Robert Herman Alfred de Foy (squire) was born on 23 march 1893 in Grammont in East Flanders and died on 15 august 1960 in Brussels. He is the son of Léon de Foy, registrar of mortgages, and Marie De Vos. His father obtained hereditary nobility in 1934 and changes the name “Defoy” to “de Foy”.
During the World War One, Robert de Foy serves in the Belgian Army. After obtaining a doctorate in law at the University of Louvain, it becomes 1922 military auditor of the Belgian army of occupation of the Ruhr region. In 1925, he is appointed first deputy of the King's Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Antwerp.
His career at Public Security began on 28 february 1931 as assistant administrator. The Sûreté is then headed by the baron René Beltjens. It is from 8 august 1933 that Robert de Foy is responsible for the function of general administrator although he was not officially appointed until 30 December 1934. Robert de Foy was then confronted with the fear of communism which reigned in Belgium in the mid-1990s. 1930. Furthermore, Public Security faces the growing immigration of Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich and neighboring countries. Robert de Foy leads a very harsh migration policy, which will give rise to various controversies. For example, in 1934, he enters into conflict with the mayor of Antwerp, Camille Huysmans, because the latter refuses to expel the Jews considered illegal who took refuge in his city. In 1936, the “Heinrich Bell” affair also hits Public Security. Bell, a German communist refugee in Belgium is handed over to the German authorities, which sparked an outcry in left-wing circles. In connection with these cases, Robert de Foy is led to collaborate with the highest authorities of the Third Reich. In 1937, a conference of the “International Criminal Police Commission” (C.I.P.C.) is held in Berlin. It is chaired by Reinhard Heydrich., future director of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and bras droit of Heinrich Himmler. A delegation from Belgian Public Security attended, although Robert de Foy only took part at the end of the debates..
A March 1940, Belgian intelligence services are reorganized. State Security is created and Robert de Foy is placed at its head.
in mai 1940, at the time of the German invasion, a whole series of people considered suspicious are arrested by the Belgian authorities. Robert de Foy was thus arrested by the Geheime Feldpolizei and transferred to Germany on 8 july 1940. He was released on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich and returned to Brussels on 14 august 1940. The government in exile in London then established a new State Security headed by Fernand Lepage. In Belgium, Robert de Foy was at that time the director of the Foreigners Police., border surveillance and control service dependent on the Ministry of Justice.
Upon his appointment in 1943 to the position of Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice, Robert de Foy was involved in the efforts undertaken by Léon Platteau to free the Jews detained at the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen, thus preventing their expulsion. He thus opposes German violations of international conventions as well as their own promises. This is expressed in the official protest letter – reproduced below – addressed on 15 october 1943 to the highest German authority in Belgium, General von Falkenhausen, military commander of Belgium and northern France.
The 28 february 1944, a militia close to the German occupier, directed by Robert Jan Verbelen, fails in his attempt to assassinate Robert de Foy.
After the war, general secretaries are subject to an administrative investigation. No sanction is retained against Robert de Foy. Released from his duties as a state administrator, he was then head of the Foreigners Police. From April 1946 in March 1947, he is a judge at the international court of Tangier. De Foy becomes State Security administrator again on April 1 1947. By decrees of the Regent of April 1 and 28 may 1948, State Security is once again attached to the Ministry of Justice, and becomes a section of the General Directorate of Public Security. In a Cold War context, this period is marked by high surveillance of communist activity. He served as an administrator until 1958 and takes his pension.
Robert de Foy is a member of the Carnegie Hero Fund (Belgium) from 1939 to 1954 and is the vice-president of 1955 to 1957. Moreover, he is the author of two prefaces to works on the policy of foreigners in Belgium. One introduces the book of Hermann Bekaert in 1934 in which he presents the problem of immigration in the interwar period. The other preface defends the new legislation of 1952 relating to the status of foreigners as presented in the work of Albert Pomba de 1956.
Belgian decorations were awarded to him: Grand officer of the order of Leopold II, Commander of the Order of Leopold, Commander of the Order of the Crown, First Class Civic Cross. And also, foreign decorations: Grand officer of the order of the Alawite Ouissam (Morocco), Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italie), Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (The Netherlands), Grand Officer of the Order of Vasa (Suede), Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown (Romania), Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece), Commander of the Order of the Savior (Greece), Commander of the Legion of Honor (France), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Great Britain), Commander of the Order of the White Eagle (Estonia), Commander of the Order of Merit (Austria), Commander of the Order Polonia Restituta (Poland). Finally, Robert de Foy receives the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1975 by the Institute Yad Vashem, for his assistance to Belgian Jewish refugees during World War II.
Robert de Foy is the third of a family of five children.. His older brother Marcel, was president of the Court of Appeal of Brussels and his younger brother Joseph, war volunteer 1914-1918 and reserve captain. Robert de Foy married for the first time in 1941 with Françoise du Monceau de Bergendal. The marriage is dissolved in 1943. His second wife was Marguerite Tallon, with whom he married in 1946. There were no children from these two marriages..
Sources:
- Emmanuel DEBRUYNE, The secret war of Belgian spies : 1940-1944, Brussels, 2008.
- H. DE MARNIX DE SAINTE ALDEGONDE, Present state of the Belgian nobility. Directory of 2006, Brussels, 2006, p. 303 and 306.
- Paul PONSAERTS, Marc COOLS, Koenraad BADGER, Robin LIBERT, La Sûreté. Essais sur les 175 years of State Security, Politeia, 2005.
- Rudi VAN DOORSLAER et. al., La Belgique docile, the Belgian authorities and the persecution of the Jews in Belgium, Volume 1, Antwerp, 2007.
- Rudi VAN DOORSLAER and Etienne VERHOEYEN, “Nazi Germany, the Belgian police and anti-communism in Belgium (1936-1944). An aspect of Belgian-German relations”, in Belgian Journal of New History, 1986, p. 61-121.
Marie Bouvry & Louis Fortemps
Notice written as part of the Seminar on the History of the Contemporary Period of the Catholic University of Louvain (LHIST2280, teacher Emmanuel Debruyne).
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