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129-419: As with other countries, the origins and ideologies of the various Resistance groups were diverse. Motivations ranged from those who found Nazi ideology itself worth fighting against, to those who valued first and foremost their country's freedom. The political spectrum spanned from communists to clerical-conservative elements, with some groups even harboring anti-Semitic sentiments. People who actively resisted

258-621: A yokel . In this sense, the word Nazi was a hypocorism of the German male name Igna(t)z (itself a variation of the name Ignatius )—Igna(t)z being a common name at the time in Bavaria , the area from which the NSDAP emerged. In the 1920s, political opponents of the NSDAP in the German labour movement seized on this. Using the earlier abbreviated term Sozi for Sozialist ( German for 'Socialist') as an example, they shortened

387-538: A "state within a state" that threatened German national unity. Fichte promoted two options in order to address this, his first one being the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine so the Jews could be impelled to leave Europe. His second option was violence against Jews and he said that the goal of the violence would be "to cut off all their heads in one night, and set new ones on their shoulders, which should not contain

516-423: A "superior" society based on ethnic German "folk" culture and German "blood". It denounced foreigners and foreign ideas and declared that Jews, Freemasons and others were "traitors to the nation" and unworthy of inclusion. Völkisch nationalism saw the world in terms of natural law and romanticism and it viewed societies as organic, extolling the virtues of rural life, condemning the neglect of tradition and

645-479: A base at the abbey. The town is also home to a parish church, built between 1910 and 1912 in the Rheinisch-Romanesque style, and to an eighteenth-century chapel. Clervaux railway station serves the town and the surrounding area, with trains to Luxembourg City and Liège, Belgium. Clervaux is twinned with: The commune consists of the following villages: Note: - partially shared with

774-502: A blood-and-soil ideology, the notion of a master race, [and] the idea of territorial acquisition and settlement in the East. These ideas were embedded in a popular nationalism which was vigorously anti-modernist, anti-humanist and pseudo-religious. Brought together, the result was an anti-intellectual and politically semi-illiterate ideology lacking cohesion, a product of mass culture which allowed its followers emotional attachment and offered

903-464: A desire for liberty or a democratic ideal, but nationalism, albeit influenced by socialism for those on the left, or by anti-parliamentary corporatism on the right. If there was one characteristic which was common to all Resistance movements, then, whether on the left or the right, it was this nationalism. This becomes apparent in the Resistance organisations' interpretation of history: an emphasis on

1032-581: A fairly good summary of the activities of the Resistance. There were individual acts of sabotage, but in general, sabotage and open, armed resistance did not play a big role in the Luxembourgish Resistance. There was no open fighting, except for those Resistance members engaging in self-defence when they were arrested. The Resistance did acquire weapons to aid the Allies in the liberation of the country, but this turned out to be unnecessary as

1161-768: A form of far-right politics . Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents denied that Nazism was either left-wing or right-wing: instead, they officially portrayed Nazism as a syncretic movement. In Mein Kampf , Hitler directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying: Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from

1290-583: A free source of information to workers. From summer of the same year, Luxembourgers working in the Belgian Resistance started producing De freie Lötzeburger , 17 editions of which appeared between October 1941 and August 1942. Written and printed in Brussels , each edition was transported to Luxembourg for distribution. In localities close to the French and Belgian borders, the groups soon faced

1419-457: A hierarchy of evolution from apes while Darwinian theory did not grade races in a hierarchy of higher or lower evolution from apes, but simply stated that all humans as a whole had progressed in their evolution from apes. Many Lamarckians viewed "lower" races as having been exposed to debilitating conditions for too long for any significant "improvement" of their condition to take place in the near future. Haeckel used Lamarckian theory to describe

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1548-514: A long time before taking up hostilities against the German occupier, due to its loyalty to the Soviet Union, which itself was not at war with Germany until June 1941 . From May 1942, the KPL advocated the policy of the popular front against the fascists, but also continued to have other political goals in mind, and saw the social democrats as a political rival. The Communists saw the fight against

1677-481: A nation's need to maintain its racial purity in order to prevent its degeneration and argued that racial intermingling with Jews should never be permitted. In 1923, Chamberlain met Hitler, whom he admired as a leader of the rebirth of the free spirit. Madison Grant 's work The Passing of the Great Race (1916) advocated Nordicism and proposed that a eugenics program should be implemented in order to preserve

1806-471: A nationalist redefinition of socialism , as an alternative to both Marxist international socialism and free-market capitalism . Nazism rejected the Marxist concepts of class conflict and universal equality , opposed cosmopolitan internationalism , and sought to convince all parts of the new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the " common good ", accepting political interests as

1935-540: A post-war Luxembourg. Politically, two tendencies in the Resistance can be distinguished, one left-wing (including the Communist Party of Luxembourg ) and one right-wing (LVL, LPL Clervaux, Unio'n ). There were also organisations that had no particular political programme, which mostly occupied themselves with practical matters; as well as a large number of resistants who were not affiliated to any organisation. The Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL) hesitated for

2064-415: 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 population to answer Dräimol Letzebuerg ("three times Luxembourgish"). Initial results from straw polls showed that the population was following the Resistance's advice by an overwhelming majority, and the actual census on 10 October

2193-421: A renaming that Hitler initially objected to. The National Socialist Program , or "25 Points", was adopted in 1920 and called for a united Greater Germany that would deny citizenship to Jews or those of Jewish descent, while also supporting land reform and the nationalisation of some industries. In Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), published in 1925–1926, Hitler outlined the antisemitism and anti-communism at

2322-629: A retired customs officer, Alphonse Rodesch, founded a second movement with the name LPL in Clervaux , referring to the World War I movement of that name. In December 1940, Hubert Glesener, Eduard Heyardt and Pierre Fonck formed the LFB ( Lëtzebuerger Fräiheets-Bewegong ) in Rumelange : this organisation included Catholics, liberals and communists. By the summer of 1941 other movements were formed around

2451-679: A significant factor for them, and they followed a " Marian cult " devoted to Grand Duchess Charlotte . At the same time, the LVL adopted the anti-Semitism of the Nazi occupiers, and the Unio'n called for a Lebensraum (living space) for the Luxembourgish people in terms very similar to those found in Mein Kampf . For the organised Resistance, the prime motivating factor appears to have been not

2580-695: A simplified and easily-digestible world-view based on a political mythology for the masses. Adolf Hitler himself along with other members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei , NSDAP) in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) were greatly influenced by several 19th- and early 20th-century thinkers and proponents of philosophical, onto-epistemic, and theoretical perspectives on ecological anthropology , scientific racism , holistic science , and organicism regarding

2709-752: A single Jewish idea". The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1912) is an antisemitic forgery created by the secret service of the Russian Empire , the Okhrana . Many antisemites believed it was real and thus it became widely popular after World War I. The Protocols claimed that there was a secret international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Hitler had been introduced to The Protocols by Alfred Rosenberg and from 1920 onwards he focused his attacks by claiming that Judaism and Marxism were directly connected, that Jews and Bolsheviks were one and

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2838-925: A temporary strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to form a common anti-liberal front so they could defeat liberal democracies, particularly France . Hitler admired the British Empire and its colonial system as living proof of Germanic superiority over "inferior" races and saw the United Kingdom as Germany's natural ally. He wrote in Mein Kampf : "For a long time to come there will be only two Powers in Europe with which it may be possible for Germany to conclude an alliance. These Powers are Great Britain and Italy." The historical roots of Nazism are to be found in various elements of European political culture which were in circulation in

2967-435: Is a commune and town in northern Luxembourg , situated in the canton of the same name . The town's arms, granted in 1896, show three blackbirds on a gold ground in the chief of a red shield, as a variation of the arms of the former Lords of Clervaux. As of 2024 , the town of Clervaux, which lies in the southwest of the commune, has a population of 1,572. The city was the site of heavy fighting during World War II , in

3096-465: Is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power—that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago. Hitler at times redefined socialism. When George Sylvester Viereck interviewed Hitler in October 1923 and asked him why he referred to his party as 'socialists' he replied: Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism

3225-531: Is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists. Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it

3354-512: Is outlawed in many European countries, including Germany and Austria. The full name of the Nazi Party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ( German for 'National Socialist German Workers' Party') and they officially used the acronym NSDAP. The term "nazi" had been in use, before the rise of the NSDAP, as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or peasant . It characterised an awkward and clumsy person,

3483-404: Is patriotic. In 1929, Hitler gave a speech to a group of Nazi leaders and simplified 'socialism' to mean, "Socialism! That is an unfortunate word altogether... What does socialism really mean? If people have something to eat and their pleasures, then they have their socialism." When asked in an interview on 27 January 1934 whether he supported the "bourgeois right-wing", Hitler claimed that Nazism

3612-493: Is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Europe, it was frequently referred to as Hitler Fascism (German: Hitlerfaschismus ) and Hitlerism (German: Hitlerismus ). The later related term " neo-Nazism " is applied to other far-right groups with similar ideas which formed after

3741-700: The Schutzstaffel (SS) functioned as the paramilitary organisations of the Nazi Party. Using the SS for the task, Hitler purged the party's more socially and economically radical factions in the mid-1934 Night of the Long Knives , including the leadership of the SA. After the death of President Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, political power was concentrated in Hitler's hands and he became Germany's head of state as well as

3870-606: The Second World War when the Third Reich collapsed. Nazism is a form of fascism , with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system . It incorporates a dictatorship , fervent antisemitism , anti-communism , anti-Slavism , anti-Romani sentiment , scientific racism , white supremacy , Nordicism , social Darwinism , homophobia , ableism , and the use of eugenics into its creed. Its extreme nationalism originated in pan-Germanism and

3999-800: The Service de Renseignements et d’ Action des Patriotes Indépendants Luxembourgeois ("SRA-Pi-Men"). Another LFB group, the Lëtzebuerger Fräiheets- Bond , was formed in Dudelange . All these groups quickly entered into contact with one another, and several mergers soon took place. First, the TLS merged with the LL, then in June 1941, the LS and LL merged to form the LVL ( Lëtzebuerger Volleks-Légioun ),

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4128-581: The Soviet Union 's leader Joseph Stalin and Stalinism on numerous occasions. Hitler commended Stalin for seeking to purify the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Jewish influences, noting Stalin's purging of Jewish communists such as Leon Trotsky , Grigory Zinoviev , Lev Kamenev and Karl Radek . While Hitler had always intended to bring Germany into conflict with the Soviet Union so he could gain Lebensraum ("living space"), he supported

4257-486: The Soviet Union . The Nazi Party won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, making them the largest party in the legislature by far, albeit still short of an outright majority ( 37.3% on 31 July 1932 and 33.1% on 6 November 1932 ). Because none of the parties were willing or able to put together a coalition government, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by President Paul von Hindenburg through

4386-405: The Unio'n , but would do so later on 1 September 1944. The Unio'n was headed by a central committee composed of two delegates from each of the 3 member organisations. Christian, liberal and patriotic groups (NS-designation: "Reaktion"): Unio'n vun de Lëtzebuerger Fräiheetsorganisatiounen (Unio'n), 1944: Communist and international-socialist groups (NS-designation: "Rotfront"): After

4515-656: The Villa Pauly , the Gestapo's headquarters in Luxembourg. Until autumn 1940, then, Luxembourgers protested in a spontaneous and disorganised fashion against the German occupation and annexationist measures. In parallel with individual acts of protest, the summer of 1940 saw the first attempts to organise resistance to the German occupation on a more permanent level. The youth played a decisive role in this, both in schools as well as among young workers. Here, attachment to

4644-562: The Waffen-SS during the Battle of Vianden . Two of the Resistance's most notable feats were the referendum of 10 October 1941, and the general strike of September 1942 . The planned census of 1941 contained three questions on people's nationality, native language and ethnicity. The German authorities intended for Luxembourgers to answer "German" to all three questions, thus accepting their annexation by Nazi Germany: this essentially made it

4773-498: The ethno-nationalist Völkisch movement which had been a prominent aspect of German ultranationalism since the late 19th century. Nazism was strongly influenced by the Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged after Germany's defeat in World War I , from which came the party's underlying "cult of violence". It subscribed to pseudo-scientific theories of a racial hierarchy , identifying ethnic Germans as part of what

4902-415: The far-right political canard which was popular when the ethnic völkisch movement and its politics of Romantic nationalism for establishing a Großdeutschland was strong. Nazism's racial policy positions may have developed from the views of important biologists of the 19th century, including French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , through Ernst Haeckel 's idealist version of Lamarckism and

5031-769: The " Luxembourgish " emperors of the Holy Roman Empire , a glorification of John the Blind and the participants in the peasant war known as the Kleppelkrich , attacks on the "foreign domination" from 1443 to 1839. A Gestapo report from November 1941 states: "The activities of the illegal groups consist of illegal meetings, extensive propaganda activities, spreading so-called LPL-rings and LPL-pictures, procuring weapons and explosives, supporting family members of arrested persons, organising unauthorised emigration and joining enemy countries' armed forces." This constitutes

5160-505: The 1870s, German völkisch nationalism began to adopt antisemitic and racist themes and it was also adopted by a number of radical right political movements. Radical antisemitism was promoted by prominent advocates of völkisch nationalism, including Eugen Diederichs , Paul de Lagarde and Julius Langbehn . De Lagarde called the Jews a " bacillus , the carriers of decay ... who pollute every national culture ... and destroy all faiths with their materialistic liberalism" and he called for

5289-639: The Ardennes section of the Witte Brigade , where they formed the Red Lion Brigade . During the Battle of the Bulge most of the Luxembourgish Resistance members continued their engagement by helping the U.S. Forces during the battle. Shortly before however, Luxembourgish Resistance members fought alone in the only major open battle fought between the Luxembourgish Resistance against soldiers of

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5418-546: The Bavarian Soviet Republic and he stated that he became an antisemite in 1913 during his years in Vienna. This statement has been disputed by the contention that he was not an antisemite at that time, even though it is well established that he read many antisemitic tracts and journals during that time and admired Karl Lueger , the antisemitic mayor of Vienna. Hitler altered his political views in response to

5547-603: The British. Reports by doctor Fernand Schwachtgen, and signed "John the Blind", mostly reached London via the "Famille Martin" network, founded in Marseille by Walter Hamber, an Austrian Jew living in Luxembourg. These contained much information of great value, including information on V-1 and V-2 rocket testing sites in Peenemünde , which led to the Allies bombing these on the night of 17 August 1943. From August 1942,

5676-633: The DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag . The Nazis denounced them as "an insignificant heap of reactionaries". The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their "socialism", their street violence and the "economic experiments" that would take place if the Nazis ever rose to power. However, amidst an inconclusive political situation in which conservative politicians Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher were unable to form stable governments without

5805-709: The December 1944 Battle of Clervaux , part of the " Battle of the Bulge ". The Family of Man , a famous exhibit of photos collected by Edward Steichen , is on permanent display in Clervaux Castle . The castle also includes the Battle of the Bulge Museum, with an extensive collection of American, German, and Luxembourgish artifacts from World War II, and an exhibition of models of the castles and palaces of Luxembourg. A U.S. Sherman tank that participated in

5934-660: The German Army and several prominent industrialists, formed an alliance in opposition to the Weimar Republic on 11 October 1931 in Bad Harzburg , officially known as the "National Front", but commonly referred to as the Harzburg Front . The Nazis stated that the alliance was purely tactical and they continued to have differences with the DNVP. After the elections of July 1932, the alliance broke down when

6063-673: The German Nation (1808), written amid the First French Empire 's occupation of Berlin during the Napoleonic Wars , Fichte called for a German national revolution against the French Imperial Army occupiers, making passionate public speeches, arming his students for battle against the French and stressing the need for action by the German nation so it could free itself. Fichte's German nationalism

6192-400: The German occupation in Luxembourg were only a small minority (just like collaborators). The relationship between them and the wider population can be described as "symbiotic". The resistors, without the support of the population, would have struggled to operate, and without the Resistance's activity, the population might have succumbed to the German occupants' propaganda. German troops invaded

6321-463: The German occupiers as merely the first step towards a radical change of the social and political landscape. The KPL was not the only organisation whose political goals kept it from cooperating with other groups. The admission policy of the LVL stated that membership was forbidden to anyone who was a communist or a "drunkard". The right-wing Resistance groups were generally to be found in the north, based among rural communities. Religious motivations were

6450-570: The German politician Friedrich Naumann formed the National-Social Association which aimed to combine German nationalism and a non-Marxist form of socialism together; the attempt turned out to be futile and the idea of linking nationalism with socialism quickly became equated with antisemites, extreme German nationalists and the völkisch movement in general. During the era of the German Empire , völkisch nationalism

6579-588: The Germans left Luxembourg almost without a fight. All Resistance groups tried and managed to contact the government-in-exile, and many also made contact with Belgian and French Resistance groups. As elsewhere in German-occupied Europe , the underground press was an important part of resistance activity in Luxembourg. Mainly, the resistors' aim was to counteract the German propaganda that portrayed Luxembourg as an integral part of Germany, under

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6708-634: The Jewish population of Europe – were eventually exterminated in a genocide which became known as the Holocaust . Following Germany's defeat in World War II and the discovery of the full extent of the Holocaust, Nazi ideology became universally disgraced. It is widely regarded as evil , with only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, describing themselves as followers of National Socialism. The use of Nazi symbols

6837-529: The Luxembourgish businessman Edouard Hemmer, residing in Belgium, worked with Jean Fosty of the Belgian network Zéro to set up the intelligence network "Organisation Tod", or OT. OT gathered information from Luxembourg, which was then transmitted to London through Zéro . In late April 1943, Hemmer was arrested, and OT ceased its activity. From autumn of 1943, Luxembourgish intelligence was started up again. It

6966-455: The NSDAP's name, Nationalsozialistische , to the dismissive "Nazi", in order to associate them with the derogatory use of the aforementioned term. The first use of the term "Nazi" by the National Socialists occurred in 1926 in a publication by Joseph Goebbels called Der Nazi-Sozi ["The Nazi-Sozi"]. In Goebbels' pamphlet, the word "Nazi" only appears when linked with the word "Sozi" as an abbreviation of "National Socialism". After

7095-413: The NSDAP's rise to power in the 1930s, the use of the term "Nazi" by itself or in terms such as " Nazi Germany ", " Nazi regime ", and so on was popularised by German exiles outside the country, but not in Germany. From them, the term spread into other languages and it was eventually brought back into Germany after World War II. The NSDAP briefly adopted the designation "Nazi" in an attempt to reappropriate

7224-486: The Nazi Party emerged from obscurity to become a major political force after 1929, the conservative faction rapidly gained more influence, as wealthy donors took an interest in the Nazis as a potential bulwark against communism. The Nazi Party had previously been financed almost entirely from membership dues, but after 1929 its leadership began actively seeking donations from German industrialists, and Hitler began holding dozens of fundraising meetings with business leaders. In

7353-409: The Nazi Party. His four sons, including Prince Eitel Friedrich and Prince Oskar , became members of the Nazi Party in hopes that in exchange for their support, the Nazis would permit the restoration of the monarchy. Hitler dismissed the possibility of a restored monarchy, calling it "idiotic." Wilhelm grew to distrust Hitler and was appalled at the Kristallnacht of 9–10 November 1938, stating, "For

7482-423: The Nazi movement the Heil greeting, the Führer title and the model of absolute party leadership. Hitler was also impressed by the populist antisemitism and the anti-liberal bourgeois agitation of Karl Lueger , who as the mayor of Vienna during Hitler's time in the city used a rabble-rousing style of oratory that appealed to the wider masses. Unlike von Schönerer, Lueger was not a German nationalist and instead

7611-454: The Nazi seizure of power, there were even Social Democrats and Communists who switched sides and became known as " Beefsteak Nazis ": brown on the outside and red inside. The leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm , pushed for a "second revolution" (the "first revolution" being the Nazis' seizure of power) that would enact socialist policies. Furthermore, Röhm desired that the SA absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership. Once

7740-400: The Nazis achieved power, Röhm's SA was directed by Hitler to violently suppress the parties of the left, but they also began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction. Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and

7869-487: The Nazis as a useful ally to promote their interests. Business groups made significant financial contributions to the Nazi Party both before and after the Nazi seizure of power, in the hope that a Nazi dictatorship would eliminate the organised labour movement and the left-wing parties. Hitler actively sought to gain the support of business leaders by arguing that private enterprise is incompatible with democracy. Although he opposed communist ideology, Hitler publicly praised

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7998-576: The Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race . Nazism sought to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous German society based on racial purity which represented a people's community ( Volksgemeinschaft ). The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum and exclude those whom they deemed either Community Aliens or "inferior" races ( Untermenschen ). The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create

8127-478: The Nazis, Papen proposed to President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a government formed primarily of conservatives, with only three Nazi ministers. Hindenburg did so, and contrary to the expectations of Papen and the DNVP, Hitler was soon able to establish a Nazi one-party dictatorship. Kaiser Wilhelm II , who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, initially supported

8256-402: The Nineteenth Century (1899), praised Germanic peoples for their creativity and idealism while asserting that the Germanic spirit was threatened by a "Jewish" spirit of selfishness and materialism . Chamberlain used his thesis to promote monarchical conservatism while denouncing democracy , liberalism and socialism . The book became popular, especially in Germany. Chamberlain stressed

8385-630: The Pan-German Großdeutschland ("Greater Germany") which the Nazis advocated, Hitler stated that Bismarck's attainment of Kleindeutschland was the "highest achievement" Bismarck could have achieved "within the limits possible at that time". In Mein Kampf , Hitler presented himself as a "second Bismarck". During his youth in Austria, Hitler was politically influenced by Austrian Pan-Germanist proponent Georg Ritter von Schönerer , who advocated radical German nationalism , antisemitism, anti-Catholicism , anti-Slavic sentiment and anti-Habsburg views. From von Schönerer and his followers, Hitler adopted for

8514-427: The Semitic race, which they associated with "cultural sterility". Arthur de Gobineau , a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing , which he argued had destroyed the purity of the Aryan race, a term which he only reserved for Germanic people. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasised

8643-437: The Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 which later led it to sign the Treaty of Versailles. A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps , paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. Initially, the post–World War I German far-right was dominated by monarchists , but the younger generation, which was associated with völkisch nationalism,

8772-550: The afternoon, even after he became Chancellor and then Führer. After the war, his battalion was absorbed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic from 1918 to 1919, where he was elected Deputy Battalion Representative. According to historian Thomas Weber , Hitler attended the funeral of communist Kurt Eisner (a German Jew), wearing a black mourning armband on one arm and a red communist armband on the other, which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified. In Mein Kampf , Hitler never mentioned any service with

8901-457: The battle for Clervaux and a German 88 anti-aircraft/anti-tank artillery piece are on display in front of the castle. The Abbey of St. Maurice and St. Maur is situated on the hills above the town of Clervaux. Notable associations include Halldór Laxness , 1902–1998, the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic writer, who converted to Roman Catholicism while staying at the abbey. A Roman Catholic mission to Scandinavia has for many years maintained

9030-416: The border of Luxembourg, and several of the Resistance members lost their lives at these border crossings. The Resistance members were aware of the value of intelligence for the British, who were for a while the only country resisting Nazi Germany. In spite of this, the beginnings of intelligence work in Luxembourg were difficult, but the Resistance attempted again and again to find ways to send information to

9159-438: The concept of the Aryan race to draw a distinction between what they deemed to be "high and noble" Aryan culture versus that of "parasitic" Semitic culture. Notions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority were combined in the 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining the belief that certain groups of white people were members of an Aryan "master race" that is superior to other races and particularly superior to

9288-661: The conservative-oriented German Army. This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA in 1934, in what came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives . Before he joined the Bavarian Army to fight in World War I, Hitler had lived a bohemian lifestyle as a petty street watercolour artist in Vienna and Munich and he maintained elements of this lifestyle later on, going to bed very late and rising in

9417-604: The constitution of complex systems and theorization of organic-racial societies. In particular, one of the most significant ideological influences on the Nazis was the 19th-century German nationalist philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte , whose works had served as an inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi Party members, and whose ideas were implemented among the philosophical and ideological foundations of Nazi-oriented Völkisch nationalism . Fichte's works served as an inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi Party members, including Dietrich Eckart and Arnold Fanck . In Speeches to

9546-483: The country on the morning of 10 May 1940 as part of the wider invasion of the Low Countries and France. By the end of the day, Luxembourg was almost entirely occupied. The Grand Duchess and the government politicians immediately went into exile. With no moves of a French counter-attack nor any news at all from the government, there was a general sense of abandonment in the population. However, their attitude towards

9675-653: The country, especially in the south and south-west: in Bascharage , Albert Meyers founded the Lëtzebuerger Roude Léif (LRL); in Differdange , Tétange and Rumelange the LFK ( Lëtzebuerger Fräiheets-Kämpfer ) was formed. In Schifflange left-wing activists formed the "ALWERAJE", the only group willing to work together with the illegal Communist Party of Luxembourg . In Differdange, Josy Goerres created

9804-550: The decay of morals, denounced the destruction of the natural environment and condemned "cosmopolitan" cultures such as Jews and Romani. The first party that attempted to combine nationalism and socialism was the (Austria-Hungary) German Workers' Party , which predominantly aimed to solve the conflict between the Austrian Germans and the Czechs in the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire , then part of Austria-Hungary . In 1896

9933-500: The dictum Heim ins Reich . To this end, they printed flyers by hand or on machines, which were distributed to friends, colleagues and on the street, to spread counter-propaganda and to firm up Luxembourgers' patriotism. From February 1941, the communist Resistance started publishing the newspaper entitled Die Wahrheit . Together with the 19 editions of Ons Zeidong produced by Alwéraje in Schifflange, this left-wing press provided

10062-532: The different groups' activities against the introduction of mandatory military service. But it was not until after the wave of arrests in 1943 and the executions in February 1944 that the Unio'n vun de Letzeburger Freihétsorganisatio'nen was created on 23 March 1944, uniting the LPL, LRL, and LVL, after long and difficult negotiations. Although the LFB was also a part of these negotiations, it initially chose not to join

10191-529: The disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors ... But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms. In a speech given in Munich on 12 April 1922, Hitler stated: There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that

10320-482: The existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan ( Germanic ) and Jewish cultures . Aryan mysticism claimed that Christianity originated in Aryan religious traditions, and that Jews had usurped the legend from Aryans. Houston Stewart Chamberlain , an English-born German proponent of racial theory, supported notions of Germanic supremacy and antisemitism in Germany. Chamberlain's work, The Foundations of

10449-427: The existence of interracial struggle and put races on a hierarchy of evolution, ranging from wholly human to subhuman . Mendelian inheritance , or Mendelism, was supported by the Nazis, as well as by mainstream eugenicists of the time. The Mendelian theory of inheritance declared that genetic traits and attributes were passed from one generation to another. Eugenicists used Mendelian inheritance theory to demonstrate

10578-492: The extermination of the Jews. Langbehn called for a war of annihilation against the Jews, and his genocidal policies were later published by the Nazis and given to soldiers on the front during World War II . One antisemitic ideologue of the period, Friedrich Lange , even used the term "National Socialism" to describe his own anti-capitalist take on the völkisch nationalist template. Johann Gottlieb Fichte accused Jews in Germany of having been and inevitably of continuing to be

10707-576: The fact that words in European languages and words in Indo-Iranian languages have similar pronunciations and meanings. Johann Gottfried Herder argued that the Germanic peoples held close racial connections to the ancient Indians and the ancient Persians, who he claimed were advanced peoples that possessed a great capacity for wisdom, nobility, restraint and science. Contemporaries of Herder used

10836-463: The failed referendum of 1941 proved that cooperation was possible. The Resistance was above all a regional phenomenon: each organisation had its geographical base, and none operated across the whole country. While the different Resistance entities were united in their common goals of freeing the country from Nazi German occupation and safeguarding Luxembourgish independence, they had different forms of organisation, ways of working, and political visions for

10965-576: The father of genetics , German botanist Gregor Mendel . Haeckel's works were later condemned by the Nazis as inappropriate for "National-Socialist formation and education in the Third Reich". This may have been because of his " monist " atheistic , materialist philosophy, which the Nazis disliked, along with his friendliness to Jews, opposition to militarism and support altruism, with one Nazi official calling for them to be banned. Unlike Darwinian theory, Lamarckian theory officially ranked races in

11094-573: The fields of agricultural and industrial labour. German Jewish financiers and bankers played a key role in fostering Germany's economic growth from 1871 to 1913 and they benefited enormously from this boom. In 1908, amongst the twenty-nine wealthiest German families with aggregate fortunes of up to 55 million marks at the time, five were Jewish and the Rothschilds were the second wealthiest German family. The predominance of Jews in Germany's banking, commerce and industry sectors during this time period

11223-579: The first Luxembourgers were judged by military tribunals for physically fighting with German soldiers or causing offence to the Wehrmacht or Adolf Hitler. In August, the Gauleiter Gustav Simon arrived in Luxembourg as Chef der Zivilverwaltung , taking over from the military administration. He implemented a "Germanisation" policy to prepare Luxembourg for complete annexation into Germany, which heightened Luxembourgish hostility towards

11352-469: The first time, I am ashamed to be a German." The former German emperor also denounced the Nazis as a "bunch of shirted gangsters" and "a mob ... led by a thousand liars or fanatics." There were factions within the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical. The conservative Nazi Hermann Göring urged Hitler to conciliate with capitalists and reactionaries . Other prominent conservative Nazis included Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich . Meanwhile,

11481-512: The head of the government, with the title of Führer und Reichskanzler , meaning "leader and Chancellor of Germany" (see also here ). From that point, Hitler was effectively the dictator of Nazi Germany—also known as the Third Reich—under which Jews, political opponents and other "undesirable" elements were marginalised, imprisoned or murdered . During World War II , many millions of people – including around two-thirds of

11610-488: The heart of his political philosophy as well as his disdain for representative democracy , over which he proposed the Führerprinzip ( leader principle ), and his belief in Germany's right to territorial expansion through lebensraum . Hitler's objectives involved the eastward expansion of German territories, German colonization of Eastern Europe, and the promotion of an alliance with Britain and Italy against

11739-616: The idea of an independent Luxembourg as well as antifascism were strong motivators. From August, the heads of the Catholic Scouts in the south of the country met in Esch-sur-Alzette and decided to engage in resistance against the Germans. Similar meetings later took place in Luxembourg city, Diekirch and Wiltz. When the occupiers banned the Scout movement in Luxembourg , the organisation continued to exist underground, under

11868-555: The induction of the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 by the Nazis, many German nationalists such as Roland Freisler strongly supported laws to ban Rassenschande between Aryans and Jews as racial treason. Even before the laws were officially passed, the Nazis banned sexual relations and marriages between party members and Jews. Party members found guilty of Rassenschande were severely punished; some party members were even sentenced to death. The Nazis claimed that Bismarck

11997-518: The intellectual capitals of the continent, what Joachim Fest called the "scrapheap of ideas" prevalent at the time. In Hitler and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic , historian Martin Broszat points out that [A]lmost all essential elements of ... Nazi ideology were to be found in the radical positions of ideological protest movements [in pre-1914 Germany]. These were: a virulent anti-Semitism,

12126-563: The largest Resistance group . On the other hand, an attempt at cooperation between the LFK and LFB in Rumelange ended in betrayal and hundreds of arrests. Further arrests from November 1941 onwards decimated various Resistance groups, with the result that the LVL, the LPL and the LRL became the most substantial remaining organisations, attracting the surviving members of the defunct groups. The only political party to continue to operate underground

12255-508: The main priority of economic organisation, which tended to match the general outlook of collectivism or communitarianism rather than economic socialism. The Nazi Party's precursor, the pan-German nationalist and antisemitic German Workers' Party (DAP), was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party in order to appeal to left-wing workers,

12384-528: The midst of the Great Depression, facing the possibility of economic ruin on the one hand and a Communist or Social Democrat government on the other hand, German business increasingly turned to Nazism as offering a way out of the situation, by promising a state-driven economy that would support, rather than attack, existing business interests. By January 1933, the Nazi Party had secured the support of important sectors of German industry, mainly among

12513-661: The name Lëtzebuerger Scouten an der Resistenz (LS). In late September, Raymond Petit, a student at the Lycée of Echternach, founded the group LPL, the Lëtzebuerger Patriote-Liga. Similarly, at the Lycée of Diekirch, Camille Sutor founded the Trei Lëtzeburger Studenten (TLS). The Lëtzebuerger Legioun (LL) was founded on 27 October 1940 by Aloyse Raths, a student at the École normale , in his native village of Bissen . In November 1940

12642-501: The nation. He believed that communism was invented by the Jews to weaken nations by promoting class struggle. After his rise to power, Hitler took a pragmatic position on economics, accepting private property and allowing capitalist private enterprises to exist so long as they adhered to the goals of the Nazi state, but not tolerating enterprises that he saw as being opposed to the national interest. German business leaders disliked Nazi ideology but came to support Hitler, because they saw

12771-557: The new regime. The " Spengelskrich " (Luxembourgish; "war of the pins") was one of the first episodes of this spontaneous public resistance. From 14 August 1940, many Luxembourgers publicly wore pins showing the Luxembourgish red lion , which they had worn recently in 1939 for the centenary festivities of Luxembourgish independence. Activists of the pro-German collaborationist Volksdeutsche Bewegung tried to tear off these pins, and fights would break out. The Gestapo intervened against

12900-427: The occupiers was robustly hostile from the beginning. Without real means of defence, they had to bend to the Germans' wishes, but little by little acts of sabotage and demonstrations of anti-Nazi sentiment appeared. Phone lines would be cut here and there; in many villages, discussions with the German soldiers turned into brawls from which the Germans had to flee. The consequences of these actions came soon. From late May,

13029-538: The people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction—to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything,

13158-472: The pin-wearers, calling them "provocateurs". Nevertheless, the wearing of patriotic symbols continued throughout the occupation as a sign of defiance and many young people found themselves in front of special tribunals, accused of anti-German agitation. The demolition of the Gëlle Fra monument in October 1940 saw protests from many Luxembourgers. The Gestapo arrested around 50 young people who were taken to

13287-534: The problem of how to secretly cross the well-guarded border. Those wishing to leave the country included escaped prisoners of war, Allied pilots who had been shot down, or Resistance members wishing to travel to Britain to join the Allied armed forces, and this made an organised network necessary. Additionally, from 1943, the Resistance helped numerous young men who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht, to escape to France or Belgium. An estimated 2,000 people were helped across

13416-523: The purity of the Nordic race. After reading the book, Hitler called it "my Bible". In Germany, the belief that Jews were economically exploiting Germans became prominent due to the ascendancy of many wealthy Jews into prominent positions upon the unification of Germany in 1871. From 1871 to the early 20th century, German Jews were overrepresented in Germany's upper and middle classes while they were underrepresented in Germany's lower classes, particularly in

13545-461: The radical Nazi Joseph Goebbels opposed capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core and he stressed the need for the party to emphasise both a proletarian and a national character. Those views were shared by Otto Strasser , who later left the Nazi Party and formed the Black Front in the belief that Hitler had allegedly betrayed the party's socialist goals by endorsing capitalism. When

13674-498: The regions of Lyon , Grenoble , and the Ardennes . Many were killed in the war. Others, like Antoine Diederich , rose to high rank in the Resistance. Diederich, known only as "Capitaine Baptiste", had 77 maquis soldiers under his command and is best known for attacking Riom prison, where he and his fighters freed 114 inmates who had been sentenced to death. Additionally around 300 men from Luxembourg left their country to fight in

13803-490: The rise of Hitler and the Nazis. In addition, the different ideologies incorporated into Nazism were already well established in certain parts of German society long before World War I . The Nazis were strongly influenced by the post–World War I far-right in Germany, which held common beliefs such as anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism and antisemitism, along with nationalism , contempt for the Treaty of Versailles and condemnation of

13932-485: The same and that Marxism was a Jewish ideology-this became known as " Jewish Bolshevism ". Hitler believed that The Protocols were authentic. During his life in Vienna between 1907 and 1913, Hitler became fervently anti-Slavic . Prior to the Nazi ascension to power, Hitler often blamed moral degradation on Rassenschande ("racial defilement"), a way to assure his followers of his continuing antisemitism, which had been toned down for popular consumption. Prior to

14061-505: The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 and it was then that he became an antisemitic, German nationalist. Hitler expressed opposition to capitalism, regarding it as having Jewish origins and accusing capitalism of holding nations ransom to the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class. He also expressed opposition to communism and egalitarian forms of socialism, arguing that inequality and hierarchy are beneficial to

14190-463: The steel and coal producers, the insurance business, and the chemical industry. Large segments of the Nazi Party, particularly among the members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), were committed to the party's official socialist, revolutionary and anti-capitalist positions and expected both a social and an economic revolution when the party gained power in 1933. In the period immediately before

14319-478: The steel plants, however, there was a "spirit of sabotage", which contributed to slowing the rate of production. Two acts of sabotage resulting in trail derailments were, however, organised at the initiative of Joseph Hittesdorf. 400 men from Luxembourg, many of whom had refused to serve in, or who had deserted from, the German Wehrmacht, fought in the French maquis, where they were particularly active in

14448-687: The support and connivance of traditional conservative nationalists who believed that they could control him and his party. With the use of emergency presidential decrees by Hindenburg and a change in the Weimar Constitution which allowed the Cabinet to rule by direct decree, bypassing both Hindenburg and the Reichstag, the Nazis soon established a one-party state and began the Gleichschaltung . The Sturmabteilung (SA) and

14577-573: The term "Nazi". Hitler Youth leader Melita Maschmann wrote a book about her experience entitled Account Rendered . She did not refer to herself as a "Nazi", even though she was writing well after World War II. In 1933, 581 members of the National Socialist Party answered interview questions put to them by Professor Theodore Abel from Columbia University . They similarly did not refer to themselves as "Nazis". The majority of scholars identify Nazism in both theory and practice as

14706-437: The term, but it soon gave up this effort and generally avoided using the term while it was in power. In each case, the authors typically referred to themselves as "National Socialists" and their movement as "National Socialism", but never as "Nazis". A compendium of Hitler's conversations from 1941 through 1944 entitled Hitler's Table Talk does not contain the word "Nazi" either. In speeches by Hermann Göring , he never uses

14835-498: The transfer of biological illness and impairments from parents to children, including mental disability, whereas others also used Mendelian theory to demonstrate the inheritance of social traits, with racialists claiming a racial nature behind certain general traits such as inventiveness or criminal behaviour. Clervaux Clervaux ( French pronunciation: [klɛʁvo] ; Luxembourgish : Clierf [kliːɐ̯f] or locally Cliärref ; German : Clerf )

14964-457: The war, the LPPD was formed, an umbrella group of the Resistance. "The Resistance" never existed as a unified entity; instead resistance was constituted into several separate Resistance organisations. The war did not unify the country any more than it had been previously, although more people became conscious of their national identity, and several collective victories, such as the strike of 1942 and

15093-573: Was Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl , whose work— Land und Leute ( Land and People , written between 1857 and 1863)—collectively tied the organic German Volk to its native landscape and nature, a pairing which stood in stark opposition to the mechanical and materialistic civilisation which was then developing as a result of industrialisation . Geographers Friedrich Ratzel and Karl Haushofer borrowed from Riehl's work as did Nazi ideologues Alfred Rosenberg and Paul Schultze-Naumburg , both of whom employed some of Riehl's philosophy in arguing that "each nation-state

15222-562: Was a pro-Catholic Habsburg supporter and only used German nationalist notions occasionally for his own agenda. Although Hitler praised both Lueger and Schönerer, he criticised the former for not applying a racial doctrine against the Jews and Slavs. The concept of the Aryan race , which the Nazis promoted, stems from racial theories asserting that Europeans are the descendants of Indo-Iranian settlers, people of ancient India and ancient Persia . Proponents of this theory based their assertion on

15351-477: Was an organism that required a particular living space in order to survive". Riehl's influence is overtly discernible in the Blut und Boden ( Blood and Soil ) philosophy introduced by Oswald Spengler , which the Nazi agriculturalist Walther Darré and other prominent Nazis adopted. Völkisch nationalism denounced soulless materialism , individualism and secularised urban industrial society, while advocating

15480-561: Was cancelled, which was widely seen as a propaganda defeat for the Germans. The 1942 general strike came about as a result of the introduction of conscription into the German military for young Luxembourgish males born between 1920 and 1927, announced on 30 August 1942. Nazism Final solution Parties Nazism ( / ˈ n ɑː t s ɪ z əm , ˈ n æ t -/ NA(H)T -siz-əm ), formally National Socialism ( NS ; German : Nationalsozialismus , German: [natsi̯oˈnaːlzotsi̯aˌlɪsmʊs] ),

15609-512: Was instrumental in founding the German Empire. The Nazis declared that they were dedicated to continuing the process of creating a unified German nation state that Bismarck had begun and desired to achieve. While Hitler was supportive of Bismarck's creation of the German Empire, he was critical of Bismarck's moderate domestic policies. On the issue of Bismarck's support of a Kleindeutschland ("Lesser Germany", excluding Austria) versus

15738-491: Was more radical and it did not express any emphasis on the restoration of the German monarchy. This younger generation desired to dismantle the Weimar Republic and create a new radical and strong state based upon a martial ruling ethic that could revive the "Spirit of 1914" which was associated with German national unity ( Volksgemeinschaft ). The Nazis, the far-right monarchists, the reactionary German National People's Party (DNVP) and others, such as monarchist officers in

15867-411: Was not exclusively for any class and he indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps" by stating: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism." Historians regard the equation of Nazism as "Hitlerism" as too simplistic since the term was used prior to

15996-510: Was overshadowed by both Prussian patriotism and the federalist tradition of its various component states. The events of World War I, including the end of the Prussian monarchy in Germany, resulted in a surge of revolutionary völkisch nationalism. The Nazis supported such revolutionary völkisch nationalist policies and they claimed that their ideology was influenced by the leadership and policies of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , who

16125-499: Was populist and opposed to traditional elites, spoke of the need for a "People's War" ( Volkskrieg ) and put forth concepts similar to those which the Nazis adopted. Fichte promoted German exceptionalism and stressed the need for the German nation to purify itself (including purging the German language of French words, a policy that the Nazis undertook upon their rise to power). Another important figure in pre-Nazi völkisch thinking

16254-533: Was primarily Josy Goerres who saw the importance of political, economic and military intelligence. His reports generally reached the government-in-exile via Belgium; others were transmitted through the hands of the doctor and politician Charles Marx , who had close contact with the French Resistance and was located in Aude in southern France. The Luxembourgish Resistance organised few acts of sabotage. In

16383-721: Was the Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL). However, in August 1942 a police raid weakened Communist resistance, and the schoolteacher François Frisch, who was close to the Communist politician Dominique Urbany , founded a new movement, the ALEF (the Aktiv Lëtzebuerger Eenheetsfront géint de Faschismus ). From 1943 at the latest, Resistance members recognised a need to unify the various organisations. Already in October 1941, attempts had been made to coordinate

16512-556: Was unable to complete German national unification because Jews had infiltrated the German parliament and they claimed that their abolition of parliament had ended this obstacle to unification. Using the stab-in-the-back myth , the Nazis accused Jews—and other populations who it considered non-German—of possessing extra-national loyalties, thereby exacerbating German antisemitism about the Judenfrage (the Jewish Question),

16641-417: Was very high, even though Jews were estimated to account for only 1% of the population of Germany. The overrepresentation of Jews in these areas fuelled resentment among non-Jewish Germans during periods of economic crisis. The 1873 stock market crash and the ensuing depression resulted in a spate of attacks on alleged Jewish economic dominance in Germany and antisemitism increased. During this time period, in

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