In July 1940, two premises of the newly established International Archive for the Women's Movement (IAV, the forerunner of Atria) were emptied by the Germans. After the war, only 10% of the collection was recovered. When the archive reopened in 1947, the bookshelves were virtually empty. The old IAV archives were later found to have had a long wander. In 1992, they were found in Moscow and in 2003, after long negotiations, they finally returned to Amsterdam. Read the story about the looted archives of the women's movements here.
In July 1940, two premises of the newly established International Archive for the Women's Movement (IAV, the forerunner of Atria) were emptied by the Germans. After the war, only 10% of the collection was recovered. When the archive reopened in 1947, the bookshelves were virtually empty. The old IAV archives were later found to have had a long wander. In 1992, they were found in Moscow and in 2003, after long negotiations, they finally returned to Amsterdam. Read the story about the looted archives of the women's movements here.
During World War II, the German occupiers looted a lot of material from Dutch museums, archives and from private individuals and took it to Germany. Some of it was found by the Americans during the liberation of Europe in 1945. They returned the material to the countries of origin or took it back to the United States. But where much of the missing material had gone remained unknown for decades.
Special archive in Moscow
It was only 47 years later - in early 1992 - that historian and Russia expert Marc Jansen discovered that Moscow had a so-called Special Archive containing kilometres of archives. Like the Americans, the Russians had found many archives and works of art during their liberation offensive in 1945. These they took with them to the Soviet Union. View the looted treasures route here
Starting in 1992, the General State Archivist of the Netherlands, the Dutch embassy in Moscow and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in particular worked to retrieve the material from the Netherlands.
28,000 items returned
In May 2003, the looted archives were finally returned to their rightful owners, including the IAV. Over 28,000 items, about five linear metres of records, photographs and documentation material, were returned. All material that had been collected by the International Archive for the Women's Movement - especially by co-founder Rosa Manus - between 1935 and 1940, namely:
Records of individuals, including those of Aletta Jacobs, Rosa Manus and Betsy Bakker-Nort
Archives of organisations, including those of Arbeid Adelt and the Nederlandsche Vereeniging van Werkende Vrouwen
Hundreds of photographs of congresses, parades, meetings and persons
Biographical cuttings
Brochures, pamphlets, newsletters, congress reports and some issues of magazines
Some pieces highlighted
Below you can view some of the pieces that have returned.
Portion of a visa of Aletta Jacobs, Collection IAV-Atria. This visa had been issued to Aletta Jacobs on 6 May 1915 to travel in Germany and the then Austria-Hungary.
Photo of a signature campaign for disarmament by the Peace and Disarmament Committee of the Women's International Organisations. Nine million signatures were presented at the disarmament conference in Geneva on 6 February 1931.
The returned material also includes many hundreds of photographs. Well-known, but also lesser-known, such as this one of Rosa Manus and Mia Boissevain. They were the initiators of the Exhibition The Woman 1813-1913.
On stealing treasures
In 1994, historian Mineke Bosch visited the Moscow archive. She wanted to see the lost material with her own eyes. Looking was allowed, but taking anything back to the Netherlands was out of the question. In an unguarded moment, she snatched a photo of Rosa Manus, founder of the IAV. Read her personal account here.
Raubgut return
The Raubgut project in Duitslang aims to return books looted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 to their rightful owners. So far, nine books most likely looted from the IAV Collection have been found in the warehouses of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek in Berlin. Two had the ex libris of Rosa Manus and another the stamp of the IAV. The books were returned to Atria on 3 December 2015, during the celebration of 80 years of the IAV. One of the returned books is Beroepsarbeid der gehuwde vrouw (1921) by Groningen lawyer Betsy Bakker-Nort (later a member of parliament).
