President Reuven Rivlin this morning (Wednesday) hosted a special and emotional gathering at his residence, bringing together descendants of Eugène, 11th Prince of Ligne and his wife Philippine, who saved hundreds of Jewish children in their castle (Beloeil) in Belgium during the Holocaust, along with some of the children they rescued and their families.
The House of De Ligne is a renowned European family, related to many of royal families and dynasties in Europe and around the world. The Prince and his wife were declared ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by Yad Vashem for their bravery in 1975. Details of their story can be found here.
The delegation was led by Prince Michel De Ligne, who addressed the event and said, "This is a very important day for all of us, one that has been missing in our family since our grandparents never took the opportunity to plant a tree in the Forrest of the Righteous Among the Nations. Commemoration of what they did is a duty for each of us. It is the memory of terrible moments for each one of the children who were separated from their parents, and had to get used to a new way of life."
He noted, "Three people knew of the presence of Jewish children in the castle, and their silence was a guarantee for the survival of these beloved children."
He added, "Without memory a culture cannot exist, without memory there can be no civilization, no social life. I say: let us love what must be loved, let us forget what should be forgotten, but let us not forget what never must be forgotten." And concluded, "In the name of my family Mr. President, I want to tell you how touched we are by the marks of gratitude we have received from the Jewish people, and from the Land of Israel. Long live Israel."
The President said, "We have just said farewell, to the great Elie Wiesel, perhaps the greatest example of the strength of the human spirit, a man who gave the Holocaust a face, and the victims a voice. More and more, the people who saw the horrors of the Shoah with their own eyes are no longer with us. Your visit here, as the new generation of your family, and of the families who were saved shows together, you want to keep the memories alive; the memories of the victims, the memory of the darkest evil, and the memory also, of great bravery and survival".