24 May 2016
3 hours

Continuation J.B. Th. Hugenholtz Archief

Archive Box 34. The cover states: Nobel Vredesprijs / N.B. Beschadigd.
The file contains the original application forms for Carl von Ossietzky’s 1935 Nobel Peace Prize nomination. On the basis of a series of long, glowing testimonies by Heinrich Mann (the one who instigated Ossietzky’s nomination), Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein and Romain Rolland, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee was persuaded to award the 1935 Peace Prize to the German pacifist/journalist Ossietzky for constantly speaking out against the Nazi regime and exposing the clandestine German re-armament program. In 1933 he had been among the first to be arrested. Awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize was the ultimate attempt to get him released from concentration camp Esterwegen, sadly to no avail, as he died there in 1938. 
Unfortunately all the documents suffer from mold and mildew (the infection – if that’s what it’s called – has been stopped and the documents are kept in special covers) which has turned large parts illegible.

Archive Box 56. The cover states: Buitenlands pacifisme, Engelse rapporten en rapporten van A.R. de Jong / 1942.

Archive Box 169. The cover states: The Great Proposal / Kappeyne van de Copello / 1956.
The Great Proposal is a fascinating report by Syracuse law professor Paul Shipman Andrews that was intended to end all war, though not through the formation of a world federation, which was the standard recipe at the time, but by gradually lowering worldwide spending on the military and using that money to help developing countries and appease the communist bloc.

Archive Box 171. The cover states: IFOR / Correspondentie.
- “Christian Non-Violence and Peace Making”
Typescript. Author: Pasteur Henri Roser (transl. Howard Schomer). Date: 1950. Format: B4. 3 pages.
Transcript of a speech made by Roser at the IFOR Conference at Wouderschoten, Netherlands, 26-31 July, 1950.
Christian pacifism means first being a Christian and second being a pacifist. The Holy Spirit can only be invited into church through conscientious objecting and adhering to the principles of nonviolence. Once the Holy Spirit is inside the church it will not only change the hearts of individuals but also the economic and political institutions, and it will only stay once we allow it “to change the base of iniquitous capitalism. […] This fidelity must be expressed not only in our inner hearts and our occasional proclamations, but also in a voluntary action of renunciation of our illicit gains from the capitalist system. Indeed, we have a free option between the voluntary abnegation of unmerited privileges or their loss through compulsion.”

Archive Box 196. The cover states: Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis (IISG ) / 1959 en later / Brieven Einstein etc. / 1932 / International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) / 1933.
The file contains several documents regarding the founding of a radical pacifistic International Peace House in The Hague by Einstein and Hugenholtz, which never got off the ground due to Einstein's flight from the Nazis to Belgium and later to America. One of the documents is the original design for a special share of one guilder (it features a portrait of Einstein, a globe with The Hague as its centre, and the words International Peace House / Een Gulden-One Guilder) designed by the artist Dirk Hart, which was intended to help bring about the new peace institute. Another is a protocol to establish the International Peace House, which was signed on 10 July 1932 by both Einstein and Hugenholtz.

- Press Release WRI 
Original typescript. No author. Date: 14 December 1930. Format: B4. 1 page.
The press release is a transcript of Einstein’s s speech before the New History Society at the Ritz Carlton of the same date. In his speech Einstein makes two proposals “To Do Something” to prevent new wars: (1) the refusal to engage in war service of any kind under any circumstances. And (2) to provide conscientious objectors the opportunity of an alternative service. “International legislation should be attuned to the idea that those who declare themselves against war should in time of peace should be allowed to take up something of difficult or even dangerous work, either for their country or for the international benefit of mankind. In this way they can prove that their opposition is not prompted by selfish or cowardly motives.”

- “Encounter with Einstein”
Original typescript. Author: J.B. Hugenholtz. Date: 1955. Format: A4. 2 pages.
After Einstein’s death Hugenholtz shared his memories of his encounters with Albert Einstein. “In July 1932, Prof. Einstein invited me to visit him at Caputh near Berlin to discuss with him the foundation of an international peace centre at The Hague. Under the menace of the increasing revolutionary situation (Hitler’s ‘brownshirts’ at this time already operated in Berlin at the surroundings of the house of Prof. Einstein!). I met him coming from his boat house barefoot at with his inseparable pipe in his mouth.” There they came to an agreement, which was later followed by the signing of the Protokoll. But due to the circumstances of the time the plan never came to fruition.

- Letter from Einstein to Hugenholtz
Carbon copy. Author: Albert Einstein. Date: 25 July 1932. Format: A4. 1 page. Language: German.
This letter contains Einstein’s official approval of the Protokoll that formed the basis for what should have become the International Peace House.

- “Protokoll”
Original typescript signed by Einstein and Hugenholtz. Authors: Albert Einstein and J.B. Hugenholtz. No date [1932]. Format: A4. 1 page. Language: German.
The International Peace House is to further the cause of radical pacifism (anti-militarism). To that end they will seek to work together with WRI, IFOR, IAMD (Internationaal Anti-Militaritisch Bureau) and the International Union of Antimilitaristic Clergymen. 

- “Why War? ‘Open Letters’ Between Einstein & Freud”
Pamphlet. Authors: Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Publisher: The New Commonwealth. Date: January 1934. Format: A5. 19 pages.
In 1931, the Institute for Intellectual Cooperation invited Einstein to a cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas about politics and peace with a thinker of his choosing. He selected Sigmund Freud whom he had met briefly in 1927 and whose work he had come to admire, despite being skeptical of psychoanalysis. A series of letters followed, discussing the abstract generalities of human nature and the potential concrete steps for reducing violence in the world. In a twist of irony, the correspondence was originally published in 1933 by the Internationales Institut Fur Geistige Zusammenarbeit under the title Warum Krieg?, in the same month that Hitler, who would eventually banish both Einstein and Freud into exile, had come to power. 
The text consists of an Introduction by Ernst Jäckh (p. 3-4), Einstein’s letter to Freud (p. 6-8) and Freud’s reply (p. 9-19).
Einstein: “This is the problem: Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?” Even in 1932, well before the atomic age, Einstein foresees that “with the advance of modern science, this issue has come to mean a matter of life and death for Civilization as we know it.” His solution, a Plato inspired world government: “The quest of international security involves the unconditional surrender by every nation, in a certain measure, of its liberty of action—its sovereignty that is to say—and it is clear beyond all doubt that no other road can lead to such security.” His final question to Freud: “Is it possible to control man’s mental evolution so as to make him proof against the psychosis of hate and destructiveness?”
In his reply Freud is very skeptical about the elimination of violent instincts and war: “The upshot of these observations, as bearing on the subject in hand, is that there is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity’s aggressive tendencies. In some happy corners of the earth, they say, where nature brings forth abundantly whatever man desires, there flourish races whose lives go gently by; unknowing of aggression or constraint. This I can hardly credit; I would like further details about these happy folk.” Yet, he ends on a slightly optimistic note, saying that our hope that war will end in the near future is “not chimerical”.

Archive Box 259. The cover states: Briefkaarten.
A small but charming collection of peace postcards and Christmas cards sent to Hugenholtz by WRI, IFOR, Peace Pledge Union and others.

Archief Gerrit Mannoury.
Archive Box 4.
Mannoury was a mathematician, philosopher, communist and one of the fathers of ‘significs’ (significa), a precursor to the science of semiotics, which is a theory of signs intended to rid language of ambiguity and ambivalence. In his letter he tries to convince Gandhi of the importance of significs
- Letter by Gerrit Mannoury to Mahatma Gandhi.
Original handwritten letter. Author: Gerrit Mannoury. Date: 12 April 1930. Format: A5. 2 pages.
 “To Gandhi: Remember that the science of significs teaches us that words are mortal and decaying into fetishes. Therefore defenselessness ad extrenium is complicity to the oppressor and humanity without justice is treason to the oppressed.” However once the word is ridden of its ambivalence it is “past sorrow and joy, complaint and will together. The word is humanity. Today I add: the word is justice. Infinite humanity and terrible justice.”