Letters by Emile Kremer from Schifflange- A new WARLUX collection

Written by Suzanne Schmolze  

During the recent Forum Z on war experiences in Schifflange, which also served as a crowdsourcing day, the researchers were delighted to receive a substantial new collection of letters and postcards by Emile Kremer and his family. The documents were loaned to the Musée National de la Résistance et des Droits Humains (MNRDH) and professionally scanned at the University of Luxembourg. Afterwards, the originals were returned to their owner.

Emile Kremer was born in Schifflange in 1924 and sadly died in a German military hospital in Bad Münder (today Lower Saxony, near Hamelin) in February 1944, aged just nineteen. He was already part of the WARLUX sample, so the researchers had previously gathered basic biographical information on him. Now, they can read his letters for the first time.

The letters and documents are in good condition and had been stored neatly in a cardboard box with a cutting from a "Feldpost" envelope glued on the lid.

A first look at the new collection

At the heart of the collection, are around one hundred letters and postcards, most of them written by Emile Kremer. During his time in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and the Wehrmacht, the young recruit wrote sixty-six letters and ten postcards over the course of just a year. Except for an unfinished letter to a friend were his parents and sister - a logical finding, since the collection was kept within the family.

59 out of 66 letters and all postcards were written during 1943, starting with a letter dated 21 February 1943. In this epistle, Emile Kremer described his gruelling new routing in the RAD as consisting mainly of drill and work, interrupted by mealtimes. He also mentioned having met several other Luxembourgish recruits. This was quickly followed by twenty-three more letters until the end of his service in early May. In fact, March and April 1943 were his busiest writing months, followed by June and July of the same year.

Emile Kremer to his parents, 21 February 1943, Emile Kremer to his parents, 21 February 1943

After Kremer was drafted into the Wehrmacht, he quickly resumed writing. On 25 May, he wrote a letter from Landsberg, were he was sent for basic training and shared a room with ten more Luxembourgish recruits. During the remaining seven months of the year, Emile Kremer sent home another 45 letters and postcards to his parents and sister with varying frequency. Until his death in February 1944, he continued writing regularly, with four letters in January and three in February.

The researchers of project WARLUX were happy to add these letters to their digital collection and looking forward to studying them in more detail.