​​Regional Museum of Forced Conscription​

​​The museum provides a thorough thematic overview of the events of the Second World War in Luxembourg from the occupation by the German Wehrmacht on 10 May 1940.  

​Subjects which are presented within include the severe destruction and evacuation of Düdelingen,  the terror of the Nazi occupation,  forced conscription, the general strike,  resistance movements struggle for survival,  deportations and the concentration camps. Furthermore, it covers the imprisonment of civilians, Allied prisoners, to the liberation and the eventful post-war period. 

​After the war, compulsory military service was introduced in the Grand Duchy and in July 1945 the second infantry battalion was stationed in Dudelange for a few months. However, the museum's main focus lies on the painful forced conscription into the Reich Labour Service and the German Wehrmacht. 

​A large number of moving archival images, documents, eyewitness accounts, objects, propaganda posters and war material illustrate the inhuman dilemma of these young men. Those at the time had to decide whether to comply with the conscription in order to protect their own families from reprisals, or to desert and face the death penalty. 

​A final section of the museum is dedicated to the commemoration and political demands of the forced conscripts in the post-war years to assert their rights. More than 30 panels vividly explain the various themes and display cases show objects from the different armies involved in the conflict as well as military and personal memorabilia of forced recruits.  

​On 30 August 1986, the square next to the church was inaugurated as the  ’Forced Recruits Square’  with a memorial stone. The Regional Museum of  ’Forced Recruitment’  is located on the ground floor of the former ARBED administration villa, which was declared a national monument in September 2018.  

​The museum is only 300 metres from Dudelange railway station and is served directly by several bus lines at a bus stop on-site.