On 29 and 30 April, the Chaplain-President was humbled and honoured to represent the Anglicans of Belgium at the official visit of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles to the Maison d'Izieu, Mémorial des Enfants Juifs Exterminés, near Lyon, expertly led by Minister-President Pierre-Yves Jeholet. On 6 April 1944, the Gestapo arrested 44 Jewish children (including 10 Belgians) and 6 adults at a remote farmhouse where they had been in hiding. All but one were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. The farmhouse managed nonetheless to save 60 Jewish children during WW2. The intensive two-day visit by the Minister-President, his cabinet, the Chefs de Culte and several classes of Belgian schoolchildren included several public commemorations, participation in the workshops organised for the pupils, meetings with local acteurs in interfaith dialogue and very high levels of local hospitality. Minister-President Jeholet gave a speech at one of the commemorations which the Chaplain-President felt was among the best speeches he had ever heard. The Central Committee was privileged to take part in this visit and to explore with others how to build a Europe in which the horrors of 1944 will not be repeated. The current war in Ukraine reminds us that this ideal is very far from being realised. Accueil - Maison d'Izieu (memorializieu.eu).

For further informations, here is a link to the report of the local newspaper "L'Avenir” whose journalists followed pupils from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Herve) to Izieu.