Stumbling blocks in Luxembourg

Stumbling blocks for Isabelle and Joseph Cahen,
Differdange 2014

Stumbling blocks in Luxembourg are memorials for victims of the Nazis , in the context of the art project of the same pitfalls of Gunter Demnig in three cantons in the east and south of Luxembourg were transferred to road paving. They remind of the fate of the people of this nation who were murdered, deported, expelled or driven to suicide by the Nazi regime.

The stumbling blocks were designed and laid by Gunter Demnig. As a rule, they are located in front of the victim's last self-chosen place of residence and are called Stolpersteng in Luxembourgish . With the exception of the Stolperstein von Beles and the stumbling block from Ettelbrück , all inscriptions are in Luxembourgish, the country's national language since 1984.

The first installation in Luxembourg took place in January 2013. Since then Demnig has laid a total of 88 stumbling blocks and one stumbling block in seven Luxembourg municipalities. (As of January 2018)

Occupation of Luxembourg and persecution of the Jews by the occupiers

→ Main article : Luxembourg in World War II  and the deportation of Jews from Luxembourg

At the beginning of the Second World War , around 3,500 Jewish people lived in Luxembourg, a little more than one percent of the total population. Three quarters of the Jewish population came from Eastern Europe, many were after the seizure of the Nazis fled the German Reich to Luxembourg. Their integration went largely smoothly. In the early morning of May 10, 1940, the German Wehrmacht marched into Luxembourg. In doing so, she violated the country's neutrality status. Grand Duchess Charlotte and the government left the country in protest that same day. On the day of the occupation and immediately afterwards, an estimated 800 to 2,500 of Luxembourg's Jews were evacuated to France or were able to flee there. Some returned in the months that followed when the situation appeared to have calmed down. Jews were initially safe of their lives in Germany's small neighboring state, but were gradually subjected to restrictions as well. The Nuremberg Laws were introduced in Luxembourg on September 5, 1940, and from September 1941 all Jews had to wear the yellow star . As early as November 1940, the Luxembourg Administrative Commission voluntarily prepared two lists, with a total of 751 names, of Jewish residents of Luxembourg, which they later passed on to German authorities. In May 1941 the last convoy to Portugal left the country. In mid-October 1941, only around 750 Jews lived in Luxembourg, most of them old people. The Nazi regime set up a transit camp in the former Jesuit monastery in Fünfbrunnen , the Jewish old people's home in Fünfbrunnen . From there on October 16, 1941, a deportation train with 324 people left the country in the direction of the Litzmannstadt ghetto . A total of 674 people were deported in eight transports. Only 36 survived.

On September 9, 1944, Luxembourg was liberated by Allied forces. Around 2,000 people in Luxembourg's Jewish community were victims of the Shoah. Only a few survivors returned to Luxembourg after the fall of the Nazi regime. In June 2015 the government and parliament apologized after the debate on the research reports of the Luxembourg historians Denis Scuto and Vincent Artuso for the Luxembourg collaboration in the persecution of Jews.

Relocations

Trip threshold

1940-1945 IN MEMORY OF THE JEWS FROM ETTELBRÜCK - VICTIMS OF THE SHOAH

The city Ettelbrück (Luxembourgish: Ettelbréck , French: Ettelbruck ) is the only city in the country in which a so-called trip-free threshold reminds collectively to the victims of the Shoah. It was moved to the pedestrian zone on January 25, 2013, in memory of the 127 Jews from Ettelbrück who were deported and 105 of whom were subsequently killed, most of them in concentration camps.

The stumbling block inscription is bilingual, in French and German.

Stumbling blocks

In Esch an der Alzette (Luxembourgish: Esch-Uelzecht , French: Esch-sur-Alzette ), the second largest city in the country, Gunter Demnig laid 14 stumbling blocks on October 22, 2013. They all remember victims of the Shoah . There are plans to lay stumbling blocks for resistance fighters as well. Parallel to the laying of the stumbling blocks, the Musée national de la Résistance showed the exhibition Between Shade and Darkness - le sort des Juifs du Luxembourg de 1940 à 1945 (in German: Between Shadow and Darkness - the fate of the Jews from Luxembourg from 1940 to 1945 ).

In Differdange (Luxembourgish: Déifferdeng , French: Differdange ) on October 28, 2014, as part of the exhibition Quand Differdange devint "judenrein". Le jour où nos chemins se séparèrent 15 stumbling blocks laid. On November 5, 2015, another 23 were added. The lives of the victims are based on research by the historian Cédric Faltz. He had put these together for the exhibition in 2014 on behalf of the city of Differdange, in collaboration with the Geschichstfrënn Déifferdeng . The German translation of the title of the exhibition reads: When Differdingen became "judenrein". The day we parted ways .

On November 6, 2015 in Beles (Luxembourg: Bieles , French: Belvaux ) the first Stolperstein in the municipality of Sassenheim (Luxembourg: Suessem , French: Sanem ) was laid by Gunter Demnig.

At the end of the commemorative celebrations Mémoires communes - displaced, displaced, forgotten on November 6, 2015, eleven stumbling blocks were laid by Gunter Demnig in Bad Mondorf (Luxembourgish Munneref , French Mondorf-les-Bains ). Along with the stumbling blocks for Marie Faber-Siebenaler and Bernard Weber, stumbling blocks for resistance fighters were also laid. The life data of the Mondorf victims are based on the work of the historian Daniel Thilman. In Bad Mondorf, the old synagogue in Rue du Moulin was re-inaugurated on October 18, 2015 after renovation work. It became the seat of the MemoShoah non-profit association in Luxembourg.

The Remich Stolpersteine are dedicated to 13 victims of the Shoah and four survivors. In addition to the stumbling blocks, the community erected a Shoah memorial site on June 24, 2016 in cooperation with MemoShoah .

On March 16, 1942, the city of Grevenmacher was declared “ judenrein ” in Nazi terminology . The city's municipal bulletin describes this action in 2017 as follows: “When Selma Sommer was transported to the assembly and internment camp in Fünfbrunnen (LUX), the Nazi regime finally destroyed the peaceful coexistence of two religious communities in the Moselle metropolis.” 75 years later, Demnig moved seven stumbling blocks for the city's Jews. The film Son of Saul was shown in the preliminary program for the relocations , the Israeli historian Gideon Greif gave a lecture on the special commandos in the extermination camps and André Ney organized a conference on Déi Macher Jews in Luxembourgish.

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  Differdange

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  Beles

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  Bad Mondorf

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  Remich

List of installed stumbling blocks

place	Canton	First laying	number	last relocation	photos	list
Bad Mondorf	Remich	0November 6, 2015	11	November 6, 2015
Beles	Esch on the Alzette	0November 6, 2015	1	November 6, 2015
Differdange	Esch on the Alzette	October 28, 2014	38	5th November 2015
Esch on the Alzette	Esch on the Alzette	22nd October, 2013	14th	22nd October, 2013
Ettelbruck	Diekirch	January 25, 2013	1 (trip threshold)	January 25, 2013
Grevenmacher	Grevenmacher	March 10, 2017	7th	March 10, 2017
Remich	Remich	June 24, 2016	17th	June 24, 2016

Web links

Commons : Stolpersteine ​​in Luxembourg  - Collection of images

Commons : MemoShoah Luxembourg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stolpersteine.eu , website of the Stolperstein project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Israel Gutman u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust . Munich and Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 , Vol. 2, pp. 911-913.
2. ^ Ino Arndt: Luxembourg. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Dimension of the genocide. The number of Jewish victims of National Socialism. dtv, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-04690-2 , p. 95.
3. ^ Ino Arndt: Luxembourg. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Dimension of the genocide. The number of Jewish victims of National Socialism. dtv, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-04690-2 , p. 100.
4. ^ Luxemburg denounced Jews. The myth of the innocent land is gone. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 9, 2015, accessed on December 31, 2019.
5. ↑ Parliament and government apologize. Tageblatt Lëtzebuerg, June 9, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2018.
6. ↑ "City of Ettelbruck laid the nation's first" stumbling block "in honor of the Shoah victims." mywort.lu, January 26, 2013, accessed on January 1, 2018
7. ↑ "Stumbling blocks laid in Esch / Alzette." Wort.lu, 23.10.13 07:07; Nicolas Anen, Stones to Stumble and Think, Luxemburger Wort , October 23, 2013, pp. 20–21, accessed on January 2, 2018
8. ↑ Musée national de la Résistance: POSE DE STOLPERSTEINE À ESCH , October 17, 2013, accessed on January 3, 2018
9. ↑ "23 'stumbling blocks' fir d'Erënnerung." rtl.lu, November 5, 2015, accessed on January 2, 2018
10. ↑ Further stumbling blocks laid in Differdange. In: Luxemburger Wort . November 5, 2015, accessed January 14, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Cédric Faltz: When Differdingen became Jewish. The day we parted ways. City administration of Differdange, 2014, ISBN 978-2-919924-23-3 , p. 92-94 ( digital edition ).
12. ↑ Gemeng Suessem active: Sanem municipality sets first stumbling block , p. 11, accessed on January 3, 2018
13. ↑ Stefanie Hildebrand: Fates of Jewish Families , Luxemburger Wort , September 29, 2015, p. 23, accessed on January 8, 2018
14. ↑ Circuit Historique: "Am Zentrum vum Duerf". (PDF; 26.5 MiB) Administration Communale & Syndicat d'Initiative Mondorf-les-Bains, pp. 4, 10 , accessed on January 12, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Remich commemorates his Jewish Holocaust victims , De Buet, June / July 2016, pages 24 and 25, with portraits of the victims and survivors, accessed on January 3, 2018
16. ↑ ^{a b} Bulletin municipal de la Ville de Grevenmacher: Maacher erënnert six ... , pages 36 and 37, accessed on January 3, 2018