Members of Luxembourg’s Jewish community gathered in Cinqfontaines to commemorate the deportation of the Grand Duchy’s Jews during Wolrd War II.
Since 1969, the first Sunday in July has marked a day of commemoration for the country’s Jewish community.
The annual ceremony took place in Cinqfontaines, where 300 men and women lived between 1941 and 1943 before being deported to a Nazi concentration camp.
The site of remembrance is also to become a place of learning: one year ago, the Luxembourg government purchased the site to help provide insight into issues of genocide, human rights, prejudice and stereotypes.
According to the RIAL report, which investigates antisemitism in the Grand Duchy, the number of antisemitic attacks doubled in Luxembourg between 2019 and 2021.
Marc Schoentgen from the Auschwitz Committee Luxembourg expressed concerns over this development and criticised the insensitive comparisons that opponents of coronavirus measures made during anti-lockdown protests.
Minister for Family Affairs and Integration Corinne Cahen was also present at the ceremony and reminded people that some of the country’s politicians were even forced to evacuate their homes during coronavirus protests.
The politician from the Democratic Party (DP) thus underlined the importance of teaching history and showing that antisemitic tendencies still exist in today’s Luxembourg.
