On 11 April 2002, 62 years after units of the German occupation army in the Netherlands seized the archives of real and imagined enemies of nazism, some of these archives have now been returned to their original owner, the International Institute of Social History. These archives had fallen into the hands of Red Army units after the end of World War II and were taken to Moscow, where they have been kept until recently. For more information, see the previous messages on our site.
The transfer involves the following archives ('Fondy' in Russian terminology):
- Fond 528 IISH (Includes a description of a Marx-Engels exhibition from 1931)
- Fond 529 Sekretariat der Sozialistische Jugend Internationale (Includes correspondence of Erich Ollenhauer)
- Fond 591 Joseph Bloch, editor of the 'Sozialistische Monatshefte' (Includes correspondence with Max Adler, Friedrich Adler, Karl Kautsky, and d'Annunzio)
- Fond 1269 Nationaal Jongeren Verbond (Arnhem)
- Fond 1448 Amsterdamse Vredesraad
- Fond 1518 Studenten- en Jongerenorganisaties
The first three archives were the property of the Institute even before May 1940. The latter three are given to us on loan. The transfer of archives is still not completed, as some archives have yet to be transferred to their original owners.
See also: Russia: Archives and Restitution