Umkämpfte Erinnerungen. Die Zwangsrekrutierung im Zweiten Weltkrieg in Erinnerungskulturen Luxemburgs, Ostbelgiens und des Elsass (1944-2015)

The forced recruitment of 148 000 men from Luxembourg, Lorraine, Alsace and Eupen-Malmedy into the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS of the Nazi regime still lives on in the memory of the people concerned. War-time experience – whether on the front or in a hideout – and the related later fight for recognition that lasted for decades, have left traces in the memory of the “forced recruits.” In Luxembourg and France, associations of former “forced recruits” still exist actively. Furthermore, a great number of monuments keep reminding the population about the past of these men. In eastern Belgium, however, memory cultures that refer to the “forced recruits” are less powerful; neither are there specific monuments for forced recruits nor does a special remembrance day commemorate forced recruitment.
This study executes a comparative study of three regions in Western Europe since 1944. It analyses how forced recruitment is constructed and remembered as a wartime experience. It moreover questions why memory is often shaped differently in memorial cultures, as well as collective and individual memories. In order to answer this question conclusively, this study draws on “Oral History” interviews, the distinct publications of the associations, their respective archives as well as the examination of “recognition policies” of the implicated states. This study argues that different wartime experiences, the ability of the associations of former “forced recruits” to form coherent collective stories about the past as well as the “recognition policies” of the nation states concerned were crucial in shaping memory cultures.
This thesis was funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) Luxembourg in the AFR PhD program. It was also part of the project “PARTIZIP 2. Social Participation and the Formation of Identity. The struggle for political, economic and cultural involvement in Luxembourg in its European context between 1930 and 1980”. The eyewitness interviews used in this thesis were funded by the FNR Luxembourg and the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte as part of PARTIZIP 2.