High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paul Henri Charles Spaak (25 January 1899 - 31 July 1972) was a Belgian Socialist politician and statesman. He was born in Schaerbeek to Paul Spaak and Marie Janson. His mother - the daughter of Paul Janson and sister to Paul-Émile Janson, both Liberal politicians - was the country's first female Senator. During World War I, Spaak lied about his age to be accepted in the Army; he subsequently spent two years as a German prisoner of war. Spaak studied law at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel).