Selected Records of the David Diamant Collection from the Departmental Archives of the Seine‐Saint‐Denis,1906‐1986

David Diamant (David Erlich 1904-1994) was a Polish-born French Communist resistance fighter and President of the Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et Entraide, who ran the Marxist Library of Paris, part of the French Communist Party, for many years. This was originally a heteroclite collection of press clippings, newspapers and magazines, documentation, original manuscripts in many languages (handwritten or typed,) and unidentified photos and microfilms in Yiddish which Mr. Diamant seemed to be keeping for his own use. There were also many boxes containing the membership forms of the Organization of Polish Jews in France from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, which helped Polish Jews financially and logistically after WW II. Most of the press publications from the collection were not filmed. Some of the highlights of this collection are: rare periodicals in French and Yiddish from 1919 to the 1980’s; Jewish immigrant life in France for the period between 1919 and 1939; material concerning the Spanish Civil War, the participation of Jews, and fate of the combatants; World War II persecution of Jews in France with testimonies, lists of interned, executed or deported people, and information on the Drancy, Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithivers internment camps; Jews in the French Resistance including lists of actions, testimony and reports, especially Carmagnole-Liberté and the MOI, underground press publications; post-war period materials from Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et l’Entraide, summer camps and orphanages for children, organizing return of survivors, Union des Femmes Juives; JOINT, ORT, UGIF, CRIF and OSE materials; post-war exhibitions; and archives of Yiddish writers who died in deportation including Chlawno Kagan, Aaaron Bekerman and Abraham Gelman.

Arrangement is thematic.