Pierre Daye

File:Pierre Daye bij Force Publique.jpg during World War I]]

Pierre Daye (24 June 1892, Schaerbeek, Belgium – 24 February 1960, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Belgian journalist and Nazi collaborator. As supporter of the Rexist Party, Daye exiled himself to Juan Peron's Argentina after World War II.

Biography

In World War I Daye served in the Belgian Army on the Yser Front and in East Africa. In 1918 he published a book about his experiences in the Battle of Tabora.

Pierre Daye was in charge of foreign politics in the Nouveau Journal, a newspaper supporting the National Socialist thesis created in October 1940 by Paul Colin and under the direction of Robert Poulet.[http://www.revue-contextes.net/textyles/pdf/15/Schurmans-15.pdf Les débuts du Nouveau Journal sous l'occupation (1940-1941). Analyse critique du témoignage de Robert Poulet]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Fabrice Schurmans, Universidade de Coimbra, Centre d'étude des lettres belges (CELBUC); accessed 14 November 2016. {{in lang|fr}}

Daye was a shareholder in the Editions de la Toison d'Or created during the war (out of a total of 150 shares, 135 were owned by the Slovak group Mundus, which was responsible to the Reich Foreign Affairs Minister headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop.[http://139.165.7.240/textyles/pdf/HSOccupations/MichelBFincoeur.pdf Le Monde de l'édition en Belgique durant la Seconde guerre mondiale: l'exemple de l'édition de la Toison d'Or] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929024039/http://139.165.7.240/textyles/pdf/HSOccupations/MichelBFincoeur.pdf |date=2007-09-29 }}, par Michel B. Fincoeur {{in lang|fr}})

Daye was a correspondent of Je suis partout, the ultra-collaborationist French language review headed by Robert Brasillach. He was sentenced to death as a collaborator on 18 December 1946, by the Brussels War Council.[http://www.argentina-rree.com/portal/archivos/justicia01.htm Extradiciones], Argentina-rree.com; accessed 14 November 2016. {{in lang|es}}

Escape and aftermath

After the war, he fled to Argentina with the help of Charles Lescat, who also worked at Je suis partout. There, he took part in the meeting organized by Juan Perón in the Casa Rosada during which a network (colloquially called ratlines) was created, to organize the escape of war criminals and collaborationists.[http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-14198-2002-12-15.html La Odessa que creó Perón], Pagina/12, 15 December 2002. {{in lang|es}} Along with countryman René Lagrou and others such as Jacques de Mahieu, Daye became central to the Nazi escape routes.Uki Goñi, The Real ODESSA, London: Granta Books, 2003, pp. 110-14.

In Argentina, Daye resumed his writing activities, becoming the editor of an official Peronist review.Mark Falcoff, [https://web.archive.org/web/20000816183001/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/981109/latin_america.perons_na30a.html Peron's Nazi Ties], Time, 9 November 1998, vol 152, n°19 {{in lang|en}} He returned to Europe where he wrote his memoirs, and died in 1960 in Argentina.