Samenvattingen / Résumés / Summaries

PHILIPPE BECK EN ETIENNE VERHOEYEN SECRET AGENTS ON THE BELGIAN-GERMAN FRONTIER The Belgian, Allied and German Intelligence Services in the Eupen region between 1920 and 1940

s a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, the predominantly German-speaking Aterritory of the Eupen, Malmedy and St Vith region was annexed by Belgium from 1920 onwards. Known generally as the regained cantons (cantons rédimés) in a reference to patriotic arguments relating to their pre-1815 situation, these territories received the quasi-offi cial title of the eastern cantons (cantons de l’est). Many of their inhabitants disapproved of their annexation, which carried with it the acquisition of Belgian nationality, and very many of them continued to feel themselves to be German. It is therefore not surprising that the German secret services (notably the Abwehr and the Geheime Staatspolizei) engaged in organised subversion in the eastern cantons. The Heimattreue Front was established with German support, and the German services were able to recruit easily within these milieux. However, there were also inhabitants of the cantons who identifi ed fully with Belgium.

At the same time, the cantons served as a testing bed for the Belgian, French and British secret service agencies. From 1918 onwards, their attention was directed primarily at Germany. An intelligence agency, known as ‘BOX’ (the Exchange Bureau), was established to serve as a co-ordinating body, within which the secret services of the three states were represented. It possessed in particular agents in the eastern cantons, of whom the central fi gure was Peter Schmitz from Eupen, an activist for the cause of pacifi sm who worked for pro-Belgian newspapers and published an anti-war novel. The activities of Schmitz and his collaborators soon became known to the German counter-espionage services, who used agents against them. Indeed, some of Schmitz’s collaborators ended up being arrested and detained in Germany. This article is based in large part on a hitherto unused archival source, and for the fi rst time brings to light the activities of BOX and of the three ‘western’ intelligence agencies.