Marcel de Baer


General Marcel de Baer 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 in Geneva.

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, 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 and Oliver. 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 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
  • 1927 - appointed Crown Prosecutor at Leopoldville
  • 1928 - appointed President of the Tribunal in the second district of Stanleyville, Congo
  • 1933 - returned to Belgium to the Antwerp Tribunal
  • 1936 - appointed Vice President of the Antwerp Tribunal of First Instance
  • 1939 - appointed Counsellor at the Court of Appeal in Brussels
  • May 1940 following the German invasion of Belgium, escaped via France to the USA and joined Harvard Law School
  • November 1940 - joined the Belgian Government in Exile in London
  • November 1941 - was invited to join the Cambridge Commission on International law
  • 1941 - 1947 - President of the Military Court of the Belgian Government in exile in London
  • 1942 - additionally became President of the Maritime Court
  • 1948 - Chairman of the Review Board, International Refugee Organization, in Geneva
  • 1949 - 1955 - Resident Representative of the United Nations to the Shah of Iran in Iran
  • 1955 - took retirement at age 65, moved to Domaine de Canteperdrix in Auribeau-sur-Siagne near Cannes, Alpes Maritimes
  • 1955 - 1973 - Honorary Vice Consul for Belgium at Nice

    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 and later chairman of the London International Assembly – 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".
De Baer was told that English Military Law – of Superior Order – would mean that only Hitler could be held responsible, that there was no law concerning these acts, and that there was no precedent for it in English law. It was also pointed out to him that discussions on the Peace Treaty would not welcome proposals for trying War Criminals.
At the end of the war, the mood had changed. When there was a request from Belgium that de Baer join the new Belgian government, both the Lord Chancellor of England and the Chairman of the UN War Crimes Commission resisted it, and paid tribute to his efforts, stating that de Baer had been central to making proposals for war crimes trials, and that his continued involvement in the process was critical.
When Louis Nizer gave de Baer a copy of his book "What to do with Germany", he included a personal note, praising de Baer's historic contribution.
Due to wartime security restrictions, the LIA operated as a secret organisation for most of its working life. This has hindered the recognition of its work in the historical record. However, his great-granddaughter, Louisa Laughton-Scott, has argued in her dissertation as published by Bristol University that the contribution of the London International Assembly to the Declaration of Human Rights, the setting up of the International Criminal Court and the organisation of the Nuremberg War Trials has been neglected by historians, and should be recognised.
It was evident that the League of Nations had failed in its original objectives, and new organisations were needed. The LIA functioned from 1941 to 1944 after which its members and recommendations were absorbed into the newly created United Nations.