Archives of Claire Martchouk

Access: The fonds Claire Martchouk can be freely accessed during the opening hours of the reading room. Reservation.

Reproduction: The content of the fonds may be freely reproduced in the reading room. Practical information for requesting a reproduction by CegeSoma personnel can be found here.

Finding aids: Inventory AA936

Fonds description :

Archives of Claire Martchouk, spouse of Georges Van den Boom.

Claire Martchouk was born in Bogapol, Ukraine, in 1902. She was an active campaigner for the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB) since its foundation and married Georges Van den Boom, co-founder of the PCB. Their daughter Liliane was born in December 1923. After a stay in USSR (1933 to 1935), the couple continued their activism within the PCB and later joined the Resistance (press, sabotages, etc.).

Claire was arrested on 27 May 1942 and deported to Ravensbrück, her daughter was arrested in April 1943 and Georges on 2 July 1943. After her liberation in May 1945, Claire got involved various organisations: She was a member of the National Council and the Executive Bureau of the National Confederation of Political Prisoners and Rightsholders (Conseil national et du Bureau exécutif de la Confédération nationale des Prisonniers politiques et Ayants droit – CNPPA), president of the Belgian section of the Association of former Ravensbrück Detainees (Amicale des Anciennes de Ravensbrück), vice-president of the International Ravenbrück Committee (IRC), Secretary-General of the Social Fund for Political Prisoners, Ancestors, Widows and Orphans (Fonds social des Prisonniers politiques, Ascendants, Veuves et Orphelins – FONPAVO); she was also active within Front de l'Indépendance (FI).

The archives she bequeathed to our institution bear witness of the issues she campaigned for in the post-war period: the memory of those who died, the livelihood problems of those who survived, the fight against a resurgence of fascism and Nazism. She was a member of the Belgian delegation to the World Congress in Berlin that took place within the framework of International Woman’s Year (1975).

For more information :

Maerten Fabrice, "La résistance en Belgique durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale", http://www.democratieoubarbari...
Verhoeyen, Étienne. "Quatrième partie : la résistance". In La Belgique occupée. De l’an 40 à la Libération. Bruxelles : De Boeck-Wesmael, 1994, p. 331-511.
Gotovitch, José. Du Rouge Au Tricolore : Les Communistes Belges de 1939 à 1944 : Un Aspect de l’histoire de La Résistance En Belgique. Bruxelles: Labor, 1992.
Gotovitch, José. "Partisanes et militantes : femmes communistes dans la Résistance en Belgique", in Femmes et résistance en Belgique et en zone interdite (1940-1944), Lille, 2008, p.73-86.
Maerten, Fabrice. Papy était-il un héros ? Sur les traces des hommes et des femmes dans la résistance pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Bruxelles : Racine, 2020.

Interesting links