Luxembourg
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.
