From a letter of Father Louis Celis, 1949: 

u Back to Celis Main

…You insist on considering me to be a saint because I was unfortunately able to save only a few Jewish lives. But was this not an urgent and serious obligation of every person, Jew, Christian, or atheist, still worthy to be considered human? The only profound regret that I must always bear with me is for my not having been able to provide for the welfare of all Jews in distress in Belgium and elsewhere without any distinction whatsoever. I regret not having been able to hide all of them and thus fully remove them from this bloody persecution which, let's admit, will forever remain an irremovable stain for the whole of Europe. And to think that these abominable crimes were perpetrated in a century considered the century of civilization and high culture. What an irony!