C²DH Podcast - Innovating & Sharing History - WARLUX - Soldiers and their communities in WWII

Since March 2020, the Warlux project at C²DH has been delving into the experiences and narratives of Luxembourg's 'forced recruits' and their families during the Second World War. The aim is to break with the traditional historiography surrounding the 'forced recruits' and to critically examine established narratives within the country's overarching historical discourse. Rather than treating these young men as a homogeneous group, the project explores the personal experiences of the soldiers, as well as the fates of their families during the war, utilizing a wide range of (new) sources and innovative digital methods.[....]

A presentation on the transcription of War Letters

by Christelle Timis

This presentation took place during the War letters lunchtalk session of 7 July 2023 organized by WARLUX & NIOD[....]

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. [....]

Forum Z- Lokalgeschichte ganz nah: Persönliche Kriegserlebnisse in Schifflingen

Written by Susanne Schmolze

The WARLUX team is pleased to invite the public to C2DH's next Forum Z, organised in cooperation with the Musée National de la Résistance et des Droits Humains (MNRDH, Esch-sur-Alzette) and taking place in Schifflange on 22 February 2023. [....]

Families of Luxemburgish Wehrmacht recruits during the Nazi occupation and the impact of local authorities and National Socialist organizations on their everyday lives

Written by Sarah Maya Vercruysse

On 16 and 17 May 2022, the second Doctoral Students' Forum, organised by the Doctoral Students' College of the Hannah Arendt Institute (HAIT), took place. [....]

Transcribing Curating and Researching War Letters in the Digital Age: a short report in the 2nd “War Letters” workshop in Belval, Luxembourg

Written by Nina Janz

Initiators Milan van Lange (NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies), Sarah Maya Vercruysse and Nina Janz (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, C2DH) summoned colleagues from different backgrounds to reflect on how to work with historical war letters. [....]

A Workshop on War Letters (in the Digital Age) - Impressions of building a community around people working on the digitization of historical ‘egodocuments’ using Transkribus 

Written by Dr. Milan van Lange (NIOD, Amsterdam) and Dr. Nina Janz (C2DH, Luxembourg) [....]

The Unopened Letter

Written by Nina Janz

During the scan process for the ego-doc collections of Project Warlux, an unopened letter was found. A suitcase full of letters was contributed as part of the call for contributions and crowdsourcing activities in early 2021. While all the letters are open and can be read, the letter from November 1943 remained sealed. [....]

Crowdsourcing- The letters of Albert Gaviny

Written by Yassine Zaouch
Edited by Nina Janz

The crowdsourcing project for the WARLUX research project resulted in a diverse and unique collection of first-person documents and personal insights into the war experiences of conscripted young men and women. During the digitisation work, Yassine Zaouch, as a student assistant on the project, reviewed numerous letters and diaries. Here he reports on Albert Gaviny's letters. [....]

Thoughts and updates on the Digital Collection of Project WARLUX - by Nina Janz

In February 2021, a call for contributions was launched through the media (newspapers and radio) to collect  ego-documents about the men, women and their families affected by the Nazi draft during the Second World War. The response was overwhelmingly successful, and the team received more than 200 calls and messages in the first few days. The collection phase (February to October 2021) involved visiting families to bring the originals to campus, where they were scanned and indexed. Interaction with donors and the public was a pivotal activity to enrich the personal documents with additional information about the individuals' backgrounds for an in-depth analysis. After completing the survey process, the team collected 160 collections (from 160 contributors), creating the central source of documentation for research into personal experiences of war. 
Sarah Maya Vercruysse and Nina Janz presented the latest updates on the Digital Collection of Project WARLUX - and shared thoughts and future challenges.[....]