Robert de Foy - Belgian State Security Service: 1933-1940

Belgian State Security Service: 1933-1940

Appointed as head of the Belgian State Security Service on December 30, 1934, de Foy had to deal with the problems of rising international tensions.

Many countries considered communism as the most important threat. Security services of neutral countries like the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium attended conferences with other nations, including nazi-Germany, to consider their position towards communism. Such a conference took place in Berlin from August 30 until September 3, 1937. De Foy attended only at the end. He was rather reserved about such meetings, and reduced his own participation to a minimum. After the war he declared to an investigating magistrate and to a journalist of 'Associated Press' that there had never been deals made between the Gestapo and Belgian police services for a joint battle against communism.

In June 1938, de Foy and J. Schneider, the Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, represented Belgium at the Evian Conference in France. By March 1938, after Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, the number of non-Belgian resident Jews had risen to 30,000. The Evian Conference was seen by all as a failure, failing to reach agreement on the number of Jews that would pass to both the United Kingdom and the United States.

With war approaching, the Belgian government, represented by the then minister of Justice Charles du Bus de Warnaffe ordered De Foy to draw up lists of "suspect Belgians and foreigners." On the list were the leaders of extreme right and fascist movements, such as REX (Leon Degrelle), Flemish nationalist movement, Verdinaso (Joris van Severen), etc. but also communist leaders. If the Germans attacked they would have to be arrested and confined into safe places. The list mentioned also Germans or other foreigners of whom it was not certain if they sympathized with the nazis, despite the fact many of them were Jewish refugees. On May 10, 1940, the Germans having invaded Belgium, telegrams were sent to local police authorities, signed 'de Foy' (it is still disputed if he actually sent them) to set in motion the arrests and the deportation to France.