In 1940, Nazi Germany occupied Luxembourg, prompting the emergence of the first resistance organisations within the country. During that time, 10,200 young Luxembourgers aged 18 to 24 were forcibly conscripted into the German army. The memorial ceremony at Wiltz’s national strike monument paid tribute to the victims of the general strike.
Carole Weigel, the Mayor of Wiltz, reflected on the significance of the event, stating, “people from all walks of life united in their refusal to work and stood together for their freedom, rallying against oppression.”
The brutal crackdown on the strike led to the sentencing to death of 21 individuals, including two municipal employees, four teachers from Wiltz, and 15 others from different parts of the Grand Duchy.
During the ceremony, red posters with the names of those condemned, distributed by the Nazis across the country, were displayed. One of the names on the posters was “Michel Worré,” the father of a contemporary witness, Albert Worré, who recounted his experiences in an interview with our colleagues from RTL Télé:
“I was attending secondary school in Diekirch after being expelled from a school in Luxembourg City for refusing to join the Hitler Youth. When I arrived in Ettelbruck that morning, I was informed to go home to my mother as my father had been executed, and posters with his name were hanging everywhere.”
The resistance fighters were predominantly young, with half of them under 26 years old in 1940, and 5% even younger than 16.
Another witness shared memories of the resistance against the Nazi regime and her experiences in Luxembourg during that tumultuous period. She was just 8 years old at the time of the forced recruitment:
“I had a schoolmate called Anni Bruck. When the teachers were shot, they put up posters on the big lime trees around the school. And so Anni read that her father had been shot. It’s a scene I will never forget.”
With nearly 70 years having passed since a war of aggression on European soil, the event also drew attention to the current situation in Ukraine, where courageous individuals, akin to those in Luxembourg in 1942, continue to fight against oppression, striving for peace, national sovereignty, and independence.
Full report by RTL Télé (in Luxembourgish)
