Metadata: Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Emile Vandervelde Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Institut Émile Vandervelde
- Postal address:
- Boulevard de l’Empereur 13 / Keizerlaan 13, 1000 Bruxelles
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 548 32 12
- Web address:
- http://www.iev.be/
- Email:
- bibliotheque@iev.be
- Reference number:
- EVandervIns-Brussels-Fonds Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde
- Title:
- Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde archives
- Title (official language):
- Fonds Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vandervelde, Jeanne-Émile
- Date(s):
- 1929/1940
- Date note:
- ca. 1931-1938
- Extent:
- ca. 10 boxes
- Scope and content:
- This fonds, which has not yet been fully described, contains interesting material related to the refugees from the Third Reich. We note, for example, a file on a scandal related to transporting German Jewish refugees back to the border (1938), consisting of i.a. press cuttings, a report on the refoulements, a note of the Comité d’aide et d’assistance aux Victimes de l’Antisémitisme en Allemagne concerning the accommodation of Jewish refugees in Merksplas, etc. The fonds also contains correspondence with refugees (ca. 1936-1939) and the Sûreté Publique (ca. 1935-1938) related to assistance to refugees and their residence in Belgium. Furthermore we note the invitations, (annotated) minutes of the sessions of the interministerial refugee commission, as well as summaries of the cases of refugees who had to appear before this commission (ca. 1936-1938). Lastly, the archives also contain documentation, periodicals (newspapers, newsletters), and other documents related to anti-Fascism, human rights, the accommodation of refugees in Belgium and Western-Europe, the refugee conference in Evian, etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Jeanne Beeckman (1891-1963) obtained a PhD in hygiene (1921) after studying medicine at the ULB (1908-1914). She started working as a doctor in several hospitals in Brussels (1914-1923), where she met her first husband Dr. J. Thysebaert. Beeckman subsequently worked for the anthropological department of the prison of Forest (1921-1949), the medical service of the department store Le Bon Marché (1930s) and as a lecturer in childcare and hygiene in the provincial schools in Leuven and Jodoigne (until 1946). In 1927 she married socialist politician Émile Vandervelde and started using the name Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde. The couple travelled extensively, i.a. to Palestine (see the book Le pays d’Israël. Un marxiste en Palestine, published in 1929), China, Japan, the Soviet Union and the Belgian Congo. Jeanne-Émile Beeckman’s professional and political activity was defined by her commitment as a socialist and feminist. In 1936 she became the chief of the cabinet of Émile Vandervelde, at that time Minister of Public Health. In 1939 she initially presided the Femmes Prévoyantes Socialistes, and later the Brussels section of the socialist party. During the Occupation she joined the underground socialist party. After the war she was a member of the Brussels city council (1944) and the Senate (1946-1963). She was active in many organisations, i.a. the commission d’assistance publique of Brussels, the commission consultative du travail féminin, the International Federation of Medical Women, the hygiene commission of the Conseil national des femmes belges and the birth control association la Famille Heureuse. Vandervelde was the vice president and secretary general (until 1940) of the Ligue belge des droit de l’homme, and (after the war) vice president of the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme. As a freethinker, she had joined the mixed lodge Le Droit Humain. In the interwar years, Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde was an active anti-Fascist militant: she travelled to Spain with her husband in 1935 (see their report Ce que nous avons vu en Espagne) and was a member of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme. In those years Jeanne-Émile Vandervelde also supported the German and Austrian refugees, i.a. as a member of the interministerial refugee commission, tasked with the procedure of officially recognising political refugees. (C. Jacques, “Beeckman Jeanne, Augusta, Félicienne (1891-1963), épouse Thysebaert puis Vandervelde”, in E. Gubin, C. Jacques, V. Piette & J. Puissant (dir.), Dictionnaire des femmes belges, XIXe et XXe siècles, Brussel, Éditions Racine, 2006, pp. 40-43.)
- Access points: locations:
- Belgium
- Access points: persons/families:
- Vandervelde, Jeanne-Émile
- Access, restrictions:
- The fonds is currently being reordered and cannot be consulted for the time being.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
