Robert Herman Alfred de Foy CBE (23 March 1893 in Geraardsbergen – 15 August 1960 in Brussels) was a Belgian magistrate who served as head of the State Security Service during the Nazi occupation of Belgium.
His conduct in that role is the subject of considerable historical debate, though after the Second World War, he returned to his pre-war positions, was decorated as a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold II, and was honoured by the State of Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.
1910), the sister of Count Ivan du Monceau de Bergendal (1909–2005), who had been deputy prosecutor in Brussels during the war, and founder of the satirical weekly called Pan.
Appointed as head of the Belgian civil intelligence service, the State Security, on 30 December 1934, de Foy had to deal with the problems of rising international tensions.
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.
After the war he declared to an investigating magistrate and to a journalist of the Associated Press that there had never been deals made between the Gestapo and the Belgian police services for a joint battle against communism.
De Foy became the first head of the Belgian secret service to give the media an interview about the work of the State Security, in which he paid particular attention to its counterespionage mission.
On 10 May 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 deportations to France.
[5] 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 Wehrmacht General Alexander von Falkenhausen.
Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich communicated directly to General Eggert Reeder that de Foy was to remain untouched and resume his activities.
[6][7] Allowed to stay in position, de Foy was ordered by the Nazi-run government to share his lists of suspect persons with all state organisations and then to round them up.
In part, this was driven by the rumours that he was "London's man", having made contact, according to post-war records, with the Belgian Resistance via both Walter Ganshof van der Meersch and William Ugeux.