Luxembourg in World War II

The invasion was accompanied by an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians to France and the surrounding countries to escape the invasion.^{[citation needed]}

At 08:00, several French divisions crossed the frontier from the Maginot Line and skirmished with the German forces before retreating. The invasion cost 7 Luxembourg soldiers wounded, with 1 British pilot and 5 French Spahis killed in action.^[10]

German occupation

Life under occupation

The departure of the government left the state functions of Luxembourg in disorder.^[11] An administrative council under Albert Wehrer was formed in Luxembourg to attempt to reach an agreement with the occupiers whereby Luxembourg could continue to preserve some independence while remaining a Nazi protectorate, and called for the return of the Grand Duchess.^[11] All possibility of compromise was eventually lost when Luxembourg was effectively incorporated into the German Gau Koblenz-Trier (renamed Gau Moselland in 1942) and all its own government functions were abolished from July 1940, unlike occupied Belgium and the Netherlands which preserved their state functions under German control.^[11] From August 1942, Luxembourg was officially made part of Germany.^[12]

From August 1940, speaking French was forbidden by proclamation of

From August 1942, all male Luxembourgers of draft age were conscripted into the German armed forces.[15] Altogether, 12,000 Luxembourgers served in the German military, of whom nearly 3,000 died during the war.^[14]

Collaboration

The most significant collaborationist group in the country was the

Membership of the Nazi youth movement, the "Luxemburger Volksjugend" (LVJ), which had been created with little success in 1936, was encouraged and it later merged into the Hitler Youth.^[16]

Resistance

Armed resistance to the German occupiers began in winter 1940–41 when a number of small groups were formed across the country.

Information gathered by the Luxembourgish resistance was extremely important. One Luxembourgish resistant, Léon-Henri Roth, informed the allies of the existence of the secret Peenemünde Army Research Center on the Baltic coast, allowing the allies to bomb it from the air.^[19]

In Autumn 1944, many resistance organizations merged to form the "Unio'n vun de Fräiheetsorganisatiounen" or Unio'n.^[17]

In November 1944, a group of 30 Luxembourgish resistance members commanded by

Non-violent passive resistance was widespread in Luxembourg during the period. From August 1940, the "Spéngelskrich" (the "War of Pins") took place as Luxembourgers wore patriotic pin-badges (depicting the national colours or the Grand duchess), precipitating attacks from the VdB.^[21]

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.^[22] The refusal to declare themselves as German citizens led to mass arrests.^[15]

Conscription was particularly unpopular. On 31 August 1942, shortly after the announcement that conscription would be extended to all men born between 1920 and 1927, a strike began in the northern town of Wiltz.^[17] The strike spread rapidly, paralysing the factories and industries of Luxembourg.^[23] The strike was quickly repressed and its leaders arrested. 20 were summarily tried before a special tribunal (in German, a "Standgericht") and executed by firing squad at nearby Hinzert concentration camp.^[17] Nevertheless, protests against conscription continued and 3,500 Luxembourgers would desert the German army after being conscripted.^[24]

Holocaust

Before the war, Luxembourg had a population of about 3500 Jews, many of them newly arrived in the country to escape persecution in Germany.^[12] The Nuremberg Laws, which had applied in Germany since 1935, were enforced in Luxembourg from September 1940 and Jews were encouraged to leave the country for Vichy France.^[12] Emigration was forbidden in October 1941, but not before nearly 2500 had fled.^[12] In practice they were little better off in Vichy France, and many of those who left were later deported and killed. From September 1941, all Jews in Luxembourg were forced to wear the yellow Star of David badge to identify them.^[15]

From October 1941, Nazi authorities began to deport the around 800 remaining Jews from Luxembourg to

Luxembourg was declared "Judenrein" ("cleansed of Jews") except for those in hiding^[15] on 19 October 1941.^[25] Only 36 of the Jewish population of Luxembourg to have been sent to concentration camps are known to have survived to the end of the war.^[12]

Free Luxembourg Forces and the government-in-exile

The Government in Exile first fled to

Gustav Simon, the Nazi Gauleiter responsible for Moselland and Luxembourg, fled but was captured and imprisoned by the British Army. He committed suicide in an Allied prison. In Luxembourg too, collaborators were imprisoned and tried. Damian Kratzenberg, founder and leader of VdB, was one of those executed for his role.^{[citation needed]}

Two German V-3 cannon with a range of 40 km (25 mi) were used to bombard the city of Luxembourg from December 1944 until February 1945.^[31]

Battle of the Bulge

Most of Luxembourg was rapidly liberated in September 1944 when the front line stabilized behind the

The initial defensive efforts of the U.S. troops hinged upon holding towns near the international frontier. As a result, the towns of Clervaux, Marnach, Holzthum, Consthum, Weiler, and Wahlhausen^[32] were used as strongholds by the Americans and attacked by the Germans, who wanted to achieve control of the road networks in northern Luxembourg in order for their forces to move westward. After the Americans in northern Luxembourg were forced to retreat by the German attacks, the area experienced a second passage of the front line during January–February 1945, this time moving generally eastward as the U.S. Third Army attacked into the southern flank of the German penetration (the "Bulge"). Vianden was the final community in Luxembourg to be liberated on 12 February 1945.^[32]

Because of the determination of both sides to prevail on the battlefield, the combat in Luxembourg was bitter and correspondingly hard on the civilian population. Over 2,100 homes in Luxembourg were destroyed in the fighting and more than 1,400 others seriously damaged. It is also estimated that some 500 Luxembourgish non-combatants lost their lives during the Battle of the Bulge.^[33] Besides the dead, over 45,000 Luxembourgers became refugees during the battle.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath

The experience of invasion and occupation during the war led to a shift in Luxembourg's stance on neutrality.

• Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
• Invasion of Luxembourg
• Luxembourg Resistance
• Luxembourg government-in-exile
• Luxembourgish collaboration with Nazi Germany
• German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II
• The Holocaust in Luxembourg
• Luxembourg annexation plans after the Second World War

Notes

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luxembourg in World War II.

Primary sources

• Fletcher, Willard Allen (2012). Fletcher, Jean Tucker (ed.). Defiant Diplomat: George Platt Waller, American consul in Nazi-occupied Luxembourg 1939–1941. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
  ISBN 978-1-61149-398-6
  .

Secondary literature

• Grosbusch, André (1 October 1984). "La question des réparations dans l'opinion luxembourgeoise 1945-1949". Hémecht (in French). 36 (4): 569ff.
• Hoffmann, Serge (2002). "Les relations germano-luxembourgeoises durant les années 30" (PDF). Ons Stad (in French) (71): 2–4.
• Milmeister, Jean (1 April 2007), "Augenzeugen berichten über die Ardennenschlacht in Vianden", Hémecht (in German), vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 175–185, retrieved 29 October 2023
• Raths, Aloyse (2008). Unheilvolle Jahre für Luxemburg – Années néfastes pour le Grand-Duché. Luxembourg.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Schaack, Albert; Verhoeyen, Etienne (1 July 2012), "L'espionnage allemand au Luxembourg avant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale (1936 - 1940)" [German espionage in Luxembourg before the Second World War (1936-1940)], Hémecht (in French), vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 73–116, retrieved 28 October 2023
• Streicher, Félix (1 July 2019). "Une drôle de petite armée in der drôle de guerre: Die luxemburgische Force Armée zwischen September 1939 und Mai 1940". Hémecht (in German). 71 (3): 279ff.