National Monument of Resistance and Deportation

The origins of the Hinzert Cross memorial in Notre-Dame Cemetery dates back to the funerals which were held there on 9 and 10 March 1946.

Every year since then, an official gathering has been held at the monument on the National Day of Remembrance. In March 1946, the Luxembourg government repatriated the exhumed bodies of 78 Luxembourg. In 1946 this burial place was marked by a cross (cross of Hinzert) which was made of beams  taken from the concentration camp of Hinzert and erected in late 1945 at the burial places in Hinzert.

In the late 1960’s, the site was converted and enlarged with the creation of a forecourt. It was inaugurated on 10 May 1969, and given the name ‘Monument de la déportation’ (Memorial of Deportation). In 1974, the government decided to add the title ‘national’ to the name. At the instigation of the National Council of the Resistance, the monument was given the name it has to this day:

Monument national de la Résistance et de la déportation’ (National Memorial for Resistance Fighters and the Deported).

The site has since been enlarged and redeveloped, with the addition of a bronze statue known as 'The Political Prisoner’. The statue was created by Lucien Wercollier (1908–2002), an artist and art education teacher who was himself a Resistance fighter, a former political prisoner at Hinzert and a prisoner in the camps in Lublin and forcibly resettled in Silesia.

The National Memorial for Resistance Fighters and the Deported symbolises the suffering endured by those Luxembourgers who opposed the policies of the Nazi occupiers. It is a place where survivors and political leaders gather as a reminder that we must never stop defending the right to independence and the fundamental freedoms. It is also a national memorial, site of an annual gathering held around 25 February (date of the execution of 23 resistance fighters near Hinzert) as National Day of Resistance.