Luxembourg remembers the heroes of the 1942 strike

On 31 August, a commemorative ceremony was held in Wiltz, the city known as the "martyr capital" of Luxembourg, to commemorate the 1942 general strike, a unique and tragic episode of resistance against Nazi occupation. The event was attended by Minister of Agriculture, Food and Wine Martine Hansen and Minister of Culture and Tourism Eric Thill.

The strike began on 31 August 1942, just one day after Gauleiter Gustav Simon announced the forced conscription of young Luxembourgers into the Wehrmacht. This move was the last straw - a wave of protest broke out in Viltz and other parts of the country, engulfing workers, employees, teachers and ordinary citizens. This was not just an act of defiance, but a moral stand by the entire nation against the Nazis' attempts to erase its identity.

The response of the occupiers was brutal: 125 participants in the strike were arrested, 21 of them were executed. Today their names are forever inscribed in the history of the country as symbols of courage and civic dignity.

Each such ceremony is not just an act of remembrance, but a political and cultural gesture that reminds us of the price of freedom. As one of the officials present noted, the courage of these men and women remains a benchmark in an era when historical memory is increasingly the subject of political speculation.