Archives allemandes de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale

G. BEAUJOUAN, A.-M. BOURGOIN, P. CÉZARD, M.-T. CHABORD, E. DUNAN, J.-D. PARISET & C. WILSDORF, C. DOUYÈRE-DEMEULENAERE (ed.), M. CONCHON, La France et la Belgique sous l’occupation allemande 1940-1944. Les fonds allemands conservés au Centre historique des Archives nationales. Inventaire de la sous-série AJ40, Paris, Centre historique des Archives nationales, 2002. This collection, a conglomerate of several archival fonds produced by German institutions (among others, the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich), contains first and foremost archives of the Militärbefehlshaber in Belgien und Nordfrankreich. It was responsible for key aspects of the Shoah in Belgium. The archives in this collection contain several files that explicitly concern the anti-Jewish policies of the occupier – see for instance the files including documents on the inventory of ‘vacant’ Jewish homes in Belgium and northern France (nr. AJ40/37; year 1942); orders and application of anti-Jewish measures (nrs. AJ40/49 – AJ40/52; 1940-1944); programs of conferences on “the introduction of racial science” by Dr. J. De Roeck, and ‘Jewish questions’ (nr. AJ40/57; 1942-1943); Jewish doctors (nr. AJ40/69; 1940-1943); forced labour of Jews (nr. AJ40/104; 1941-1942) etc. Other, more general files may also contain relevant information (reports, statistics, correspondence, orders, …). The economic policy of the occupier (the terrain of the Wirtschaftsabteilung) is especially represented in this fonds, in particular the work of its Gruppe XII, responsible for “enemy and Jewish property” – see nrs. AJ40/137 – AJ40/309. Firstly we note several series containing declarations of “enemy property” (AJ40/137 – AJ40/190), and property of German (AJ40/219 – AJ40/229) and Polish Jews (AJ40/230-246). We also find series of files concerning the administration and liquidation of Belgian ‘Jewish enterprises’ (AJ40/247 – AJ40/309). These files are highly complementary to the archives of the Brüsseler Treuhandgesellschaft kept in the General State Archives in Brussels (cfr. infra). As in the BTG-archives in Brussels, these files are structured according to economic sector. They concern many hundreds of ‘Jewish firms’ and are of great importance for the study of the spoliation and the socio-economic structure of the Jewish communities in Belgium. Lastly, this collection also contains documents of external services of the military administration, in particular archival material produced by the Belgian Feldkommandanturen (FK), Kreiskommandanturen (KK) and Oberfeldkommandanturen (OFK) – in this case FK 520 Antwerp, KK 598 Arlon, OFK 672 Brussels, OFK 681 Hasselt, KK 613 Dinant, OFK 570 Gent, OFK 580 Liège, OFK 520 Mons and KK 691 Verviers. See nrs. AJ40/334 – AJ40/367. Several of these services were active in the identification and liquidation of ‘Jewish real estate’ and ‘Jewish enterprises’ in Belgium, and the fonds contains relevant material on these activities.