German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II Totally Explained

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The German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II was a period in the history of Luxembourg during which the country was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was a thorough test of the young nation's will and it strengthened national symbols such as the monarchy and the Luxemburgish language. The attack on the small neutral country was part of the Westfeldzug in which Luxembourg and Belgium were used as transit territories to attack France by outflanking the Maginot Line. Plans for the attack had been prepared by October 9 1939, but execution was postponed several times. On May 10, 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Eve of the invasion

The outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, put Luxembourg’s government in a delicate situation. On one side the population’s sympathy lay with the allied forces; on the other side, due to the country's neutrality since 1867, the government adopted a careful non-belligerent stance towards its neighbours in order to prevent a German invasion. As of September 1, Radio Luxembourg stopped broadcasting. In spring 1940, fortifications were erected along the borders with Germany and France. The so-called Schusterline, named after its constructor, consisted of massive concrete road blocks with steel doors. The official aim of these road blocks was to slow down the progress of any invading army and give time for the guarantors of Luxembourg's neutrality to take counteractions against the invaders. However, compared to the massive power of the German forces; it only had symbolic character and helped to calm down the population. Except for a small volunteer corps, Luxembourg didn't possess an army due the restrictions imposed by the 1867 Treaty of London.
After several false alarms in the spring of 1940, the certainty of a military conflict between Germany and France grew. Germany stopped the export of coke for the Luxembourgish steel industry. This was done to prevent Luxembourgish steel and iron exports to the United Kingdom and Belgium, and to force Luxembourg into a pro-German attitude which would have put Luxembourg’s government in a difficult diplomatic position.

Invasion

The steel doors of the Schusterline were ordered to be closed on May 10, 1940, at 3:15 a.m. following movements of German troops on the east side of the border rivers Our, Sauer and Mosel. In the meantime, German special forces dressed as civilians and supported by Germans living in Luxembourg, the so-called Stoßtrupp Lützelburg, tried to sabotage radio broadcasting and the barricades along the German-Luxembourgish border but their attempt failed since the majority of the doors were closed. The Royal Family was evacuated from their residence in Colmar-Berg to the Grand Ducal palace in Luxembourg City.
The invasion of German troops began at 4:35 a.m. They didn't encounter any significant resistance, since the Luxembourgish Volunteer Corps stayed in their barracks. The capital city was occupied before noon. At 8 a.m. elements of the French 3rd Light Cavalry Division (3 DLC) of General Petiet supported by the 1st Spahi Brigade of Colonel Jouffault and the 2nd company of the 5th Armoured Battalion (5 BCC) crossed the southern border to conduct a probe of German forces and later retreated behind the Maginot Line. On the evening of May 10, 1940, the whole country, with the exception of the south, was occupied by German forces. More than 90,000 civilians had to be evacuated from the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette as a consequence of the advance of the Wehrmacht, 47,000 fled to France, 45,000 fled into the central and northern part of Luxembourg.
The royal family and the government fled to France and Portugal, later to the United Kingdom. The only official representative left behind was Albert Wehrer, head of a governmental commission as well as the 41 deputies.

The Nazi regime in Luxembourg

At first, the population thought that they could accommodate themselves with the occupying regime without further harm, just as they'd done in the First World War. However, it was soon made clear by the authorities that their fate would be very different this time. The Nazis considered the Luxembourgers as just another Germanic ethnic group and the Grand Duchy a German territory. That is why the country was never formally annexed.
On 17 May 1940, the Volksdeutsche Bewegung was founded in Luxembourg City under the leadership of Damian Kratzenberg. Its main goal was to push the population towards a German-friendly position by means of propaganda and thus to lead Luxembourg Heim ins Reich. After a short period under military administration between May 1 and August 2, Luxembourg was included into the CdZ-Gebiet Luxemburg on July 29 under the guidance of Gustav Simon. Simon was the civil administrator of the Gaue Trier-Koblenz (later Moselland) and led a propaganda and later terror campaign, known as Heim ins Reich, to convince the population that they were ethnic Germans and a natural part of the Third Reich. As Gauleiter, he was responsible to Adolf Hitler only. His two goals were very clear:

The Germanisation of Luxembourg, for example the extinction of everything that wasn't of German source, like French names and words of French origin or a French way of life, for example wearing a beret (a traditional cap from the Northern Basque Country).
The destruction and dismemberment of the Luxembourgish state.

His very first series of decrees made this policy very clear:

August 6, 1940. The usage of the French language was banned. The ban included names of streets and towns, even expressions of courtesy such as 'Bonjour', 'Merci', 'Monsieur', 'Madame', etc. were banned. French names were translated into their German counterpart or simply replaced by something sounding more Germanic. Henri became Heinrich, Dupont became Brückner.

Autumn 1940. The political parties and independent labour unions, the Parliament and the Conseil d'Etat were dissolved. All civil society organisations and the press were subjected to Nazi control.

Till end 1940. The German jurisdiction was introduced including the Sondergerichte and the Nuremberg Laws.

From 1941 many Luxembourgish youth were ordered to participate in the Reichsarbeitsdienst. A massive propaganda campaign was launched to influence the population, while not only dissidents and critics but also teachers, officials and leading economical figures were threatened with losing their jobs unless they joined Nazi organisations, which led to much increased recruitment from all professions. A central database 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 case sent to the death camps where many of them died.

The fate of Luxembourg's Jews

Before the invasion, 3,800 Jews lived in Luxembourg, many of them refugees from Germany. On May 10 1940, 1,800 of them still remained. After Simon introduced the Nuremberg Laws, life became unbearable for the Jewish population. Their shops, possessions and money were confiscated and all Jewish employees were fired. They were not allowed inside public buildings or to keep pets. Between August 1940 and October 1941, 619 Jews left the country on the orders of the authorities. The Gestapo accompanied them to France and Spain but, since they were rejected there, they went on an endless odyssey.
   On August 23, 1941, a curfew was introduced for the Jewish population and they were degraded to second class citizens. The synagogues in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette were destroyed; the ones in Ettelbruck and Mondorf-les-Bains were devastated. The Nazis concentrated the remaining Jews in the old monastery of Fünfbrunnen. On October 16, 1941, their transportation began to the Ghetto of Litzmannstadt and after April 1942 to the death camps of Hinzert / Hunsrück, Belsen, Sobibor, Majdanek and Theresienstadt. With the last transport in June 1942, 11 people were sent directly to Auschwitz. Two of them survived.
   One prominent Jewish survivor was Alfred Oppenheimer, a member of the Consistoire (Jewish Council). Together with his family, he was deported to concentration camp, where his wife was killed and then to Auschwitz where his son Rene was gassed. Alfred Oppenheimer survived the death camp and was one of the witnesses at the trial of Adolf Eichmann. He returned to live in Luxembourg until his death aged over 90, and was known for his involvement in public education about the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. The Prix René Oppenheimer was created in memory of his son.
   On June 17, 1943, Gustav Simon announced Luxembourg to be free of Jews. From the 683 deported, only 43 survived.

The population’s reaction

The general public were slow to react at first, still feeling shock from the invasion of 1914-1918. Furthermore the royal family and the government had silently fled into exile. In general the different reactions of the population can be grouped in the following categories:

The Resistance

The Luxembourgish resistance was supported only by a small fraction of the population. Its formation was spontaneous and slow at first. The first groups were formed in autumn 1940-1941. In the beginning they worked without coordination and from different motivations, for instance Liberals opposed to the anti-Jewish policies and in favour of democracy as well as conservative Roman Catholics with sometimes more or less anti-Jewish (but not racist) tendencies. Some of the latter category also were at the same time opposed to the Soviet Union and "Judeo-Bolshevism", hoping that Prussian generals of the Wehrmacht would defeat Stalin and the Red Army, while at the same time hiding Jews and anti-Nazi clergy mixed together in their farms. The Luxembourg Resistance was joined by the Communist Party of Luxembourg after June, 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). The different groups were:

L.P.L., Lëtzeburger Patriote Liga, (Eng: Luxembourgish Patriotic League), founded 1940

LFB, Lëtzeburger Freihétsbewegong, (Eng: Luxembourgish Freedom Movement), founded 1940

LFK, Lëtzeburger Freihétskämpfer, (Eng: Luxembourgish Freedom Fighters), founded January 1941

L.V.L., Lëtzeburger Volleks Legio'n, (Eng: Luxembourgish Peoples Legion), founded June 1941

L.R.L., Lëtzeburger Ro'de Lé'w, (Eng Luxembourg Red Lion), founded October 1941

PI-Men, Patriotes Indépendants, (Eng: Independent Patriots), founded 1941

LFB, Lëtzeburger Freihétsbond, (Eng: Luxembourgish Freedom Alliance)

Alweraje, 1941. The different groups merged in March, 1944 into the Union. The actions against the Nazi regime were largely limited to psychological warfare and armed actions were less common. Many young men joined the armed resistance in France and Belgium. The main accomplishment of the Luxembourgish resistance, which shouldn't be underestimated, was the moral support for the population through the distribution of flyers, graffiti, and by hiding youths who refused to serve in the German Wehrmacht.
Several well-known Catholic and Communist households, and many parishes and priories, also kept a number of Jewish Luxembourgish civilians and foreign Jews hidden and safe.

Collaboration

Collaboration with the Nazi occupation is an aspect less often talked about in Luxembourg. These collaborators were mainly found within the Volksdeutschen Bewegung, an organisation which supported the Nazi regime and participated in the dismantlement of the Luxembourgish state. The most loyal members were joined by individuals who gave way to either pressure or opportunism. Some historians estimate that the size of the collaboration was approximately similar to that of the resistance. About 2,000 collaborators were found guilty of treason after the end of the war, including nine individuals who were executed. Others remained incarcerated until the 1950s, when most were amnestied.

The majority of the population

The majority of the population kept their heads low to avoid any conflict with the authorities; however, they didn't hide their resentments completely. This attitude became obvious through subtle but effective actions:

During the impressive parade of the German police force on August 6 1940 in Luxembourg-City, some spectators wore a pin bearing the Luxembourgish coat of arms. This pin originated from the 100th anniversary celebrations of the independence of the country in 1939. Consequently those who had worn the pin were severely beaten by the authorities.

On October 21, 1940, the national monument “Gëlle Fra“, a memorial for voluntary Luxembourgish soldiers who had fought in World War I with the French, was demolished. Hundreds of people protested and were brutally dispersed by the Gestapo. 13 people were arrested.

October 10, 1941: Expecting their propaganda campaign to be successful, the occupation authorities organised a census, which included seemingly innocuous questions about nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity. Resistance organisations were quick to recognise this as a thinly disguised attempt to incorporate Luxembourg into the Reich and mounted a massive underground awareness-raising campaign (‘’Dräimol Lëtzebuergesch, eng: Three times Luxembourgish’’), turning the census into a referendum. The result was that 97% declared their Luxembourgish identity, often writing Mir wëlle bleiwen wat mir sin (We wish to remain what we are) on the census forms. When the regime became aware of the fiasco, the census was immediately stopped. For the suppressed population, this was an enormous moral victory.

August 30 1942, the Reichsarbeitsdienst and military draft for the men born between 1920 and 1927 was introduced. The drafting into the Wehrmacht provoked a general strike against the occupying authorities, which started in Wiltz on August 31 1942 and soon spread out over the rest of the country. The action was violently suppressed - 21 strikers were executed and hundreds more deported to concentration camps. The peaceful uprising of this small nation against a powerful oppressor became largely known abroad.

About 40% of the men drafted for service refused to serve in the German Wehrmacht and went into hiding, half of them inside the country's borders. Those who escaped to Britain joined the Allied Forces and took part in the Battle of Normandy as part of the 1st Belgian Brigade also known as the Brigade Piron.

The Terror Regime

Faced with opposition from the general public the regime felt compelled to take brutal measures against any form of resistance. After the general strike of 1942, Gustav Simon proclaimed a state of emergency and introduced the German Standgerichte. Thousands were arrested and tortured. Hundreds died in the concentration camps. Whole families were deported to East Germany and replaced by German families, mainly from South-Tyrol and Eastern Europe. The headquarters of the Gestapo, the Villa Pauly, became the symbol of this terror.

The Liberation

Luxembourg was liberated by the US Army in September 1944. They entered the capital city on September 10 1944. The Germans retreated without combat. During the Battle of the Bulge, the northern part of the country was once again occupied by the German forces. In March 1945, the Allied forces liberated the country for the second time. The destruction in this part of the country was enormous.

Luxembourg's participation in the occupation of Germany 1945-1955

Following the war Luxembourgish troops took part in the occupation of Germany, contributing troops that were part of the force in the occupation zone controlled by the French, beginning in late 1945. Luxembourghish forces functioned under overall French command within the zone and were responsible for the areas of Bitburg/Eifel and parts of Saarburg. They were withdrawn from Saarburg in 1948, and from Bitburg/Eifel in July 1955.

Casualties and damage

In total 5,703 citizens died during World War II. This corresponds to 1.8% of a pre war population of roughly 209,000.

10,211 were drafted for the German Wehrmacht. 2,848 (28%) died in German uniform. 96 have been declared missing.

About 600 civilians died during actions of war, especially in late 1944.

3,963 "Aryan" people were deported to concentration camps or prisons. 791 died.

3,614 young girls were forced to serve in the Reichsarbeitsdienst der weiblichen Jugend (RAD/wJ). 56 of them died at the front or during Allied and Soviet air raids, 2 have been declared missing.

4,186 people were deported. 154 of them died.

57 members of the active resistance died.

81% of the 3,800 Jews living in Luxembourg before May 10 1940 died.

640 people lost their job for political reasons.

About a third of the houses were completely destroyed because of actions of war. Several churches and monasteries were destroyed or burnt in action by the SS.Further Information

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