State secrets and a handwritten page by Marx: a look inside the IISG treasury
For ninety years, the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam has preserved significant global archives, including the original handwritten page of the Communist Manifesto. The institute serves as a vital repository for materials on labor movements, protecting both historical records and sensitive contemporary data concerning activists under the leadership of directors Leo Lucassen and Lily Knibbeler.
The International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam has spent ninety years curating a massive collection focused on global labor and social movements. Housed in secure vaults, the archive contains approximately 6,000 collections, one million books, and rare historical documents, including the world's only handwritten page of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Founded in 1935, the institute became a sanctuary for sensitive political materials from across Europe during the rise of totalitarian regimes. Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, the Nazis seized many of these archives, intending to use them to study their political opponents, with items scattered as far as Poland before being partially recovered after the war.
Today, the institute maintains rigorous physical and digital security to protect contemporary records regarding activists and marginalized groups. Departing director Leo Lucassen and his successor, Lily Knibbeler, emphasize the importance of preserving diverse, multi-vocal historical records to support democracy. While they express concern over modern political challenges and global instability, they remain committed to documenting the voices of those often excluded from traditional history.
Based on reporting by rss. Translated and condensed by LocalHeadlines.
