Online exhibition: Luxembourg during the Second World War (WWIILUX)

The online exhibition proposes a multimedia and multi-perspective presentation of the Occupation period and its consequences for Luxembourg.

The project at a glance

Start date:

15 Jan 2022
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

State Ministry, Luxembourg
Principal Investigator(s):

Christoph Brüll

About

More than 75 years after it ended, the Second World War remains a controversial and even emotional topic in Luxembourg. The online exhibition proposes a multimedia and multi-perspective presentation of the Occupation period and its consequences for Luxembourg. It is important to also consider what historiography calls the “sortie de guerre”, the transition process between war and peace. The history of Luxembourg during World War II cannot be understood in a vacuum. It will be placed in its transnational – essentially grand-regional – context and where relevant in comparison with other regions annexed to the Reich in the West (Alsace-Moselle; Eupen-Malmedy). Furthermore, the spatialisation will include the locations of Luxembourgers during the occupation (from Montreal/London to Tambov through camps, forced relocation sites and military fronts). The online exhibition will present experimental and participatory forms of storytelling that aim to interest and engage a wide audience. WWIILUX will also become the platform showing the results of recent WWII-related research in Luxembourg and especially at C²DH.
Furthermore, a PhD thesis, realised in the framework of the project, will focus on the role of local authorities in the country from the 1930s to the 1950s. Relevant communal and archival records are to be collected and analysed, with the focus of said analysis being on developments in the different areas of communal competencies – such as education, infrastructure, local and politics, and the implementation of political measures on the national level as well as those ordered by the German occupant during World War II.

Contemporary history of Luxembourg