Memorial of Deportation, Luxembourg

After the war, the building became the seat of the association of the young people forced to serve in the German army. They believed that they also had been ‘deported’ from Luxembourg, thus the denomination of Memorial of Deportation.

Inside the building an exhibition was installed in the 1990’s, showing mainly  young men forcibly enrolled in the German army and 1,300 families that were forcibly resettled in Eastern Germany. It also includes information on the deportation of Jews from Luxembourg.

On 31 August 1942, Gauleiter Gustav Simon introduced compulsory military service for young men born in 1920 to 1924 (later to 1927). The reaction of the Luxembourg people was to go on strike in order to protest against this war crime.

As a retaliation against this, the Gauleiter created a court martial presided by the chief of the local Gestapo. This led to 20 strikers being arrested and sentenced to death. They were shot near the German concentration camp of Hinzert the day following their trial.

In the following months some 10,200 young men were to be enrolled and the first train taking them to German barracks left Luxembourg (central railway station) on 18 October 1942. As the departure of the first train created an opportunity for new protests the Germans decided to have the trains depart from the railway station of Hollerich, or to direct trains from the North of the country directly to Germany.

In September 1942 the Gauleiter decided to have all the families whom he thought ‘politically’ unreliable to be forcibly resettled in Eastern parts of Germany, mainly in Silesia. They were to be re-educated to become ‘good Nazi Germans’.

From 1943 the families from where young men had not shown up when called upon or deserted from their units (about 3,510 out of 10,200) were to be sent from Luxembourg to Silesia as well. These camps included Leubus and Boberstein. Some 60 people did not survive.

Among those who were enrolled into the German army, 2,752 were reported missing in action. Some 1,200 became prisoners of war in Russian camps, the most renowned being camp 188 near the city of Tambov. They returned to Luxembourg in late 1945.