Liaison Office of the Hehalutz in Geneva – Archive Nathan Schwalb.

In this fonds we find several files which are of importance to our subject. First of all we note a number of files explicitly referring to Belgium. File 1-30 (“Hehalutz Belgium”) contains correspondence (dated 1940-1946) with members of the movement and includes a report on the situation of the Jews in Belgium during the occupation. In the file titled “Belgium” (file 1-135, dated 1940-1946) we find correspondence with the national leadership of the movement as well as with messengers; this file includes lists of members of Gordonia Maccabi Hatzair (October 1945), copies of letters from members in occupied Poland (June-July 1943) and reviews of the activity of the movement during the Nazi occupation by the leadership of Hashomer Hatzair, Poale Zion, Zeire Zion, Dror and Gordonia Maccabi Hatzair (February 1945). We also mention the undated file 3-15 titled “Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Portugal”. Material on Belgium is also found in the series of files containing correspondence with members in occupied Europe. The following files include correspondence with individuals and organisations in Belgium: file 2-17, 2-19, 2-20 D, 2-25, 2-30, 2-31, 2-32, 2-36, 2-37 and 2-39, covering the period 1941-1944. File 5-40 contains, among others, letters from Brussels, correspondence to the leadership of Gordonia in Brussels and correspondence regarding the split of the youth movements in Belgium (1943-1945). Various other files include materials on the Jews in Belgium during or just after the war: file 1-15 (year 1943; includes lists from Belgium and the Netherlands concerning certificates), 1-79 (1940-1946; telegrams with messengers, institutions and Hehalutz members, i.a. in Belgium), 1-80 (1942-1945; i.a. lists of Belgian citizens in Buchenwald and of Belgian Jews in Nordhausen, the location of the Mittelbau-Dora camp), 2-13A (1940-1944; includes reports on the situation of the Jews and in particular Jewish children in occupied Belgium), 5-92 (1943-1944; requests for searching missing relatives, i.a. from liberated Belgium), 5-164 (testimonies from Hehalutz members dated 1962, including credentials of the Belgian Zionist Organization and the Service Social Juif), 5-61 (“documents of the Hehalutz movement” dated 1929-1962, including material on Belgium) and 6-27 (1947-1948; correspondence with institutions and individuals, i.a. Hehalutz Belgium). File 6-19 contains minutes, texts of speeches and resolutions of the World Jewish Congress conference in Brussels (1966). Lastly, file 3-21A includes photographs of protests against the White Paper in Brussels (1945). Internal database of the Lavon Institute, accessible on-site only. The descriptions are in Hebrew.