Welcome to the CEGES-SOMA
The Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society is a public federal research institution which collects documentation and carries out research on the wars and conflicts of the twentieth century and their impact on Belgium.
Since 1969, the Centre collects archives, books, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, interviews, posters and leaflets. This documentation is accessible through the Pallas integrated information system and can be consulted in the reading room of the monumental buildings at the Square de l'Aviation in Brussels.
De la correspondance de captivité aux archives de la résistanceLes acquisitions d'archives pendant l'année académique écoulée portent pratiquement sur tous les domaines de l'occupation. L'accent repose sur la résistance, les prisonniers politiques et les milieux patriotiques après la guerre, ainsi que, dans une moindre mesure, sur l'année 1940 et l'occupant allemand. L'acquisition la plus importante (en volume) a par contre trait à plusieurs mètres des archives partielles du responsable d'Agalev/Groen Ludo Dierickx en rapport non seulement avec le mouvement écologiste, mais aussi avec ses activités en faveur de l'unité de la Belgique (AA 2230, voir l'article détaillé).Read more... |
Next SeminarsWe cordially invite you to our next series of seminars which will start in the autumn. Please visit our website regularly to keep informed of our activities. |
Moscow posts part of Katyn massacre documents onlineWednesday 28 April 2010, the Russian government published seven 'top secret' documents, some twenty pages in all, on the website of the national archives (www.rusarchives.ru/publication/katyn/spisok.shtml). The texts concern the massacre of about 22,000 officers and other members of the Polish elite by the Soviets in the spring of 1940 in Katyn, but also in Kalinin (today Tver in Russia), Kharkov (Ukraine) and other places in Ukraine and White Russia.Read more... |
Historic memory main issue of fierce controversy in SpainBaltasar Garzón, the international renowned judge who at one time had the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested, is suspended from office. An investigating magistrate with the Audiencia Nacional, a special court competent to deal with terrorism, corruption and organised crime, he has allegedly abused his authority as a judge by opening an inquiry into the crimes of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the consequent dictatorship of general Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Three far right radical pressure groups, among which the remainder of the Francoist Falange party, filed a lawsuit against Garzón which was declared admissible by the Supreme Court of Spain and which was felt as an insult and a painful humiliation by the organisations who had worked hard for the restoration of the historic memory and for atonement for the victims of Francoism. |
Presentation film International Conference “Privacy and Scientific Research”On the initiative of the Commission for the Protection of Privacy, an international conference on the relationship between scientific research and protection of privacy will take place on 23 November in Brussels. The part “historical research and privacy” will be organised by the Ceges/Soma (see the project of our collaborator Vincent Scheltiens). Via the following link you can watch the presentation film of this conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdS80IPYH-s&feature=related. National Archivist Karel Velle and Ceges/Soma-Director Rudi Van Doorslaer will introduce the part on “historical research” of this project.
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Gottfried Benn in Belgium“went to battle, stormed Antwerp, lived in the etappe, resided a long period in Brussels, where Sternheim, Flake, Einstein, Hausenstein passed their days. (…) what I produced in the form of literature, I wrote (…) in the spring of 1916 in Brussels. (…) a totally isolated post, lived in a requisitioned house, eleven rooms, alone with my servant, was rarely on duty, (…), no responsibilities, no ties, hardly understood the language; roamed the streets, strange people; a peculiar spring, three totally incomparable months, the never-ending gunfire at the Yzer, life passed in an atmosphere of silence and desolation, I lived on the edge, where existence ends and the I begins. I often think of those weeks, they were “the life”, they will not return, everything else was rupture” (1).Read more... |
The Children of Save. Stolen or Saved ?At the eve of the decolonisation of the Belgian colonial territories, some 300 to 400 children of mixed descent were brought from the orphanage of Save (Rwanda) to Belgium where they stayed with foster families. The initiative, the modalities and motives of this 'evacuation' are today still far from clear and constitute the core of this research project.Read more... |
Henri Storck, the Belgian Cinema and the OccupationIn August 2006, a controversy broke loose in the Francophone media in Belgium. Henri Storck, the 'father of Belgian cinema', was accused of having been in close association with the German authorities during the occupation. Ever since the awe-inspiring film Misère au Borinage (1933), Storck was generally regarded as a film maker with left sympathies. The controversy that followed mixed fulminations and anachronisms with little room for the nuances, paradoxes and complexities of society. A thorough enquiry seemed in order. It was entrusted to historian Bruno Benvindo. This book (to order, click here) is the result of his research. Read more... |
