Metadata: AIVG archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Social Service
- Holding institution (official language):
- Service Social Juif
- Postal address:
- Avenue Ducpétiaux 68 / Ducpétiauxlaan 68, 1060 Bruxelles (Saint-Gilles)
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 538 81 80
- Web address:
- http://www.servicesocialjuif.be/
- Reference number:
- JSS-SGilles-Fonds AIVG
- Title:
- AIVG archives
- Title (official language):
- Fonds AIVG
- Creator/accumulator:
- Service Social Juif
- Date(s):
- 1945/1970
- Extent:
- ca. 4.5 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- In this fonds we note, among others: statutes of the AIVG, activity reports of the association (1945-1961); minutes of meetings, correspondence, reports, preparatory documents and lists of attendance of the general assemblies (1946-1961); minutes of meetings of the board of administrators (1945-1962); publications, articles and brochures published by the AIVG, documents concerning relations with other institutions (1946-1970); bookkeeping records, financial reports, documents concerning the management and real estate of the association (1947-1961); files concerning the administration of the staff, the organisation of the work of the association, correspondence with staff members, registers related to the payment of wages (1945-1960); files concerning the aid to children and youths, lists of children in the homes of the AIVG, material regarding the Commission de la Jeunesse of the AIVG (1945-1958); documents concerning the Section Recherches et Rapatriement; files related to the aid to families, studies of assistance rates, concerning questions of eligibility (1954-1965); files concerning the aid to refugees and Jewish transit migrants in Belgium, statistics, material concerning the relations with COREF and CIRE (1947-1969); files concerning the aid granted for pensions and compensations, lists related to the spoliation, requests for compensation for looted household goods, requests for the financial contribution (administrative fees) to the legal department, material concerning relations with URO (1954-1971); a survey and study file concerning the elderly in the home in the rue de la Glacière (1959-1961); files concerning relations with the Joint (1948-1962); files regarding relations with the Claims Conference, including descriptions and information about the Jewish schools, B’nai B’rith, COREF, the retirement home, Secours Mutuel Juif, the Home Guy Mansbach, the Foyer Israélite in Brussels, the Cercle Amicale Arbeter Ring, Secours Populaire juif, the holiday camp in Middelkerke; files concerning relations with the Centrale d’œuvres Sociales Juives (1952-1963); files concerning relations with various national and international organisations (1946-1958); etc. The fonds also contains documentation of a varied nature, composed of publications and notes concerning refugees, the Jewish population in Belgium, and other social issues. We also point out an anonymous report on the situation of the Jews in Belgium (dated September 1948) and almost a dozen testimonies of Jews from Belgium regarding the war, collected around 1955.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The organisation Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)(AIVG) was created for the purpose of helping Jewish war victims, notably those who were deported or robbed, and facilitating their social and economic rehabilitation. Its statutes were published in the Moniteur belge in October 1944. This association tried to respond to the distress and urgency of the needs of Shoah survivors. The AIVG was composed of several departments: the Service Recherches et Rapatriement (‘tracing and repatriation service’), the Service Enfance (‘childrens department’), the children’s homes, the legal department, the medical service, the social service, the labour service and the Petite caisse de prêts (‘small loans fund’). The AIVG collected information and cared for the survivors of the camps, both those who lived in Belgium before the war and survivors passing through the country. The organisation provided them with relief in the form of goods and money, housing and job assistance, and loans to purchase equipment and start a professional activity. The AIVG contributed to the reconstruction effort, and to the rehabilitation of the survivors of the camps, including by offering them legal support in their efforts to be compensated for spoliation and to defend their rights to compensation. The organisation was in particular dedicated to helping seniors and children whose families had perished during the Shoah. The AIVG ensured the care for these children by means of a dozen homes, opened since April 1945. The association managed the Home de Linkebeek, the Home d’Auderghem, the Home des Poussins, then the Home des Aiglons, the Home des Hirondelles, the Home de Lasne, the Home de Profondsart, the Home de Miravalle, the Home de Ronquières; by 1955, it only operated the Home de Rhode-Saint-Genèse. At first the AIVG was financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint). This funding decreased and finally ended in 1972, because the successor of the AIVG, the Service Social Juif, had started receiving subsidies from the Belgian state. After having responded to the most urgent needs in the immediate post-war years, the aid provided by the AIVG evolved and adapted to the situation of the Jews in Belgium. It primarily served the needs of the elderly, of the sick and of individuals needing social or psychological assistance. This evolution was reflected in the name change to Service Social Juif, in March 1961. The available services were also adjusted. A Centre Médico-Psychologique was opened in 1962, as well as Club Amitié for seniors. At present, the SSJ is dedicated to providing assistance to Shoah survivors and people in need. The institution includes several services: the Club Amitié for the elderly; the Centre d’Action Sociale Globale, composed of social workers, has developed a homework support program and an advocacy group for the genocide of Tutsis; a café for the Russian-speaking community; and the Centre Médico-Psychologique, that organised psychological consultations, speech therapy, and social services. The SSJ published a monthly magazine called Carrefour. (D. Dratwa, Libération et Reconstruction. La vie juive en Belgique après la Shoah, Catalogue de l’Exposition 18/08/1994, Bruxelles, Musée Juif de Belgique, 1994 ; C. Massange, Les archives de l’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre conservées au Service Social Juif (1944-1960), Bruxelles, Fondation de la Mémoire Contemporaine, 2006 ; C. Massange, Bâtir le lendemain. L’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre et le Service Social Juif de 1944 à nos jours, Bruxelles, Didier Devillez, 2002.)
- Access points: locations:
- Belgium
- Middelkerke
- Paris
- Access, restrictions:
- Consultation requires the authorisation of the president of the Service Social Juif.
- Finding aids:
- C. Massange, Les archives de l’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre conservées au Service Social Juif (1944-1960), Fondation de la Mémoire Contemporaine, Bruxelles, 2006.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
