On the Waterfront 1-2

8/7/2019 On the Waterfront 1-2

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I N T E R N A T I O N A A L I N S T I T U U T V O O R S O

C I A L E G E S C H I E D E N I S

I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E O F S O C I A L H I S T O R Y

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o n t h e w a t e r f r o n t 2 0 0 0 / 2 0 0 1

Introductionto semi-annual sessions featuringpresentations of iish acquisitionsand guest speakers. These guestspeakers deliver lectures on their

eld of research, which does notnecessarily concern theiish col-lection. The rst speaker wasGeert Mak and the second Re-nate Fuks-Mansfeld. The presen-tation and lecture are followedby a reception. In addition tothese semi-annual gatherings, all

Friends receive a forty-percentdiscount on iish publications.Friends paying dues of one thou-sand guilders or more are also en-titled to choose Institute publica-tions from a broad selection of-fered at no charge.The board consults the Friendsabout allocation of the dues anddelivers an annual nancial re-port in conjunction with the iish administration.

The iish was founded by mastercollector Nicolaas Posthumus(1880-1960) in the 1930s. For thepast decade, two of the institutesestablished by this history entre-preneur have operated from thesame premises: theneha (Nether-

We contemplated and discussedways to involve people outside theInstitute in the wellbeing of theiish for two years. We also ex-plored alternative sources of fund-ing for activities that are not cov-ered by the regulariish budget.In 2000 the Friends of the iish was established. The circle of Friends, which now comprisesover fty members, has met twice:on 16 June and on 12 December

2000 . At the second meeting, inaddition to the standard presen-tation of acquisitions and the lec-ture by a guest speaker, the boardwas elected. This board met twice:on 23 January and on 11 April2001.This rst Newsletter reports onthese activities. In the future, theFriends of the iish Newsletter willappear twice a year. A Dutch ver-sion in a basic layout is availableon request.

Members of the Friends of theiish pay annual dues of two hun-dred or one thousand guilders orjoin with a lifetime donation of three thousand guilders or more.In return, members are invited

lands Economic History Archive)since 1914 and the InternationalInstitute of Social History (iish ),which is now over sixty- ve yearsold. Both institutes are still col-lecting, although the subsidiaryiish has grown far larger than theparent neha .

Detailed information about theiish appears in: Maria Hunink De papieren van de revolutie. Het

Internationaal Instituut voor So-ciale Geschiedenis 1935 -1947 , Am-sterdam 1986, and in: Jan Lucas-sen Tracing the past. Collections and research in social and economic history; The International Insti-tute of Social History, The Neth-erlands Economic History Archive and related institutions , Amster-dam 1989; in addition, MiesCampfens reviews archives inDe Nederlandse archieven van het In-ternationaal Instituut voor Sociale

Geschiedenis te Amsterdam, Am-sterdam 1989 (1984), and JaapHaag and Atie van der Horst havecompiled the Guide to the Interna-tional Archives and Collections at the iish, Amsterdam, Amsterdam1999.

c o l o p h o n

i n t e r n at i o n a l i n s t i t u t e o f s o c i a l h i s to r y

c r u qu i u s w e g 3 1 1 0 1 9 a t a m s t e rd a m

t e l . + 3 1 2 0 6 6 8 5 8 6 6 f a x + 3 1 2 0 6 6 5 4 1 8 1 w w w. i i s g . n l i n f. g e n @ i i s g . n l

e d i t o r s : j a n l u c a s s e n a n d m i e k e i j z e r m a n s d e s k - e d i t i n g : b a rt h a g e r a at s t r a n s l at i o n :

l e e m i t z m a n p ro d u c t i o n c o o r d i n at i o n : a a d b l o k d e s i g n a n d l a y o u t : i vo s i k k e m a , r u pa r o

p r i n t e d b y : b r o u w e r & w i e l s m a , h e e r e n v e e n ( w i t h s p e c i a l s u p p o r t ) i n f o r m at i o n a b o u tt h e c o l l e c t i o n s : b o u w e h i j m a , f a r i d a i s h a j a , p i e t l o u re n s , c o e n m a r i n u s , r o e l m e i j e r , k e e s

r o d e n b u r g , e m i l e s c h w i d d e r, c o s e e g e r s , e e f v e r m e i j , e l s w a g e n a a r

f r o n t p a g e :

t r u n k s f r o m

t h e w e r t h e i m

a r c h i v e s i n

t h e t e m p o -

r a r y s t o r e -

r o o m .

p h o t o g r a p h

b y a k i k o

t o b u , 1 9 9 9


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STITUUT VOOR SOCIALE GESCHIEDENIS

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L INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL HISTORY

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p r e s e n ta t i o no f t h e a c q u i s i t i o n s

On a summer day in 2000 , therst Friends gathered at Cru-

quiusweg 31 in a somewhat awk-ward effort to nd the right con-stellation. They had been recruit-ed through written invitations,word of mouth and advertisingvia the Internet.Jan Lucassen opened the meet-

ing and explained the plans withMieke IJzermans as the initiatorof the Friends format. In turnsthe two presented representativeselections from recently acquiredcollections in a separate room.Bouwe Hijma from the archivesdepartment and their colleaguesCo Seegers, Piet Lourens, ElsWagneaar, Roel Meijer, Eef Ver-meij, Emile Schwidder and CoenMarinus helped them prepare.In 1999 the iish acquired 155ar-

chive collections; about forty- vepercent of them were new andthe remainder additions to exist-ing collections. About thirty ac-quisitions were registered in the

rst four months of 2000 . Thisprovided a lot of material for thepresentations, which covered thesigni cance of the acquisitionsin varying measures of detail. Inmany cases they also addressedthe manner of acquisition by theiish ; there is a story behind each

archival item. Most material isfrom the past hundred twenty-

ve years from the Netherlandsand the rest of the world. Theitems recently acquired also in-clude library material (unique edi-tions, manuscripts) and audio-vis-ual artefacts ( ags, audio tapes,photographs).

The following is a sample of thematerial presented:

The Institute has managedthe archive of De Centrale formany years. This workers insur-

ance company co-founded theiish and has provided nancialsupport. Recently we received twonew documents found by privateparties: a certi cate of apprecia-tion presented to the daughter of the red pastor G.W. Melchers,De Centrales rst chairman of the board, in honour of the startof construction on the new of cebuilding along the Houtmarkt inThe Hague on 11July 1905; there

is also a letter of appointment(1918) and a letter of dismissal(1924) from those early years. DeCentrale is now part of the sns -Reaal bank and insurance compa-ny.

The neha purchased a uniqueitem for its Special Collections.The second-hand bookseller wasnot exactly sure what the itemwas: the small notebook belongedto Jan Bondt (1766-1845), the per-

sonal banker to the rst DutchKing William I and a specialist incommercial law. His most pres-tigious commission was to adviseHis Majesty the King in reorgan-izing and converting the publicdebt. He used this of ce alma-nac from 1803to register exchang-es and other nancial liabilities.At the back is a wallet contain-ing several notes. All the ones dat-ed are from1821/1822and includewhat was known as a cashiers

receipt. Until around 1840 thesenotes served as paper money, inaddition to the notes from DeNederlandsche Bank.

The library of the neha ,the ehb (Economisch-HistorischeBibliotheek), is world-famous forits collection of old prints, espe-cially on commercial history un-der mercantile capitalism from thesixteenth through the eighteenthcenturies. This collection receivesfrequent additions through do-nations or purchases, such as aFlori recently.

The neha purchased a rst edi-tion of a Flori for more thantwenty-thousand guilders in Lon-don: Ludovico Floris (1579-1647)Trattato del modo di tenere il librodoppio domestico col suo essemplare (Palermo, 1636). This work en-

riched accounting theory in gen-eral by making it applicable fororganizations and in particularby introducing the nancial year.The system enabled regular up-dates at a glance of an organi-zations nancial situation. Themanuscript from 1633 is in thearchive in Palermo but containshardly any of the accounting ap-plications that enrich the book.Only two copies are known be-sides the neha one: one in Edin-

burgh (Institute of Chartered Ac-countants of Scotland, icas ) andone in London (Kress Library).No copy exists in Italy. The sec-ond edition from 1677 is lessrare.

Like the neha , the iish col-lects archives as well as books. Thelibrary has one million volumes.Books are collected in two ways.Each year the Institute purchasesabout three thousand new books

and receives around four hundredmore to review in theInternation-al Review of Social History . Theiish acquires most of its old booksthrough bequests: entire or par-

First Friends meeting:16 June 2000

l e t t e r o f

d i s m i s s a l

d a t e d 2 m a y

1 9 2 4 t o m i s s

w ( i l h e l m i n a )

n o l t e e , w h oh a d w o r k e d

a t d e

c e n t r a l e

a r b e i d e r s -

v e r z e k e r i n g s -

e n d e p o s i t o -

b a n k i n t h e

h a g u e s i n c e

1 9 1 8 .

t h e l e t t e r

b e a r s t h e

s i g n a t u r e o f

n e h e m i a d el i e m e , d e

c e n t r a l e s

f o u n d e r a n d

d i r e c t o r .


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tial libraries left to the Institute.Old books are rarely purchased,and collections acquired are usu-ally from South Asia or the Mid-dle East. In addition, the Institutemakes hundreds or even thou-sands of copies available to thepublic by processing the back-log. In the past the arrival of new collections often exceeded

the processing capacity of the cat-aloguers; now they are successive-ly catching up with the backlog.One of the bequests presentedthat remains to be processed isthe War and Peace collection of former iish staff member Wimvan der Linden comprising abouta thousand volumes. On the shelf next to Memoires by RaymondWesterling (generally regarded asa Dutch war criminal during theIndonesian struggle for independ-ence) now stands a similar work that was lacking and appearedindispensable: Otto Berndt Die

Zahl im Kriege. Statistische Datenaus der neueren Kriegsgeschichte in graphischer Darstellung (Vienna1897). Figures from these types of books are important for the majorcurrent research project about thehistory of risk, security andinsecurity, see Jacques van Gerwenand Marco van LeeuwenZoekennaar zekerheid (Verbond vanVerzekeraars/neha , The Hague/Amsterdam,2000 ; 4 volumes).

The assumption was that allremaining work of FerdinandDomela Nieuwenhuis (1846-1919)was known. Recently, however, acollection of two hundred lettersand postcards from Domela tothe Twente socialist Gerrit Ben-nink (1858-1927) surfaced unex-pectedly. The two met in 1880 through a survey that Domelahad circulated inRecht voor Allen.Benninks response for Twentesmetal and textile workers marked

the start of a correspondence thatlasted several years. A few of theseletters, which were recently en-trusted to the iish , were present-ed. While Domela did not appre-ciate Benninks subsequent elec-tion to the Hengelo city council,

the incident did not place the twoat loggerheads.This acquisition led to an exten-sive search through the iish ar-chives that yielded a small collec-tion of Bennink papers.

For years the iish has hada large collection on Clara Mey-er-Wichmann (1885-1922). Thewealth of material recently addedby her relatives has overshadowedthe original collection. The selec-

tion of documents presented in-cluded an autograph album witha poem from her little brotherErich Wichman (on whom theinstitute also has an archive); abook of sketches, a box of docu-ments and letters to the Leidenphilosopher G.J.P.J. Bolland.

Lau Mazirel (1907-1974) wasa lawyer for cases involving refu-gees, families and aliens. She de-fended caravan dwellers and gyp-

sies. She ercely opposed the cara-van act of 1968, as it concentratedcaravan residents in major region-al camps. The historian Jan Ro-gier (1929-1986) deeply admiredLau Mazirel and found her posi-tion inspiring (see e.g. his work De Geschiedschrijver des Rijks enandere socialisten, Nijmegen 1979).He founded various associationsdedicated to protecting the inter-ests of gypsies and caravan dwell-ers. In 1984 he established the Lau

Mazirel Stichting. This founda-tion entrusted its archive and acollection of books to the iish .The collection comprises booksabout gypsies and other peoplewith nomadic lifestyles in Europe,as well as childrens books aboutgypsies. Around this time the In-stitute also received the special-ized library of Annemarie Cottaar,Wim Willems and Leo Lucassen,who all hold doctorates in the his-tory of these groups. Overnight,the iish collection on this eldhas become the best in the Neth-erlands.

t i t l e p a g e o f

d i e z a h l i m

k r i e g e [ t h e

n u m b e r i n

wa r. s tat i s -

t i c a l d at a

f ro m t h e

c o n t e m p o -r a r y h i s to ry

o f w a r i n

g r a ph i c s ] b y

o t to b e r n d t.


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Minorities are becomingincreasingly substantial in theiish collections. Aside from the ac-quisition of material on caravandwellers and gypsies, the Insti-tute already had archives fromthe Stichting Peregrinus and theWerkgroep Buitenlandse Arbei-

ders Leiden [Leiden researchgroup on foreign workers]. Theiish also has the worlds largestcollection of periodicals issued by Turkish guest workers and mi-grants.The Centrum voor de Geschie-denis van Migranten [Centre formigrant history] (the cgm , co-founded by the iish ) and especial-ly Annemarie Cottaar recently ar-ranged for the arrival at theiish of the De Poort archive, includ-

ing a great many photographs.De Poort, a foundation in TheHague, originally provided ac-commodations for young Catho-lics moving from the countrysideto the city but became increasingly involved in accommodations forguest workers: rst for Italians,Spaniards and Arubans and later forTurks and Moroccans. A few itemswere presented from this archive.

The Staatsarchief (named af-ter Amsterdams Staatslieden quar-ter) of the squatters movementwas entrusted to the iish on 1May 2000 . It complements the id -ar-

chive previously acquired aboutnon-conformist lifestyles in Ger-many and the csd collection gath-ered by Tjebbe van Tijen. Thepresentation included a gas mask and other material sure to dis-please the established order.

Josephus Carel Franciscus(Jef) Last (1898-1972) had archivematerial at the iish from the out-set. Additional material arrived in1990, as well as a new supplementvery recently containing interest-ing letters and diary excerpts fromthe third trip that Last (a memberof the cph at the time) made in1936 to the Soviet Union togetherwith Andr Gide. In a letter to hiswife dated 2 July 1936 from Len-ingrad, he cautiously equated Sta-

lins Russia with Hitlers Ger-many; the description foreshad-owed the subsequent HistorikerStreit. His diary is also relevantto a major research project thatthe iish is presently conducting inRussia on the history of work in-centives.

When the Berlin Wall fell,the iish was nally able to startworking with Russian counter-parts. Since the mid 1990s, theInstitute has had a branch inMoscow, where Irina Novicenkoworks. We became better ac-

quainted with Russian historiansfrom the former iml (the institutefor research on Marxism-Lenin-ism). Eric Fischer and Jaap Kloos-terman encouraged some to writetheir memoirs, especially to learnmore about occupational practice

under such dif cult conditions.Two of them (Nikita Kolpinskiand Volodja Mosolov) have doneso. They have also helped theiish publish Bakunins complete works(on cd-rom ) and have startedwriting the history of their formeriml . Mosolovs autobiographicaltext was in the display case.

Documents and photographsof the fedip (Federacin Espao-la de Deportados e Internados

Polticos) relate a bizarre history.At the end of the Spanish CivilWar, a hundred Spaniards, pilotsin training and the crew from amunitions carrier were strandedin the Soviet Union. They weretaken prisoner in June 1941. Thenext year they were locked up-and assigned to forced labour ata camp near Karaganda in Ka-zakhstan. Only after the war didtheir whereabouts become knownin the West, following the release

of the Austrian Jewish women

l e t t e r d a t e d 3 f e b ru a ry 1 9 0 0 f r o m f e r d i n a n d d o m e l a n i e u -

w e n h u i s t o t h e h e n g e l o l a b o u r s p o k e s m a n g e r r i t b e n n i n k ,

w h o m h e b e f r i e n d e d . b e n n i n k h a d r e c e n t ly b e e n e l e c t e d t o

t h e h e n g e l o c i t y c o u n c i l . d o m e l a d i d n ot c o n g r a t u l at e b e n -

n i n k , b e c au s e h e d i d n ot b e l i e v e i n p a r l i a m e n t a ry p ro c e -

d u r e . h e f e l t t h a t i f b e n n i n k w e re t ru l y d e t e r m i n e d t om a k e a d i f f e re n c e , h e w o u l d a b a n d o n t h e c i t y c o u n c i l w i t h -

i n t h re e m o n t h s . b e n n i n k s e rv e d o n t h e c o u n c i l f o r o v e r

t w o d e c a d e s .

pa g e f ro m

t h e

a u to g r a ph

a l b u m o f t h e

y o u n g c l a r a

w i c h m a n n ,w h o l a t e r

b e c a m e t h e

r e n ow n e d

s c h o l a r o f

l aw a n d f e m -

i n i s t c l a r a

g . m e y e r -

w i c h m a n n ,

e s q .

( 1 8 8 5 - 1 9 2 2 ) .

t h i s t e x t

w a s w r i t t e n

i n 1 8 9 7 b y h e r l i t t l e

b ro t h e r

e r i c h

w i c h m a n

( 1 8 9 0 - 1 9 2 9 ) ,

w h o b e c a m e

a n a rt i s t

a n d

a n a rc h i s t

a n d c o n t r i b -

u t e d t o

f a s c i s t j o u r -

n a l s .


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Russia and China, until its bru-tal repression in 1965. He wentunderground and tried to con-tinue the party illegally at Blitarin South Java. His group of about twenty party executivesof the prohibited pki and sobsi

(the af liated trade union) hidout for a while in the remotelimestone caves. Eventually they were caught. Lestaryo managedto evade his persecutors for awhile but was arrested in Jakar-ta in 1969; his wife had already been imprisoned and was sen-tenced to 15years in1978. In 1976 he was condemned to death.The sentence was carried out in1985.The correspondence presented

was from the last year of his life,when Jeanne van Ammers fromAmnesty Internationals Midden-Betuwe group contacted him.From May 1984 through June1985 (a month before his execu-tion) he sent hand-written lettersin Dutch in which he shared

A few years ago his son Basilwas killed and became a martyr;Hafez has been succeeded by hisson Bashar, while Bashars uncle isbiding his time on Marbella

For several years the Insti-

tute has managed the collection of documents on the social history of Burma (Myanmar since1989),which is ruled by a military dicta-torship. Eef Vermeij brought vebanners from the celebration of the ftieth anniversary of KarenRevolution Day at a camp on theBurmese bank of the Moei Riveralong the Thai border. A ag dis-played as well.

From Indonesia the Institute

received the correspondence be-tween Gatot Lestaryo (1925-1985;also called Sutarjo or Taryo) andJeanne van Ammers. As a history teacher, Lestaryo was an activemember of the Communist Par-ty (pki ) on East Java, the largestcommunist movement outside

they became involved with in thecamp in 1946. In Paris the fedip was established to negotiate theirrelease and completed its missionin 1956.

The Syrian material submit-ted was featured in a single, gen-eral presentation. About ten iish

staff members specialized in theeld are dedicated mainly to gath-ering collections. Devoted outsideparties often manage to bring in

ne material at very reasonableprices. Erik Jan Zrcher at LeidenUniversity collects Turkish itemsand Turaj Atabaki of UtrechtUniversity Iranian and Caucasianones; Stefan Landsberger of Lei-den University provides Chineseposters, and Roel Meijer at theUniversity of Nijmegen retrieves

Arabic archives.The presentation comprised

the propaganda material that RoelMeijer and his students had gath-ered in Syria that spring from andabout the incumbent Asad family:the late father Asad and his twosons (also known to the popula-tion as the Holy Triad). Glori ca-tion of personalities isde rigueur in Damascus and depicting hu-man beings common practice.The texts broadcast the visualmessage: Asad as the supremewarrior for the fatherland or thegreatest scholar of the country.

o n e o f t h e

c h i l d re n sb o o k s f r o m

t h e g y p s y

c o l l e c t i o n

o f t h e l au

m a z i r e l

s t i c h t i n g

t h e m u c h -

l o v e d m a r i s -

k a d e

c i r c u s p r i n s -

e s , b y s a n -

d o r k i s

( p s e u d o n y mo f l . g . w e l d -

e r i n g )

i n 1 9 9 8 t h e i i s h a c q u i r e d t h e a r c h i v e o f

t h e f e d e r ac i n e s pa o l a d e d e p o rt a d o s e

i n t e r n a d o s p o l t i c o s ( f e d i p ) , w h i c h w o r k e d

f ro m f r a n c e t o h e l p t h e s p a n i a r d s w h o w e re

s t r a n d e d i n t h e s o v i e t u n i o n a t t h e e n d o f

t h e s pa n i s h c i v i l w a r a n d i m p r i s o n e d b y s ta -

l i n . t h i s p h ot o g r a p h ta k e n i n m o s c o w s h o w s

a g ro u p o f s pa n i s h p i l o t s b e f o r e t h e y d i s a p -p e a re d i n c a m p s i n k a r a g a n d a , k a z a k h s ta n ,

f o r a b o u t 1 5 y e a r s .


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soon switched to journalism: from1975 to 1985 he was an editorfor De Groene Amsterdammer andhas worked as a journalist forNRC-Handelsblad and vpro radiosince1985. Mak co-founded Atlas ,a journal for literary non- ction,and published books about ad-ministration and politics and thecity of Amsterdam:De engel vanAmsterdamand Een kleine ge-schiedenis van Amsterdam. Mak also wrote several travel reports,including ones about the UnitedStates, Southeast Asia and EasternEurope.In 1996 he published Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd , set in a vil-lage and illustrating the changesthat affected all aspects of life inthe Netherlands between1945and1995. In 1997 he published Het Stadspaleis about the Dam SquarePalace, followed by the nationalbook week essay Het ontsnapte land in 1998. In 1999 De eeuw vanmijn vader appeared. In this book Mak deals with the mentality and

self-image of the Netherlands inthe twentieth century, related inthe context of his familys histo-ry. His familys residence in theDutch East Indies expands thebooks signi cance considerably beyond Dutch history.In June 2000 Geert Mak was ap-pointed to a ve-year term as theWibaut Professor of large-city is-sues focused on Amsterdam.

In his lecture Geert Mak reviewedhis preparations for and perspec-tive on De eeuw van mijn vader . Itwas mostly about his experiencesin that context: about his rathersurprising discoveries in archives(according to the newspapers inVienna, nobody had the faintestidea that World War I was aboutto break out); about the varyingreliability of peoples memories(his brothers and sisters all haddifferent experiences and recol-lections of the same facts); aboutchanges in peoples views (hismother had typically colonial

his worries about his wife andtwo children (whom he had re-nounced immediately after his ar-rest). His mental faculties wereunaffected, however, and he con-tinued to act as the spokespersonfor the Blitar group.

The presentation of selected new acquisitions was followed by a lec-ture by Geert Mak, who has un-doubtedly de ned social history in

the Netherlands, and whose bookssell tens of thousands of copies.

l e c t u r e b y g e e r t m a k

Geert Mak (b. 1946) was bornin Vlaardingen as the son of apreacher for the Dutch ReformedChurch in Friesland. He readconstitutional law and sociology of law at the University of Am-sterdam, after which he brie y taught constitutional and alienslaw at Utrecht University. He

t h e r e v e r s e

o f t h i s

g ro u p p h o -

t o g r a ph

f ro m t h e d e

p o o rt a r -

c h i v e r e a d s

f r o m a l l

c o r n e r s o f

t h e e a rt h .

t h e p i c t u re

wa s t a k e n

d u r i n g a ne xc u r s i o n t o

v o l e n d a m o n

6 m ay 1 9 7 0 .


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was more widely known as amember of the Lower House(1913-1939), the sdap party leader(1925-1939) who succeeded Troel-stra and the rst socialist in thegovernment (1939-1945, Ministerof Public Works and Water Man-agement). From 1945 to 1952 heserved on the Council of State.

In the autumn of 2000 theStichting Beheeriish issued Eensterke geest van vrijheid. Brievenvan de student J.W. Albarda aan

G. Nolet-Adama en F.M. Wibaut ,edited and with an introductionby Inge de Wilde. Following thepublication of this booklet, Al-bardas descendants presented theiish with his letters to Mrs. Nolet-Adama, along with several otherpersonal and general documents.The sixteen letters (April1899 December 1900) from Albarda tohis former neighbour in Leeu-warden convey the socialist sym-pathies among students in Delft

around 1900 and Albardas grow-ing political awareness that led

views before the war and aban-doned most of them after her warexperiences); about the doubts of a preacher (his father in this case)and about adjusting to the socialsurroundings (the entire Mak fam-ily after the repatriation). All

these experiences culminated ina personal, sociological-historicalsketch of the twentieth century.Maks explanation of his approachto social history, which has a very broad appeal, gave rise to a lively debate following his lecture.

f i r s tb u s i n e s s m e e t i n g

After the presentation and the lec-ture, ve Friends, seven prospec-

tive members and seveniish staff gathered to continue forming theBoard and the Circle of Friends.After working with those present,Chairman Jan Lucassen sharedthe following announcements andconclusions:Forty-four out of over two hun-dred individuals contacted hadagreed to join, while30 had actu-ally paid. By 15June the balanceexceeded eight thousand guilders.The total revenue estimated for

1999-2000 was therefore eleventhousand guilders. Internationalrecruitment was to become moresystematic, and more campaignswould be launched within theNetherlands as well. Each new Friend received a copy of the new guide to the international archivesat the iish . Those present alsodiscussed the importance of thequality of future presentations andlectures in attracting and cultivat-ing loyalty among new Friends.

A more elaborate structure wassuggested: the Friends of theiish would operate as part of theStichting Beheer iisg and wouldtherefore not need to establish aseparate foundation; the Friendswould form a council of donorsfrom which a board would beelected; this board would consultthe administration of the iish andthe board of the Stichting Beheer.They also decided not to hoardthe revenues as initially intendedbut to identify causes for allocat-ing portions of the funds savedfrom the outset.

p r e s e n t a t i o n o ft h e a c q u i s i t i o n s

Between January and November2000 the iish and the neha re-ceived136collections. Slightly overhalf were additions to existing col-lections, which meant that new collections account for just underhalf. They ranged from a few sheets of paper to about sixty me-tres of shelf space from theabva/

kabo . Amnesty International sup-plied about 93 additional lms. Atthe second Friends meeting MiekeIJzermans and Jan Lucassen pre-sented a selection from the acqui-sitions. Once again, Bouwe Hijma,as well as Co Seegers, Piet Lou-rens, Els Wagenaar, Kees Roden-burg, Eef Vermeij, Emile Schwid-der, Roel Meijer and Farida Ishajahelped with the preparations.

An addition to the archive

of Johan Willem Albarda (1877-1957), a mechanical engineer who

t wo b ro o c h -

e s f r o m

s y r i a l e f t:

b a s h a r, a s a d

a n d h i s s o n

b a s i l , w h o

w a s k i l l e d

i n a n a c -

c i d e n t, a n d

r i g h t : a s a d s

s o n b a s h a r,w h o s u c -

c e e d e d h i m .

Second Friends meeting:12December 2000


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him to join the sdap . The lettersalso re ect the history of theDelftsch Studenten Corps andthe Polytechnische School, whichpreceded the Delft University of Technology.

The Institute also received themodest but vivid archive of thepoet Jan W. Jacobs, known with-in the ajc for his declamatory choirs. The documents concernthe Socialistische Kunstenaar-skring [Socialist Circle of Artists](skk ) from the 1930s. The Circleaimed to convene the artists whosubscribed to the socialist ideal.Painters, sculptors, architects andbelle-lettrists discussed a militantsocialist art featuring an innova-

tive design that would appeal tothe working class. Theskk was ex-plicitly an Amsterdam affair.

The one-and-a-half metre ar-chive gathered between1942 and2000 by Sania Gontarbert (Odes-sa 1916 Paris 2000 ).

This ma-

terial was acquired somewhat co-incidentally by his daughter, who

acquaintance from the Institute,the Vietnamese NGo Van fromParis, who wrote a Trotskyist his-tory of Vietnam.

Sania Gontarbert emigrated toFrance with his parents in 1925 and became acquainted with so-cialists, libertarians and Trotsky-

ists in the mid 1930s. Followinghis demobilization at the start of the war he joined the Trotskyistunderground resistance in Tou-louse. This was the start of his life-long adherence to the ideology.

The archive, shipped in a few large moving crates, initially ap-peared to contain few new items:several Trotskyist periodicals al-ready present at the Institute anda wealth of newspaper clippings.Closer examination revealed sev-

eral manuscripts and especially illegal Trotskyist periodicals fromthe war. A few of these periodi-cals were presented: two issues of Fraternisation Proltarienne fromFebruary and March 1943. The

was determined to get it out of France and to Amsterdam. KeesRodenburg got in touch with herthrough a longstanding mutual

l e t t e r d a t e d 4 a p r i l 1 9 2 8

f ro m t h e m u s i c i a n p a u l f .

s a n d e r s t o j a n w . j ac o b s ,

f o l l o w i n g h i s r e s i g n at i o n

f r o m t h e s o c i a l i s t i s c h e k u n -

s t e n a a r s k r i n g . j a c o b s l a t e r

c h a n g e d h i s m i n d . t h e l e t -t e r h e a d w a s d e s i g n e d b y j o -

h a n v a n h e l l .

m e m b e r s h i p

c a r d o f t h e

d u tc h p o e t

j a n . w .

j a c o b s o f

t h e s o -

c i a l i s t c i r -

c l e o f a r t -

i s ts ( s k k ) .t h e c i r c l e

a i m e d t o

c o n v e n e a r t -

i s t s w h o

s u b s c r i b e d

t o t h e s o -

c i a l i s t i d e -

a l . t h e s k k

w a s e x p l i c -

i t l y a n

a m s t e r d a m

a f f a i r. t h e

c a r d wa s d e -s i g n e d b y e l i

s m a l h o u t


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{ 10 }


as Vladimir Majakowskij, KornejChukovskij, Samuil Marshak andDaniil Charms. The designers andillustrators included Lebedev, De-jneka and Ermolaeva. VladimirLebedev (1891-1967) was an in u-ential avant-garde artist who was

also one of the leading designersfor Okna rosta . He illustratedeight booklets in the collection,many written by the poet andof childrens book author SamuilMarshak. The themes they cov-ered were rarely political. The ti-tles included: Bagazh[Luggage],Cirk [The circus] and Morozhe-noe [Ice cream]. The renownedSlonenok (Kornej Chukovskij andSamuil Marshaks translation of The Elephants Child by Rudyard

Kipling) is also part of the col-lection. The two books by Ale-ksandr Aleksandrovich Dejnekaare about political themes:Pervoe Maja [May 1st] and Parad Krasnoj Armii [The Red Army parade]. Fi-nally, Vera Ermolaeva (1893-1938)was one of the most important de-velopers of Soviet childrens liter-ature and co-founded the avant-garde artists groupunivos . Elevenof her books are in the collection.

National Democratic Front(ndf) from the Philippines.Specialist Eef Vermeij wrote thefollowing on the subject: On my

back cover of the February issuefeatures a satirical cartoon blam-ing the war on international cap-italism, comprising both Russiaand Germany. The workers areplayed off against each other by the SS and the gpu . In the March

issue, Jews are urged to reject Zi-onism in favour of socialism. Thesatirical cartoon depicts the estab-lishment of the Jewish homelandin Palestine as a plot by Stalin,Churchill and Hitler: concentrat-ing the Jews there will make themeasier to exploit and persecute.

An issue of Le Rveil Proltar-ien of March 1944; the publi-cation deplores Russias recogni-tion of Badoglios new Italian gov-ernment. Factory committees are

heralded as the seeds of the fu-ture revolution. Immediately af-ter the war, the founding fathersof the P.C.I. champion the new Parti Communiste Internationale(P.C.I.), Section franaise de laIVe Internationale.

Russian childrens books.In addition to a vast and in somerespects unique collection of Rus-sian books and pamphlets, the iish has a less well-known but illustri-

ous collection of childrens booksand picture books from the 1920sand 1930s. Outside Russia, theonly other known major collection

is at McGill University in Cana-da, which arrived there thanks toLeo Lande, a close friend of thelong-term iish employee Boris Sa-pir. The origins of the collectionat the iish are unknown. It may have arrived a long time ago,

as the Genootschap Nederland Nieuw Rusland [Dutch-New Russia Society] organized the ex-hibition Gra ek en Boekkunst uit de Sovjet-Unie about graphic andbook art from the Soviet Union atthe Stedelijk Museum in Amster-dam in 1929. According to the cat-alogue, many of the titles exhibitedthere are now in the Institutes col-lection.

This collection certainly meritsa special mention, according to Els

Wagenaar of the iish . She sharedthe following information.The childrens book collection

comprises about 375 copies. Thebooklets cover themes rangingfrom stories about friendly ani-mals and everyday events in chil-drens lives to educational textsand political subjects there: Lenin,the Soviets and May Day celebra-tions. In the early years of the So-viet Union many leading avant-garde artists were deeply involvedin developing, designing and il-lustrating childrens books. Sev-eral authors of childrens bookswere also quite well known, such

n 2 o f f r a -

t e r n i s at i o n

p r o l ta r i e n -

n e . o r g a n e

d e s c o m m u -

n i s t e s r vo -

l u t i o n n a i re s

d e f r a n c e ,

o f f e b r u a ry 1 9 4 3 f e a -

t u r e d a s a -

t i r i c a l c a r -

t o o n b l a m -

i n g t h e w a r

o n i n t e r n a -

t i o n a l c a p -

i ta l i s m ( to

t h e l e f t i s

t h e g e r m a n

o n e a n d t o

t h e r i g h t

t h e b r i t i s ho n e ) .


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{ 11 }


visit to the Philippines last sum-mer, I heard about material insome little room at the university.Thanks to my contacts, I locatedthis bag, untouched since the ma-terial had been left there. The per-son who had accepted it for safe-

keeping did not know what to dowith it and was happy to give it tome. Careful examination revealedthat the material came from a fac-tion of the ndf that raised sup-port from abroad, especially fromJapan. Most material was fromthe late 1980s and included anal-yses, minutes from meetings, in-ternal squabbles and the like. Be-cause the material may still beincriminating to some people, itwill be secluded from public access

pending resolution of its status.

All Burma Students Demo-cratic Front (absdf ) from Burmaand Thailand. Vermeij reportedthe following: This year theiish secured two major archives fromthe Burmese opposition move-ment: from the Democratic Par-ty for a New Society (dpns ) andfrom the absdf . Both archivescomprise a section that is open tothe public and a section with re-

stricted access. Theabsdf archivecontains documents from the of-ces in Thailand and from the

War Of ce in the jungle of Bur-ma. The head of ce was initially in Manerplaw, along the Burmese/Thai border, where many Bur-mese opposition groups had theirheadquarters at the time. In lateJanuary 1995Manerplaw was evac-uated because of violent attacksby the Burmese army. Variousitems were exhibited from the ear-

ly period, including several inter-nal documents.

S.M. Jaffar papers.Jaffar was the rst archivist in Pa-kistan and the driving force be-hind the rst archive in Peshawar.Most of his papers concern theproblems he encountered in theyears following the establishmentof Pakistan. They include of cialnotes, correspondence, depart-ment investigations, statementsand the like. The papers also com-prise research reports and reportsfrom visits, conferences and plans.

Some are original and partially unpublished manuscripts fromhis historical research.

Documents from Soerjono(Prambanan 1928 Amsterdam2000 ), nicknamed Yoko. Edu-cated at the Hollandsch-IndischeSchool and the Cultuurschool, hebecame a journalist. Under theJapanese occupation he was im-prisoned for two years for distrib-uting illegal pamphlets. He co-founded Angkatan Muda (YoungGeneration), which was the pred-ecessor of the Pesindo (PemudaSosialis Indonesia: Socialist Youth

of Indonesia). Soerjono was ajournalist for Penghela Rakjat/ Revolutioner and executive edi-tor of Sport & Film. He also co-founded Indonesia Muda (one of Indonesias largest sports associa-tions) and coached the footballteam with the same name. Hari-an Rakjat stationed him in Chi-na for a few years. Unable to re-turn to Indonesia, he travelled tothe Soviet Union. In 1989 Dutchfriends helped him come to theNetherlands, where he wrote hismemoirs and unpublished stud-ies about Soedisman and Sjarifoe-

din. In addition to papers aboutjournalism and politics and somepersonal documents, he left be-hind a manuscript for an autobi-

ography (From Moscow withoutlove).

For years the Institute hascollected archives and documentsabout unfree labour in Russia andthe Soviet Union, especially aboutthe gulag camps (or Archipel).While most are stored on micro-

lm, some arrive as original mate-rials, such as Tatjana Isaevas type-script Memories of Varlam Sha-lamov. The well-known Russian

author Shalamov (Sjalamov) spenta long time in gulag camps.(Gulag/Goelag = Glavnoje Oe-pravlenije Lagerej = Chief directo-rate of the camps.) His most im-portant book is Kolymskie rasskazy [Stories from Kolyma]. Kolyma,comprising the city of Magadanon the Sea of Okhotsk, is a regionin the Northeast tip of Russia andis notorious for its many camps.Tatjana Ivanovna Isaeva and hermother knew Shalamov well. Un-fortunately, this Isaeva archive isclosed for research for the timebeing.

t h i s i s s u e o f

f r a t e r n i s a -

t i o n p ro -

l t a r i e n n e .

o r g a n e d e sc o m m u n i s t e s

r vo lu -

t i o n n a i r e s

d e f r a n c e ,

m a rc h 1 9 4 3 ,

n 3 , d e p i c t s

t h e e s -

t a b l i s h m e n t

o f t h e

j e w i s h h o m e -

l a n d i n

p a l e s t i n e a s

a c o n s p i r ac y b y s ta l i n ,

r o o s ev e lt ,

c h u r c h i l l

a n d h i t l e r

( l e f t t o

r i g h t ) . h ow

e a s y i t i s t o

e x p lo i t

t h e m , n ow

t h a t t h e y

a re a l l i n

t h e s a m e

p l ac e .


12/16




{ 12 }


The archive of FerdinandSmit/Uni l reached Amsterdamin a very unusual way. From theoutset, the Netherlands contrib-uted to the un troops sent tothe south of Lebanon in 1978 toseparate Israel from the Palestin-ian guerrillas of theplo . A greatmany Arabists, including Ferdi-

nand Smit (Leiden 1959 - Mali2000 ) performed their military service as interpreters for theDutch uni l troops. They wereresponsible for maintaining con-tact with the local population.With the expulsion of the plo from South Lebanon after thecampaign Peace for the Galilee,they witnessed the rise of Shiitemilitias, starting with Nabih Ber-ris Amal movement and thenthe Hezbollah. Ferdinand Smitwrote his thesis about the Hez-bollah. In March 2000 , by thena diplomat, he was killed while

on holiday in Mali, when he andtwo of his uni l friends were at-tacked by smugglers.Ferdinand Smit studied archae-ology and Arabic at the universi-ties of Amsterdam and Leiden.His wife presented theiish withthe collection he accumulatedwhile stationed in Lebanon and

for his thesis. The collectionconsists mainly of uni l re-ports, reports from the DutchEmbassy and reports by himself and other interpreters about thelocal situation.

The Talia al-Ummal Collec-tion (the vanguard of the work-ers).The Egyptian communist groupTalia al-Ummal was establishedin 1942 and merged with theCommunist Party of Egypt in1957. The groups founders werethe three Egyptian Jews Ahmad

Sadiq Sad (1913-1988), Yusuf Dar-wish (b. 1920) and RaymondDouek (1907-1980). In 1945-1946 the group helped organize work-ers and student committees thatopposed the British presence inEgypt. The group resisted the es-

tablishment of a communist par-ty, on the grounds that Egypt wasnot yet ready.The collection was gathered by the groups members, brought toParis and entrusted to RaymondDouek, who was expelled fromEgypt in the 1950s. In 1999 it wasdonated to the iish . Even thoughthe archive consists of publisheddocuments (lea ets, pamphletsand regular publications), thematerial is unique. It contains

nearly all the communist move-ments publications, which weredestroyed in their country of ori-gin by the Egyptian secret police.

The neha has highlightedstatistics from the French erain its collection for several years.The following titles were selectedfor the second presentation to theFriends:- Jacques Peuchet, Essai dune

statistique gnrale de la France (An IX =1801)- August Ludwig von Schloezer,Introduction la science de la sta-tistique; suivi dun coup doeil g-nral sur ltude entire de la po-litique, sur sa marche et ses divi-sions (Paris, de lImprimerie Im-priale (An XIII =1805); Frenchedition of the German original,present in Dutch as well)

- Charles Philibert Lasteyrie duSaillant, Du cotonnier et de saculture, ou trait sur les diverses espces de cotonniers; sur la pos-sibilit et les moyens [] (Paris:Arthus-bertrand, 1808)

- Tableau Gnral de la nouvel-le division de la France en d-partements [] (Paris: An X =1802)

- Aperu de la Balance du Com-merce 1791. Unlike the aboveworks, this lovely calligraphy list is a manuscript from theBruyard collection inventorieda few years ago.

While not truly representative of the statistics focus, these titlescomplement the already substan-

t h e r e d a r m y

p a r a d e , b y

a l e k s a n d r

a l e k s a n d ro v -

i c h d e j n e k a ,

o n e o f t h e

3 7 5 c o l o u r -

f u l r u s s i a n

c h i l d r e ns

b o o k s i n t h ec o l l e c t i o n .


13/16


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{ 14 }


thousand pamphlets and otherpapers from theBund archive andlibrary. Kursky probably reached

this agreement independently, asno traces of the transaction ap-pear in the archive documents.In 1936 the rst crates and boxeswith material arrived at the iish .Posthumus was far from enthu-siastic about the quality of theitems and was similarly unim-pressed with the subsequent ship-ments. He believed that every-thing of value from theBund hadbeen diverted elsewhere, and thatthe iish was stuck with common

trivial items. He felt cheated.Kursky left behind the Bund documents and ed to the Unit-ed States in 1941, where he spenthis nal years. The Nazis con-

scated them but had not yetshipped the material to Germany,when Paris was liberated by theAmericans in1944. They sent thecollection to their country, wherethe material was divided amonga few institutes in New York. An-other part of the material ended

up in London and Vilna, whilesome remained behind in Paris.

Little happened with the con-tents of the crates and boxes atthe iish after Posthumuss out-bursts. During and after the warthe crates went on a few majorjourneys. By July 1940 the iish was closed by order of EinsatzstabReichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg.Between 1941 and 1943, the en-tire iish collection obviously including the Bund crates - wasshipped to Germany. After thewar, a major search effort waslaunched (once again with sup-

port from De Centrale) to re-trieve the material. The nal ship-ments arrived around the late

1950s, marking the return to theiish of about two thirds of its pre-war collection. Because of iish founder Posthumuss assessments,most of the returned Bund cratesremained sealed after the war aswell. In 1996 Renate Fuks-Mans-feld started to inventory and cata-logue the Bund documents. Shehas discovered a wealth of materi-al that is of great interest, especial-ly to us at present. It is not, how-ever, the realBund archive. Thatcollection ended up in New York,London and Paris.

While arranging the archive,which is not a typical Jewish col-lection and is certainly not asworthless as Posthumus thought,she identi ed ve sections:- Kursky sent the iish every-

thing not related to the internalaffairs of theBund . During hisyears in Geneva from1900 on-ward, he used his contacts withhis country of origin to build

an excellent and valuable doc-umentation collection on Po-land between the two worldwars. Members from Russia,Poland and Lithuania sent ma-terial to Geneva, where Kursky stored everything. Now thismaterial has a special signi -cance.

- KurskysBund collection fromhis Berlin period (1920-1929).This largely concerns supportfor Jews emigrating from orremaining in many differentplaces. It includes medical in-formation for emigrants, be-

cause of the multitude of healthregulations for immigrants tothe United States.

- Everything Kursky gathered inBerlin and especially in Paris,which we now consider a mag-ni cent collection of political

propaganda (although Posthu-mus felt otherwise at the time).Jews were often representedas a separate nation in na-tional parliaments, for exam-ple in Poland, Estonia, Latviaor Lithuania. This explains thepolitical activities, especially of their largest organization theBund . The visually attractiveitems, such as the poster col-lection, are in New York. Thissection comprises the entire so-

cial-political Jewish network,including health and medicalcare, of Eastern Europe duringthe Interbellum.

- The fourth section of the Bundarchive concerns the Russianemigrants awaiting the Revolu-tion elsewhere in the world.

- Finally, there are crates lledwith newspaper clippings.Though neatly arranged, theseboxes were a major source of annoyance to Posthumus.

Thanks to Renas indispensableinventory, a rich Jewish source isready for additional investigationat the iish ; the inspiring materialmay ll several gaps in our knowl-edge of Jewish culture.

s e c o n d b u s i n e s sm e e t i n g

Present: 7 friends, 2 members of the iish administration, Jan Lu-cassen asad hoc chairman, MiekeIJzermans, a few iish colleagues,Bart Hageraats as the listener ap-pointed to take minutes.

1 . u p d a t e ,b y j a n l u c a s s e n :

Current membership stands at 42 (including 4 members abroad),with total donations amountingto nlg 12,500. Six members havecontributed nlg 1,000 , the othersnlg 200 , with dues still outstand-

t h e o r i g i n a l

b ag i n w h i c h

t h e i n -

s t i t u t e r e -

c e i v e d t h e

a r c h i v e o f

t h e n a t i o n a l

d e m o c r at i cf r o n t ( n d f )

f ro m t h e

p h i l i p p i n e s .


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ing from 19. The previous estimateof nlg 11,000 has been exceeded.In due time the surplus will addup considerably, to the immensesatisfaction of all those present.The total expected for this year isnlg 14,000 . Thus far, the only ex-

pense has beennlg 239 for trans-lations; the postage fees equalledthe interest received.Members are thanked for theircontributions. Afterwards we willdiscuss whether to invest half theamount (as agreed at the previ-ous meeting) in two projects. Theother question is whether to placethe money in a savings or depos-it account. One piece of excellentnews is that ve friends whowill remain anonymous for the

time being have decided to sup-plement their dues with an ex-tremely large donation:

half the estate of one of theFriends will go to the iish

a substantial bequest fromone of the Friends, to cover grantsto foreign visitors at theiish

a major archive and library belonging to one of the Friendsshall go to the iish

a Friend has committed sev-en hundred thousand Dutch guil-ders, to be released from2001 (in

board with a chairman, a secretary and three commissioners to servetwo-year terms. The board advisesthe iish and the Stichting Beheeriisg on request or otherwise andrecommends ways to promote theCircle of Friends.

The following candidates havealready applied in writing to serveon the board

of the Circle of

Friends: Liesbeth Laman-Meyer(Amsterdam), Bram Stemerdink (Den Bosch), Ger Verrips (Am-sterdam) and Jan Lucassen &Mieke IJzermans at theiish .The assembly appointed themfor the period 2001-2002 andgratefully accepted the offer fromBart Hageraats to run the secre-

tariat.

3 . a l l o c a t i o n o ft h e r e v e n u e s f r o m

t h e f r i e n d s

The board shall submit proposalsin consultation with the admin-istration of the iish to the coun-cil of donors regarding the alloca-tion. Larger donations subject toconditions will also be accepted

following consultation with theiish administration. The Institutealso welcomes additional unre-stricted donations.

a p a g e f ro m

t h e d i a r y

( 1 9 6 8 - 1 9 6 9 )

t h at s o e r j o -

n o k e p t d u r -

i n g h i s s ta y

i n c h i n a . o n

2 s e p t e m b e r 1 9 6 9 h e

j o i n e d a n

e x c u r s i o n ,

w h e r e t h e

g u i d e t a l k e d

e x t e n s i v e ly

a b o u t t h e

d i f f e re n t

f o r m s o f

c h i n e s e r e -

s i s ta n c e t o

t h e j a pa n e s e

o c c u p a t i o nd u r i n g t h e

w a r. a s a m a -

j o r , h e

a p pa re n t ly

wa n t e d t o

k n o w a l l t h e

d e ta i l s a n d

w ro t e m a n y

p a g e s a b o u t

e x p l o s i v e s ,

s u c h a s t h i s

d e s c r i p t i o n

o f t h e e f -f e c t o f t n t

o n a b r i c k

wa l l .

increments) for research on20 th century labour history in Russia

a fth Friend will provide onemillion toward research on wom-ens work in the Netherlands inthe period 1600-1850.

A detailed report about the alloca-tion of the funds will follow.

2 . o r g a n i z a t i o n a ls t ru c t u r e

The outcome of the discus-sion about the elaboration of thegeneral principles was as follows:

A new foundation will notbe established. Friends are donors

who set up a separatefund withinthe current Stichting Beheeriisg .This will be re ected in the arti-cles of association. (The StichtingBeheer also consists of the pub-lishing house, a regular fundrais-ing body and the National TradesUnion Museum).

Donors contribute nlg 200 or nlg 1,000 a year or a one-timesubstantial amount of nlg 3,000 or more or material of an equiva-

lent value.

All Friends together are thecouncil of donors.They elect a


16/16




{ 16 }


Two proposals are submitted tothe council of donors:

3.1 A pilot project for oral histo-ry has been launched in dicta-torial, closed Burma. The in-itial interviews shall be with

the older generation of Bur-mas democratic movement. A digital camera that costs aboutnlg 3,000 is required for theproject.Many of the movements lead-ers have already died, and oth-ers are likely to pass away without having a chance to telltheir life stories and especial-ly their experiences with themovement. Ideally, the young-er generation will learn and

derive inspiration from theolder generations struggle andachievements. The project willalso enrich the Burma ar-chives, which would otherwiselack information about thisneglected period in Burmesehistory.The second stage of the projectwould involve interviews withprisoners and women from thedemocratic movement.

3.2 A second-hand bookseller inIstanbul has offered to sell acollection of Turkish magazinesfrom the period 1873-1976 fornlg 4,000 . Most are from theearly decades of the20th centu-ry (Ottoman script). Two mag-azines are unique, and most of the others are unavailable an-ywhere in Europe except forTurkey (where access to themis either restricted or prohibit-ed). They address virtually all

aspects of Turkish society:The political journals Aiyan (1908-1909), Aydede (1922),Aydede (second series, 1948-1949), Azerbaycan Yurt Bilgisi (1932-1954) and Kadro (oriji-nal)(1932-1935); political satire:Malum Pasa(1947); and po-litical and military:Mdafaa-i Milliye (1913-1914); the youthmagazine Genlik (1928) andfor women:Kadin(1908-1909)and Mahasin(1908-1909); theeducational journal Kirkanbar (1873-1876) and nally the na-tionalist extremistOrhun(1934)

and Trklk (1939-1940).The iish is one of the few in-stitutes outside Turkey able tostart such a collection; in Tur-key these types of archives arerarely open to the public. Thelargest collection outside Tur-

key is here in Amsterdam andis freely accessible. The materi-al is consulted intensively. Oneof those examining it is a Turk-ish PhD candidate.

The Friends unanimously approvethe allocation of the amounts re-quested for the two projects pro-posed. They will receive progressreports and will be noti ed of theresults.

4 . f r e q u e n c y a n dd a t e s f o r f r i e n d s

m e e t i n g s

Plenty of material is available fortwo presentations and meetings a year. Scheduling the gather-ings between4.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. would be better than earlierin the afternoon. Friday and Sat-urday are not good days (becauseof traf c and the like). May and

November are probably the bestmonths, as they do not coincidewith holidays or other busy peri-ods.

5 . g i f t f o r f r i e n d si n 2 0 0 1

New members in 2000 receivedthe guide to the foreign archivesat the iish . What will they receivein the year ahead? Suggestions are

welcome.

6 . r e c r u i t i n gm e m b e r s a n d

u p d a t i n g t h e f i l e

The recruitment process was basedon lists, records of visitors, etc.We sent out 400 letters to seewhat the response would be. Wereceived60 letters of acceptance,mainly from within the Nether-lands. Not everybody has paid, al-though many have agreed to join.Please share any ideas you might

have for recruiting members by contacting Jan Lucassen or MiekeIJzermans.Sending reminders to the 400 individuals originally invited isprobably not a good idea; declin-ing to join should be regarded

as nal. Nor does contacting thesubscribers to theTijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis seem like afruitful strategy.There is a small chance that allthe information on the Internet(http:/www.iisg), including thereport for the past year, will at-tract new members.

The meeting ends, those presentare thanked, and the reception be-gins.

On the Waterfront 1-2

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Transcript of On the Waterfront 1-2