain municipalities. The Rode Vaan / Le Drapeau Rouge was the periodical of the KPB. It was a weekly in 1921-1944 and in 1958-1992, and appeared daily from 1944 until 1958. (“De Rode Vaan. (1921-1992) (periodiek)”, in ODIS - Database Intermediary Structures Flanders (accessible on http://www.odis.be); R. Hemmerijckx, “De communistische partijen”, 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. 799-808; R. van Doorslaer, Kinderen van het getto: Joodse revolutionairen in België, 1925-1940, Antwerpen, Amsab/Hadewijch, 1995.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Broder, Pierre
- Buch, Edith
- Buch, Henri
- Flam, Leopold
- Jospa, Hertz
- Susskind, David
- Access, restrictions:
- Certain files are closed.
- Finding aids:
- M. Rikir, Catalogue des dossiers C.C.P. Répertoire des dossies personnels constitués par la Commission de côntrole politique du Parti communiste de Belgique pour les fédérations de Wallonie et les militants francophones de la fédération de Bruxelles, Brussel, Éditions du CArCoB, 1999 (for the federations in Wallonia and Brussels). For the files concerning members of the party federations in Flanders there exist (unpublished) lists.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
