Civil Administration of Luxembourg
Civil Administration Area of Luxembourg Zivill Administratiouns Gebitt vu Lëtzebuerg Zivilverwaltung von Luxemburg Administration civile du Luxembourg | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1940–1942 | |||||||||
Government | Civil administration | ||||||||
Chief of the Civil Administration | |||||||||
• 1940–1942 | Gustav Simon | ||||||||
Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
• Established | 29 July 1940 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 30 August 1942 | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1940 | 290,000 | ||||||||
Currency | Luxembourgish franc (no longer legal currency on 20 January 1941 and after) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Luxembourg |
The Civil Administration Area of Luxembourg was a German civil administration in German-occupied Luxembourg that existed from 29 July 1940 to 30 August 1942, when Luxembourg was annexed into Gau Moselland.
History
Gustav Simon was appointed
Simon, who was also the
Germanification
The administration of Simon arrived in Luxembourg fully persuaded that the "German-ness" of the Luxembourgers merely lay under a thin external layer of French influence. This in turn meant that, with a bit of determined "unraveling" by his administration, the German character of the population would essentially reveal itself.[1]
Simon had two clear goals:
- The Nazification and Germanisation of Luxembourg, i.e., the extinction of everything that was not of German source, like French names and words of French origin or a French way of life
- The destruction and dismemberment of the Luxembourgish state institutions, and the country's incorporation into the Third Reich
His very first series of decrees made this policy very clear:
- 6 August 1940: German became the only official language, and the usage of the French language was banned. The ban applied to official and administrative usage as well as everyday life. French expressions of courtesy such as "Bonjour", "Merci", "Monsieur", "Madame", etc. were included: people greeting each other had to say "Heil Hitler".[2]
- Autumn 1940. The political parties and independent labour unions, the Parliament and the Conseil d'Etat were dissolved.[1] All civil society organisations and the press were subjected to Nazi control.
- Till end 1940. German law was introduced including the Sondergerichte and the Nuremberg Laws.
- 31 January 1941: French-sounding family names, first names, and the names of streets, towns, shops and companies were Germanised, that is, translated into their German counterpart or simply replaced by something more Germanic.[1][2] Henri became Heinrich, Dupont became Brückner.
- 18 February 1941: Wearing a Northern Basque Country) was forbidden.[2]
- From May 1941 many Luxembourgish youth were ordered to participate in the Reichsarbeitsdienst.[1]
A massive propaganda campaign was launched to influence the population, while not only dissidents and critics but also teachers, officials and leading business figures were threatened with losing their jobs unless they joined Nazi organisations, which led to much increased recruitment from all professions. A central registry documented the personal opinion regarding the Nazi regime of almost every citizen. People who were openly opposed to the regime lost their jobs or were deported, mainly to eastern Germany and in the worst cases sent to the death camps where many of them died.
In October 1941, the German occupiers took a survey of Luxembourgish civilians who were asked to state their nationality, their mother tongue and their racial group, but contrary to German expectations, 95% answered "Luxembourgish" to each question.[3] The refusal to declare themselves as German citizens led to mass arrests.
The occupation authorities attempted to cover Luxembourg with a net of political, social and cultural organisations, such as also existed in Germany, including the Hitlerjugend, the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the Winterhilfswerk, the NS-Frauenschaft, and the Deutsche Arbeitsfront.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dostert, Paul. "Luxemburg unter deutscher Besatzung 1940-45: Die Bevölkerung eines kleinen Landes zwischen Kollaboration und Widerstand". Zug der Erinnerung (in German).
- ^ a b c "Heim ins Reich: La 2e guerre mondiale au Luxembourg - quelques points de repère". Centre national de l'audiovisuel. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10.
- ISBN 978-2-87999-212-9. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
- ^ Majerus, Benoît (2002). "Kollaboration in Luxemburg: die falsche Frage?". ... et wor alles net esou einfach. Fragen an die Geschichte Luxemburgs im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Ein Lesebuch zur Ausstellung (PDF). Publications scientifiques du Musée d’Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg. Vol. X. Luxembourg. pp. 126–140. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)