Metadata: Documents from Henri Orfinger used in the realisation of the first two parts of the film “A mon père résisant”, supplemented by other documents from Régine Orfinger-Karlin and Pierre Orfinger
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 2080
- Title:
- Documents from Henri Orfinger used in the realisation of the first two parts of the film “A mon père résisant”, supplemented by other documents from Régine Orfinger-Karlin and Pierre Orfinger
- Title (official language):
- Documents en provenance de Henri Orfinger ayant servi à la réalisation des deux premiers volets du film "A mon père résistant", complétés par d'autres provenant de Régine Orfinger-Karlin et Pierre Orfinger
- Creator/accumulator:
- Orfinger-Karlin, Régine; Orfinger, Henri
- Date(s):
- 1924/1994
- Extent:
- 3 boxes
- Scope and content:
- The archival and documentation material in this fonds was produced by different individuals – mainly members of the Orfinger family such as Régine Orfinger-Karlin, Henri and Pierre Orfinger. The documents were among others collected in the framework of the three part documentary A mon père résistant (1995) by Henri Orfinger. We firstly note documents from/about the protagonists of the movie, notably Lucien and Régine Orfinger, Mariette and Emile Altorfer, Jean Guillissen and Ignace Lapiower; we find private correspondence, notes, (auto)biographical texts, various forms and official attestations, identity papers, etc. (See files no. 2-57.) This material covers the period before, during and after the Second World War. In addition we find a number of individual files related to the official recognition of resistance members associated with the Gewapende Partizanen or the Patriottische Milities, organisations of the Onafhankelijkheidsfront. See files nos. 58-80 (covering ca. 1947-1948). The fonds also contains documents made by Orfinger and collected archival documents concerning the Jewish population during the Occupation, in particular about the AJB-VJB (nos. 81-90), the CDJ (nos. 91-99), the Partisans Armés (nos. 100-121), etc. These documents mainly consist of notes, various reports (e.g. of H. Dumonceau de Bergendal, related to conversations with Pierre Beeckmans, the leader of the Landelijke Anti-Joodse Centrale), annotated historical texts on the resistance and the situation of the Jews in occupied Belgium, etc. Sometimes they are copies – see for instance the copy of the war diary of AJB functionary S. Van Den Berg (no. 82). Lastly we mention the documentation material on certain resistance fighters, the Occupation, the resistance, the Jewish population in France and Belgium (i.a. relating to the polemic in the press about the Jewish Gewapende Partizanen, in 1991); we note i.a. excerpts from magazines and scholarly literature, press cuttings, photocopies of clandestine newspapers, etc.
- Archival history:
- The former fonds AA 754 and AA 810, containing archival material produced by Régine Orfinger-Karlin, were integrated in this fonds. These fonds were donated by Régine Orfinger-Karlin (1980s), Henri Orfinger (2007) and Pierre Orfinger (2012).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Régine Karlin (1911-2002) was born in 1911 in Antwerp, the daughter of the diamond trader Gregori Karlin. She studied law at the ULB and became, in 1934, one of the first women admitted to the Bar in Antwerp. She was also an active Freemason. In 1941 Régine Orfinger-Karlin was excluded from the Bar because she was Jewish. She joined the resistance and initially helped evacuating and hiding Jewish children (i.a. within Ezra). In 1942 she joined the Gewapende Partizanen (of the Onafhankelijkheidsfront) in the Antwerp region, a resistance group in which her husband, the engineer Lucien Orfinger, was also active. Régine Orfinger-Karlin worked as a courier for the Onafhankelijkheidsfront. Henri Orfinger was born in 1940; a second son, Pierre, was born in 1943. He would never know his father: Lucien Orfinger was arrested in 1943 and executed in Breendonk (1944). Régine Orfinger-Karlin moved to the Namur region, where she continued her resistance activities. After the war she refused reintegration in the Bar of Antwerp but instead built a flourishing career at the Bar in Brussels. She also worked for the AIVG and acted as a legal expert for the Service Social Juif. In addition she was the co-founder of the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme and the Syndicat des Avocats pour la Démocratie. In the post-war period she was very committed to the cause of anti-racism (i.a. in the MRAX) but especially to women’s rights and feminism – among others on the issue of salary equality and the early abortion movement. (J. Wiener-Henrion, “Régine Karlin-Orfinger”, in Les Cahiers de la Mémoire contemporaine-Bijdragen tot de eigentijdse Herinnering, no. 5, 2003-2004, pp. 187-200.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Orfinger family
- Orfinger-Karlin, Régine
- Orfinger, Henri
- Orfinger, Pierre
- Van Den Berg, S
- Finding aids:
- A. Burgard & F. Maerten, Fonds Famille Orfinger, Brussel, CEGESOMA, 2014 (list AA 2080).
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
