Archives of Louis Van Brussel

Access: The fonds Louis Van Brussel 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 AAMIC54

Fonds description :

War archives of Louis Van Brussel, deputy national commander of the Armed Partisans

The archives of Louis Van Brussel are part of a particularly rich archive fonds about the Belgian Partisan army and about Service D. They are of key importance as they illustrate the direct and clandestine mode of operation of the service. Furthermore, such documents are very rare because of the very nature of these types of resistance networks and the dangers they had to face during the occupation. The archives of Van Brussel provide very interesting insights into the daily workings of these movements.

The Van Brussel papers are arranged according to the function of the resistance fighter and the service to which he was attached. Louis Van Brussel was born in 1918. He grew up in Leuven among socialists and was a member of several Flemish socialist organisations. He managed not to get arrested after the Battle of Belgium (18 Day’s Campaign), set up the Revolutionair Anti-Fascistisch Front (RAFF) together with socialist friends, and started first sabotage actions on railways. He joined armed communist groups in the region of Leuven and took over the command of the corps in Leuven after the founders of these groups, Seymens and Nijsen, were arrested. Step by step, he moved up the ranks and was entrusted leadership for all of Flanders from 6 November 1943 until June 1944. After this, he was promoted to Chief of Staff within the Coordination Committee.

For more information :

Bodart, Pierre. Avec l’Armée belge des partisans. Bruxelles: Éditions du monde entier, 1948.
Gotovitch, José. Du rouge au tricolore : Les communistes belges de 1939 à 1944 : Un aspect de l'histoire de la Résistance en Belgique. Bruxelles: CARCOB, 2018.
Gotovitch, José. Archives des partisans armés : Louis Van Brussel. Bundesarchiv. Fondation Jacquemotte, Bruxelles : Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes Historiques de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, 1974 (Inventaires, 4).
Maerten, Fabrice. "Le Front de l’indépendance ou la Résistance comme instrument du Parti communiste dans le Hainaut en 1940-1944. Entre réalité belge et rêve soviétique". In Annales du Cercle d’histoire et d’archéologie de Saint-Ghislain et de la région, t.11. 2008, p. 437-518.
Maerten, Fabrice. (Les) Partisans armés sur BelgiumWWII.
Van Brussel, Louis. Partizanen in Vlaanderen ; met actieverslag van Korps 034, Leuven: Masereelfonds, 1971.
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.
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