Metadata: Cabinet of the mayor – Camille Huysmans
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- FelixArchief – City archives of Antwerp
- Holding institution (official language):
- FelixArchief - Stadsarchief Antwerpen
- Postal address:
- Oude Leeuwenrui 29, 2000 Antwerpen
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)3 338 94 11
- Reference number:
- FelixArCity-Antwerp-Kabinet van de burgemeester– Camille Huysmans
- Title:
- Cabinet of the mayor – Camille Huysmans
- Title (official language):
- Kabinet van de burgemeester– Camille Huysmans
- Creator/accumulator:
- Huysmans, Camille
- Date(s):
- 1927/1947
- Extent:
- unknown
- Scope and content:
- In this fonds we firstly note the files concerning the “sanitation of the Jewish quarter” (1932-1940) – see MA # 88580 and MA # 88397. They consist of correspondence, minutes of meetings and notes. In file no. MA # 88593 we find a file related to insults to Adolf Hitler in the satirical play “Adamson by Dolf Kopaf”, performed at the Scala theatre in 1935. It contains i.a. press cuttings, correspondence (i.a. with the German ambassador), a part of the script, entry tickets, etc. Apart from these files, the series of general correspondence and various other files (for example concerning invitations, requests for audiences, subsidies) likely contain relevant material.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Camille Huysmans (1871-1968), originating from a liberal environment in Bilzen (Limburg), was one of the best known socialist politicians of Belgium. His exceptionally long political career spanned more than 60 years. Huysmans was for more than continuous 50 years a member of parliament (1910-1965) i.a. also as president of the Kamer (1936-1939, 1954-1958). He was appointed minister various times (i.a. repeatedly Minister of Education), was appointed Minister of State (1945), was a part of the government in exile in London (1940-1944) and even led his own government (1946-1947). For a long time Huysmans also served as the mayor of Antwerp (1933-1940, 1944-1946). Initially a left wing liberal, he evolved towards socialism. Huysmans played a crucial role, in the first half of the 20th century, within the Socialist (‘Second’) International, i.a. as secretary of the Bureau (1905-1922) and president (1939-1944). He was in many ways an unorthodox politician – see the “mystical marriage” with the Christian democrats in Antwerp or his outspoken pacifism (and participation at the socialist peace conference in Stockholm in 1917) during the First World War. Huysmans was the architect of a large body of social legislation, but is best known for his flamingantism – see his efforts to make Dutch the standard language of Ghent University, for Flemish culture in Brussels, for amnesty for Flemish ‘activists’ after the First World War, to compel the socialist party to accept the compromis des Belges (with Jules Destrée), etc. Huysmans was also a philologist and author of a comprehensive journalistic and mostly literary oeuvre, on i.a. medieval Flemish literature, Reinaert de Vos and Tijl Uilenspiegel, but also of poetry, theatre and toponymy. Relevant for this guide are Huysmans’ lifelong excellent relations with the Jewish community in his city – see for example his efforts to help the victims of the Eastern European pogroms, the refugees from Nazi Germany and the Jewish population in Antwerp, the organisation of the evacuation and return of the Antwerp diamond industry, his support for the Zionist movement and the establishment of the State of Israel, … (D. De Weerdt, “Huysmans, Jan, Jozef, Camille”, in Nouvelle Biographie Nationale, Brussel, Académie Royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 181-189.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Huysmans, Camille
- Finding aids:
- The archive is described in the database of the Felixarchief.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://zoeken.felixarchief.be
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium