David Scheinert archives

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Archives et Musée de la Littérature

Postal address:: Bibliothèque Royale (3è étage), Keizerlaan 4 / Boulevard de l’Empereur 4, 1000 Bruxelles

Scope and content:: In this fonds we firstly note the series of manuscripts – mainly manuscripts and proofs of several of Scheinert’s novels (including Confidences d’un juif hérétique), crime novels, plays, poetry, travel reports and many essays (on literature, on individual authors). In addition the archives also contain a series of research files and essays of various authors on David Scheinert and his oeuvre. We also note poems, translated from Dutch and Hungarian, by Scheinert and his wife as well as works by Scheinert translated by others into i.a. Hungarian, Czech, English, Dutch and German. This fonds contains a number of files with correspondence from David Scheinert and Suzanne Servais-Scheinert. Lastly we also point out the documentation files, mainly consisting of press cuttings. We note articles written by Scheinert himself and reviews of his work; the series also contains a section “coupures de presse Judaica” in which we find articles written by Scheinert on Judaism, Jewish writers, etc.

Archival history:: Donation by Suzanne Scheinert-Servais (in 2005) and acquisitions of the AML.

Administrative/biographical history:: David Scheinert (1916-1996) was a Belgian author. He was born in Czestochowa and arrived in Belgium when he was eight years old. After the Second World War Scheinert created the Revue juive de Belgique (1945), a periodical he co-directed and financed. He was also among the founders and an editor of the progressive cultural magazine Les Aubes (1953). Scheinert is best known for his socially conscious literary oeuvre, in which Judaism was often an important element. He published eight novels (i.a. the acclaimed Le Flamand aux longues oreilles, 1960), a dozen volumes of poetry, novellas, essays on Belgian literature, two plays (including L’Homme qui allait à Götterwald, 1970) and the autobiographical Confidences d’un Juif hérétique (1988). The legacy of the Shoah (in which his brother and father were murdered), Jewish identity, revolt, alienation, criticism of bourgeois morality, etc. were recurrent themes in his work. In addition, Scheinert also translated German, Dutch and Hungarian poetry. He was married to the poet Suzanne Servais. (Y.-W. Delzenne & J. Houyoux (dir.), Le nouveau dictionnaire des belges, Brussel, Le Cri, 1998, vol. 2, p. 212; J.-P. Schreiber, “Scheinert, David”, in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, XIXe-XXe siècles, Brussel, De Boeck, 2002, p. 307.)

Access points: persons/families:: Scheinert, David; Servais-Scheinert, Suzanne

Subject terms:: Correspondence; Literature; Literature--Novels, poetry, and plays; Literature--Writers, poets, and playwrights; Manuscripts; Newspaper clippings

Finding aids:: A summary inventory can be downloaded via the overview of archives on the website of the AML. More detailed descriptions can be found in the online catalogue of the AML – see http://www.aml-cfwb.be/catalogues/general.