Sunday’s commemoration marked 80 years since the permit was issued to exhume the remains of the Luxembourg men executed at Hinzert, Germany, and return them to their homeland. They were laid to rest at the Notre-Dame Cemetery, where the Hinzert Cross now stands, a site that has since become a place of remembrance for all victims of war.
Prayers for peace were offered at a time when war once again shapes daily life and when the values of peaceful coexistence are being openly challenged, including within the European Union, where increasingly extreme positions are calling fundamental principles into question.
Guy Dockendorf of the Committee for the Remembrance of the Second World War reminded attendees that those who follow in the footsteps of the wartime resistance have a continuing responsibility. He stressed that, just as earlier generations risked their lives to oppose Nazi terror, it remains a duty today not to stay silent when historical truth is distorted or when the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is disregarded.
He warned that narratives invoking so-called “denazification” or “genocide” to justify Russia’s attack on Ukraine demonstrate how history can be manipulated, and he lamented that too many people lack the courage to confront historical reality.
Dockendorf also cautioned against attempts to downplay Nazi terror during the Second World War. He described events such as Sunday’s ceremony as vital to preserving collective memory, particularly among younger generations. Students from the Lycée Ermesinde in Mersch read texts recalling the heavy price paid in the fight against fascism: around 4,000 resistance fighters were arrested and imprisoned or deported to concentration camps, and some 800 did not survive.
The international order established after the Second World War, it was noted, is once again being questioned.
Prime Minister Luc Frieden, addressing representatives of other countries, said that nations must stand together to ensure that the atrocities of the Second World War, with their countless victims and unimaginable horrors, are never repeated. Yet, he added, such tragedies are still occurring daily.
Frieden referred explicitly to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, the Middle East, and elsewhere. He also pointed to developments within the EU, where extremist movements in some countries challenge the foundations laid by previous generations: peace, freedom, and prosperity.
