The Stéphane Huvenne archives
- Access et consultation : The collection is open during the opening hours of the reading room. Its content is freely available.
- Reproduction : The content of the collection can be freely reproduced in the reading room. For any reproduction request by the CegeSoma teams, practical information is available here.
- Research tools : Inventory AA2204
Collection description :
From the end of the 1950s, Stéphane Huvenne was an active member of the Brussels section of the SIA ("Solidarité internationale antifasciste"), responsible in particular for welcoming and supporting the Spanish political refugees. Moreover, his commitment to the Spanish cause led him to join, in the 1960s, the external delegation of the "Fédération ibérique des Jeunesses libertaires" (FIJL) in Belgium. The “offspring” of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist organization in exile - the "Confédération nationale du travail" (CNT) - the IFJL, which defined itself as the revolutionary branch of militant anti-Francoism, was one of the targets of Franco's repression.
Within these two associations, Stéphane Huvenne held administrative functions (secretariat, publishing) and led continuing education activities. As a writer of articles and leaflets and also a photographer, he regularly organized awareness sessions on the causes defended by these associations. He was also close to the pacifist movements and particularly to Jean Van Lierde, whose archives we also hold (AA 1573, 1643 and 1726), but also to the anarchist bookseller Marcel Dieu, alias Hem Day.
In addition to correspondence, leaflets, communiqués and various documentation, the archives (AA 2204), which are freely available for consultation and whose inventory is available online, contain some beautiful photographic series depicting the fate of anti-Franco activists, both in Spain and Belgium, and especially the activity carried out by associations dedicated to their support. We can discover pictures of anti-Franco and pacifist congresses and demonstrations organized in the 1960s, photographs of Spanish activists detained in Spain or of refugees in Belgium, such as Francisco Abarca, a Spanish anarchist whose extradition request was the subject of much debate. Such images are particularly rare.
The Huvenne collection completes an already rich collection of photos of the Spanish War and the years that followed. In total, nearly 3636 photos from the SIPHO collection, news agencies of the time and a donation from the Royal Film Library illustrate this troubled period. In particular, a large number of photographs was taken on the reception of refugees in Belgium and France, on the various fronts during the civil war and on the situation in Spain between 1940 and 1944.
Anti-Franco activism in pictures
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