Luxembourg 

Day of Remembrance: 10 October

Historical Background:
10 October 1941 marked a symbolic victory for the people of Luxembourg. The occupying Nazis issued a population census that was skewed  to legitimize their annexation of Luxembourg. On the form, the Nazis asked three questions aimed at determining language, nationality and cultural origins. The Nazis forbade the people of Luxembourg from responding in Luxemburgish. The national resistance movement managed to convince most of the population to defiantly reply to these questions with the phrase “Dreimol letzeburgesch” (“three times Luxembourgish”). This was a psychological victory for the resistance and an independent Luxembourg.

Luxembourg and the Holocaust:
Lexicon entry from Yad Vashem's online Holocaust Resource Center: Luxembourg   

Educational Activities:
As in all commemorating countries, activities include commemoration of the Holocaust and of the various instances of genocide in the 20th century, reflection on ways to promote human rights, tolerance, and inter-religious and intercultural dialogue.
The official curriculum of the sixth year of education in Luxembourg always includes WWII, and the Holocaust, as compulsory topics. The Holocaust is taught as part of the history of WWII.
In Luxembourg, the Holocaust is taught as an interdisciplinary topic. Each semester the Ministry of Education offers a number of courses relating to human rights to teachers. Some courses deal exclusively with the Holocaust.

Typical Holocaust-related activities launched in Luxembourg schools:

• Traveling exhibition
• Conferences, round tables, eyewitness accounts
• Week of “Luxembourg Literature on the Second World War”
• Organized visit to the Villa Pauly, the deportation memorial
• Floral tribute and silent remembrance before the cross at Hinzert
• Organized visits to the Resistance Museum and the Synagogue at Esch
• Film “D´Shoah zu Letzebuerg”
• Organized visit to the exhibition, “Young People and Commemoration”
• Guided tour of the capital: “Luxembourg under Nazi occupation”
• Visit to Auschwitz; visit to Bergen-Belsen

Websites and Teaching Aids:
Pupils at a secondary technical school launched “Contre l´oubli” project (René Oppenheimer prize), which had various exhibitions, conferences, and a DVD documentary made by students.

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