After Belgium was attacked and its army surrendered on 28 May 1940, Adolf Hitler chose not to install a civilian government (as he had done in the Netherlands), but a military occupation, headed by Wehrmacht General Alexander von Falkenhausen. The Belgian administration remained in place and, under German supervision, governed Belgium, according to the developed theory of "the lesser evil". The State Security was abolished by the Germans, but it remained in existence in exile in London, under the directorship of Fernand Lepage.