René Lagrou

René Lagrou (15 April 1904 – 1 April 1969) was a Belgian politician and collaborator with Nazi Germany.

Pre-occupation Lagrou was born in Blankenberge in West Flanders, Belgium, and worked as a lawyer in Antwerp. Lagrou first came to prominence as a member of the Flemish National Union. He published his own journal Roeland, which became increasingly anti-Semitic following Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

German occupation, and capture 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.

In exile, ratlines, and death 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. Soon after he was condemned to death in absentia by the war crimes tribunal in Antwerp. With the possibility of extradition from Spain looming, Lagrou arrived in Argentina in July 1947 and adopted the false name Reinaldo van Groede. 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.

Lagrou died from cancer in Barcelona, Spain on 1 April 1969.