
Written 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.