Metadata: Documents of Edith Buch
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society
- Holding institution (official language):
- Centre d’Études et de Documentation Guerre et Sociétés Contemporaines
- Postal address:
- Luchtvaartsquare 29 / Square de l’Aviation 29, 1070 Bruxelles (Anderlecht)
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 556 92 11
- Web address:
- http://www.cegesoma.be/
- Email:
- cegesoma@cegesoma.be
- Reference number:
- CHRDWConS-Brussels-AA 601/25 and AA 1590
- Title:
- Documents of Edith Buch
- Title (official language):
- Documenten Edith Buch
- Creator/accumulator:
- Buch, Edith
- Date(s):
- 1947/1987
- Language:
- German
- French
- Extent:
- 69 files
- Scope and content:
- In this fonds we mainly find documents concerning the search for, prosecution and trials of war criminals in Belgium and the Federal Republic of Germany, and concerning war crimes perpetrated during the Second World War. We find notes written by Buch (and others), i.a. concerning war criminal Robert Verbelen, correspondence, some leaflets and posters. The fonds mainly contains documentation material: official publications (legal texts, verdicts, etc.), press clippings, press releases, periodicals, etc. originating from various institutions and organisations.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Edith Buch was born in Paris in 1908. Her parents Grigori Buch and Lea Hirschmann originated from czarist Russia. In 1911 the family moved to Paris and in 1912 to Antwerp. After the outbreak of the First World War they moved to England and (in 1915) to Amsterdam. The Buch family lived in Antwerp from 1919 onwards. Edith studied, from 1925 onwards, philosophy and law at the ULB. She obtained a PhD in law and was one of the first female lawyers associated with the Bar in Brussels. Through her brother Henri she became involved in the 1930s in the left wing political world, first with the Comité de Vigilance des Intellectuels Antifascistes and later with i.a. the Comité d’Aide à l’Espagne Républicaine. In 1937 she joined the communist party. During the Occupation Buch was active in the resistance. She went underground in 1941 and joined the Onafhankelijkheidsfront (OF). She worked for the OF and the communist party as a courier and (from 1943) as contributor to the clandestine paper Radio Moscou. After the war Buch took up her function at the Bar. Between 1970-1978 she was a judge at the Arbeidsrechtbank in Brussels. She remained a member of the Belgian communist party (until she was expelled in 1963), was involved in the identification and prosecution of war criminals, the fight against prescription of war crimes and against amnesty, antiracism, etc. From 1965 she worked as a legal advisor for the Mouvement contre le Racisme, l’Antisémitisme et pour la Paix (MRAP); she also took up functions in the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme. Edith Buch died in 2000. (J. Wiener, “Edith Buch”, in Les Cahiers de la Mémoire contemporaine-Bijdragen tot de eigentijdse Herinnering, no. 2, 2000, pp. 41-48.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Buch, Edith
- Access, restrictions:
- Consultation of the files AA 1590/65 to AA 1590/69 requires the authorisation of the CEGESOMA.
- Finding aids:
- Inventaire des Archives d’Edith Buch, Brussel, CEGESOMA and Divers DDR., Brussel, CEGESOMA (list AA 601/25 and list AA 1590). The fonds is also described in the CEGESOMA database.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://pallas.cegesoma.be/pls/opac/plsp.getplsdoc?lan=N&htdoc=general/opac.htm
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
