C.W. Post Campus Welcomes Consul General of Luxembourg

Kenneth Mensing, Archivist, C.W. Post Campus Public Relations Office, Rita Langdon, Associate Provost/Director of Public Relations and Georges Faber, Consul General of Luxembourg in front of the dollhouse. It was here that the Luxembourg children posed to have their picture taken by their father Prince Felix in 1940.

At 3 a.m. on May 10, 1940 the Ducal family of Luxembourg fled their palace to escape the Nazi forces that were invading their country, which is located between Germany and France. After a harrowing journey through France and Spain the family reached Lisbon, Portugal on June 23. The family boarded the USS cruiser Trenton, which was sent especially for them by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Upon their arrival in Annapolis, Maryland on July 25, 1940 the Ducal family, which consisted of the Prince, Felix, and his six children were officially welcomed by the United States Chief of Protocol and Joseph E. Davies, the former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg (third husband of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post). As the family disembarked from the USS Trenton, the Luxembourg national anthem was played and canons fired 21 shots in their honor. The head of the Ducal family, reigning monarch Grand Duchess Charlotte, did not accompany the family to the United States; instead she traveled to England in order to establish a government-in-exile.

The family was brought directly to the White House where President Roosevelt welcomed them with a special luncheon. At 3 p.m. the family boarded a train bound for New York City. The family, (while still in Lisbon) were telegraphed by Marjorie Merriweather Post that Hillwood, her Long Island estate (today the C.W. Post Campus) would be available for them when they arrived in New York. Marjorie had become friends with Grand Duchess Charlotte prior to the outbreak of the Second World War during her third husband Joseph E. Davies’ term as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

On October 4, 1940 Grand Duchess Charlotte flew from London to New York to be reunited with her family. On October 8, 1940 Grand Duchess Charlotte’s husband Prince Felix and son Prince Jean left New York to join the British army. The Grand Duchess then took her remaining children to Montreal, Canada.

Georges Faber, Consul General of Luxembourg, visited the C.W. Post Campus on April 20, 2004 to meet with Rita Langdon and Kenneth Mensing to discuss the family’s experiences on the estate that would become the C.W. Post Campus. This information will be included in a book on the history of the C.W. Post Campus that is being co-authored by Langdon and Mensing as part of the campus’s 50th birthday.