FAQ

Content and sources

What is the purpose of this database?

Resistance in Belgium aims to centralise data about more than 200,000 persons who were (possibly) involved in various forms of resistance activities in Belgium during the Second World War. In the wake of the war, their engagement led to the creation by public authorities and by the Resistance movements themselves of a significant number of personal files about the recognition of their status as resistance fighters by the Belgian state. The data are derived from these files (or preliminary forms and files) and refer to the corresponding archive fonds.

The database also contains information about the resistance movements and networks, and related archive fonds. Furthermore, these information were matched, wherever possible, with the correpsondent Wikidata identifiers of resistance fighters, thereby enriching the data with input from external sources.

Which information can be found?

The abundance of information may vary according to the nature of the archive documents. The database contains both biographical information (last name, first name, language, nationality, date and place of birth and death, civil status, profession, place of residence) and information about the activities of the person in question within the resistance (movement, network, main imprisonment dates, information about the request for recognition of the status of resistance fighter, photo). For each entry/person an inventory number is specified that enables researchers to quickly find back the corresponding file in the collections of the State Archives.

What is the origin of the data?

The data already available online or currently beeing processed are derived from sheets and forms, but mainly from personal files managed by CegeSoma, the Archives Service for War Victims and the National Archives of Belgium. These documents were created for the purpose of obtaining one of the five national recognition status granted by the Belgian state between 1944 and 1948 to honour, reward and compensate persons who battled against the enemy during the occupation. All categories combined, the data originate from more than 350,000 personal files created by approximately 200,000 individuals (or their beneficiaries in the event of death) who submitted requests for recognition, and these records shall eventually be accessible online with just a few clicks.

The data are fed to the database from the following sources:

Fonds managed by CegeSoma

• The files usually created by the State Security Services in preparation for the granting of the Status of intelligence and intervention agent
• The files created by the following resistance movements in preparation of the granting of the Status of armed resistance fighter (or sometimes for honorary awards):
  • Les Affranchis
  • Front de l'indépendance (Milices patriotiques and Partisans armés) (very incomplete)
  • Groupe G
  • Les Insoumis
  • Kempisch Legioen
  • L.100
  • Mouvement national royaliste (incomplete)
  • Nola
  • Organisation militaire belge de Résistance (incomplete)
  • Service D (incomplet)
  • Witte Brigade Fidelio

• The sheets, forms and files created by the following resistance movements in preparation of the granting of the Status as resistance fighter of the underground press:
  • Front de l'indépendance
  • Union nationale de la presse clandestine

• The forms created by the following resistance movement in preparation of the granting of the Status as civil resistance fighter:
  • Front de l'indépendance

Fonds managed by the Archives Service for War Victims

• Files about the granting of the Status of resistance fighter of the underground press
• Files about the Status of civil resistance fighter

Fonds held by the National Archives of Belgium

• Files of the Office de la Résistance about the Status of armed resistance fighter

Are all data points translated into the national languages?

We are working diligently to make most of the data points available in French, Dutch, German and English. However, due to limited resources, not all data points were translated. This is the case for professions (introduced in the same language as the file).

How to know when fresh data will be added to the database?

We publish updates on the start page of the platform, on the Facebook page of CegeSoma and via the newsletters of CegeSoma and State Archives.

How to organise your research

How can I carry out research in Resistance in Belgium?

You have three ways to search:

• By name

• By place of residence

• Through in-depth search

For more details on how to use these options, please visit our data access page.

How can I combine different search criteria?

To perform more complex searches, you can combine multiple criteria such as place of residence, year of birth, profession, gender, or the formal recognition status. The best way to combine these criteria is by using the SPARQL query language, which allows you to create specific queries and refine your results based on the available data in the database.

Although SPARQL may seem complex, predefined queries are available to help you explore the data without requiring technical knowledge, allowing you to familiarise yourself with the language. These queries enable you to fully exploit the wealth of information present in Resistance in Belgium. For more details and to access query examples, please visit this page.

Additionally, tables by region of residence are also available to help you explore the data based on geographical criteria, without the use of SPARQL. These tables provide an overview of individuals per region.

Why does it take so long for the search results to be displayed?

The delay may be due to the complexity of the SPARQL query, to the amount of data that must be retrieved or to peak traffic time on the platform which may cause a slow-down of the servers.

Data unavailable, false or incomplete

I search for the name of a person but no result is displayed. Why?

This may be due to different reasons:

1. Not all data are available online yet: they will be progressively published in the coming years.
2. In compliance with data protection legislation (GDPR), only data about persons of whom we know that they are deceased or persons whose date of birth – dating back 100 years or more – suggests that the person is now deceased are published on the plateform.
3. Maybe the person in question – or his/her relatives if the person died during the war – did not file a request to obtain the status of resistance fighter despite having carried out interventions during the war to harm the occupant. This is notably the case for most foreigners, for which it was very difficult or even impossible to obtain the status of resistance fighter, for women who, for cultural reasons, deemed it not necessary to undertake these steps towards recognition, and for many less-educated people who were discuraged by the complexity of the administrative formalities to be completed. Consequently, no files were opened about these persons.
4. Some files may be lost.
5. Only the data from the files held by the State Archives can be fed to the Resistance in Belgium database. Yet, several armed resistance movements such as Armée de la Libération, Armée secrète, Milices patriotiques and Partisans armés du Front de l’indépendance, Mouvement national belge did not tranfer the personal files of their members to the State Archives (this is also partly the case for service D). As private organisations these movements are indeed not obliged to hand over their records to the State Archives.
6. We invite you to try out other search terms: Maybe a person was recorded under her maiden name or a different spelling of the name. If the issue persists, you can always contact us.

Why does my SPARQL query return no results?

It is possible that the criteria you have used are too specific so that no individuals meet all the requested characteristics. In that case, we recommend restarting your search with fewer criteria.

Using the "OPTIONAL clause" in SPARQL queries is a potential solution to make certain criteria optional, thereby giving you more results. This allows additional information to be included if available, without excluding the results that do not meet the criteria. We understand that this feature may seem complex. We are currently working on a detailed tutorial that will explain how to use the best techniques to optimise your searches. This guide will soon be available to guide you step by step.

The amount of information available may be different from one person to the other and sometimes data is missing. Why?

Some information may be missing because they were not recorded in the archive documents. For example, the files opened for the procedure to obtain the status of armed resistance fighter are much less exhaustive than those opend for other status procedures. Furthermore, some information such as language, nationality, place of birth, civil status or profession may not have been recorded in the database due to the processing time required: priority was given to known resistance fighters and to victims of the occupant for which all data are available through the questionnaire we set up or whose data can be obtained relatively quickly.

It seems that some information are contradictory depending on the file from which they originate. Why is that and how do I know which data is reliable?

• During the database feeding process, some data may have been introduced erroneously and upon verification the error was not noticed.
• Some information may have already been erroneous in the original files. Knowing which data are reliable may then prove to be difficult. However, the data originating from the status files are usually more reliable than those of the preparatory files.
• Some information may have changed during the time between the occupation period and the years in which the files were opened, thus between 1945 and 1960. The database team has always sought to record the data stemming from the time closest to the occupation period, but they often date from the immediate postwar period. Yet in some status files such as Statut Presse clandestine and Résistance civile, the civil status, profession and place of residence during the occupation were recorded nevertheless, which may explain discrepancies with data from other sheets, forms or files.

I have noticed content errors. Who should I contact?

The database feeding is a long-term work. Despite the vigilance of our team, errors may occur. If you find one, feel free to contact us, backed up by corresponding evidence..

Re-use of data

How to save search results?

In the case of a simple search query, just save the links (URL) to the pages in question. We use unique identifiers that allow you to easily find back a specific “item” of Resistance in Belgium or to refer to it.

In the case of SPARQL queries, you can export the collected data (using the Download tab in the top right corner of the search results) in different formats: CSV (file type that can be opened using LibreOffice Calc or Excel), TSV or JSON. You can also save your search query line (by generating a link using the Link tab in the top right corner of the search results) and open it later or share it with others.

How do I quote items from the database?

Please consult our information page.

Access to paper archives

I would like to consult individual records, files, or forms to further deepen my research, how should I proceed?

Example of a reference to an archival collection with the related inventory number.

The records, files, or forms, held in various depots of the Belgian State Archives, have not been digitised and require an on-site visit to the reading room. Here is how to proceed:

1. At the top of the page dedicated to each individual, you will find the mention of the archival collection(s) containing documents on this person, along with the relevant file or inventory number. In some cases, this might unfortunately only consist of summary forms or a file whose essential content is already available to you online.
2. Clicking on the reference to the archival collection, located above the file or inventory number, will give you more information, including the depot where the paper archives are kept and a link to the online inventory, if available.
3. With this information, you can contact the relevant depot to organise your visit to the reading room to consult the relevant file(s) or form(s) relating to the individual in question.

Please note: In some cases, prior authorisation is needed to consult the document. The consultation procedures (and any necessary third-party permissions) will be communicated by the respective archive depot.

Specificities of the personal files of resistance fighters

What is the use of the preparatory files when the status files are available?

• The preparatory files, forms and sheets are of particular interest with regard to the Status of armed resistance fighter because the information they contain about the activities of the person in question are usually more exhaustive than the files opened by the Office de la Résistance, which are very laconic on the matter.
• The status files Statut Presse clandestine and Résistance civile usually hold only scarce information when the person decided at an early stage of the procedure to no longer seek to obtain the status. In these cases, the preparatory files, forms and sheets produced by the Union nationale de la presse clandestine or the Front de l'indépendance may prove to be highly valuable for research.
• In some cases, for example in the files and sheets produced by the Union de la presse clandestine, but also in the preparatory files opened by certain movements such as Les Insoumis, identity photos were added, which is almost never the case in the status files.

Why do we not have the preparatory files of all the armed resistance movements

Because the records of some of these movements are not kept by the State Archives:

• The records of Armée de la Libération, Armée secrète and Mouvement national belge are kept and managed by Service général du Renseignement et de la Sécurité - Section des Archives Classifiées (Quartier Reine Elisabeth, bloc 15, rue d’Evere, 1 in 1140 Evere, contact by email);
• The records of Armée belge des Partisans (or Partisans armés) and Milices patriotiques are kept and managed by Musée de la Résistance de Belgique (rue Van Lint, 14 in 1070 Anderlecht, contact: by email);
• The records of Service D are kept and managed by Atelier liégeois pour la promotion de l’histoire et des archives sociales (ALPHAS, Esp. de la Mairie 1, 4102 Seraing, contact).

Why do we not have all preparatory files of the members of the armed resistance movements whose personal files are kept by the State Archives?

Unfortunately, some of these record series are incomplete. This in particular the case with regard to the files of Le Mouvement national royaliste and Organisation militaire belge de Résistance. Also, the State Archives do not hold the preparatory files of Armée belge des Partisans (or Partisans armés), Milices patriotiques and Service D, only highly fragmented secondary record series.

Why do we only have the preparatory files opened by the State Security Service (Sûreté de l’Etat/Staatsveiligheid) for the granting of the Status of intelligence and intervention agent and not the official status recognition files opened by Defence?

These official files were found back only recently and require special treatment and reclassification before being made available to the public and eventually fed to the database within the framework of the project Wikibase Resistance. Furthermore, feeding these official files to the database is not a priority because they are usually much less rich in information than the preparatory files established by Sûreté de l’État/Staatsveiligheid: Their (almost) sole use lies in the existence of files about persons not included in the files of Sûreté de l’État/Staatsveiligheid, which is only rarely the case in our view.

Why are there more files about members of Groupe G and Nola than about members of other armed resistance movements?

Because these movements are particular in that they were recognised by the Belgian state as both armed resistance movements and as intelligence and intervention networks. Therefore, their members may have four files: one preparatory file and one file of the Office de la Résistance opened within the procedure for the Status of armed resistance fighter; and one file of Sûreté de l’Etat/Staatsveiligheid and one file established by Defense within the procedure for the Status of intelligence and intervention agent (reminder: these last files are not yet accessible).

Specific features of the platform

Which are the advantages of Resistance in Belgium?

Resistance in Belgium is based on the open-source software Wikibase, initially created for the management of the general knowledge base Wikidata. It is a research tool that can accomodate structured and multilingual data that can be read by both humans and machines. Each described term is identified through a unique identifier, and a description and semantic fields provide it with properties. These characteristics make it possible to multiply the options for exploring and visualising the data, but also to offer more context information and to open up the collections by linking them to external data. Procedures are thus put in place to align persons with corresponding Wikidata entries, while the places (birth, residence, death) are are linked to external resources such as Wikidata or GeoNames. By connecting these data, we can obtain other references such as ODIS identifiers or SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) that may help users find other resources or archival collections in Belgium or abroad.

Which is the connection between the database and the search engine of the State Archives (search.arch.be)?

Resistance in Belgium is the result of a pilot project of CegeSoma/State Archives aimed at exploiting the technologies of the semantic Web to offer new ways of accessing data. The database is connected to the search engine of the State Archives in two ways: First, the references of archive fonds about the resistance refer to the corresponding inventories available online via search.arch.be. Second, in the medium term, a copy of the data about resistance fighters shall be made available via the module Search persons.

Why is the domain name data.arch.be?

For the time being, only data from the project Wikibase Resistance are stored on the platform. In the long term however, it can not be excluded that this infrastructure gets used for other projects too that abide by the principle of FAIR data: findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable. In order to ensure the long-term reliability of the URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) associated with the data about the resistance, we chose to use a more generic denomination in accordance with the standards of the archive, museum and library sector.

Participation in the project

I have complementary information that I would like to add. Is this possible?

We are currently focussing our efforts on the feeding of the database and online publication of data originating from the personal files held by the State Archives only. In the long term, we may consider the integration of more links to external sources, however.

I take great interest in the Second World War and would like to contribute to the project. Are you looking for trainees/volunteers?

Everyone who would like to join the project as trainee or volunteer is welcome. The conditions for this committment are the following: dedicate at least three months (trainees) or one day per week (volunteers) to the project; have a good passive command of the French or Dutch language, and preferably of both languages; have analytical skills, be capable of accurately applying multiple instructions; enjoy team work. Please contact us to discuss the details.

I work for an institution that also holds archives about the resistance in Belgium. Is there a possibility to collaborate?

We are currently focussing our efforts on the feeding of the database and online publication of data originating from the archive documents held by the State Archives only. However, we encourage you to establish links between your finding aids and Resistance in Belgium using the unique identifiers allocated to all the persons listed in the database. In the long term, we may consider the integration of more links to external sources, however. For other types of collaboration you can always contact us.