ww.2.lu - Luxemb(o)urg during World War II. Online-Exhibition

WW2.lu. Luxemb(o)urg in the Second World War is an online exhibition developed by the C²DH of the University of Luxembourg based on a 2021 convention with the Ministry of State. The aim of the exhibition is to present the history of Luxembourg during the Second World War, taking account of recent historical research. To this end, it relies on the advantages of the digital format. The exhibition makes it possible to approach the experiences of Luxembourgers from different perspectives by drawing on rich and often unknown documentation. Between ‘Luxembourg’ and ‘Luxemburg’, the population faced the Germanisation efforts of the Nazi regime. The period of annexation shows a torn society whose first concern was to cope with everyday life in an exceptional situation. The online exhibition is interested in all those whose fate was linked to Luxembourg in the period 1940-1945. The experiences of persecution, opposition and resistance are present, as are those of adaptation and collaboration as well as resignation and arrangements. The main aim is to show the often complex decisions faced by individuals and collectives and how their decisions developed during the four years under German rule. Thanks to its various forms of presentation and its multilingualism, ww2.lu is aimed at a wide audience. 33 video clips create a panorama of known and unknown places for this period of history. They consist of testimonies, interviews with historians, archive films and two animated cartoons. Around sixty entries in the catalogue describe the many faces of annexed Luxembourg. These texts are written in such a way that they are accessible to all users. Their authors, all experts in their field, were given a free hand in their composition. The entries form a unit with the documents that accompany them and often create a link between minor and major history. Curious users who want to delve deeper into a topic can slip into the role of a Resistance fighter in 1944 and explore the entire archive collection of the exhibition. Bibliographical references allow these discoveries to be expanded. Finally, the comparison of various maps of Luxembourg City from 1940-1944 with the current city map shows how the annexation changed the face of the city in the short and long term.