Recognition
Jean's determination, strength and courage has led many ordinary people to overcome their fear and to stand up against injustice. His faith as a Seventh-day Adventist had made him to do "the right thing". Although it is true that he was the "heartbeat" of an extensive underground movement, you cannot dissociate his efforts from the efforts of ordinary people participating in dangerous actions, which have been just as important for the organisation as a whole.
For his War efforts, Jean was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom, made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau. The French Government honored him with the Croix de Guerre and Médaille de la Résistance and the Légion d'honneur. The Belgian Government made him an Officer of the Order of Leopold.
At the 1993 opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. he was one of seven persons chosen to light candles recognizing the rescuers. The government of Israel honored Jean as part of the gentiles designated as Righteous Among the Nations at Israel's national Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem where a grove of trees was planted in his name on the Hill of Remembrance along the Avenue of the Righteous.
Read more about this topic: Johan Hendrik Weidner
Famous quotes containing the word recognition:
“The recognition of Russia on November 16, 1933, started forces which were to have considerable influence in the attempt to collectivize the United States.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“Justice begins with the recognition of the necessity of sharing. The oldest law is that which regulates it, and this is still the most important law today and, as such, has remained the basic concern of all movements which have at heart the community of human activities and of human existence in general.”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)
“Tragedy, as you know, is always a fait accompli, whereas terror always has to do with anticipation, with man’s recognition of his own negative potential—with his sense of what he is capable of.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)