Summary
Camille Huysmans (1871-1968), Antwerp’s Socialist mayor, who with dealer Romi Goldmuntz began directing Antwerp’s Jews to England at the start of World War II to guarantee the postwar recuperation of Antwerp’s diamond center (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.44-45).
Details
- Huysmans and the Belgian government persuaded many Antwerp diamond people that Southern France was safer, against Oved Ben-Ami’s March 1940 recruitment for Palestine (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.50).
- Chapter 1 note 37 gives his biography: Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans (1871–1968), a Flemish Belgian socialist, was secretary in 1905–1922 of the Second International and mayor of Antwerp in 1933–1940; during World War II he was one of the leaders of the Belgian exiles in London and after the war became Belgium’s prime minister (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.289-290).