91 young Luxembourgish men, who had been forcibly recruited, were among the 819 prisoners killed in a matter of hours, when SS soldiers carried out a bloody massacre on 30 and 31 January 1945. The event came just hours before the camp was due to be liberated by Russian troops, and four months after the Grand Duchy had been freed from Nazi control.
The Luxembourgers, executed by 20 SS soldiers, were aged between 19 and 24 years old and hailed from all regions of the country. The massacre, which happened 75 years ago in the German camp located in Sonnenburg/Slonsk in German-occupied Poland, counts as one of the worst war crimes carried out against Luxembourg, alongside the horrific treatment of Luxembourgish Jews in the Second World War.
Never in Luxembourgish history had so many Luxembourgers died at the same time, in the same place.
Junglinster church will hold a commemorative event to honour the 91 victims, which will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday 30 January. The event has been organised by the Federation of Forced Enrolments and the Committee for the Remembrance of the Second World War.
The event will also commemorate the 10 forcibly recruited Luxembourgers who were executed after rising up against the Junglinster Nazi Local Group Leader.
The massacre will also be acknowledged at an official level on Friday, when Deputy Prime Minister François Bausch will represent Luxembourg in Slonsk.
Slonsk and its Museum of Martyrdom have become one of the most important places for the memory of European Jews and victims of Nazi terror.
LINK:further information can be found at “ons-jongen-a-meedercher.lu”
