The Holocaust in Luxembourg refers to the systematic persecution, expulsion and murder of Jews in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

after its

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

and later annexation by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. It is generally believed that the Jewish population of Luxembourg had numbered around 3,500 before the war although many fled into France at the time of the German invasion of 10 May 1940 or in the early months of the occupation. Around 1,000 to 2,500 were murdered during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

after being deported to ghettos and extermination camps in Eastern Europe.

History

Around 3,500 Jews lived in

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Many were recent arrivals in the country who had fled from persecution in

and Eastern Europe and who were attracted by the commercial ties between Luxembourg and its surrounding countries and the common use of

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...

. A significant number fled on 10 May 1940 at the time of the

German invasion of Luxembourg The German invasion of Luxembourg was part of Case Yellow (german: Fall Gelb), the German invasion of the Low Countries—Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands—and France during World War II. The battle began on 10 May 1940 and lasted just ...

as part of the " exodus" of French, Belgian, and Luxembourgish civilians into eastern and southern France. The German occupation regime established in Luxembourg extended the

Nuremberg Race Laws The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented in Nazi Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, based on a specific racist doctrine asserting the superiority of the Aryan race, which claimed scientific legi ...

to the territory on 5 September 1940 and encouraged Jews to leave. By October 1941, when emigration was banned, 2,500 Jews had left Luxembourg mainly for the " Free Zone" in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...

. Many of the emigrants would become victims of

the Holocaust in France The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews and Roma between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution b ...

. From September 1941, all Jews in Luxembourg were forced to wear the

yellow badge Yellow badges (or yellow patches), also referred to as Jewish badges (german: Judenstern, lit=Jew's star), are badges that Jews were ordered to wear at various times during the Middle Ages by some caliphates, at various times during the Medieva ...

to identify them in public. The Nazi administration interned the remaining 800 Jews in Luxembourg at Fuenfbrunnen transit camp in

Troisvierges Troisvierges (; lb, Ëlwen ; german: Ulflingen) is a commune and town in northern Luxembourg, in the canton of Clervaux. The two highest hills in Luxembourg, the Kneiff (560 m) and Buurgplaatz (559 m), are located in the commune. , the town of ...

(Ulflingen) in the north of the country. The programme of deportation began in October 1941 principally to

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

as well as the concentration camps at

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...

and Auschwitz. Only 36 deportees from Luxembourg are believed to have survived the war. Luxembourg was formally annexed into Nazi Germany in August 1942.

Aftermath

Luxembourg was liberated by the Western Allies in early 1945. However, a law of 1950 prevented the majority of Jewish victims and their families from reclaiming assets held in the country before the war by preventing pre-1931 migrants from eligibility. It was said in 2019 that Luxembourg "is the only country in Western Europe with major, unaddressed restitution issues". The government of

Xavier Bettel Xavier Bettel (; born 3 March 1973) is a Luxembourger lawyer and politician serving as Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 2013. He was previously a member of the Chamber of Deputies (1999–2013) and Mayor of Luxembourg City (2011–2013). Be ...

apologised to the Jewish community of Luxembourg for the country's role in the Holocaust, including the complicity of "some public officials", in 2015.

References

External links

Luxembourg
at

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

(USHMM)
Luxembourg
at European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI)
Memoshoah.lu
at MemoShoah association {{The Holocaust, state=collapsed

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

History

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links