General Marcel Marie José Emile de Baer (31 August 1890 – c. 1983) was a Belgian judge and politician who, as chairman of the London International Assembly, laid the groundwork for the founding of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and for the Nuremberg Trials. Moving to the UN in 1945, he became chairman of the first Committee of the UN War Crimes Commission, and in 1948, chairman of the Review Board of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in Geneva.
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Personal life
Marcel was born to a prosperous family in Antwerp. The family had a large house in town, now demolished and redeveloped, and owned a country house, Domain La Châtaigneraie, near Boechout, now a listed building. Marcel's father, Emil de Baer, and his father's father, Ferdinand de Baer, were both lawyers in Antwerp – working in maritime law and divorce law respectively. On his mother's side, Marcel was part English and part Scottish. Until he was 16 Marcel was home educated by tutors - among them a Scottish governess. Marcel took up law, completing a law degree at Brussels University.
He had one sister, Edmée, from whom he became estranged due to a dispute over inheritance. Marcel was in London at the time, and left the negotiation of a land sale to Petrofina to his sister, but was unhappy with the outcome. Edmée married Charles Boelens, and there was no further communication.
Marcel married Margaret Rudston-Read (1904–1995), in London, May 1927. Under the rules of the time, Margaret had to renounce her British citizenship in order to marry a Belgian. They had two children, Philip (born 29 October 1929) and Oliver (born 13 June 1933). Both boys became naturalised British citizens when they decided to join the British army. Oliver became a cavalry reserve officer, while Philip joined the Royal Artillery and saw service in Korea. Marcel had four grandchildren, Jacqueline and Richard by Philip, and William and Leonora by Oliver.
Marcel was a capable linguist, speaking around 11 languages - among them German, French, Dutch, Flemish, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian and Swahili, with some knowledge of Russian and Arabic. Some of these would come naturally to a Belgian, some would be needed for work, but Marcel pursued an interest generally in learning new languages.
Career summary
1912 - Doctorate of Law at the University of Brussels
August 1914 - called up to join the Belgian army
5 August 1914 - wounded at Liège. He received a bullet wound in the shoulder, and was slashed across the stomach with a bayonet. By his own account, he pushed his intestines back inside his body cavity - the dramatic scars remained visible until the end of his life. He was rescued and treated at hospitals in Malmedy, Euskirchen. Hanover and Münsterlager. Recovered, he became a prisoner of war in Germany at Soltau
1915 - escaped and was recaptured at Bremen
August 1916 - escaped a second time, reached Holland then rejoined the Belgian Army
December 1916 - sent to the Belgian Congo as Territorial Administrator, 1st Class
January 1917 to the end of 1919 - Territorial Administrator based in Albertville (now Kalemie) Tanganyika
December 1918 - became Principal Administrator of the territory
December 1919 - returned to Belgium
June 1920 - appointed Judge at the Antwerp Tribunal of First Instance
1925 - Judge of Instruction (makes the initial inquiry into possible criminal proceedings)
1927 - appointed Crown Prosecutor at Leopoldville (now Kinshasa)
1928 - appointed President of the Tribunal in the second district of Stanleyville (now Kisangani), Congo
Parallel activities
1936 - 1947 - Professor at the Colonial University of Belgium
Professor at the Higher institute of Commerce in Antwerp
In charge of courses at the University of Brussels
1940 - President and Member of various commissions of the Belgian Government in Exile in London, and other commissions on the Belgian Government too numerous to mention
1941 - President of the Commission on War Crimes within the London International Assembly
1944 - elected President of the London International Assembly, replacing Lord Cecil
1945 - made representative of the Belgian Government at the UN, and President of the first committee at the UN on War Crimes
The Belgian Congo
In 1908, following an international humanitarian outcry, King Leopold II was forced to surrender what had been his personal possession, the Congo Free State, to the democratically elected Belgian parliament, when it then became the Belgian Congo. This ended the notorious period of slavery and genocide under King Leopold.
de Baer was sent to the Congo 8 years later, in 1916, and was made administrator of the Tanganyika territory through the years of 1917 to 1919.
De Baer shared the pro colonial attitudes of his time, seeing colonialism as a means of advancing civilisation and commercial enterprise in Third World countries - the Congo became a major producer of diamonds and radium in that period. In the article he penned for 'Belgium Review', "Leopold II: An Undeserved Reputation" he praised Leopold II as a visionary idealist and strategist.
Work for the London International Assembly
His most significant work was as a member (1941–1945) and later chairman (1944) of the London International Assembly (LIA) – a committee of allied and friendly countries set up by Churchill under the auspices of the League of Nations to discuss plans for a post-war world order. Following the guidance of the first chairman, Lord Cecil, de Baer was encouraged to set up a committee to look into the question of punishing War Crimes - as, in Lord Cecil's view, de Baer was the person most passionate about it.
De Baer, along with others, had considered the issue of War Crimes between 1919 and 1939 – but, like others, had taken no action then. The previous discussions were impeded by various factors: the defeated nations did not welcome trials and further humiliation of their own personnel, and there was a lack of any legal institution outside of a criminal's own country in which they could be tried.
The earlier War Crimes trials - the Leipzig Trials of 1921 in Germany - arose from demands made in the Treaty of Versailles and were generally viewed as a failure. They were seen as unfairly one-sided by the Germans, and unduly lenient by the Allies. The popular cry in 1918 to "hang the Kaiser", notably supported by Lloyd George, was also a failure. After his abdication in Germany, the Kaiser was invited to the Netherlands by Queen Wilhelmina, and was granted asylum. Extradition requests to the Dutch government were refused. Lacking any determined Allied support, the proposal lost momentum and the Kaiser ended his days in peaceful retirement in Doorn.
In his role on the War Crimes Committee of the LIA, de Baer created early proposals for an international declaration of human rights, a clear definition of war crimes, and, more substantively, for a proposal to set up an international criminal court. Although a member of a minor European government, he influenced the major powers through a series of international presentations and meetings – between 1941 and 1944 he went to around 300 meetings and conferences on this subject. It is possible that the Nuremberg trials would not have gone ahead without his energy and persistence.
At this stage, the British Government were not keen on his proposals – "Lord Vansittart invited me to Denham and led me to understand that, in Sir Anthony Eden's view, I should be given no encouragement in my activities".
Work for the UN
Members of the LIA, including de Baer, moved to the newly formed United Nations. In this role, they drafted the proposals and methods for the Nuremberg war trials, and assisted the military authorities to pursue the alleged war criminals through providing information and a viable legal basis to arrest them.
As chairman of the first Committee of the UN War Crimes Commission, de Baer was asked to propose the list of War Criminals to be tried at Nuremberg (de Baer family archive). He refused to include Schacht, and omitted others he considered doubtful – Rudolf Hess and von Neurath among them. The Allied Powers amended his list, reinstating his omissions on the basis that "it would look better if not all of them were sentenced, and some were acquitted". In fact, Schacht was acquitted – the others sentenced.
In 1946, the UN set up the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in Geneva to consider the many post-war applications for refugee status. A Review Board was also set up to consider appeals. Directly after his work at Nuremberg, de Baer moved to Geneva to be Chairman of the Review Board. In her book 'Fascists in Exile', Jayne Persian describes the problems of screening out alleged war criminals from the massive post-war population of displaced persons, and the part played by the IRO within it. In this role, de Baer came into contact with the Austrian Bishop, Alois Hudal who asked for his help. de Baer did not assist Hudal (see side panel).
A couple of years later, when the UN offered de Baer the position of High Commissioner for Refugees in Rome, the Vatican sent Monsignor Landis on a special mission to Geneva to inform the UN that de Baer would not be 'persona grata' with the Vatican if he were appointed. Privately informed of this, de Baer turned down the appointment (de Baer family archive). He renounced his Catholicism after this.
As an alternative, he was made UN representative in Iran, where he was chiefly tasked with protecting the oil wells and maintaining the position of the Shah – a valued ally of the United States.
Retirement
In 1955, at the age of 65, Marcel retired with his wife to Domaine de Canteperdrix, Auribeau-sur-Siagne near Cannes in the South of France. There they had a farm producing jasmine flowers for the scent industry.
After Marcel's son Philip got divorced, and became involved in drugs and petty crime, Marcel took charge of bringing up his two grandchildren, Jacqueline and Richard. The children spent half the year in Cannes with Marcel and his wife, and half in England with their mother - although most of that time they were away at boarding school. According to his granddaughter, Marcel was a strong character who gave the children a stable and secure home, and a happy, though hard worked, childhood. He insisted on high academic standards, and told the children that they must learn enough of any language to be able to speak it to the frequent international visitors they received at home.
While at Cannes, Marcel was appointed Honorary Vice Consul in Nice for the Belgian Government.
Concerned by the political direction of the then French government, Marcel decided to move to Switzerland, where he and his wife took a suite in the Palace Hotel in Montreux. As Marcel's health declined, they moved to a flat in Tour-de-Peilz. Marcel died in Geneva - the exact date is unavailable. His wife outlived him by many years. His granddaughter eventually inherited Marcel's papers and photographs.
The de Baer archive
There is an extensive archive of manuscripts, letters and articles, focusing particularly on de Baer's work with the London International Assembly, held by the British Library in London. The papers are at shelf mark 'Add MS 89854'. There is also a selection of photographs from the archive listed under the 'Related Websites' heading.
Honours
Croix de Guerre
Croix Civique
Chevalier of the Royal Order of the Lion
Officer of the Order of Leopold II
Officer of the Order of Leopold
Commander of the Order of the Crown
Grand Officer of the Order of Homayoun (Iran)