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Rosa Manus
In May 2003, archival materials that had been stolen from the IAV’s Keizersgracht in July 1940, were returned. The stolen material included the personal archive of Rosa Manus (1881-1943), one of the founders of the IAV in 1935 and a very active and internationally-oriented feminist and pacifist. (IAV is still the collection name within Atria.)
![Russsiche archief dozen in ons archief Russsiche archief dozen in ons archief](../../../atria/mmbase/images/87194/algrusssicharchierdozeninonsarchief.jpg)
![Rosa Manus achter bureau Rosa Manus achter bureau](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94563/rosamanusachterbureau.jpg)
![total amount of subscibers to the petition total amount of subscibers to the petition](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94562/totaal.gif)
On 5 September 1931:
This committee was organized in preparation for the major disarmament conference that was to be held in Geneva in February 1932. Initially, there were 13 organizations involved but later on 15 organizations took part in the action![Rosa Manus in action Rosa Manus in action](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94561/PetitieZes.gif)
One of Rosa Manus’ tasks was to prepare a petition articulating ‘women’s desire for peace’ which was to be presented as a declaration of women’s support to the disarmament conference.
Thanks to Rosa Manus’s extraordinary organizational talents and energy, more than nine million signatures from 59 countries were collected on the petition. Her archive contains tallies of signatures by country, correspondence with the committees from different countries, photographs documenting the transportation and official presentation of the mountains of signatures on 6 February 1932, and extensive reports about the event.
![Rosa Manus in action 2 Rosa Manus in action 2](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94560/PetitieEen.jpg)
Fifteen large-format pages with the tallies of the signatures by country. This is where Rosa kept track of the signatures as they came in. She wrote about it in a letter to Carrie Chapman Catt:
‘Of course, it is very exciting to receive the packages, and even if only few countries managed to collect a small number of signatures, I am satisfied. … I hope that we will gather 10 million signatures!’
(Lieve Dr. Jacobs, p. 234-237) She missed that last goal by a narrow margin. In the end, the signatures numbered 9,414,517. That figure is visible on the last typed sheet of the total overview.![Rosa Manus in action 3 Rosa Manus in action 3](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94559/PetitieTwee.jpg)
5 February 1932:
The signed petitions were driven through Geneva in two lorries decorated with a globe, posters and banners..![Rosa Manus Petirion Rosa Manus Petirion](../../../atria/mmbase/images/94558/PetitieDrie.jpg)