Metadata: General Documentation - Comité de Défense des Juifs (1942?-1944)/Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)/Service Social Juif (1961- …)
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-Algemene documentatie - Comité de Défense des Juifs (1942?-1944)/Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)/Service Social Juif (1961- …)
- Title:
- General Documentation - Comité de Défense des Juifs (1942?-1944)/Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)/Service Social Juif (1961- …)
- Title (official language):
- Algemene documentatie - Comité de Défense des Juifs (1942?-1944)/Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)/Service Social Juif (1961- …)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Service Social Juif
- Date(s):
- 1941/1971
- Language:
- German
- French
- Dutch; Flemish
- Extent:
- 41 binders and 5 folders
- Scope and content:
-
This fonds consists of mixed archival material produced by the CDJ/AIVG/SSJ and the DGOS-DGVG. The folder “Bijoux: documentation A.I.V.G.” (Nefors no. 3743)(1949) contains correspondence (incl. lists of addresses) between the AIVG, the Department for Economic Recovery and the DGOS-DGVG regarding recovered jewellery.
In r.123/tr.60.000 – 175.999 (1941-1962) we find i.a. correspondence of the AIVG with the DGOS-DGVG, translations of letters of the Dienststelle Westen of Rosenberg, lists of Jews who had to work for the Organisation Todt in France, etc. Correspondence between the AIVG and the DGOS-DGVG can also be found in r.123/tr.1 – 59.999 (1945-1950); the correspondence concerns missing or deceased Jews, and the file also contains lists of repatriated or deceased Jews, or Jews who migrated to Palestine.
4 binders (titled “Fonds service de liquidation du CDJ”) contain files concerning the post-war liquidation of the CDJ including i.a. minutes of meetings during the war, post-war correspondence, etc. In files r.497/tr.236.307 and r.707-708 (1968-1971) we find i.a. a (draft of a) study of (CDJ leader) Pinkus “Pierre” Broder about the activity of the CDJ in Charleroi during the war, as well as a report on municipal functionaries who helped the CDJ. R.123/tr.15.705 (4 binders in total) consists of an alphabetical list of individuals deported from Mechelen.
The folder “Rapatriés convois Malines” (Nefors no. 3709) contains lists of liberated and repatriated Jews, deported via the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen (ordered by transport). We also mention the binders bearing the reference r.123/- in which we also note lists from Jews deported from Mechelen (ordered by transport). Under the same reference we find 2 binders with various forms (1945) including questionnaires for repatriated Jews, from the Section Recherches et Rapatriements of the AIVG.
The following references (totalling 23 binders) contain lists created by various Jewish and non-Jewish organisations in Belgium and abroad, concerning deceased, liberated or repatriated Jews in various countries, for the years 1945-1948: r.123/tr.79.561/1 – 44, r.123/tr.79.561/45 – 81, r.123/tr.79.561/82 – 111, r.123/tr.79.561/112 – 140, r.123/tr.79.561/141 – 169, r.123/tr.79.561/170 – 250, r.123/tr.79.561/251 – 301, r.123/tr.79.561/302 – 340, r.123/tr.79.561/341 – 367, r.123/tr.79.561/368 – 376, r.123/tr.79.561/377 – 380, r.123/tr.79.561/381 – 411, r.123/tr.79.561/412 – 459, r.123/tr.79.561/460 – 499, r.123/tr.79.561/500 – 599, r.123/tr.79.561/600 – 655, r.123/tr.79.561/656 – 720, r.123/tr.79.561/720 – 821, r.123/tr.79.561/822 – 861, r.123/tr.79.561/862 – 871, r.123/tr.79.561/872 – 934, r.123/tr.79.561/935 – 956 and r.123/tr.79.561/957, 3781 à 90,20.605.
In R.123/tr.79.561/* (1941-1954) we find i.a. lists of Jews who died in Drancy or elsewhere, expulsion order of the city of Antwerp for Jews who were obligated to settle in Limburg, German statistics about the Sammellager Mechelen, etc. R.123/tr.176.000 – 229.427 (1942-1966) contains i.a. documents regarding the charges of the Oberstaatsanwalt Kiel against Dr. Clauberg (from the Auschwitz and Ravensbrück camps), reports of the Service d’Évacuation et Regroupement concerning repatriated Jews, the brochure 3 – 22 septembre 1943. Extraits de mes souvenirs written by Maurice Kubowitzki, German forms concerning the Möbelaktion, various correspondence, etc.
- 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: persons/families:
- Kubowitzki, Maurice
- Access, restrictions:
- The files can be consulted by the concerned individuals and their descendants. Consultation for the purpose of scientific research 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
