The archives of the ANDB and the ADB
The ANDB archive
The IISH holds the archive of the Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond [General Diamond Workers’ Union of the Netherlands, ANDB], which has been fully digitalized with support from a Metamorfoze grant.
In addition to the usual meeting documents, this archive features many compelling 'documents humains,' such as apprentice cards with biographical data from diamond workers in training; membership cards with biographical data, and addresses of diamond workers or cheerful postcards from members on holiday to chairman Henri Polak.
The archive also comprises the forms (including identification photographs) that diamond workers completed in 1941 to apply for a temporary exemption from deportation.
Link to digitalized archive: https://hdl.handle.net/10622/ARCH00210
The ADB archive
Het AMSAB-ISG Institute of Social History in Ghent manages the archive of the Algemene Diamantbewerkersbond van België [General Diamond Workers’ Association of Belgium] (ADB). The archive clearly conveys the operations of the union board, the union council, the Rijksverlofkas voor Diamant [state fund for leave for diamond workers], the Paritair Comité, and Zonnestraal (the union’s facility for ill diamond workers, most suffering from tuberculosis) with gaps for the periods 1897-1904 and 1917-1943. It contains documents concerning contacts with the ABVV Antwerp district and the Rijksdienst voor Arbeidsvoorziening [state labour exchange], the Hoge Raad voor Diamant [high council for the diamond industry] and the ministries. In addition, extensive (now digitalized) membership records were kept, as well as two registers (1932-1938) of apprentice diamond workers with identification photographs.
Link to the archive inventory: http://hdl.handle.net/10796/40C247C7-3815-49E3-9EFA-3258AD9A28E1
Universal Alliance of Diamond workers
In the early twentieth century, the ANDB and the ADB teamed up to found the Universal Alliance of Diamond Workers. The Universal Alliance had its head office in Saint-Claude in the Jura area of France for a while. Many of the archives from the Universal Alliance (Alliance Universelle des Ouvriers Diamantaires) are in St Claude and have been digitalized by La Fraternelle in Saint-Claude. They may be consulted online on the Amsab-ISG website.
Link to the digitalized archive of the AUOD: http://hdl.handle.net/10796/6053A40C-E53C-479A-8B36-CE39FBDA7CA6
