Robert de Foy Robert Herman Alfred de Foy ( Geraardsbergen 23 March 1893 - Brussels 15 August 1960 ) was a Belgian magistrate , and head of the Belgian State Security Service , who served the Nazi s during their occupation of Belgium . This period of his life has led to some considerable historic debate around de Foy ' s legacy , but in the post - war period returned to his pre - war position , decorated Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold II , and recognised as " Righteous " by the state of Israel . Personal life . He was the son of the civil servant Léon de Foy ( 1852 – 1942 ) and Mathilde de Vos ( 1860 – 1943 ) . His brother Marcel de Foy ( 1890 – 1964 ) ended his career as President of the Court of Appeal in Brussels , and his brother Joseph de Foy ( 1897 – 1967 ) was an officer in the Belgian army . In 1919 Léon obtained the change of his name from ' Defoy ' into ' de Foy ' and in 1934 he acquired hereditary nobility . In 1941 , Robert de Foy married Françoise du Monceau de Bergendal ( b . 1910 ) , sister of Count Ivan du Monceau de Bergendal ( 1909 – 2005 ) , deputy Prosecutor in Brussels during the war ( removed in 1944 , reinstated in 1956 , founder of the satirical weekly called " Pan " ) . They divorced in 1943 . In 1946 he married the widow Marguerite Tallon ( 1893 – 1960 ) . Both marriages remained childless . Early career . After serving in the Belgian Army during World War I , Robert studied law , obtaining a Ph . d . He decided to become a magistrate . From 1922 to 1925 he was a judge within the military court in the Belgian army of occupation of the Ruhr , Germany . From 1925 to 1929 he was first substitute of the Public Prosecutor in Antwerp . He then became deputy administrator in the Department of Belgian Public Security . From August 8 , 1933 , after the sudden death of his predecessor , Baron René Beltjens ( 1879 – 1933 ) he became acting administrator . 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 . During the war . After Belgium was attacked and its army surrendered on 28 May 1940 , Adolf Hitler chose not to install a civilian government ( as he had done in the Netherlands ) , but a military occupation , headed by general Alexander von Falkenhausen of the Wehrmacht . The Belgian administration remained in place and , under German supervision , governed Belgium , according to the developed theory of ' the lesser evil ' . Phantom trains . Allowed to stay in position but handing over State Security to Fernand Lepage , De Foy was ordered by the Nazi - run government to both share his lists with all state organisations , and then round them up . This included Flemish nationalists , communists and non - Belgian citizens , most of them Jewish refugees from Germany and Poland . These 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 . 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 . Arrest . Upon the return in July 1940 of the deported Flemish - Nationalists , De Foy and other civil servants branded as responsible , were arrested . He was transported to Germany , initially held in a hotel in Münster and then transferred to Berlin . Questioned and held for a few weeks , he was released and returned to Belgium . Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich communicated directly to General Eggert Reeder that de Foy was to remain untouched and resume his activities . In fact , the Secret service department was abolished and only remained the Service of police regarding foreigners . From this point on , a relationship of tension existed between de Foy and the occupying forces in Belgium . On October 1 , 1943 , De Foy succeeded Gaston Schuind as Secretary General of the Department of Justice . At the same time , the Wehrmacht took over the policing of foreigners in Belgium , and arrests and deportation greatly escalated . After the Allied Forces invasion of Normandy in June , the Nazis relieved De Foy of his position . In part this was driven by the rumours that he was " London ' s man , " having made contacts , according to post - War records , with the Belgian Resistance via both Walter Ganshof van der Meersch and William Ugeux . After Robert Jan Verbelen was made head of the " De Vlag Veiligheidscorps " , a Nazi SS security force in Belgium , an attempt on the life of de Foy failed . During the last weeks of the occupation , he went into hiding . After World War II . On 1 September 1944 , like most other Belgian officials in the administration , de Foy was suspended by the Belgian government returning from its exile in London , although it was stated that he had handled correctly . A judicial investigation was opened against him , but unlike many others , he was not jailed . The result was that his conduct was judged as having been blameless . From April 1946 to March 1947 , he was appointed a judge in the international court seated in Tangier . Upon his return in Belgium , de Foy resumed his duties as head of the State Security Service . Again , the major part of his activities consisted in tracking soviet agents and spies , as a part of cold war NATO activities . State Security was also tasked with organising " stay behind " groups , who would have resisted any Russian Army invading force . De Foy retired in 1958 , handing over operations to Ludovic Caeymaex . Honours . De Foy was vice president of the Carnegie Hero Fund . On December 1 , 1975 he was posthumously recognized as " Righteous Among the Nations " by Yad Vashem , for the help he had provided to Jews in Belgium . He was the beneficiary of many honours , mainly after World War II , including :