René Lagrou

René Lagrou (1904–1969) was a Belgian politician and collaborator with Nazi Germany.

Lagrou was born in Blankenberge in West Flanders, Belgium and worked as a lawyer in Antwerp.[1] Lagrou had first came to prominence as a member of the Flemish National Union.[2] He published his own journal Roeland, which became increasingly anti-Semitic following Adolf Hitler's rise to power.[3] Following the German occupation of Belgium in World War II Lagrou, along with Ward Hermans, founded the extremist Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen (from 1942, the Germaansche SS in Vlaanderen), a Flemish political faction supported by the SS.[2]

Lagrou saw action with the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front and some initial reports erroneously suggested that he had died in battle.[2] However Lagrou had survived and he was captured by the Allies in France but managed to escape to Francoist Spain.[4] In May 1946 his was one of three names on a 'black list' sent by the government of Belgium to Spain where he was in hiding, along with Léon Degrelle and Pierre Daye.[5] Soon after he was condemned to death in absentia by the war crimes tribunal in Antwerp. Lagrou died from cancer in Spain in 1969.[4]

With the possibility of extradition from Spain looming, Lagrou arrived in Argentina in July 1947 and adopted the false name Reinaldo van Groede.[4] Here he became a leading figure in the ratlines sponsored by Juan Perón to rescue Nazis from prosecution in Europe.[6] Given wide powers within the immigration service in Argentina, Lagrou drew up ambitious plans to move as many as 2 million people from Belgium, all either Nazi collaborators or their families.[6] He was also a member of the Rodolfo Freude-led División de Informaciones and in this capacity initiated the cases for resettlement for a number of Nazis.[7]