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Grand duchy
bordering on Belgium, France, and Germany. Before World War II, it
had a population of about 300,000; approximately 3,500 Jews lived in
the duchy, of whom three-quarters came from Eastern Europe and over
1,000 had arrived since 1933.
Hostility to Nazification.
On May 10, 1940, the Germans invaded Luxembourg, meeting little
resistance and being helped by local Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans).
The grand duchess and her family fled to France and from there to
the United States, and the cabinet escaped to London. From early May
until August 1940, Luxembourg was under military administration.
Some Jewish property was confiscated, but there was no conspicuous
anti-Jewish legislation. On August 2, 1940, a civil government,
under the Luxembourg Nazi, Gauleiter Gustav Simon, was installed.
Simon made efforts to have Luxembourg "return" to the
Reich and on August 10, festivities were held to mark its
"return." Attempts were made to incite the population
against the Jews, but without success. In September 1941,
Luxembourgers were urged to join the Nazi party and declare
themselves German. In the census of October 19, 1941, 95 percent
declared themselves Luxembourgers, not Germans. This amounted to a
demonstration against the regime and led to mass arrest. On August
20, 1942, all male Luxembourgers were subject to a military draft.
The order was met with mass resistance, to which the Germans reacted
with executions. Support of Jews as a demonstration of opposition to
the Nazis was not expressed.
Anti-Jewish Measures.
About a month after the installation of Simon's government, the
Nuremberg Laws were introduced. More anti-Jewish decrees followed
and the wearing of the Jewish Badge was ordered in September 1941.
Around that time, Jews were placed in the Fuenfbrunnen camp, near
Ulflingen. The camp was organized along ghetto lines, and later
became the point from which deportation trains left for the East.
Jewish emigration was encouraged until the spring of 1941, and many
Jews went to France and Portugal. On October 13, the Consistoire
(Jewish Community) reported that 750 Jews were left in the country,
and 80 percent were over the age of 50. On October 15, 1941, Alfred
Oppenheimer, from Metz, was appointed the chairman of the
Consistoire. It was renamed the Aeltestenrat der Juden (Council of
Jewish Elders) in April 1942. Oppenheimer affixed his signature to
any instructions placed before him by the Gestapo.
Deportations.
The first and largest transport left for Lodz on October 16, 1941,
with 324 persons. Altogether, 674 Jews were deported in eight
transports, the last of which left on September 28, 1943. Only 36
persons out of those deported survived. Luxembourg became Judenrein
("cleansed of Jews"), except for a few in hiding or
married to non-Jews. Once the deportations started, the chances of
rescue were poor. The country was small; it had a relatively large
German population; the Luxembourgers were indifferent to the fate of
the Jews, and while there were few instances of open hostility or
informing, neither were there many efforts to hide or otherwise help
Jews.
Liberation and Aftermath.
Allied forced liberated Luxembourg on September 9, 1944. Of the
3,500 Jews living there in 1939, 1,555 survived, by fleeing, hiding,
or surviving in the camps; 1,945 were murdered, a third in the camps
to which they had been deported from Luxembourg, and the rest in the
country itself or in other occupied countries to which they had fled
or been deported. Only a few Jews returned after the war.
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