The Pierre Daye archives
- Access and consultation : The collection can be consulted in digital form on the computers of the reading room of via Pallas. Its content is freely available.
- Reproduction : The content of the collection may not be freely reproduced in the reading room. For any reproduction request by the CegeSoma teams, practical information is available here.
- Research tools : 1) Inventory of the collection 2) Inventory 2nd part
Collection description :
Cegesoma holds some archives related to the Belgian journalist, writer and politician, Pierre Daye. This collection includes correspondence, rexist documents, notes, publications, as well as numerous photographs. Only these have been digitized.
Pierre Daye was born on June 24, 1892 in Schaerbeek. He studied humanities at the Collège Saint-Michel, then law for two years at the Institut Saint-Louis in Brussels. In July 1914, he was called up and took part in several battles (Namur, Antwerp, Battle of Flanders) before leaving for the Congo to fight in the Anglo-Belgian East African campaign. It was there that he wrote his book Avec les Vainqueurs de Tabora, which was published in 1918. He was then promoted to the rank of officer and became the deputy military attaché for the Belgian legation in Washington.
In 1922, Pierre Daye was hired by the newspaper Le Soir in Brussels. For several years, he made travelled regularly for the paper, including to the Congo, Morocco, Russia, Uruguay, Argentina, India, Japan, Italy, Austria, Guinea, Tahiti, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Egypt, Sudan, Lithuania, etc. His notes were published in the press and in numerous books such as L’empire colonial belge, En Espagne sous la Dictature, La Chine est un Pays charmant, Congo et Angola, La Clef anglaise, Blanc, L’Europe en Morceaux et Aspect du Monde.
Pierre Daye then became interested in Belgian domestic politics and joined Degrelle's Rexist movement. In 1936, he was elected deputy in Brussels and held the position of leader of the Rexist group in the Chamber. In 1939, however, he did not run for re-election and joined the Catholic party.
En octobre 1940, Pierre Daye se voit confier la rédaction de la rubrique internationale du Nouveau Journal. Il devient de plus en plus germanophile, s’engage dans la collaboration immédiate avec l’occupant, effectue plusieurs voyages dans le Reich et renoue avec ses amis rexistes, par qui il obtient le poste de commissaire général des Sports en 1943. Il interviendra ensuite auprès des Allemands en faveurs de diverses personnalités détenues.
En mai 1944, Pierre Daye part en mission en Espagne et y demande l’asile politique. Les tribunaux belges le condamnent à mort par coutumace en 1946 mais son extradition n’est pas obtenue. Sous la pression, il fuit en Argentine où il poursuit sa carrière en tant que journaliste, conférencier et professeur de littérature française à l’Université de la Plata. Il meurt à Buenos Aires le 24 février 1960.
For more information :
- Els De Bens, De Pers in België: Het Verhaal van de Belgische Dagbladpers Gisteren, Vandaag En Morgen. Tielt, Lannoo, 2001.
- De Wever, Bruno. “Catholicism and Fascism in Belgium.” In Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe, edited by Matthew Feldman, Marius Turda, and Tudor Georgescu, 131–39. London, Routledge, 2008.
- Frédérique Sine, L'épuration des journalistes collaborateurs belges francophones après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Bruxelles, ULB, 1996.
- Alain Colignon, Pierre Daye, Belgium WWII
- Alain Colignon, Presse de collaboration 1940 - 1944, BelgiumWWII
- Alain Colignon, Nouveau Journal, BelgiumWWII
- Martin Conway, Rex, BelgiumWWII