
The flyer from a Luxembourgish resistance organisation that called for the strike in 1942

Read about the related object
by Noémie Wilmes
Background story
Yvonne Useldinger, maiden name Hostert was born on the 6th November 1921 in Steinfort and died on the 11th February 2009 in Esch/Alzette. She was a Luxembourgish politician and resistance fighter. Due to her political commitment and resistance she was arrested twice by the GESTAPO during WWII. She was first arrested in 1941 but was released after due to a lack of evidence. In 1942 Yvonne Useldinger as well as her parents and brother were arrested again. During her second arrest she was pregnant. She gave birth to her child, Fernande in the monastery of the jail in Trier, Germany. Yonne Useldinger’s mother was released and took care of Fernande in the following years.[1]
The deportation to the concentration camp Ravensbrück
Yvonne Useldinger herself was deported to the concentration camp Ravensbrück in late June 1943.[2] The Ravensbrück concentration camp was exclusively for women active from 1939 to 1945. In December 1944 she was transferred to the camp unit Siemenslager. It was a labor camp mainly for winding coils and building relays for telephones.[3]
Yvonne Useldinger received some letters and a package while she was in the concentration camp, sent from her mother. She received a picture of her daughter, that she occasionally was allowed to see for an hour at a time. A camp mate sketched a portrait of this picture, which Useldinger always kept with her. Useldinger left the Ravensbrück concentration camp after its liberation by the Red Army. With other Luxembourgish women she was evacuated and transported to Sweden by the International Swedish Red Cross. The evacuation was undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government to rescue concentration camp inmates in areas under Nazi control an transport them to Sweden, a neutral country. The operation was called “White Buses”. Within a few days around 7000 female prisoners were evacuated from Ravensbrück to Denmark and then to Sweden.[4]
The card ‘Ravensbrück’
The above featured picture shows a card which can be divided into three main sections. On the left side we can see a small translucent envelope with a bundle of hair. The caption says: “Kindes Haare im Paket. Y.U”, which means child’s hair in package, signed with the initials of Yvonne Useldinger. After her deportation to Ravensbrück concentration camp she wasn’t able to see her daughter Fernande which in the meantime was raised by her grandmother. This hair was probably sent to her in a package Yvonne received from her mother. Apart from a picture this was the only thing that gave her an emotional connection to her daughter. On the top left side we can see a safety pin holding an orange and red flower as well as a small white dog. Both items are made out of a toothbrush. The caption says: “Zahnbürste” which means toothbrush. Yvonne Useldinger loved art and tried to make art out of everything she possibly could. The deep signification behind these two details is unknown. They might be related to her personal memories such as her favorite flower or a dog she once owned. On the left bottom side we can see another safety pin holding a golden bracelet. The caption says: “Von einer Oesterreicherin die erschossen wurde”. This bracelet belonged to an Austrian camp mate which got shot. It can be assumed that Useldinger got along well with her and therefore she kept it. All three parts have a strong symbolic meaning. The card titled “Ravensbrück” shows three elements which were assumed to be of a high value for Useldinger. The analysis of the object shows that this card has a high symbolic value. The card contains the hair of her be missed daughter, a souvenir and relict of a shot friend and two self-craved figures that represent her passion for art. It is unknown if she made this card during her stay at Ravensbrück or if she made it during her time in Sweden.
Her manuscript and research
Before she was liberated from the concentration camp in April 1945, Yvonne Useldinger kept a diary in which she recorded her thoughts and outlined her life in the camp.[5] The nineteen-page manuscript was first published in 2006 in an annotated edition by Kathrin Meß[6], staff member of the Ravensbrück memorial. Her diary is one of the few objects that survived Ravensbrück.[7]
Following the director of the Musée National de la Résistance Frank Schroeder, this card as well as more material and some art was donated in the 1950’s shortly after the opening of the museum by Yvonne Useldinger herself.
[1] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
[2] Autorenlexikon, Yvonne Useldinger,
URL: https://www.autorenlexikon.lu/page/author/386/3862/DEU/index.html
[3] Forum 259, Yvonne Useldinger – Eine Luxemburgerin im Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, p.49-52
URL: https://www.forum.lu/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/5844_259_Meß.pdf
[4] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
[5] Forum 259, Yvonne Useldinger – Eine Luxemburgerin im Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, p.52
URL: https://www.forum.lu/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/5844_259_Meß.pdf
[6] Kathrin Meß: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle. Das Tagebuch der Luxemburgerin Yvonne Useldinger aus dem Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008.
[7] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
by Bob Rommelfanger
In order to understand the circumstances behind the construction of this object you first need to have a gander at the life of Néckel Spielmann. The following information was mostly pulled from his diary which was later partly released to the public. Born on the 15th of January 1920 in Brattert, he finished primary school and started an apprenticeship as a baker, a job which he exercised in Ettelbrück until 1940. At this point he joined the Luxemburgish “Fräiwëllegekompanie” on the first of February. When the German Army invaded Luxembourg on the 10th of May 1940, all Luxembourgish army personnel was transferred to Weimar Germany for a retraining before joining the German police. In January of 1942 part of his company was located in Laak Yugoslavia. Here, after fights against partisans where multiple Luxembourgish policemen died, he and his comrades refused further orders. The sources are actually diverging from one another on this point, some more implausible ones actually point to Néckel Spielmann already having refused his police service in Weimar. Another source claims he and his fellow Luxembourgish men, when in Laak, refused to take the oath on the Führer, for which they were sent to prison.
On the 2nd of January 1942 Néckel Spielmann and 26 Luxembourgish comrades of his were brought to different prisons. From Krainburg, to Graz, then Vienna, followed by Buchenwald on the 13th of June 1942. Here he carried out various works, such as clearing out the Buchenwald forest or working as a mechanic. On the 22nd of August 1944 the members of the “Fräiwëllegekompanie” were offered a dismissal upon entering the Wehrmacht. Upon declining they were supposed to be shot, however orders never made it from Berlin having probably been lost in transit.
On the 24th of August allied bombers ravaged the Buchenwald concentration camp, it was then that Néckel Spielmann was badly injured on his right knee. After some time, he was finally found by fellow inmates who moved him away on an improvised stretcher. A Luxembourgish friend of his that had befriended a French doctor inside the camp brought Néckel past other injured people straight to the operating room. Over the following ten days his wound began to fester and caused him high levels of pain. During these hard times, his Luxemburgish friends took care of him and his wound. Starting to show signs of Tetanus, his friends called the doctor to treat him, who refused, as he saw no hope. Néckels friends, not giving up on him however are said to have threatened their fellow inmate and doctor with death if he did not treat their friend. His condition stabilizing itself, his leg had to be amputated, which happened on the 11th of September. In need of a blood transfusion, a total of fifteen Luxembourgish inmates volunteered their blood, of which one was picked. Over the following days and weeks with the help of his friends he started getting stronger and healthier again.
Two of his comrades, Jhemp Schmit and Gust Schaffner, both mechanics decided to build him a prosthetic leg. They used smuggled pieces of aluminum as well as the remains of a dead inmates’ prosthetic to build Néckel his very own prosthetic leg. All of this in an environment where the slightest of mistakes could cost you your life. His first steps were made under the cheers of his Luxembourgish friends.
Néckel used his prosthetic till after the war until he got a new one whilst recuperating for a few months at the Zitha-hospital in Luxembourg city. The prosthetic was donated to the “Musée national de la résistance” during the fifties. After the war Néckel Friedmann rejoined the Luxembourgish army until his retirement and was part of the “Amicale Buchenwald” until his early death in 1979.
The story of this object shows not only the refusal of Néckel Spielmann and his fellow men of the “Fräiwëllegekompanie” to follow orders under threat of losing their freedom but also how their strong cohesion and friendship managed to save his life whilst inside of the concentration camp Buchenwald.
Written by Gilles Lanners
About the Winterhilfswerk
This object was chosen because it symbolizes the forced participation of the Luxembourgish population in national-socialist charity, an important mainstay of the propaganda efforts.[1] The Winterhilfswerk (WHW) thus played an essential role in the national socialist ideology because it represented the sacrifice of the individual for the good of the society. It was founded in 1931, as a result to the economic decline following the crisis in 1929. After Hitler seized power, he incorporated the WHW in the national socialist structure. Thus, the WHW was an essential element in the national solidarity, which Hitler often addressed in his speeches.[2] Moreover, the creation of the WHW was directly linked to the Führer-Auftrag “Keiner soll hunger, keiner soll frieren.”[3] What is interesting to note is that, contrary to how the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, tried to present it later on, the WHW as an organ of welfare and safety of the population had already been active under the Republic of Weimar, and thus was not an invention of the national socialists.[4]
The can rattlers
The so-called can rattlers, who walked around with the cans and collected money, made sure that no one forgot to pay his part for the wellbeing of the population. This particular can was donated to the museum by the municipality of Schifflange. In an interview with the Musée de la Résistance, the Schifflange native Camille Robert explained that his family was forced to make donations to the WHW. He stated that it was very well traced which family payed how much and that, in case a family had not payed enough according to its social status, they were called to account and had to pay the missing amount of money. In some cases, the fact that someone was not able to pay his part to the WHW even led to this person losing his job.[5] Therefore, it can be stated that the social dimension of the Winter Relief was rather limited.
In his book Into the Darkness, Dr. Lothrop Stoddard, an American historian (and white supremacist) wrote down the following episode in relation to the WHW, after a visit to Germany in 1939:
Once a fortnight, every city, town, and village in the
Reich seethes with brown-shirted Storm Troopers carrying red-painted canisters.
These are the Winter-Help collection-boxes. The Brown-Shirts go everywhere. You
cannot sit in a restaurant or beer-hall but what, sooner or later, a pair of
them will work through the place, rattling their canisters ostentatiously in
the faces of customers. And I never saw a German formally refuse to drop in his
mite, even though the contribution might have been less than the equivalent of
one American cent.[6]
[1] Tennstedt, Florian, Wohltat und Interesse. Das Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes: Die Weimarer Vorgeschichte und ihre Instrumentalisierung durch das NS-Regime, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 13/2 (1987), 157.
[2] See for example: Führer-Reden zum Winterhilfswerk 1933-1936, Berlin 1937.
[3] Nobody shall suffer famine, nobody shall freeze.
[4] Tennstedt, Wohltat und Interesse,157.
[5] Shirer, William L., The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, New York, 1959, 234.
[6] Stoddard, Lothrop, Into the Darkness, accessible online via Gutenberg Project: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300731.txt
by Sarah Mirti
The Luxembourg resistance movement
The picture shows a typical uniform worn by concentration camp prisoners during World War II. This one was worn by the Luxembourgish resistance fighter Jéng Kayser. He was part of the Luxembourgish “Alweraje” resistance movement set up in 1941 by Albert Wingert. In August 1942, about 100 members of Luxembourg resistance organisations, including Kayser, were arrested by the Gestapo and send to concentration camps.[1] Kayser was first deported to Hinzert, then transferred to Natzweiler-Struthof and finally to Dachau, where he was detained until his liberation in May 1945.[2]
Historical information and memories conveyed by the concentration camp uniform
Jéng Kayser’s uniform is typical of the uniforms worn by concentration camp prisoners. In European visual cultures, stripes have long been associated with a loss of freedom, and their pejorative meaning goes back hundreds of years. The stripes had a humiliating function and served to brand all prisoners as criminals. They were also intended to prevent the prisoners from escaping – the fabric of the uniform had stripes printed on both sides.[3]
The uniform is relatively heavy and the tissue is rather stiff. The material of the uniform is most likely cotton drill.[4]
The uniform has a red triangle with the letter L. Badges in different shapes and colours were used to identify prisoners. The red triangle indicated prisoners that were incarcerated for political reasons. The letter “L” stands for Luxembourg.[5]
The uniform has an identification number, “110824”. The fact that Jéng Kayser was given an identification number indicates that he was fit to perform work. In Dachau, prisoners that were not fit for work could be sent as “Invalidentransport” to the death facility at Hartheim Castle in Austria.[6]
The uniform has a pocket on the front side, which is unusual. Generally, the uniforms of concentration camp prisoners did not include pockets. We know from survivor’s testimonies that having pockets was very important. It made it possible to hide a piece of bread, a spoon, or anything small and useful. Hand-stitched secret pockets on the reverse side of the jackets were sometimes added, but machine-stitched pockets on the face of the jacket were probably added in a sewing workshop as a favour to “high ranking” prisoners.[7]
Pictures from Dachau prisoners shows uniforms without pockets:
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/prisoner-forced-to-stand-as-punishment
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dachau-color-photographs
Survival and advancement at Natzweiler-Struthof
In Natzweiler-Struthof, most prisoners worked in the quarry, extracting stone or gravel. From the end of 1942 on, they were assigned to repair aircraft engines for the German Air Force.[8] Jéng Kayser’s first employment in Natzweiler was on the Terrassen, probably an area for stone extraction. At a later stage, because of his profession as a machinist and his general craftsmanship, he was assigned to work in a hall where aircraft engines from shot-down aircraft were disassembled so their parts could be reused. One day, the car of the camp commander broke down. Jéng Kayser was asked by the SS supervisor to produce the broken clutch part on a lathe, which he successfully managed to do. From that day on, the situation of the inmates in the hall where Kayser worked improved, also because Kayser manufactured floor lamps for the SS supervisor on a lathe, which the SS supervisor traded for food for his family in Germany.[9]
Transfer to Dachau before the liberation
In early September 1944, as the Allied armies were advancing, the Nazis decided to evacuate the principal camp of Natzweiler-Struthof and most of the prisoners including Kayser were transferred to Dachau.[10] Towards the end of the war, uniforms for prisoners were scarce or generally not available.[11] The uniform Kayser wore until his liberation is probably the uniform he was given during his time at Natzweiler. Considering the work that had to be performed at Natzweiler, extracting stones or working on aircraft engines, the Kayser’s uniform is in very good shape, with little to no wear and no stains from engine oil or other substances. The favourable status that Kayser had gained at Natzweiler probably explains the good quality of his uniform and the fact that he had the privilege of having a pocket. He was probably given permission to wash his uniform or received a regular exchange uniform, which was very rare.[12]
The Dachau concentration camp had under its authority a vast network of 140 sub-camps producing armaments, predominantly in southern Bavaria.[13] It is likely that Jéng Kayser had to perform forced work in the six months he was detained in Dachau. The uniform that he most likely brought from Natzweiler or the new uniform he received (a more unlikely scenario) remained in good condition. He probably had an occupation that did not involve exposure to industrial oil or result in wear and tear of his uniform.
Tribute
Jéng Frank’s uniform is a testimony to his courage and determination as a survivor of three concentration camps. The donation of his uniform to the museum underlines his desire to preserve the memory of the terrifying events related to the Nazi regime and its concentration camps.
[1] Limpac, Marc, Kayser, Wir glauben an die Demokratie. Albert Wingert, Resistenzler, Editions d’Lëtzebuerger Land, Luxembourg 2004, p. 122.
[2] Bosseler, Nicolas, Steichen, Raymond, Livre d’Or. De la Résistance Luxembourgeoise de 1940-1945, Esch-sur-Alzette 1952, p. 58 ff.
[3] Fenyvesi, Lizou, Reading Prisoner Uniforms: The Concentration Camp Prisoner Uniform as a Primary Source for Historical Research (11 October 2006), in: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1340&context=tsaconf (retrieved: 23 June 2020).
[4] Hammermann, Gabriele, Pilzweger-Steiner, KZ-Gedenkstätten Dachau. Ein Rundgang in leichter Sprache, Taschenbuch 2018, p. 71 ff.
[5] Berben, Paul, Jewish Virtual Library. A Project of Aice (20 January 2020), in: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dachau-prisoner-badges (retrieved: June 23,2020).
[6] KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau. Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten (15 May 2014), in: https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/historical-site/dachau-concentration-camp-1933-1945/ (retrieved: 22 June 2020).
[7] The Wiener Holocaust Library. The Holocaust Explained (2017), in: https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/ss-concentration-camp-system/uniform-and-clothing/ (retrieved: 23 June 2020)
[8] Struthof, The everyday life of the deportees (2019), in: http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/the-deportees-of-kl-na/they-everyday-life-of-the-deportees/ (retrieved: 22 June 2020).
[9] Limpac, Marc, Kayser, Wir glauben an die Demokratie. Albert Wingert, Resistenzler, Editions d’Lëtzebuerger Land, Luxembourg 2004, p. 133.
[10] Limpac, Marc, Kayser, Wir glauben an die Demokratie. Albert Wingert, Resistenzler, Editions d’Lëtzebuerger Land, Luxembourg 2004, p. 143 ff.
[11] The Wiener Holocaust Library. The Holocaust Explained (2017), in: https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/ss-concentration-camp-system/uniform-and-clothing/ (retrieved: 23 June 2020)
[12] G. Saidel, Rochelle, KZ-Häftlingskleidung (26 March 2013), in: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ-H%C3%A4ftlingskleidung (retrieved: 23 June 2020).
[13] KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau. Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten (15 May 2014), in: https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/historical-site/dachau-concentration-camp-1933-1945/ (retrieved: 23 June 2020).
Written by Kim Meyers
Historical background and context
Situated on top of the parish hall of Dudelange, one major air raid siren, in the type of our depictured one, served as a defense system for the city against attacks by air. Sirens are commonly known and have managed to keep their part in Luxembourgish everyday life up to these days. In fact, each first Monday of the month, at 12 o’clock, the sirens are tested for their functionality. Even though, Luxembourg would not need their functionality primarily to defend against falling bombs, they find their use as a fire alarm. These sirens are equipped with an electric engine and can be engaged by the push of a button.
The siren which we can find in the Museum of the Forcibly Recruited, is not such a model. In fact, it is a very small, portable one. It was fabricated by the German company Elektror, still in existence today and specialized in electric engines and industrial ventilation systems, in the 1940’s. the company was known for their sirens, forced to produce for the German war machinery, they launched several models, varying in their sizes and their application. Luckily the depictured siren has still a completely intact plate on its side indicating the model and even serial number. The model is “HSM 7”, standing for Hand-Sirene-Mobil (in English: manually powered mobile siren). As available information about such a specific object are moderately rare, I could only find while my research, that the HSM 7 was the middle one in size of three mobile sirens made by Elektror. The serial number is: 456508, manufactured in Esslingen am Necklar.
History of this exemplar
As Mr. Norbert Sadler, a member of the Museum of the Forcibly Recruited and an eyewitness of the Second World War could vividly remember, this air raid siren was used by German soldiers, who were stationed in the fields and woods of the South of Luxembourg. They were primarily used to extend the range of the bigger models, fixed on the top of the cities and villages.
In fact, the sirens we can still hear regularly in Luxembourg, permanently installed in different places, are similar in their functioning to the ones, used in Second World War. Usually placed on top of a higher building, they have the power to overfloat with their sound entire cities in order to warn its inhabitants. However, the people working in the fields or woods for example, were out of their reach, wherefore manually powered sirens were needed. By these small, mobile sirens, more people were reachable and could be warned by the deadly loads of the allied troops who were liberating Luxembourg from the German occupation. Another advantage was surely the mobility. As soldiers rarely stay in one place for a longer duration, they needed to move their protection gear with them. The HSM7 model is a particular light one, which can be transported over a further distance without any problem.
As the name of the Luxembourgish soldier, who was forcibly recruited for the German Reichsmacht and brought this wonderful piece of military and personal history to the museum, is unknown today, we can only surmise that he must have lived in Dudelange or its surroundings, as he deposited it directly at the museum. As mentioned, he was serving for Nazi Germany and managed to take this siren off the battle fields to store it at his home. In the late 1950’s, he decided to let it be accessible for the public and brought it to the exhibition of the museum.
Paradox as it seems, it is easily and hardly imaginable what pain and strong feelings this man must have felt at the sight of this small siren. While its service, it has not only saved the lives of many soldiers, but ultimately also announced death, terror and fear. Nowadays, it is a difficult task for people who have never witnessed this kind of feelings, to empathize let alone to understand the symbolic and personal value of this object.
The south of Luxembourg came under a special target of English and allied bombers as German canons and troops were installed here.[1] The most dense and efficient transport connections are also to be found in the strongly industrialized South of Luxembourg. This is another reason why the allied forces had a special target put on it, as the lines of communication and transport of the Germans, connecting the Reich with its western front should be disturbed.[2] More than 339,8 tons of bombs were dropped by the allied forces over the main train station in Luxembourg-city alone during Second World War.[3] These shocking numbers show enlighten which importance an effective defense system against bombardments by air had. The small siren HSM7, played its key role in this system.
As the example of this small siren was able to show, objects, which often are missed out by public interest or even historical research, can have intriguing and fascinating stories to tell. As mentioned before, this HSM7, in its simplicity and unspectacular appearance had a great emotional and symbolic value for many people of its time. Therefore, the Museum of the Forcibly Recruited in Dudelange plays a main role in its preservation and remembrance.
[1] Administration Communale de Pétange, Letzebuerg am Zweeten Weltkrich, 2020, p.171
[2] Administration Communale de Pétange, Letzebuerg am Zweeten Weltkrich, 2020, p.172
[3] Melchers, Emile T.,Über die Bombardierung des Bahnhofs Luxemburg in zwei Weltkriegen in Bombenangriffe .172
Wrtitten by Jeff Dondelinger
Porcelain for the Master Race:
Upon hearing the term Nazi, people usually think about concentration and extermination camps. Barely alive humans, lifeless shells, that have gone through immeasurable suffering come to mind. The other side of the medal are Lebensborn homes. Here people seemingly lived a life of luxury. Champagne, clothes, pelts and jewellery were a common sight.[1] But beware, all that glitters is not gold. A shiny facade often hides a dark secret. Bofferding was no different; luxurious yet ghastly. Situated in a castle, the home had pompous furniture and luxury bathtubs.[2] The classicist style castle was built in 1830 and belonged to Marcel Noppeney, a francophile Author. After the invasion of Luxembourg, Noppeney was sent to the concentration camp of Dachau and his belongings were confiscated. The castle was added in June 1942 to the Lebensborn files as a donation. Max Sollmann, the chief executive of the Lebensborn e.V., confirmed during the Nuremberg trials, that the Lebensborn in Luxembourg was directly linked to the Lebensborn e.V. and classified as a children’s home, not a maternity home.[3]
What exactly was the Lebensborn Moselland used for?
The common belief, that Lebensborn homes were breeding stations for aryan children is a misconception.[4] One use of the home was the caretaking of children with ‘good’ blood, that got abducted in Poland. To Germanize the kids, they were sent to Germany or occupied territories. The first ‘guests’ of the Lebensborn in Bofferding were abducted polish children. Another use of the institution was the shelter of German children from bombs. On the 17th of August 1943 a group of children from Munich arrived in Bofferding. On the 31st January 1944 the Lebensborn Moselland was housing 22 children but no mothers. Three nurses took care of the children.[5]
What was life like in the Lebensborn?
Three principles lead the education of the children in the homes: order, regularity and strictness. The new-born babies were guarded in a separate maternity. A strict planning organized the day. They got nourished five times and bathed once per day accordingly to the timetable. More physical contact was not allowed, as it would have weakened the children according to the Nazi ideology. The planning even regulated when the children had to go to the toilet, where they had to sit until they were done. The education was draconic but physical punishment was not allowed.[6]
Only a few hints give us a specific insight into the Lebensborn Moselland. A letter from the 18th September 1943 requested several items for the Luxembourgish Lebensborn: A radio, a vacuum cleaner, a chaiselongue, six infant baskets, several strollers, a baby scale, a changing table, ten room thermometers, clothes for babies, paintings of German fairy tales, awning fabric and toys for older children. Another letter from the 5th May 1943 tells us, that the Lebensborn Moselland had beehives in its garden to make honey.[7]
A personal story[8]
Barbara was born in February 1938 in Poland. Her mother died during the German invasion and Barbara was taken care of by her grandmother. In 1942 an order arrived to bring Barbara to an inspection. The Nazi officials were satisfied with the examination and brought Barbara to a Lebensborn home. Barbara had blond hair, which was her demise. Her sister who had dark hair was not abducted. The grandmother was only able to visit Barbara once, later the same year. Barbara was named Bärbel by then and only spoke German. Barbara remembers that she was forbidden to speak polish. In her memories the kids in the Lebensborn didn’t speak to each other and never laughed.
In September 1942 a German teacher and his wife adopted Barbara. The following years were the happiest of my life; Barbara said about the time among her foster parents. After the war, in 1948, Barbara’s grandmother made a request to find her granddaughter. In March Barbara was taken alongside 10 other children to a village in south Germany where she was forced to learn English. In June she was sent to a children’s home in Poland before being taken care of by an aunt in July. Barbara was 10 years old and didn’t speak any polish. She was mocked by her peers and didn’t know who she was; Barbara or Bärbel? After two years she was sent to her grandmother before being sent to another aunt. Nobody wanted to take care of her, so she decided to go back to the children’s home.
In 1958 she received a letter from her foster parents. All those years, her polish family hid the letters from her. In 1966 she finally received a visa to visit her foster family. She was welcomed with open arms…[9]
Around 18 000 children lived in Lebensborn homes during the Nazi period. A lot of them with similar stories to Barbara.[10]
The End
On the 9th of September 1944 the staff of the Lebensborn Moselland received an order to evacuate the castle and bring all the belongings to the train station in Luxembourg city. The train was overpacked, therefore they were told to evacuate to Trier via horse carriage. The order was disregarded, and the belongings left at the train station, among them the soup tureen…[11] Thus the story ends, just like the children at the Lebensborn, the soup tureen was a tool: both left behind the moment they were of no further use.
This is the end. The beginning of life to me.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, letzte Worte, 9. April 1945
[1] Lebensborn Bofferdingen, in: d’Unio’n. Quotidien de la Résistance 4/32+33 (01.02.1947), S. 4.
[2] Lebensborn Moselland, in: kugener.com, URL: https://www.kugener.com/de/humanmedizin-fr/geburtshilfe/52-artikel/1945-lebensborn-moselland.html (Stand 18/06/2020).
[3] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 757-785.
[4] Schmitz-Köster, Dorothee, Vankann, Tristan, Lebenslang Lebensborn. Die Wunschkinder der SS und was aus ihnen wurde, Piper Verlag GmbH, München (2012), Vorwort.
[5] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 756-793.
[6] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Ideale Eltern – ideale Kinder.
[7] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 777-784.
[8] Barbara was not one of the children of the Lebensborn Moselland but I wanted to show a personal story of a child that grew up in a Lebensborn.
[9] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Eingedeutscht oder: Ich konnte mich nicht wiederfinden.
[10] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Vorwort.
[11] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 764.
Written by Damien Schmit
Jean Daligault
Father Jean Daligault, was a priest born in Caen on June 8th 1899. His craftsman talent, his passion to travel and foreign languages, his preaching talent and his pastor’s skills already made him an atypical priest. But above all, Jean Daligault was a passionate painter, and had a passion for manufacturing sculptures.
When World War II began and France had been occupied a few months later, Daligault was 40 years old. He was a vicar in Villerville and refused the law of the Germans. He founded with
his friends in Caen and Paris the resistance network “Armée volontaire”. On August 31st 1941 Father Jean Daligault had been arrested by the Gestapo. Then began the most thrilling period of his life. He was first taken to Paris, to the prison of Le Cherche-Midi and interrogated by the Abwehr. As he simulated madness, he was transferred to the Sainte-Anne hospital for some time. From June 1942, the Germans gave no more news of Daligault to his brother René. This is a sign that he was now classified as “Nacht und Nebel”. Daligault was doomed to be transfered to Germany, as part of the “NN” procedure, the aim of which was to obscure the fate of the resistance fighters who risked being erected as martyrs by the population of occupied Western Europe. It was on 10th October 1942 that he arrived in Hinzert. All testimonies of survivors agree:
Daligault did not behave like an ordinary prisoner. Like many others, he lost twenty to thirty pounds in a few months because of continual mistreatment, hunger, cold, work, illness (he probably got tuberculosis). But he refused the tactics of survival in anonymity adopted by most of his comrades.
He was shot in his head in Dachau on April 28, 1945, the day before the liberation of the camp.
Lucien Wercollier
Lucien Wercollier was born in Luxembourg on July 26th 1908, where he died as well on April 24th 2002. He is considered one of the most important sculptors of the second half of the 20th century. He is best known for his monumental bronze and marble sculptures.
From 1924 to 1927 he was a pupil at the Ecole d’Artisans de l’Etat de Luxembourg, where he learned how to carve wood and stone and how to modelise plaster objects.
From 1927 to 1933, he attended the Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles (1927-1931) and the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris (1931-1933). In 1933 Lucien Wercollier returned to Luxembourg, where he became a teacher of artistic education, at the school where he had done his secondary studies, and where he resumed lessons with his father, who had retired.
After Germany’s occupation of Luxembourg in 1940, Lucien Wercollier refused to join the Kulturkammer of the Nazi regime, an organization whose aim was the political and ideological embedment of all artistic activity. This refusal made him lose the right to present his works to the public.
On September 1st 1942, following his participation in the strike movement against the forced recruitment of four Luxembourg age classes (1920-1924) into the German army, Lucien Wercollier was arrested and his wife and his two children were deported to a camp in Silesia. After two weeks in Luxembourg-Grund prison (from September 4th to 19th 1942), Wercollier was transferred to the Hinzert and later the Lublin concentration camps. In 1943, he joined his wife and his two children in the deportation camp in Silesia.
In June 1945, after the Liberation, Wercollier returned with his family to Luxembourg, where he again became a teacher at the École des artisans. Lucien Wercollier died in Luxembourg on April 24, 2002 at the age of 93. He was buried in the Notre-Dame cemetery in Luxembourg.
Concentration camp Hinzert
The concentration camp Hinzert is located approximately 25km from Trier. Prisoners have been mistreated by the SS. Instead of being called by their names, the prisoners had an individual
number. Foreign prisoners had problems to understand and to pronounce their numbers at the beginning, which was a reason why they were brutally beaten and punished. Hinzert was a so called “Lauflager”, which means, that everything had to be done in double quick. Furthermore, the alimentation was unsufficient. The daily ration of food consisted of 300-500g bread and half a liter of tea or coffee at the morning and at the evening and a soup at lunch time.
Apart from reports from contemporary witnesses and interviews, testimonials by artists, like little statues or drawings give us information about the everyday live in Hinzert. Two of them were French priest Jean Daligault and Luxembourgish sculptor Lucien Wercollier. By manufacturing wooden statues, which showed the everyday life of the camp, Daligault took enormous risks.
Daligault was starving even more than other prisoners in Hinzert. The inmates of Stube 7 kept a piece the size of dices from their bread rations, so Daligault could get something to eat.
Because his teeth had already been knocked out when he was interrogated in France, he had to mix the bread with water to be able to eat it. Lucien Wercollier, who, as a Luxembourgish prisoner, was still able to receive parcels from relatives, had another prisoner through Daligault who had access to the French barrack from his Christmas package in 1942. In return for the package, Daligault carved a wooden sculpture depicting two prisoners who had to stand
outdoors, back to back, tied to the ankles. This frequently used method of torture in Hinzert is called standing torture (Standfolter). This wooden sculpture is the object whose history is being told with this text. The dimensons are 10,8 x 6,2 x 2,2cm. Wercollier was able to hide this sculpture and save it from captivity. Wercollier later formed a copy of the statue made of iron. Since 2016 the statue is at the Musée National de la Résistance in Esch-Alzette.
Written by Max Ribeiro
Who is Fjodor Bitschechwost?
Fjodor Bitschechwost (born in 1915), was a soviet prisoner of war, who got transferred to one of the few ARBED labor camps[1]. When Fjodor landed in Differdingen he only weighted 45 kg at 180 cm Body height. In the course of the war, soviet forced laborers and prisoners of war became more and more in touch with the local Luxemburgish population. When the Americans landed in Normandy in June 1944, optimism and hope began to raise in the Luxemburgish population. On the other hand side, the Soviet slave laborers also became more concerned when, in late summer, the occupying forces seized their troops and transported the prisoners out of Luxembourg.[2]
Picture taken from the article: Ganschow, Inna: „Lachen hat ja keinen Akzent“, in: Luxemburger Wort (4.05.2017), S. 20.
The Advance of the Russian forces
With the continuing advance of the Soviet red army, the camps in Luxembourg were about to be transferred to Germany. It was at this stage when “Jean Deibener” who had worked with Fjodor Bitschechwost knew, he had to act and rescue his Soviet friend before he was being deported back to Trier, Germany. Fjodor was hiding in one of the dressing rooms until his friend Deibener arrived, and equipped him with new clothes, and a false identity to pass the guards at the gates. Everything went fine until they sat in the tramway, where a group of German police officers entered. Jean saved the situation by telling Fjodor to just laugh while he made up a sort of joke. Fjodor didn’t really get the joke, but the fact that he laughed with Deibener, who was speaking in Luxemburgish saved the situation, and that is why we can conclude “Lachen hat ja keinen Akzent”[3].
Bitschechwost’s Spoon – More than a gift?
So how does the chosen object, “Bitschechwost’s spoon” fit into this personal story? Pierre, the son of Jean of Deibener who got in contact with Fjodor, while the soviet prisoner was hiding with another Luxemburgish recruit seemed to like the Soviet Lieutenant. But after a while and for safety reasons Fjodor had to move to another Luxemburgish family: the Flammang’s. Before leaving, Bitschechwost gifted Pierre his most expensive possession. His only spoon.[4] Tableware and cutlery were essential for the survival in these camps because the malnourished prisoners had to be ready to eat at any moment that the locals, despite bans, gave them.[5]
But is the story already over? Not yet.
The Repatriation – The Luxemburgish government as a deliberately helper?
After the defeat of the Germans and the end of the Second World War, a wave of repatriation of the soviet workers and prisoners in Luxembourg started to take place. The first 2800 soviet citizens were transported from their camps in Differdingen, Esch, Schleifmühle, Hollenfels, and Ansemburg over Paris and the black sea back to the Soviet Union.[6] But some Soviet citizens had settled down in Luxembourg, created a family, and had started a new life. Nevertheless, in the attempt by the Luxemburgish government to improve their relationship with the Soviet Union, and by their wish to bring back their Luxemburgish Soldiers (= later famously designed with the term “Ons Jongen”) who were kept Prisoners in the Soviet Union a wave of “repatriation” started to happen.[7] In February 1946, René Blum the Luxemburgish ambassador in Moscow was asked by the Soviet authorities to put pressure on the remaining 100 soviets living in Luxembourg, who hadn’t turned themselves over to the Soviet repatriation officer “Potapow”.[8] It is important to note, that local authorities, and especially the Luxemburgish government did approve the use of force by the soviet agents, and were by this approval jointly responsible for the crimes done to the soviet citizens.
The Continuation of Bitschechwost’s Story
But what really happened to Fjodor, after the rescue and help by the Deibener’s and the Flammang’s?
Bitschechwost became later the right hand of the soviet Officer Potapow charged with the process of repatriation and was involved in the act of searching and collecting soviet citizens in Luxembourg, which occurred sometimes even by applying force.[9] He participated in this action mainly to save himself from persecution. For the Soviet Union working in an enemy’s armaments factory, which included ARBED, was seen as collaboration.[10] In addition, the soviet law defined the capture by the enemy as a capital crime, and of which someone could be sentenced to an educational camp, prison or labour camp and could even lead to an execution.[11]
Soviet forced laborers in Luxembourg
Ostarbeiter/Zwangsarbeiter
The historical context of the chosen objects is primarily linked to the “Ostarbeiter/Zwangsarbeiter”. The term defines those people taken from their homes during the Nazi invasion of Russia, Poland, France and forced into labor to boost the German war-economy which was on the point to collapse in the middle of the war in 1942. On the 20th February in 1942 Heinrich Himmler gave the declaration on the recruitment and use of Workers from the East, the so-called “Ostarbeiter-Erlasse”. For over 2 million “Ostarbeiter” this meant exploitation, exclusion, and humiliation.[12]
The group of “Ostarbeiter” was composed primarily out of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, and Russians. The Eastern workers came to Luxembourg in November 1942 and were mainly employed in the steelworks and smelters as auxiliary and construction workers.[13] In May 1943 the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Luxemburgish regime, which was located in London notified Moscow, that 4000 soviet citizens had been brought to Luxembourg by the German occupation force to work Luxemburgish industries and agriculture.[14]
Concluding Remarks
To conclude we can say, that this “simple” spoon brought us a very deep personal story of the soviet forced labourer Fjodor Bitschechwost, his connection to Luxembourg, and his rescue by Jean Deibener, as well as the overall historical context attached to the story.
[1] These camps can be linked to Erving Goffman’s approach to “Total Institutions”. In Goffman’s “Asylums”, he defines a “Total institution” having a total character, which “is symbolized by the barrier to social intercourse with the outside and to departures that is often built right into the physical plant, such as locked doors, high walls, barbed wire, cliffs, water, forests, or moors.” (Goffman: Asylums, S. 4.); According to Goffman, the main aim of these types of institutions is to replace the “old” people with a “new”, obedient and unwilling one.
[2] Ganschow: 100 Jahre Russen in Luxemburg, S. 208.
[3] Translation: « Laughter doesn’t show an accent »; citation taken from: Ganschow: „Lachen hat ja keinen Akzent“, S. 20.
[4] Ganschow: 100 Jahre Russen in Luxemburg, S. 195.
[5] Ganschow: „Lachen hat ja keinen Akzent“, S. 20.
[6] Ganschow: „Alles Mögliche“, S. 61.
[7] Ebd., S. 61.
[8] Ganschow: „Alles Mögliche“, S. 62.
[9] Ganschow: 100 Jahre Russen in Luxemburg, S. 229.
[10] Ebd., S.229.
[11] Ebd., S. 229f.
[12] Klingenböck, Gerda / Pagenstecher, Cord: 20. Februar 1942. Die „Ostarbeiter“ – Erlasse, online unter URL: https://www.bpb.de/mediathek/227595/20-februar-1942-die-ostarbeiter-erlasse.
[13] Ganschow: „Lachen hat ja keinen Akzent“, S. 20.
[14] Ganschow : 100 Jahre Russen in Luxemburg, S. 157.
Written by Mélanie Jung
The pictures above show the crystal radio (Detektorempfänger) that can be found among the exhibits at the Musée des enrôlés de force (Museum of Forced Conscripts) in Dudelange. It is a very modest and simple item, its exterior being made simply from pieces of wood. According to the museum, this radio was used during the Second World War in a bunker close to the village of Kaundorf in north-western Luxembourg. In this bunker, Luxembourgers who refused to enlist in the German Army hid from the wrath of the Nazis. With the crystal radio, the young men were able to listen to British radio broadcasts from the BBC. The item was later donated by a certain Nic Peters to the museum and has been part of its collection ever since.
Crystal radios in the early days
The crystal radio was invented at the beginning of the 20th century when the concept of radio broadcasting was still new. At the time, it was the simplest and easiest way of receiving a radio connection. More modern and sophisticated devices, much more similar to the radios we are now used to, soon came to dominate the market. But crystal radios had a fresh impetus once the Second World War was over, as the economy was so bad that many people could only afford a crystal radio and not a more complex radio set. During the war, crystal radios were popular as well. Since they did not need an outside electricity supply to function, they were extremely practical and could easily be used in bunkers, just like the one from the museum in Dudelange. Furthermore, crystal radios were easy to build, and even civilians could make their own with only a few components – something that was clearly highly useful during wartime.
Kaundorf bunker
In the above-mentioned bunker close to Kaundorf, four Luxembourgers who refused to join the German Army hid from Whit Sunday 1944 until the liberation of Luxembourg by the Allied forces. Previously, they had been in hiding in the Nickel-Jans family home.[1] However, there was not just one bunker in the vicinity of Kaundorf: All in all, there were five, built by Luxembourgish resistance groups during the occupation to hide men wishing to avoid German military service. One of these bunkers, named “an der Runschelt”, was restored in 1987. There now stands a memorial plaque in honour of all the people who helped Luxembourgers avoiding forced conscription to hide from the Nazis.[2] The bunker can still be visited nowadays. For the men in hiding, a crystal radio must have been a huge blessing in those troubled times. As the device did not need an external power source, it could easily be used in their bunker, which was located in a forest. The fact that one could only listen to the radio with headphones was actually an advantage for the young Luxembourgers, since it did not make any noise and consequently did not draw attention to their bunker, thus helping to save their lives. In any case, since they only used the radio at night, the chances of someone roaming around the forest were slim.
The use of crystal radios during the Second World War
Crystal radios played an important role in everyday life for many Luxembourgers during the Second World War. This was especially the case because the Germans confiscated all regular radio devices at the beginning of the Nazi occupation as part of their efforts to prevent the population from listening to enemy radio stations (Feindsender) such as the BBC. A limited number of people were given a Volksempfänger radio receiver by the Nazis. This device was wired in such a way that it could only receive nearby stations, all of which were German propaganda radio stations. It was impossible to listen to the BBC or other non-German radio stations with a Volksempfänger. This is why many people went looking for their old crystal radios instead, or even built one themselves to be able to receive stations such as the BBC. However, it was strictly forbidden to listen to enemy radio stations and listeners were severely punished for violations. Listening to such stations could result in a prison sentence, and spreading news from an enemy radio station was punishable by death. Still, this did not stop most Luxembourgers. Many accepted the risks in order to hear British coverage of the course of the war instead of the German propaganda. Moreover, many Luxembourgers were also longing to hear the voice of Grand Duchess Charlotte, who regularly spoke to her people through the BBC.
For Luxembourgers who went into hiding to avoid Germany military conscription, a crystal radio was most certainly even more significant than it was for other people in Luxembourg. They were living completely isolated in the forest and could only receive news through the crystal radio. It prevented them from being entirely in the dark and informed them about what was going on in the world. The devices must have been a source of hope for the men as well. They had refused military service in the Wehrmacht, which made them traitors in the eyes of the Nazis, and they were thus wanted by the Germans. Their only hope was a German defeat by the Allied forces, which would allow them to leave the bunker and continue with their lives. Thanks to the crystal radio the men were able to keep up with the course of the war and hear about the Allies’ progress against Nazi Germany. This must have given them hope. Without the device they would not have been able to listen to the latest news of the war from the BBC and their lives would undoubtedly have been even more terrible and miserable than they already were.
[1] Visit Luxembourg. “Bunker Kaundorf”. Visit Luxembourg. 2020. https://www.visitluxembourg.com/en/place/misc/bunker-kaundorf (Accessed: 24.05.2020)
[2] Op. cit.
Written by Alex Lepesant
The object
At first glance, this iron hook weighing approximately 3kg might seem like nothing more than a relic of Luxembourg’s industrial history. However, this particular hook is not to be found in a museum dedicated to the Luxembourg steel industry but in the Musée national de la résistance.[1] This museum holds a broad variety of objects that tell the story of Luxembourg’s resistance during the Second World War. Recently, the hook was part of the museum’s temporary exhibition De Streik vun 1942. One might wonder how this hook ended up not only as part of the exhibition about the events of 1942, but as one of the major symbols of Luxembourg resistance. To answer that question, we have to take a deeper look at the strike itself, the reasons behind it and its ramifications.
The strike
On 30 August 1942, the Gauleiter Gustav Simon (the regional Nazi Party representative with responsibility for Luxembourg) announced the policy of forced conscription in front of an estimated 9,000 frenzied supporters. The information about those plans had already been intercepted a few days earlier by some members of the resistance in Wiltz.[2] They secretly organised for flyers calling for a general strike to be printed and sent back to Wiltz for distribution. In the early hours of 31 August 1942 the first planned protest movements took place all around the country. In Wiltz, the workers at a leather factory started off by refusing to enter their workplace. Large parts of the municipal administration and many tradesmen, business owners and teachers joined their cause. The immediate reaction of the German authorities was a strict ultimatum: If after a few hours the participants of the strike refused to resume their work, they would be killed. Especially stubborn and suspicious strikers were arrested on the same day and often interrogated under torture.
Uprising in Schifflange
A very similar course of events happened in some places in Luxembourg City and in the south of the country, where the majority of industrial sites were located. This was also the case at the ARBED[3] smelting works in Schifflange. The news of the events in Wiltz sparked rumours of a possible strike. About a dozen workers prepared the signal for the strike. Hans Adam was selected to trigger the steam pressure siren at exactly 6pm. In order to keep the siren going permanently he decided to attach the heavy hook to it. We can assume that the hook was the ideal tool and most importantly it was present at the time as a vital piece of equipment for lifting all sorts of heavy materials at the smelting works. How the hook was preserved after the incident and whether the hook we have in our museum is the actual hook used by Hans Adam is not known – but that doesn’t lessen the symbolic meaning.
The aftermath of the strike
Hans Adam triggered the siren at 6pm and escaped through the sewers. The smelting works came to a standstill and the workers who were supposed to stay until 10pm went home. At that point the severe consequences of the strike were still unknown. Very soon they turned out to be brutal. Gustav Simon, aware of the anti-Nazi sentiment behind the strikes, decided to declare a state of emergency and impose martial law in Luxembourg on 2 September 1942. Hundreds of people were arrested and interrogated in the aftermath of the strike. Those whom the Nazis identified as leaders of the strike were sentenced to death. Twenty out of twenty-one death sentences were carried out in Hinzert.[4] Hans Adam, however, was sentenced on 10 September, one day after the withdrawal of martial law. He was probably questioned arbitrarily, like many of the workers. He was therefore tried by a Sondergericht[5] and sentenced to death after admitting (following hours of brutal interrogation) that he triggered the siren. He was beheaded in Cologne on 11 September. The widow and children of Hans Adam and many others were deported to the eastern parts of the German Reich.
Legacy
By his actions, Hans Adam became a symbol of the Luxembourg resistance. The hook that he used is now inseparable from his story, so it has come to be a symbolic representation for a variety of things. First and foremost, it represents the tragic fate of Hans Adam and his family. But it is also a strong symbol of working-class resistance in Luxembourg in general and more specifically of the strike in Schifflange. It is embedded in the broad narrative of Luxembourgish historiography of the Second World War, which often emphasises the martyr role of Luxembourgers during the occupation.[6]
[1] National museum in Esch-sur-Alzette dedicated to the resistance movement during the Second World War.
[2] Small town in the north of Luxembourg – despite being in a predominantly rural region it was heavily destroyed during the war.
[3] Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (Luxembourg steel company)
[4] Hinzert was a concentration camp near Trier.
[5] A “special court” that existed outside the ordinary legal system and was used to quickly eliminate any form of opposition.
[6] Majerus Benoît, Besetzte Vergangenheiten. Erinnerungskulturen des Zweiten Weltkrieges in Luxemburg – eine historiographische Baustelle, in: Hémecht, Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte, p. 23-43, 2012.
Written by Yuriy Khrushchev
To prepare this material, I talked to Olga Yurievna Popova, director of the Museum of Local History in Bondar District of Tambov Region. The exhibit to be discussed is a boot made by Olga Yurievna’s grandfather, Gerasimov Ivan Prokopyevich. Ivan Prokopyevich, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, was drafted into the army in 1941. At the very beginning of the war, the advanced units were not always fully equipped, and in the conditions of continuous battles, adjusted for weather and landscape, uniforms quickly deteriorated and became unusable. This was especially the case with soldiers’ shoes. Therefore, the civilian profession of Ivan Prokopyevich was very convenient – before the war, he was a master of shoe making, sewing model shoes and was a sought after professional. Until 1943, Ivan Prokopyevich tirelessly made shoes for soldiers and officers of combat units, and then he himself got to the front line. He served in artillery as a battery charger. He participated in the liberation of Poland, where he met the end of the war. He was awarded the medal “For bravery”: in battle, despite the massive shelling of the enemy clearly and courageously performed the task, as a result of which his department suppressed the enemy’s machine-gun point. He also holds the medal “For the victory over Germany”.
Having demobilized, Ivan Prokopyevich returned to his native village and continued doing his favorite thing – making shoes. He passed the secrets of his skill to his son, who decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, and also to make and fix boots for his fellow villagers.
To the Picture Gallery
Technical Data:
Written by Tom Theis
The featured pictures show the three parts that made up the clothing of a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp: shirt (made of fabric, blue and white stripes, 80x50cm), trousers (made of fabric, blue and white stripes, 94x38cm) and jacket (made of fabric, blue and white stripes, 67x44cm). The items shown here belonged to Henri Vanstok (Weinstock) from Luxembourg, who was of Jewish-Polish descent and was detained as a forced labourer at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1945. The prisoners received these clothes upon arrival at the camp and were forced to wear them all the time. As their only possession, the uniform is a symbol of the prisoners’ loss of identity.
The pictured concentration camp clothes (shirt, trousers and jacket) belonged to Henri Vanstok, who was born into a Jewish family in Poland in 1910. His family moved to Luxembourg in the interwar period, and he settled there and started his own family. In 1939 his daughter was born. As a businessman, Vanstok often travelled to Brussels. It was there that he learned about the proclamation of anti-Jewish laws in Luxembourg in 1940. On 22 July 1942, Vanstok was imprisoned during a raid in the Belgian capital. From the Fort of Breendonk he was deported to Auschwitz, where he was held as a forced labourer from 1942 to 1945. Vanstok himself wrote: “Upon our arrival they [the inmates] told us: “Here you work or you go through the chimney.””[1]
As the front approached the concentration camp, Vanstok was relocated with the other prisoners during a death march to Buchenwald and then by the “death train” to Dachau, where he was finally liberated on 28 April 1945. Vanstok described this experience years later: “Those who couldn’t keep up were shot like dogs […]” and “No one will ever be able to describe what we went through on this journey.”[2]
After the war, Vanstok rejoined his family – who had managed to stay hidden – in Brussels, and they returned together to Luxembourg.
Strong symbolism
Henri Vanstok brought this uniform back to Luxembourg. But why?
In the camps the prisoners were subjected to a form of standardisation through their uniform. Upon their arrival, the prisoners received these clothes and were forced to wear them all the time. They were not only deprived of their freedom and all their possessions, but they also lost their individuality – what distinguishes every person and makes them special. The prisoners were robbed of their personality and their identity was reduced to a number – their only means of identification. Perhaps Vanstok developed a strong attachment to his clothing – after all it was his only possession in the camp, the only thing that still really belonged to him. These clothes were what defined him for years.
The prisoner’s camp number and a triangular-shaped piece of coloured cloth were stitched on the uniform and served as a means of identification. The triangle denoted the prisoner’s “crime” (e.g. political prisoner, homosexual, etc.). Jews wore two yellow triangles which looked like the Star of David. The uniform itself was rarely cleaned or replaced.[3] Since Vanstok’s appears to be comparatively clean and undamaged, and since the identification marks are missing, one might wonder if this was really the uniform he wore in the camp. It is possible that he received a new one before his departure. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make it any less symbolic. The fact that Vanstock kept his uniform might show that he was well aware of the symbolism associated with the uniform. He might have kept it to show that he had lived through a horrendous ordeal and survived, that he was one of the survivors who had endured so much suffering. Maybe he kept the clothes to honour his fellow inmates who had not survived – people who died in that uniform. But it’s also possible that he kept it as a memento, a reminder of a terrible time when various people were robbed of everything and lived through a fate worse than death. The garment is a message to us in the present and to future generations. It exposes the horrors of the past and warns us never to inflict such a fate on anyone again.
In 2016 Henri Vanstok’s daughter Gitty donated her father’s uniform to the Musée national de la Résistance in Esch-sur-Alzette.
Luxembourg and its Jewish population
In the 1930s, immigration of Jews fleeing the policies of the new antisemitic German government – about 1,400 anti-Jewish laws were enacted from 1933 to 1939 – shot up. Within a decade, the Jewish population in Luxembourg almost doubled, notwithstanding numerous expulsions and refusals of asylum applications by the government. Parallel to this rise in migration, even before the German occupation, there was a significant rise in antisemitic tendencies among the Luxembourg population. On 10 May 1940, the day of the German invasion, approximately 3,900 Jews were living in Luxembourg, about 1,000 of whom were of Luxembourg nationality. Following the establishment of the civil administration under Gauleiter Gustav Simon, the social life of the Jewish population declined gradually. Simon’s aim was to declare the country “free of Jews” as fast as possible. On 5 September 1940, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced in Luxembourg. Several anti-Jewish laws followed in the period up to summer 1941. By October 1942, Jews were no longer authorised to emigrate to or from Luxembourg. The same month, deportations began. Many were murdered in gas chambers, but many also died because of the inhumane treatment and conditions to which they were subjected. Several died as a result of illness, weakness, deprivation or abuse, either during transportation or in the camps. Of the 3,900 Jews who lived in Luxembourg in 1940, more than a third were murdered. In 2015, the historian Vincent Artuso concluded that the Luxembourgish authorities participated in this process “with diligence, if not with zeal”.[4]
In numbers[5]
The Jewish population in Luxembourg: |
|
In 1930: |
2,242 (0.7% of the total population) |
In 1935: |
3,144 (1.1% of the total population; only a quarter had Luxembourgish citizenship) |
In 1940: |
3,907 (of which 1,384 (35.4%) subsequently died as a result of antisemitic persecution) |
Number of Jewish people whose asylum applications were refused in 1935: 651 (more than 50%) |
[1] Extract from Henri Vanstok’s “Ma déportation” (1985), taken from: Collection Madame Gitty Vanstok, Musée national de la Résistance.
[2] Extract from Henri Vanstok’s “Ma déportation” (1985), taken from: Collection Madame Gitty Vanstok, Musée national de la Résistance.
[3] Compare: Rawson, Andrew, Auschwitz. The Nazi Solution, Barnsley 2015, p. 93-5.
[4] Moyse, Laurent, Between Shade and Darkness. Le sort des Juifs du Luxembourg de 1940 à 1945 / Das Schicksal der Juden Luxemburgs von 1940 bis 1945, Luxembourg 42016, p. 97.
[5] Compare: Moyse, Between Shade and Darkness, p. 16-26; Wagener, Renée, Der Umgang mit der Shoah im Nachkriegs-Luxemburg, in: Franz, Norbert [et al.] (ed.), Identitätsbildung und Partizipation im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Luxemburg im europäischen Kontext, 2016 Berlin, p. 219-46, p. 220 ff.
See also
https://www.ushmm.org/ (consulted on: 21.06.2020).
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/death-marches-1 (consulted on: 21.06.2020).
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-camp-system?series=21822 (consulted on: 21.06.2020).
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/auschwitz (consulted on: 21.06.2020).
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camp-system-in-depth (consulted on: 21.06.2020).