Priority to the family over the frontlines
- Pauline, daughter of Frederic de Beaufort-Spontin and Melanie de Ligne, married Alphonse von Isenburg.
- During the war of 14-18, she allowed her aunt, Louise de Laubespin, retained in Freÿr, to communicate with her son, Humbert, who was on the other side of the front (in France).
- The letters contained in 2 envelopes were initially addressed to Pauline in Germany. From there, Pauline replaced the outer envelope by a new one for the Red Cross (Switzerland), where the same operation took place towards France. The answers followed the same procedure in opposite direction.
- Some of these letters are harrowing, because the protagonists do not know if they will ever meet again. They are true moral wills.
- Pauline was the eldest of four, of whom the first three are to be found on the photo.
- Marie the third child, married Yaroslav von Lobkowicz. She sent regularly pictures of her children up to 1914, and more scarcely after 1918. In between, a worldwar ? No, a European civil war.
