ROBERT OF MOLY — Wikipedia

Robert Herman Alfred de Foy , born the 23 mars 1893 in Grammont (in Flanders-Orientale) and died the August 15, 1960 In Brussels, is a Belgian magistrate, administrator of the state security from 1933 to 1940 and from 1947 to 1958. He was also secretary general of the Ministry of Justice from 1943 to the end of the occupation.

Following his actions during the Second World War, he was recognized just among the nations in 1975 by the Yad Vashem Institute.

Robert de Foy was the son of the official Léon de Foy (1852-1942) and Mathilde de Vos (1860-1943). His brother, Marcel de Foy (1890-1964) ended his career as emeritus president at the Brussels Court of Appeal, and his other brother, Joseph de Foy (1897-1969) was at the service of the Minière Union Congo. In 1919, Léon obtained the change of his name “Defoy” into “Foy” and in 1934, he obtained the hereditary nobility.

In 1941, Robert de Foy married Françoise du Monceau de Bergendal (born in 1910), sister of Count Ivan du Monceau de Bergendal (1909–2005), deputy prosecutor in Brussels during the Second World War, dismissed in 1944, reinstated in 1954, He is the founder of the Pan satirical newspaper. They divorced in 1943. In 1946, he married in second marriage Marguerite Tallon (1893–1960). He had no children ^{[ first ]} .

After having served in the Belgian army during the First World War, Robert de Foy undertook studies of law and won a doctorate at the University of Louvain. From 1922 to 1925, he was a military auditor of the Belgian occupation army on Ruhr, Germany. From 1925 to 1929, he was the first substitute for the King’s prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Antwerp. His career in public security began in 1931 as deputy director for the administrator. THE August 8, 1933 , during the unexpected death of his predecessor, Baron René Beltjens (1879–1933), he then became the general administrator ^{[ 2 ] , [ 3 ] , [ 4 ]} .

Director of public security (1933-1940) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Although function since August 8, 1933 , Robert de Foy is officially appointed administrator of the public security December 30, 1934 . While he exercises this function, he quickly faced the fear of the communists who reigned in Belgium in the mid -1930s.

In 1936, he had to face the “Bell” affair: Heinrich Bell, a German communist refugee in Belgium, was delivered to the authorities of the 3rd Reich, which aroused controversy. Robert de Foy is therefore little appreciated by left -wing environments. In the consequences of this case, he is led to go to Berlin and collaborate with the senior German security services leaders, including Reinhardt Heydrich ^{[ 5 ]} . In this context of fear of communism, the different European countries organize conferences to discuss the measures to be taken. Thus, in 1937, a delegation of Belgian public security participated in a conference by the “International Commission of the Criminal Police” (C.I.P.C.) held in Berlin and chaired by Heydrich. Robert de Foy only participated at the end of the debates ^{[ 2 ]} . The real collaboration between public security and the Gestapo is unclear but an agreement has indeed made between these two institutions. Nevertheless, Robert de Foy later declared that this agreement was limited to an exchange of information on German refugees who arrived in Belgium ^{[ 6 ]} .

In June 1938, from Foy and J. Schneider, the director of foreign affairs and foreign trade, represented Belgium at the Conference of Évian in France. In March 1938, when Germany annexed Austria (Anschluss), the number of Jewish residents in Belgium reached the record figure of 30,000 people. The Evian conference was perceived as a failure as to the objective of finding an agreement on the number of Jews who could rally and Great Britain and the United States.

In mars 1940 , Belgian intelligence services are reorganized. State security is born and Robert de Foy is placed at his head ^{[ 7 ]} .

On the eve of the war, the Belgian government, then represented by the Minister of Justice, Charles of the Bus of Warnauff, asked De Foy to establish lists of Belgians and suspicious foreigners ^{[ 8 ]} . On these lists were the leaders of the extreme right and fascist movements like Rex (Léon Degrelle), the Flemish nationalist movements, Verdinaso (Joris Van Severen), … but also the communist leaders. During a German attack, these people should be arrested and confined to a safe place. The list also resumed Germans and other foreigners of which it was not possible to gauge their degree of sympathy with regard to the Nazis (some of them were Jewish refugees). THE May 10, 1940 , during the invasion of Belgium, a telegram was sent to all local police authorities to arrest and deportation to France. The message was signed Robert de Foy but this element is still disputed today. However, Belgian intelligence services are still in full reorganization and it only participates in a limited manner in these arrests ^{[ 7 ]} .

During WWII [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

After the invasion and the capitulation occurred May 28, 1940 , Adolf Hitler chooses not to set up a civil government (as he did in the Netherlands), but to ensure a military occupation led by General Falkenhausen of the Wehrmacht. The Belgian administration remained in place and, under the supervision of the German authorities, ruled Belgium according to a policy of the least evil.

Following arrests of May 1940 , Robert de Foy with other magistrates and civil servants are arrested by the Geheime Feldpolizei in July 1940 . Robert de Foy was then sent to Germany. He was released a month later at the request of Heydrich. Upon his return, he took the direction of the foreigners police and public security is deleted ^{[ 2 ]} .

As of his appointment in 1943 to the post of secretary general of the Ministry of Justice, Robert de Foy was involved in the efforts undertaken by Léon Platteau to release the Jews detained at the Dossin barracks in Mechelen, thus preventing their expulsion. He thus opposed German violations of international conventions as well as their own promises. This is expressed in an official letter of protest addressed the October 15, 1943 To the highest German authority in Belgium, General von Falkenhausen, military commander of Belgium and northern France.

The system worked as follows: most of the prisoners with Belgian nationality, their parents were invited by Platteau and Foy to turn to the Red Cross or the AJB, which in turn, addressing the Ministry of Justice, asked for their release. The ministry, through De Foy and Platteau, then approached the military authorities through official letters (still signed by them) to present specific or personal cases. They took a pretext for Belgian nationality, age (over 65 or under 18), serious diseases (such as tuberculosis), from marriage to a Aryan, etc. Baron Wilhelm von Hahn, in charge of Jewish affairs in the political department of military administration, has proven useful, and hundreds of people – nearly 900 requests were submitted – were indeed released.

The February 28, 1944 , Robert de Foy is the subject of an assassination attempt by the collaborator militia of Robert Jan Verbelen ^{[ 9 ]} .

After war [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

General Secretaries are the subject of an administrative inquiry, instituted the October 26, 1944 . This does not take into account the persecution of the Jews at all. The case of Robert de Foy is analyzed very succinctly and no sanction is retained against him ^{[ ten ]} .

Robert de Foy is dismissed at his request for his office as a security administrator. In February 1946 , Robert de Foy allows the creation of a coordination committee organizing contact with different Jewish associations. A dialogue is thus established between the police of foreigners and this committee allowing the reception of Jewish refugees in Belgium ^{[ 11 ]} . Of first ^is April 1946 At 31 mars 1947 , he was then a judge at the International Tribunal of Tangier.

State Security Administrator (1947-1958) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Robert de Foy is again at the head of the state security in April 1947 . By decrees of the Regent of April 1 and May 28, 1948 , State security is again attached to the Ministry of Justice, and becomes a section of the General Directorate of Public Security ^{[ twelfth ]} . Ludovic Caeymax is appointed as assistant administrator in May 1948 ^{[ 13 ]} . During this period, state security attributes to monitoring communist activities in Belgium. For this, she collaborated closely in the summer of 1947 with the American CIA. This policy of alignment with American vision is supported by Paul-Henri Spaak ^{[ 14 ]} . Robert de Foy carried out the function of administrator until his retirement in 1958. Two years later, in 1960, Robert de Foy died in Brussels at the age of sixty-seven years.

A title of just controversial today [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The avenue des Justes among nations – Yad Vashem – Israel

The December 11, 1975 , Yad Vashem recognized Robert de Foy as just among the nations.

The site Yad Vashem , in his note about the help led by Robert de Foy, speaks of “docile Belgium”, a study carried out in 2006 on the conduct of the Belgian authorities and the persecution of the Jews during the war. The note specifies that the expulsion measures put in place by De Foy had been taken well before the start of deportations and the assassination of the Jews. He could therefore not be aware of the consequences of his actions which followed Belgian policy concerning foreigners, refugees and Jews. Even if in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Robert de Foy followed the policy of his country over Jewish refugees, he nevertheless decided to act when he was confronted with their assassination, saving a big many of them of deportation and death.

However, the title is still controversial today. Indeed, he is questioned by Sonia Pressman Fuentes, American Jew and former magistrate. His parents, Polish Jews, decided to leave Berlin and settle in Belgium in 1934. Helped by historian Frank Caestecker, Sonia Pressman collected archives proving Robert de Foy’s refusal to welcome these refugees. Under the administrator, the couple was to be arrested by the police, but Pressman’s parents manage to flee to the United States. According to Frank Caestecker, De Foy made the same decision for hundreds of other Jews. Sonia Pressman filed a complaint for Yad Vashem to withdraw the title of “Just”. The study of this case is taken seriously by the Jewish institution but will take several years ^{[ 15 ] , [ 16 ] , [ 17 ] , [ 18 ]} .

Regarding this case, the historian Lieven Saerens says this: “It seems wrong to focus on one person. It should indeed be placed in the social and professional context of its time. As for the pre-war period, in any case, the refugee policy led by the Belgian government should not be lost in sight. With regard to the war period and the help of the Jews in particular, it is necessary to examine which Jews were helped and which Jews were in any case spared (temporarily) by the occupier. In general, it is also not uncommon for some people who have demonstrated before the war a ‘anti -Semitic’/xenophobic point of view, nevertheless practice the help of the Jews during the war ” ^{[ 19 ]} .

He had a number of decorations mostly linked to the Second World War:

• K. ((Prefeface the R. The FOY), The expulsion of foreigners and the offense of rupture of ban , Louvain: Impr. administrative, 1934.
• Pomba A. (preface by R. de Foy), The regime of foreigners in Belgium , 2nd ed. , Bruges: Legal and administrative editions, 1961.

• J. Gérard-Libois & José Gotovich, The year 40. Occupied Belgium , Brussels, 1971
• Albert de Jonghe, The battle Himmler-Reeder to appoint an HSSPF in Brussels. Part 3 , Contribute to the history of the Second World War, 5, 1978, p. 133-147 .
• Jean Vanwelkenhuyzen, The warnings from Berlin, October 9, 1939 – May 10, 1940 , Brussels, 1982
• Maurice de Wilde, Belgium in the Second World War , Part 3, captives, 1982
• Rudi Van Doorslaer & Étienne Verhoeyen, Nazi Germany, Belgian police and anti-communism in Belgium (1936-1944)-Aspects of Belgian-German relations , in: Belgian magazine for latest history, 1986, p. 61-121
• M. van den Wijngaert, Between enemy and people. The board of the Secretaries-General during the German occupation 1940-1944 , in: Belgium in the Second World War. Part 9, the least evil, ed. DNB, Pelckmans, Kapellen, 1990
• Rudi Van Doorslaer, The Belgian police and magistrate and the problem of law enforcement , in: Belgium in the Second World War. Part 9, the least evil, ed. DNB, Pelckmans, Kapellen, 1990
• Fred Erdamn & Hervé Hasquin (rapporteurs), Parliamentary investigation into existence in Belgium of a secret international intelligence network , Belgian Senate, 1990-1991 (reference: 1117-4)
• Guy Bearisan, Anne Banerbin, Pierre, Priedard, Marzard, Christian, Christian, Christian Wiededen, Christian Wiededorf, Jean-Daviedorf, France and Belgium under the German occupation 1940–1944. The German funds kept at the historic center of national archives. Inventory of the sub-series AJ 40, (reviewed by Christine Douyère-Demeulenaere with the collaboration of Michèle Conchon. Index established by Sandrine Bula. Introduction by Stefan Martens and Andreas Nielen) , Paris 2002.
• Maxime Steinberg, The persecution of the Jews in Belgium (1940-1945) , Brussels, 2004
• Nico Wouters, War mayors 40-44. Local administration and collaboration in Belgium , Tielt, 2004
• And Mikham, Israel Gutman, Sara Bender, The encyclopedia of the righteous among the nations: rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. Belgium , Volume 2, Yad Vashem, 2005
• Emmanuel Debruyne, A secret service in exile. State security administration in London, November 1940 – September 1944 , in: History notebooks of the present time, n ^O 15, 2005, p. 335-355 .
• P. POTSATS, M. Cools, K. That Dourth, R. Libert, Safety. Tests on the 175 years of state security , Politeia, 2005
• Nico Wouters, The Führerstaat. Government and collaboration in Belgium, 1940-1944 , Tielt, 2006
• Humbert de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde, Present state of the Belgian nobility. 2006 directory , Brussels, 2006
• Rudi van Doorslaer e. a., Docile Belgium, Belgian authorities and the persecution of Jews in Belgium , Volume 1, Antwerp, 2007
• Emmanuel Debruyne, The secret war of Belgian spies, 1940-1944 , Brussels, 2008
• L. Saerens, “Righteous among the peoples” for discussion. The Robert de Foy case “, Cegesoma , 2012, p. 2-3.
• R. Coolsaet, “Belgium in NATO (1949-2000)”, Weekly Crisp mail , n° 1999, 2008, p. 16.
• F. Caestecker, “The Robert de Foy affair”, Critical points , n ° 325 and 326, April and May 2012 , p. 10-13.
• K. Lasoen, “185 Years of Belgian Security Service”, Journal of Intelligence History 15, 2016, p. 96-118.

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