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Searching for Lost Archives New documentation on the pillage of trade union archives and libraries by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (1938–1941) and on the fate of trade union documents in the postwar era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Karl Heinz Roth  and
Karsten Linne
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International Review of Social History , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , August 1993 , pp. 163 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1993

References

1 Special Archive of Moscow, collection 500 (Rcichssichcrhcttshauptamt), collection 502 (Zentralbauleitung der SS im KL Auschwitz), ca. 3000, specifically 2370 files.

2 Roth, Karl Heinz, “Searching for Lost Archives. The Role of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront in the Pillage of West European Trade Union Archives”, IRSH, 34 (1989), pp. 272–286Google Scholar.

3 The collections referred to arc RSHA P St. 3 and RSHA St. 3, which have become available since 1990 in the Bundcsarchiv at Potsdam under the collection signatures 17.01 RSHA P St. 3 and St. 3.

4 Contestants for the archival booty were the Deutsche Arbcitsfront's secret service “Amt Information”, the Gestapo-Amt (Gestapa), and the headquarters of the SD; sec Bundesarchiv at Koblenz (henceforth: BAK), NS 22/vorl. 268 and vorl. 659, R58/80, 349, 447 and 764; Bundcsarchiv at Potsdam (henceforth: BAP), 62.01 DAF Zentralbüro, no. 88, 17.01 RSHA P St. 3, no. 476/4.

5 These events are described in BAP, 62.01 DAF Zentralbüro, no. 88, sheets 70f.; concerning the takeover of the confiscated trade union property by the DAF, sec in addition Dapper, Beate and Rouette, Hans-Peter, “Zum Ermittlungsverfahren gegen Leipart und Genossen wegen Untreue vom 9. Mai 1933”, IWK, 20 (1984), 4, pp. 509–533Google Scholar.

6 Roth, Karl Heinz, “Klios rabiate Hilfstruppen. Archivare und Archivpolitik im deutschen Faschismus”, Archivmitteilungen, Zeitschrift für Archivwesen, archivalische Quettenkunde und historische Hilfswissenschafien, 41 (1991) 1, pp. 1–10, here pp. 2fGoogle Scholar.

7 See Doc. no. 2.

8 Sterling, Manfred, “Aufbau und Wandel der Organisationsstrukturen der Arbeiterkammern von 1920 bis 1938”, Ph.D. Thesis, Vienna, 1983, pp. 385fGoogle Scholar.

9 Sec Doc. no. 1.

10 Stubenvoll, Karl, “‘Unbekannten Ortes verschickt?’ Der Raub der Wiener Arbeiterkammerbibliothek 1938/39”, Biblos, österreichische Zeitschrift für Buch-und Bibliothekswesen, 39 (1990) 2, pp. 109–115, here pp. 113fGoogle Scholar.

11 Roth, Karl Heinz, “Sozialimperialistische Aspekte der Okkupationspolitik: Strategien und Aktivitäten der ‘Deutschen Arbeitsfront’ (DAF)”, in RÖhr, Werner (ed.), Faschismus und Rassismus. Kontroversen um Ideologic und Opfer (Berlin, 1922), pp. 353–375, here pp. 356fGoogle Scholar.

12 However, the conflict over the library belonging to the Workers' Chamber of Vienna played a minor role in this “Vienna Gau leader crisis”. For more on the background, see Botz, Gerhard, Wien vom “Anschluβ” zum Krieg. Nationalsozialistische Machtübernahme und politisch-soziale Umgestaltung am Beispiel der Stadt Wien 1938/39, Vienna, 1980, pp. 420fGoogle Scholar.

13 On the other hand, Stubenvoll (n. 10, p. 113) assumes that the material the Gestapo robbed from the library of the Workers' Chamber arrived at the Central Library of the Arbeitswissenschaftliches Institut immediately. As other similar yet better documented incidents show, it is more probable that the Arbeitswisscnschaftliches Institut only obtained the material following long negotiations with the Gestapo, whereby it profited significantly from the DAF's strengthened claim to ownership.

14 Karl Heinz Roth, “Klios rabiate Hilfstruppen”, pp. 6f.

15 Sec Doc. no. 6.

16 Sec Doc. no. 7 and additional documents in the Archiv der Gewerkschaftsbewegung Berlin (AdG), coll. A110.1. The document labelled doc. no. 7 belongs to the note that we published as doc. no. 1 in the first documentation (sec n. 2).

17 These bottlenecks were repeatedly lamented, sec Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amts, col.. Inland I Partci, packet 49/3 to 50/2.

18 Doc. no. 8.

19 Instead, the collection of documents belonging to the International Labour Office in the occupied sector of France was confiscated, see AdG, coll. A110.1 as well as the documents nos. 2–5 in the documentation published previously (n. 2).

20 This can be taken indirectly from the documents nos. 11 and 13.

21 Doc. no. 11.

22 Lefrane, Georges, Les Experiences syndicates en France de 1939 á 1950 (Paris, 1950), pp. 40ff.Google Scholar; Julliard, Jacques, “La Charte du travail”, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (ed.), Le Gouvernement de Vichy 1940–1942, institutions et politiques (Paris, 1972), pp. 157–194, here pp. 158ffGoogle Scholar.

23 Doc. no. 12.

24 Belin himself had signed the decree to dissolve, see Julliard, “La Charte du travail”, p.164.

25 Doc. no. 13.

26 It has not yet been possible to determine to what extent this actually happened.

27 For further detail on the changes in procedure (buying up of specialized libraries, organized brain drain from social science institutes in the occupied countries, secret cooperation with social statistics agencies that had still remained intact, etc.), see AdG, coll. A110.1.

28 Doc. nos. 13 and 14.

29 These groups have been researched intensively since the 1970s, although the secret manipulation exerted by the German occupation authorities has not been examined. See especially, Durrleman, Dominique, “‘L'Atelier, hebdomadaire du travail francais’. Des Syndicalistes dans la Collaboration (1940–1944)”, Les cahiers d'histoire de I'Institut Maurice Thorez, n.s. 9 (1945) no. 14 (special), pp. 117–159Google Scholar; Ory, Paseal, Les Collaborateurs 1940–1945 (Paris, 1978), ch. 7, pp. 128ffGoogle Scholar.; Rancière, Jaeques, “De Pelloutier à Hitler: syndicalisme et collaboration”, Les Révoltes logiques, 4 (winter 1977), pp. 23–61Google Scholar; Dreyfus, Michel, “Syndicats, nous voilál Le syndicalisme vichyssois à travers un journal: ‘Au Travail’”, in Peschanski, Denis (ed.), Vichy 1940–1944. Quaderni e documents inediti di Angelo Tasca. Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Annali 24 (1985), pp. 93–110Google Scholar.

30 International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, coll. Hendrik de Man, nos. 560–562; “Resistance in Belgium”, in Fascism, ed. by ITF, 9 (1941), no. 10 (12 05 1941), p. 67Google Scholar; Wagner, Wilfried, Belgien in der deutschen Politik wahrend des Zweiten Weltkriegs (Bopparda. Rh., 1974), pp. 185ffGoogle Scholar.

31 On the destruction of the headquarters of the Arbeitswissenschaftliches Institut at Leipziger Platz 14, sec Auszugsweise Abschrift eines Schreibens von Marcel Mitschke an das Bundesarchiv Koblenz vom 10.7.1953, BAK, archive register no. (Archivgut Zugangsbuch) 0178.

32 Doc. no. 16.

33 Doc. no. 17.

34 Reports by Marcel Mitschke to the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, dated 10 July 1953, 24 July 1953, and 18 August 1953. Auszugsweise Abschriften, BAK, archive register no. 0178.

35 Compiled from the reports of the Berlin representative of the Library of Congress Mission, Jacob Zuckerman. See Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Library of Congress Mission Records (LC, LCM Records), Progress Reports from Representatives, folder Jacob Zuckerman.

36 It appears that they were first sent to Quickendorf and then distributed to several depots in Silesia and northern Bohemia.

37 Doc. nos. 18 and 19.

38 Doc. no. 20.

39 In the reports he submitted to the Bundesarchiv Koblenz eight years later, Marcel Mitschke, the former lector of the Arbeitswissenschaftliches Institut, mentioned Crössinsee and several other depot locations in West Germany, but not the especially important shipments to Silesia; see n. 34.

40 In the historical atlas of Lower and Upper Silesia, there is no place named Falkenstein to be found, although there is a Falkenau near Neisse and the neighbouring Falkenberg near Oppau.

41 See Zentrales Staatsarchiv Potsdam, Bearbeitungsplanung für die Zeitungsausschnittsammlung des Bestands Awl der DAF, 15 February 1967.

42 Linne, Karsten, “Der Bestand ‘Deutsche Arbeitsfront’ im Archiv der Gewerkschaftsbewegung”, 1999, 8 (1993) 1, pp. 130–131Google Scholar.

43 Reuben Peiss, Final Summary Report of the Library of Congress Mission, 30 November 1946, LC, LCM Records, Progress Reports of Representatives, folder Reuben Peiss; Peiss, Reuben, “Report on Europe”, College and Research Libraries, 8 (1947) 2, pp. 113–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Downs, Robert B., “Wartime Co-Operativc Acquisitions”, The Library Quarterly, 19 (1949) 3, pp. 157–165CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 Doc. no. 21.

45 Doc. no. 22.

46 Doc. no. 23.

47 Doc. no. 24.

48 The largest special depot was the “Archival Depot” of the American military government in Offenbach am Main, in which approximately 4.5 million books were accumulated. It was here that Austrian library experts found in 1948 a part of the Vienna Workers' Chamber library that had been robbed in 1938–39. See Weber, Franz Konrad, “Die Rückführung der in den Jahren 1938 bis 1945 verschleppten österreichischen Bücherbestände”, Biblos, 28 (1979) 1, pp. 26–32, here pp. 29, 31Google Scholar.

49 Doc. no. 26; for further information, see Library of Congress, “Return of Confiscated German Materials”, 2 December 1957, LC, LCM Records, folder Confiscated Material.

50 Robert B. Downs, “Wartime Co-Operative Acquisitions” (n. 43).

51 Cf. Doc. no. 27; Mr Heinz Braun, Head Keeper of the “Archiv der Gewerkschaftsbewegung” in Berlin, has been kind enough to inform us of the existence of unsortcd items of correspondence dating from the period 1966–67.

52 Letter from the FDGB archive (Georg Reiss) to the FDGB administrative office of greater Berlin, dated 10 September 1947, re: “Übernahme des Archiv-Materials aus dem ‘Haus der Technik’ in der FriedrichstraBe”, AdG, coll. FDGB-Bundesvorstand, A7044.

53 Doc. no. 25.

54 Sec Zentrales Staatsarchiv Potsdam, Bearbeitungsplan für das AWI der DAF, n.d.; Zentrales Staatsarchiv Potsdam, Findmittel zum Bestand 62.03 DAF, Deutsche Arbeitsfront, Arbeitswissenschaftliches Institut (AWI), Zeitungsausschntttsammlung (7 vols.).

55 Zentrales Staatsarchiv Potsdam, Einleitende Bemerkungen zu 62 DAF 3, Deutsche Arbeitsfront, Arbeitswisscnsehaftliches Institut (AWI), Zeitungsausschnittsammlung, section “Inland”.

56 Doc. no. 28.

57 The American occupation authorities turned them over to the Berlin regional association of the SPD. From there they were first deposited in the archive of the pro-SPD August Bebel Institute and were finally accepted in 1975 by the archive of the Historic Commission at Berlin as part of its permanent collection. Since the mid-1980s, the Quellen zur Geschichte der deutschen Gewerkschaftsbewegung im 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Hermann Weber, Klaus Schönhoven and Klaus Tcnfelde, have been studied to date without any knowledge of the fate and whereabouts of trade union documents under the Nazi dictatorship. See Quellen zur Geschichte der deutschen Gewerkschaftsbewegung im 20. Jahrhundert, founded by Erich Matthias, edited by Hermann Weber, Klaus Schönhoven and Klaus Tenfelde, Vols. Iff. (Cologne, 1985- ).

58 They were inventoried under the rubric 62.01 to 62.03 (DAF-Zentralbüro, Adjutantur Ley and DAF AWI-Zeitungsausschnittsammlung). A preliminary review over the archival material of the DAF available today can be found in Inventor archivalischer Quellen des NS-Staates. Die Überlieferung von Behörden und Einrichtungen des Reichs, der Länder undder NSDAP, part 1, commissioned by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, ed. by Heinz Boberach (Munich etc., 1991), pp. 508–515.

59 Linne, Karsten, “Der Bestand ‘Deutsche Arbeitsfront’ im Archiv der Gewerkschaftsbewegung”, in: 1999, 8 (1993), 1, pp. 130–131Google Scholar.

60 We would like to thank Heinz Braun (Berlin), Mohan Devan Kartha (Washington) and Karl Stubenvoll (Vienna) without whose commitment this documentation could never have been published.