Robert de Foy

Robert De Foy was the pre-War head of the Belgian State Security Service, who served the Nazi's during their occupation of Belgium, and got his job back after the liberation.

Evian Conference

De Foy was already head of the Belgian Secret Service when he attended the Evian Conference in France in June 1938, to discuss the refugee Jewish problem across Europe. In March 1938, after Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, the number of non-Belgian resident Jews had risen to 30,000.

With an anti-Semitic Government behind him and in light of the failure of the Evian Conference, King Leopold III of Belgium order then minister of Justice Charles du Bus de Warnaffe to deny refuge in Belgium to Austrian Jewish refugees; and for De Foy to draw up lists of "suspect Belgians and foreigners." [http://www.raphaelvishanu-world.at/Dec2003.html]

World War Two

When German troops invaded Belgium on 10 May, 1940, the Belgian authorities under instruction from De Foy rounded up the “unpatriotic” subjects, including Flemish nationalists, communists and non-Belgian citizens, most of them Jewish refugees from Germany and Poland. Theses people were exported to France on so-called "phantom trains" the records for which were destroyed, but it is known that at least 3,000 were arrested under the plot in Antwerp alone. A phantom train on which Joris van Severen, leader of the pro-Belgian Fascist party was among 79 people deported is well recorded, as 21 people were killed by French soldiers at Abbeville. [http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1287 Belgian Authorities Destroy Holocaust Records | The Brussels Journal ] ]

Of the people deported on "phantom trains," most including the Belgian Jews were released by the Wehrmacht, the only Jews released by the Nazi German Army. 3,537 Jews holding German and Austrian passports were kept imprisoned at location, and were transported to Auschwitz-Berkinau for processing.

On their return to Belgium in July 1940, the Flemish-Nationalists complained to General Eggert Reeder the head of the Wehrmacht in Brussels, who had De Foy arrested for the deportations. The SS ordered that De Foy be immediately released from prison, in that he had fully co-operated with Heinrich Himmler pre-War. [ [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005372 Deportations to Killing Centers ] ] This is possibly because of anti-Communist activity. [ [http://entre_nous.typepad.com/entre_nous/2004/12/index.html Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian: ] ]

Towards the end of 1944, with the Allied Forces invasion of Normandy, and the advancement of the Soviet Red Army in the east, the Nazis relieved De Foy of his position. After Robert Jan Verbelen was made head of the "De Vlag Veiligheidscorps", a Nazi SS security force in Belgium, and tried to kill De Foy; he was placed in jail.

Post World War Two

Post the War, De Foy resumed his position as head of the Belgian secret police 1945-1958. While the records about the persecution of the Antwerp Jews are intact, document about French-speaking cities with large Jewish communities including Charleroi and Liège, were claimed to have been purposely destroyed, even into the early 2000s. [ [http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/brussels090106.htm Belgian Authorities Destroy Holocaust Records ] ] . At least 171 Jews of Charleroi and 312 Jews from Liege are known to have died in the Shoah.

References

* José Gotovich and J.Gérard-Liébois - "L'an 40" (the year 1940)" Published by CRISP, 1971. French language