On May 10, 1940, the Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg. Grand Duchess Charlotte and her government went into exile first to London and afterwards to the United States of America and Canada.

The 1st armored division, accompanied by motorized infantry and protected by aviation, entered via the Saure bridge and crossed the city from eight o’clock in the morning heading towards Belgium.


The agricultural school and private houses were requisitioned to accommodate German soldiers. In June, the city had to organize the accommodation of hundreds of refugees from the southern part of the country. After the arrival of Gauleiter (district leader) Gustav Simon as “Chief of Civil Administration” (governor directly responsible to Hitler) on July 29, 1940, Ettelbruck was drawn into the general policy of Germanization under the motto “Heim ins Reich” (Home to the Empire). The VDB (Volksdeutsche Bewegung/German Ethnic Movement) collaborating with the invader carried out punitive actions against patriotic citizens of Ettelbruck.


On August 22, local associations were liquidated by the “Stillhaltekommissar” (liquidation commissioner). The “Stillhaltekommissiar”assumed the responsibility to establish and maintain a system of rules. From January 1941, Nazi organizations (NSDAP, NSV, DAF, NSF, HJ, BDM, NSKK, SA, etc.) were established. The Gestapo spied on and arrested resistance members. As part of the Diekirch district, the “Ortsgruppe 07” encompassed Ettelbruck, Erpeldange, Warken, and Schieren. In May 1941, the RAD (Reich Labor Service) was introduced for men born in 1920 and 1924.

Girls born between 1924 and 1925 were recruited into the KHD (War Assistance Service).

Sainte-Anne Boarding School was emptied of the Nuns of Christian Doctrine and its students, to be transformed into a “Lehrerbildungsanstalt” training future teachers. The teachers at the Agricultural School were partially replaced by Germans. In August 1941, the municipal administration was placed under the authority of an “Amtsbürgermeister” (civil servant mayor), controlled by the “Ortsgruppenleiter” (local group leader) of the NSDAP. From October 1941, Jews in Ettelbruck were deported and their homes and property confiscated. The synagogue was vandalized.
During the Occupation, various acts of resistance provoked the anger of the Germans: tearing down Nazi flags, setting fire to the triumphal arch (“Ehrenpforte”), patriotic graffiti, distribution of resistance organization leaflets (LVL, LPL…), thwarting the population census on October 10, 1941, where the Gauleiter demanded that Luxembourgers declare themselves Germans…

The photographer and Ettelbruck resistance member Alex Wagner-Krantz became famous for his photomontage “Mir wölle bleiwe wat mir sin” (“We want to remain what we are”).

When the Gauleiter announced forced enlistment into the Wehrmacht for young men born between 1922 and 1926 on August 30, 1942, strikes broke out the next day in many towns in Luxembourg.

In Ettelbruck, railway workers blocked train traffic, half of the shops closed their doors, teachers did not teach, healthcare workers at the Maison de Santé (neuro-psychiatric hospital) returned their VDB membership cards, etc. Immediately, 250 police officers descended on Ettelbruck to suppress the strike.

Thirty resistance members were arrested. Among the 21 Luxembourgers summarily executed were Michy Dax and Jängi Thull from Ettelbruck. Other prominent victims of the resistance included scout Félix Lux and LVL group leader Yvon Kerger. Nearly 150 young people from Ettelbruck were recruited into the Wehrmacht; around twenty of them were refractory or deserters, while 35 died at the front.

Between September 1942 and August 1944, 80 Ettelbruck residents were transplanted to the eastern Reich (“Umsiedlung”) for acts of resistance or because a son refused to be enlisted by the Wehrmacht. The number of deportees to concentration camps amounted to 47. After four and a half years of Nazi Occupation, Ettelbruck was liberated on September 11, 1944, one day after the capital. Around 1:30 p.m., the 5th Armored Division of the 1st American Army made a triumphant entry into Ettelbruck.


Popular jubilation was the same as everywhere else in the Grand Duchy. After the chaotic flight of the Germans, the municipal council, assisted by the American Major of Civil Affairs and the Union (a coalition of several Resistance organizations), prepared for the return to normal communal and civilian life. At that moment, no one imagined that three months later, the Americans would be forced to resume fighting following the Ardennes Offensive which began on December 16, 1944.


Intense fighting caused severe damage throughout the city. The majority of the population was evacuated on December 19. On Christmas Day, Ettelbruck was liberated.


