Marking the 80th Anniversary of Luxembourg’s General Strike Against Forced Nazi Conscription

That the Parliament commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Luxembourg general strike against Nazi Germany during the Second World War; understands that the strike was a reaction to an announcement made by the civilian administrator of the Nazi Party on 30 August 1942, according to which all Luxembourg males born between 1920 and 1924 were to be conscripted into the Wehrmacht to fight against the Allies, and effectively against Luxembourg’s government-in-exile, which was based in London between 1940 and 1944; further understands that following the announcement, leaflets calling for a general strike were printed and distributed clandestinely throughout the country by members of the resistance movement; recognises that on 31 August 1942, the strike began in the northern Ardennes town of Wiltz, before, it understands, news spread throughout the workforce by word of mouth to the industrial south of the country, and increased in intensity on 1 September, thus paralysing the country’s industry, administration and education structures; understands that the German civilian government was taken by surprise by the strike action, and reacted by declaring a state of emergency and threatening strikers with instant execution; believes that when the strikes continued the Gestapo decided to react in the harshest way, by rounding up 21 men whom they believed to be strike leaders, who were subsequently summarily tried by a special tribunal before being transferred to Hinzert concentration camp where they were shot and buried in unmarked graves; understands that in total 200 Luxembourgers were arrested while numerous families, including their children, were subsequently transferred to work camps, many in Silesia, under very harsh conditions; believes that the strikes gained worldwide attention and revitalised resistance movements across occupied Western Europe; understands that an estimated 40% of the Luxembourger men drafted for service in the German Wehrmacht refused and went into hiding before Luxembourg was eventually liberated by Allied forces in September 1944, and remembers all the strikers of 1942, and everyone who has lost their life while standing up to oppressive regimes.