On 10 May 1940, the German armed forces swept into the neutral Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Grand Duchess Charlotte, her husband and their children went into exile along with government ministers. After travelling through France, Portugal and the USA, they eventually arrived in Canada and Great Britain, while the government exiled in Montreal and in London. One minister, however, was unable to evacuate in time. The decision to leave Luxembourg ensured that the Head of State could not be brought under the control of the occupying forces. By joining the allies, Luxembourg could maintain its independence. The country remained under German military administration until the 31 July 1940.You can download a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://assets.prod.app.luxembourg-city.com/data/media/e704ccec-f622-4bf9-9a98-b06ee27aa36f.pdf">PDF brochure</a> for the memorial trail taking visitors to most of the places of interest related to Second World War in the city of Luxembourg.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg Ministry of Economy, General Directorate for Tourism

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The Second World War in the city of Luxembourg

Here the headquarters of 12th US-Army Group, named Eagle Tac, were established from the end of September 1944 until around 22 December 1944.&nbsp;General Omar Bradley commanded the 1st (Hodges) and 3rd (Patton) US Armies&nbsp;and left Luxembourg for security reasons at the beginning of the German surprise attack in the Ardennes in December 1944.With the liberation of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg &nbsp;in September 1944 by units of the 1st US Army, General Bradley established his 12th Army Group Headquarters in the city of Luxembourg to be closer to the operations.&nbsp;‘Eagle Tac’ was established in the right wing of the building of the State Savings Bank in the capital of the Grand Duchy. This wing had been built on the remains of a former defensive structure from the 17th century. It was rated that in case of an enemy air raid, these underground installations could serve as an emergency shelter.&nbsp;With the beginning of the German surprise attack, 16 December 1944 in the Ardennes, General Bradley withdraw to France as it was believed that the enemy would try recapturing Luxembourg City.

Eagle Tac (12th US-Army Group headquarters)

From 1940 to 1944 the villa was used as the headquarters of the &nbsp;‘Einsatzkommando der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD'&nbsp;(Gestapo).All people who showed their opposition and or &nbsp;resistance towards the German policy of annexation of Luxembourg to the German Reich were arrested and brought to the headquarters of the Gestapo to be interrogated. &nbsp;Sometimes they would also be subjected to torture &nbsp;before being sent to prison &nbsp;or concentration camps. The villa’s basement was transformed into prison cells where numerous members of &nbsp;resistance movements were interrogated and tortured.The offices of the ’Judenbeauftragter’ were located in the same building. On these premises the deportation lists were compiled and the deportations organised.Two plaques on the outside commemorate the victims of the Resistance and the 1,300 Jews whose deportation was organised here.The two plaques read:‘Villa Pauly / Siège de la Gestapo 1940-1944. Passant, souviens-toi des résistants torturés en ces lieux sous l’occupation nazie’.‘Passant souviens-toi qu’en ces lieux fut organisée à partir de 1941 la déportation des Juifs du Luxembourg. 1300 enfants, femmes et hommes ont péri dans la tourmente de la Shoah.’&nbsp;(EN: Villa Pauly / Gestapo headquarters 1940-1944. Passers-by, remember the Resistance fighters tortured here during the Nazi Occupation'.Passing by, remember that this is where the deportation of Luxembourg's Jews was organised from 1941 onwards. 1300 children, women and men perished in the turmoil of the Shoah'.)The ‘Villa Pauly’ became the embodiment of brutal Nazi rule in Luxembourg.

Villa Pauly

In 2009, representatives of the Jewish community and historians, having conducted extensive research on the confiscation of Jewish property, petitioned the government to erect a monument in commemoration of the victims of the Shoah in Luxembourg city. In 2018, the ’Kaddish’ monument, created by the Franco-Israeli sculptor Shelomo Selinger, was inaugurated on Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The location marks the site of the first synagogue in the city, which was inaugurated in 1823. In 1894 this synagogue was replaced by a larger one, situated at the corner of Rue Notre Dame and Rue Aldringen.The Jewish population in Luxembourg on 10 May 1940 was estimated at roughly 4,000. 1,300 were deported from Luxembourg, France, and Belgium, where they had found a temporary refuge. About 1,000 Jews were Luxembourg nationals, the other 3,000 were refugees from Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern European countries. Some 60 Jews survived in Luxembourg as partners in a mixed marriage. About 10 Jews survived in hiding with non-Jewish Luxembourg families.The inscription on the Kaddish Monument reads:Kaddish: “Pour les Juifs du Luxembourg assassinés par les Nazis 1940-1945. ” (For the Jews of Luxembourg murdered by the Nazis 1940-1945)There is a memorial trail in Luxembourg city that takes visitors to the most important points of interest related to the Shoah. The route takes about two hours and is 3 km. An electronic copy of the description of the trail can be downloaded here:<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://assets.prod.app.luxembourg-city.com/data/media/6df06eca-67b2-4b4a-9b13-9455dbbea05c.pdf">https://assets.prod.app.luxembourg-city.com/data/media/6df06eca-67b2-4b4a-9b13-9455dbbea05c.pdf</a>

Kaddish Monument

At the initiative of Prime Minister Pierre Werner, the associations of the members of the Resistance and the association of those forced to serve in the German army decided to have one common place where Luxembourg could commemorate its victims of the Second World War.It was the idea to dedicate this monument to national solidarity., &nbsp;This was a force which enabled Luxembourgers to resist the German plans to annex Luxembourg to Nazi Germany. This made the monument acceptable to both groups of victims. For years, the two groups had been fighting each other on degrees of suffering and compensation.The inauguration took place on 10 October 1971, the 30th anniversary of the so called ‘referendum' by which the Luxembourgers demonstrated their will to stay an independent and free country.Inside the monument the inscription reads:’D’Hémecht hiren Doudegen 1940-1945 (The fatherland to its dead 1940-1945).The Jewish victims from the Second World War are not mentioned during the construction of the monument, but a Rabbi was present at the inauguration.A special electronic memorial trail taking visitors to most of the places of interest related to the Second World War in the city of Luxembourg is available here:<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://assets.prod.app.luxembourg-city.com/data/media/e704ccec-f622-4bf9-9a98-b06ee27aa36f.pdf">https://assets.prod.app.luxembourg-city.com/data/media/e704ccec-f622-4bf9-9a98-b06ee27aa36f.pdf</a>

National Monument of Luxembourg solidarity

The statue expresses the great attachment that the people of Luxembourg had for Grand Duchess Charlotte who reigned from 1919 to 1964. She passed away in 1985. The sculpture was created by the French artist Jean Cardot.The idea to have a statue of Grand Duchess Charlotte built came immediately after her burial at the Notre-Dame Cathedral, in the middle of the Luxembourg population.During Second World War she had become the symbol of Luxembourg’s independence through her broadcasted speeches in Luxembourgish on the BBC.The inscription on the memorial reads:'Madame Mir hun iech gär.‘ (Madame, we love you.)

Grand Duchess Charlotte Statue

On 20 October 1940, occupying Nazi forces pulled the monument down, and only in 1984 to 1985 did extensive restauration return it to its original appearance. Today it symbolises freedom and resistance for the Luxembourg people. It is the military memorial for Luxembourgers who volunteered in the allied armies and as members of UN missions.Inaugurated on 27 May 1923, the memorial, best known as ‘Gëlle Fra’ (Golden Lady), is located facing the residence of the French ambassador. The monument underlines the participation of volunteers from Luxembourg in the Allied armies during the First World War.During the Second World War, the Nazi occupation authorities pulled the monument down. It’s eventual destruction on 21 October 1940 had been preceded by three days of protests by numerous Luxembourgers. Among them were many students from the nearby ‘Athenaeum’. A taskforce of Gestapo responded with brutal arrests. Over 60 protesters were taken to the ‘Villa Pauly’ and subsequently beaten up and interrogated.After the war the complete reconstruction of the ‘Gëlle Fra’ was delayed for many reasons, mainly financial. In the 1950’s a reconstruction of the base with the two soldiers was accomplished after considerable discussions. In 1984 and 1985, the monument was reconstructed in its original form. On the base of the memorial are four small plaques which were added to commemorate its destruction.The monument was designed by Luxembourgish sculptor, Claus Cito, from Bascharage. The memorial depicts a gold-plated female figure on a stone obelisk, holding a crown of laurel in her outstretched hands. On the ground level are two young soldiers, one sitting and mourning the other who is stretched out, dead.Today, the monument symbolises freedom and resistance for the Luxembourg people. It is also the military memorial for Luxembourgers who volunteered in the allied armies and gave their lives for the independence of Luxembourg during the two World Wars, the War in Korea, the Spanish Civil War, and as members of UN missions.

Gëlle Fra Monument (Golden Lady)

Almost at the same time, the Gestapo had increasingly succeeded in exposing and severely dismantling entire resistance rings, even abroad, through informers and traitors. When being arrested, the helpers were threatened with high prison sentences, death sentences and the transfer to extermination camps of the SS.Through a unique effort of solidarity by thousands of patriots and the Resistance, about 2,500 refractors were able to find secret shelter in the country. Various resistance groups were helpful in this by smuggling up to 1,000 fugitives with forged papers through organized escape routes, at constant risk to their lives, to the less-supervised large-scale foreign countries.Initially, in winter, hiding places were created in houses, barns, stables, even churches, and later in disused ore mines. During the warm season, secret shelter could be found in about 85 dug-in field and forest bunkers in the country.Security and rationed food supplies were the greatest challenges, which would not have been accessible without countless anonymous helpers from the population. Occasionally, illegally slaughtered cattle could be procured, or the rationed food supply could be improved by poaching and fishing during the nighttime.The daily supplies were deposited by locally organized resistance groups at night in certain places, where they were later taken by the fugitives to their earth bunkers. Because of the treacherous smoke, cooking was only allowed at concealed fireplaces at night.The day-to-day nondisclosure of young fugitives, with different backgrounds and characters, could only be maintained with iron discipline and draconian punishments.Unfortunately, due to naivety and youthful exuberance, some fatal incidents with fatal outcomes occurred, which plunged entire rope teams of helpers with their families into disaster.The drama of forced recruitment became a national issue for the country. There was almost no family that was not directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy.This has been a voluntary solidarity action, which, despite the death penalty, is unparalleled in the history of the Luxembourg country.This story resonates and links directly to the Monument of Nation Solidarity which is located Ville-Haute, Luxembourg.

The Underground Survival of Deserters

Tour 2nde Guerre Mondiale

Liberation Route Europe is a cultural route that connects people, places, and events to mark Europe’s liberation from occupation during World War II and reflect on the history of the war and its long-lasting consequences. With hundreds of sites and stories across Europe, the route links the main regions along the advance of the Allied Forces in 1943-1945. In 2023, the Ministry of Economy began cooperating with LRE on a trails network within the country. A trail the length of Luxembourg, as well as connecting smaller routes, was created. These routes explore the history of the country’s experience of the war from its invasion by German troops on 10 May 1940, with sites and stories of resistance, forced conscription, persecution and liberation. Follow in the footsteps of history and discover the people of Luxembourg’s struggle for freedom along the Liberation Route Luxembourg. 