WARLUX – Soldiers and their Communities in WWII: The Impact and Legacy of War Experiences in Luxembourg (FNR CORE)

Between March 2020 and March 2024, the Luxembourg Centre for Digital and Contemporary History (C²DH) conducted a comprehensive investigation into the wartime experiences of young Luxembourgish men enrolled in the German labor service and armed forces during World War II. More than 10,000 young men were conscripted into the Wehrmacht between 1942 and 1944, with an estimated 3,500 deserting or evading the draft and approximately 3,000 losing their lives in combat or failing to return home.
By focusing on the individual life stories of contemporaries, utilizing a bottom-up perspective, the project aimed to provide a more nuanced understanding of wartime experiences in Luxembourg, emphasizing their diversity within the country. It sought to reevaluate historically used categories, such as 'forced recruit', 'volunteer', 'draft evader' and 'deserter,' integrated into the post-war victim discourse in Luxembourg.

The study concentrated on male conscripts and their families from the industrial town of Schifflange in southern Luxembourg, exploring both the conscripts' military service experiences and the Nazi administration’s supportive and punitive measures targeting relatives at home. Schifflange was chosen as a case study due to practical and contextual factors, including the availability of source materials, the demographic diversity, and the town's size. While this sample may not fully represent the entire country, particularly in comparison to the rural north, it offers valuable insights into the impact of conscription on individuals, communities, and families. While the initial plan included investigating the experiences of female conscripts in the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and the war auxiliary service (KHD), practical constraints limited the scope of the project. Future research projects may provide an opportunity to explore also the experiences of female conscripts.

To gather firsthand documents detailing the experiences of those affected by the Nazi draft, a call for contributions was launched in 2021, resulting in over 160 collections containing more than 5,000 war letters. These documents were digitized to create a unique digital collection of wartime correspondence.

Although the project officially ended in March 2024, the website will continue to be developed gradually and will remain accessible for historical and research purposes. The doctoral researcher Sarah Maya Vercruysse also continues her research on the impact of conscription on families and local communities until spring 2025.

Team Crowdsourcing

Further information regarding forced recruitment in Luxembourg (and Schifflange) can be found at:

National Archives of Luxembourg
Section contemporaine:
Plateau du Saint-Esprit, L-1475 Luxembourg
B.P. 6, L-2010 Luxembourg
Tel.: (+352) 247-86660
Email: contemp@an.etat.lu
Website: https://query.an.etat.lu/Query/suchinfo.aspx

Musée National de la Résistance et des Droits Humains
136, rue de l’Alzette
L-4010 Esch-sur-Alzette
Tel.: (+352) 54 84 72
Email: info@mnr.lu
Website: https://mnr.lu/

Municipal archives of Schifflange
Avenue de la Libération
L-3801 Schifflange
étage 2,5 bureau 2
Postal address:
B.P. 11, L-3801 Schifflange

Partners:

Comité pour la mémoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale / Hollerich Archives
Fédération des enrôlés de force (FEDEF)
German Federal Archives
Lab 1100 / Nodegoat
Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
Municipality of Beckerich
Municipality of Clervaux
Municipality of Echternach
Municipality of Esch-sur-Alzette
Municipality of Schifflange
Municipality of Weiswampach
Musée régional des enrôlés de force, Dudelange
National Archives of Luxembourg
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
National Museum of Military History (MNHM), Diekirch
National Museum of Resistance and Human Rights (MNRDH), Esch-sur-Alzette
Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg
Transkribus / ReadCoop

We would also like to thank the contributors to our crowdsourcing campaign.

This project was made possible by the generous support of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche - FNR).