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The territorial demands of the ruling Luxembourg National Union Government were made known in late summer 1945. Luxembourg required Germany to relinquish German territory that had been separated from the former Duchy of Luxembourg under the terms of the 1815 Congress of Vienna, and the further extension of Luxembourg to the Saar River. Only a ...
The German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II began in May 1940 after the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was invaded by Nazi Germany. [1] Although Luxembourg was officially neutral, it was situated at a strategic point at the end of the French Maginot Line. On 10 May 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands ...
Luxembourg was placed under occupation and was annexed into Germany in 1942. During the occupation, the German authorities orchestrated a programme of "Germanisation" of the country, suppressing non-German languages and customs and conscripting Luxembourgers into the Wehrmacht , which led to extensive resistance, culminating in a general strike ...
German-occupied Europe at the height of the Axis conquests in 1942 Gaue, Reichsgaue and other administrative divisions of Germany proper in January 1944. According to the Treaty of Versailles, the Territory of the Saar Basin was split from Germany for at least 15 years. In 1935, the Saarland rejoined Germany in a lawful way after a plebiscite.
On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II. [1] This put Luxembourg's Grand Ducal government in a delicate situation. On one hand, the population's sympathies lay with the UK and France; on the other hand, due to the country's policy of neutrality since the Treaty of London in 1867, the government adopted a careful non-belligerent stance towards its neighbours.
After World War II, Luxembourg abandoned its politics of neutrality, when it became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations. It is a signatory of the Treaty of Rome , and constituted a monetary union with Belgium ( Benelux Customs Union in 1948), and an economic union with Belgium and the ...
The 1942 Luxembourg general strike strongly marked Luxembourg's resistance to the German occupier. Each year, the strike is commemorated on August 31 by the head of state and government officials. [citation needed] In 1965, a lighthouse-shaped "National Monument to the Strike" was opened in Wiltz.
The German authorities intended for Luxembourgers to answer "German" to all three questions, thus accepting their annexation by Nazi Germany: this essentially made it a referendum on German rule. The Resistance organisations spread awareness of the nature and significance of the upcoming census, and distributed leaflets strongly encouraging the ...