Holocaust in Luxembourg

In the XIX - early XX centuries Luxembourg's Jewish population grew rapidly due to immigration of Jews from Germany . In 1927, their number was 1,121 people.

In 1935, there were also about 2,000 Jewish refugees in Luxembourg who moved from Germany in connection with anti-Semitic persecution ^[2] . According to various sources, from the beginning of World War II , Luxembourg had between 3,500 ^[1] and 4,200 Jews, including refugees ^[3] .

On May 10, 1940, the Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg and occupied the territory of the principality. The Grand Duchess Charlotte and her government fled to Britain . In December 1941, Luxembourg was included in the Third Reich , and in August 1942 - formally annexed . French was banned. The territory was administered by the German civil administration, led by Gauleiter Gustav Simon . The persecution of Jews was directly dealt with by the police chief Richard Hengst ( German: Richard Hengst ) and the head of the Security Service (SD) and SS Obersturmbanführer Wilhelm Nolle ^{[4] [5]}

After the German troops entered the country, the chief rabbi of Luxembourg, Robert Serebrenik, met with the head of the occupation military administration, General Walter von Reichenau . Reichenau promised that if the Jewish population respects loyalty to the invaders, there will be no oppression. This promise was fulfilled until the transfer of power to the civil administration and the appointment by Gauleiter Gustav Simon, which occurred on August 7, 1940 ^{[4] [5]} .

On September 5, 1940, the Germans introduced discriminatory anti-Jewish racial laws in Luxembourg. Jews were forbidden to visit public places and were ordered to shop only in certain stores. In parallel with the spread of anti-Semitic propaganda, so-called “spontaneous actions” were carried out against Jews, when organized gangs attacked worshipers, threatened Jews and pasted anti-Semitic posters in Jewish shops and enterprises ^[6] .

355 enterprises and 380 farms owned by Jews were confiscated and handed over to the "Aryans", Jews were fired from their jobs. On August 23, 1941, curfew was imposed on the Jewish population. In September 1941, an order was issued obliging Jews to wear a yellow star ^[7] . Robert Serebrenik claims that mass deportation of Luxembourg Jews was preparing for Yom Kippur (October 1, 1940), but it was canceled after the intervention of the Wehrmacht, especially Lieutenant General Baron Heinrich von Heuningen-Güne ^[4] . At the same time, in March 1941, Serebrenik managed to get a meeting with Adolf Eichmann and permission to emigrate several hundred Jews ^[8] .

In August 1943, the ancient synagogue in Luxembourg was destroyed ^[7] .

About 1000 Jews fled to France , about 1000 moved there illegally, and about 700 were forcibly expelled from October 1940 to January 1941. Many of them were subsequently sent to the Nazi death camps in Poland already directly from France ^[7] .

The remaining 800 Jews were interned at the Funbrunnen transit camp established on the territory of the monastery of the same name near the city of Troisvierz ( German Ulflingen ) in the north of Luxembourg. From October 16, 1941 to June 17, 1943, according to various sources, from 674 to 723 ^[9] Jews were deported to death camps. Of these, only 35 or 36 people survived. One of the deportees was sent to the Лód гет ghetto and then killed in the Helmno death camp . Another part was transported to Terezin and then to the Auschwitz death camp ^[10] .

On October 19, 1941, the occupation authorities announced the complete cleansing of the territory of Luxembourg from the Jews ^[11]

The Allies liberated Luxembourg on September 9, 1944. By this time, of the 3,500 Jews living in Luxembourg on the eve of the war, 1,555 Jews were alive, and the rest died in the main death camps ^[7] . One of the few surviving deported Jews was Alfred Oppenheimer. His wife and son were killed. Oppenheimer was one of the witnesses in the trial of Adolf Eichmann ^[12] . Also witnessed in this process was Robert Serebrenik ^[8] .

List of Mass Deportations

Holocaust Remembrance Day has been celebrated in Luxembourg since 1946 annually on October 10. Since 2009, Luxembourg has been marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 as most countries in Europe ^[13] .

On July 6, 1969, in the presence of Grand Duke Jean and members of the government, a memorial was opened on the deportation of the Jews of Luxembourg to the death camps. Since then, a memorial ceremony has traditionally been held here on the first Sunday of July ^{[14] [15]} . For helping Jews save themselves from genocide during the years of occupation, the Institute of Catastrophe and Heroism Yad Vashem in 1971 awarded the Minister of Justice of Luxembourg Viktor Bodson the title of the Righteous of the World ^[16] . At the risk of his life, Bodson saved about 100 Jews who fled from Germany. In honor of Bodson named the bridge ^[17] in the south of the country.

Until 1975, there was no need for a special educational program on this topic, since many witnesses were alive and the memory of the victims was preserved and passed on to the next generation of Luxembourgers. However, in the future, due to the death of most of the participants in the events, at the initiative of the Minister of Culture and the former prisoner of the concentration camp Robert Kreps, the first specialized publications began. Since 2003, Luxembourg has been a member of the International Organization for Cooperation in the Perpetuation and Study of the Holocaust (ITF). All documents relating to the Holocaust are available in the archives of Luxembourg for any researcher ^[15] . The Ministry of Education organizes an annual memorial event in all secondary schools in January; since 2007, students of higher educational institutions have been involved in this process ^[13] .

Luxembourg does not have a separate Holocaust museum , this topic is part of the exposition of two museums of World War II: the Memorial of Deportations and the National Museum of Resistance ^[15] . Denial of the Holocaust in Luxembourg is a criminal offense under Section 457-3 of the Criminal Code, which establishes liability for the denial (contestation, derogation, acquittal) of Nazi crimes, as well as subsequent genocide facts recognized by Luxembourg or international courts or other authorities ( French. reconnus par une juridiction ou autorite luxembourgeoise ou internationale ) ^[18] .

• Zariz, Ruth and Lasch, Hannah, The Jews of Luxembourg during the Second World War, Holocuast Genocide Studies, 1993: 7: 51-66
• Marguerite Thill-Somin-Nicholson. Surviving the Nazi Occupation of Luxembourg. - Xlibris Corporation LLC, 2008. - 60 p. - ISBN 9781436338615 .

• Hinzert (concentration camp)

• Luxembourg - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• L'Olocausto in Lussemburgo (Italian) . olokaustos.org. Date of treatment February 20, 2012. Archived May 25, 2012.
• Luxembourg (English) . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Date of treatment February 20, 2012. Archived May 25, 2012.
• La Shoah au Luxembourg (French) . Le Gouvernement du grand-duché de Luxembourg. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
• Marc Schoentgen. Juden in Luxemburg 1940-45 (German) . gedenken-in-benelux.de (1997). Date of treatment July 13, 2012. Archived on September 13, 2012.
• The deportation of Jews by local police on September 19, 1942. Hollerich, Luxembourg .