Committee of Secretaries-General

The Committee formed an integral part of the policy of "lesser evil" (moindre mal) collaboration in which Belgian officials were required to seek compromises with German military demands in order to maintain a degree of administrative autonomy.

However, the German administration began to introduce new members from August 1940 including those such as Victor Leemans and Gérard Romsée [nl] who were sympathetic to authoritarianism.

They helped to facilitate the more radical administrative reforms demanded by the Germans, although the Committee refused to involve itself in the deportation of Belgian Jews.

[2] The Committee formed part of the policy of officially sanctioned "lesser evil" collaboration among the civil service and government bureaus left behind.

[3] The Committee hoped to avoid the Germans becoming involved in the day-to-day administration of the territory as they had during World War I, while also allowing Belgium to maintain a degree of national autonomy and independence.

[7] The 1941 reshuffle introduced more pro-Germans into the committee, such as Gérard Romsée who was a noted member of the pro-Nazi Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV) party.

[2] Throughout 1940 the Secretaries-General continued to follow their "policy of lesser-evils", influenced by the Galopin doctrine, in the hope that the occupiers would respect the protocol established at the Hague Conventions of 1907.

[4] The committee had announced in October 1940 that it would refuse to enforce anti-Jewish legislation, but did not resist their implementation by the military government.

[9] The committee's ambivalent stance meant that Belgian policemen and civil servants were not instructed to refuse to participate in rounding-up of Jews as part of the Final Solution from 1942.

[8][10] These measures gave the pro-German members of the Committee direct control over the country's local government, its police force and security service.