The Left in Belgium is today a rising force — but this country also has a rich labor and left-wing history. The Belgian Communists were a major force in the strike waves of the 1930s, the anti-Nazi resistance in World War II, the opposition to the Belgian monarchy, and trade unions up until the 1970s. The Communists were also an often-rare voice in denouncing Belgian colonialism in Congo and its enduring effects.

José Gotovitch was a historian deeply involved in this history. After surviving the Holocaust as a young child, he became involved in Communist politics in his teenage years. He was also a leading historian, with studies like L’An 40: La Belgique occupée on German-occupied Belgium, and he later became a member of the Royal Academy. Founder of the Centre for Communist Archives in Belgium, his final book, Allons au devant de la vie, offered a history of the Young Communists from their founding in 1921 to the end of World War II. He died last Friday.

In a recent interview with labor historian Adrian Thomas, originally published by Lava, Gotovitch spoke about the Communist Youth’s role in the Belgian workers’ movement, its clandestine work in the Resistance, and his own postwar involvement in the movement.