Luxembourg Resistance
Their covert activities included aiding political refugees and those evading conscription into the German forces, as well as disseminating patriotic leaflets to bolster the Luxembourgish population's spirits.
From late May, the first Luxembourgers were judged by military tribunals for physically fighting with German soldiers or causing offence to the Wehrmacht or Adolf Hitler.
[2] Nevertheless, the wearing of patriotic symbols continued throughout the occupation as a sign of defiance and many young people found themselves in front of special tribunals, accused of anti-German agitation.
In parallel with individual acts of protest, the summer of 1940 saw the first attempts to organise resistance to the German occupation on a more permanent level.
When the occupiers banned the Scout movement in Luxembourg, the organisation continued to exist underground, under the name Lëtzebuerger Scouten an der Resistenz (LS).
[2] In late September, Raymond Petit, a student at the Lycée of Echternach, founded the group LPL, the Lëtzebuerger Patriote-Liga.
[2] The Lëtzebuerger Legioun (LL) was founded on 27 October 1940 by Aloyse Raths, a student at the École normale, in his native village of Bissen.
[2] In Schifflange left-wing activists formed the "ALWERAJE", the only group willing to work together with the illegal Communist Party of Luxembourg.
[1][2] In Differdange, Josy Goerres created the Service de Renseignements et d’ Action des Patriotes Indépendants Luxembourgeois ("SRA-Pi-Men").
The war did not unify the country any more than it had been previously, although more people became conscious of their national identity, and several collective victories, such as the strike of 1942 and the failed referendum of 1941 proved that cooperation was possible.
[7] While the different Resistance entities were united in their common goals of freeing the country from Nazi German occupation and safeguarding Luxembourgish independence, they had different forms of organisation, ways of working, and political visions for a post-war Luxembourg.
[8] Politically, two tendencies in the Resistance can be distinguished, one left-wing (including the Communist Party of Luxembourg) and one right-wing (LVL, LPL Clervaux, Unio'n).
The Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL) hesitated for a long time before taking up hostilities against the German occupier, due to its loyalty to the Soviet Union, which itself was not at war with Germany until June 1941.
[9] A Gestapo report from November 1941 states: "The activities of the illegal groups consist of illegal meetings, extensive propaganda activities, spreading so-called LPL-rings and LPL-pictures, procuring weapons and explosives, supporting family members of arrested persons, organising unauthorised emigration and joining enemy countries' armed forces.
[13] The Resistance did acquire weapons to aid the Allies in the liberation of the country, but this turned out to be unnecessary as the Germans left Luxembourg almost without a fight.
Mainly, the resistors' aim was to counteract the German propaganda that portrayed Luxembourg as an integral part of Germany, under the dictum Heim ins Reich.
Together with the 19 editions of Ons Zeidong produced by Alwéraje in Schifflange, this left-wing press provided a free source of information to workers.
[10] From summer of the same year, Luxembourgers working in the Belgian Resistance started producing De freie Lötzeburger, 17 editions of which appeared between October 1941 and August 1942.
Additionally, from 1943, the Resistance helped numerous young men who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht, to escape to France or Belgium.
Diederich, known only as "Capitaine Baptiste", had 77 maquis soldiers under his command and is best known for attacking Riom prison, where he and his fighters freed 114 inmates who had been sentenced to death.
The Resistance organisations spread awareness of the nature and significance of the upcoming census, and distributed leaflets strongly encouraging the population to answer Dräimol Letzebuerg ("three times Luxembourgish").
[10] Initial results from straw polls showed that the population was following the Resistance's advice by an overwhelming majority, and the actual census on 10 October was cancelled, which was widely seen as a propaganda defeat for the Germans.
[10] The 1942 general strike came about as a result of the introduction of conscription into the German military for young Luxembourgish males born between 1920 and 1927, announced on 30 August 1942.
