LURN5: Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network

Report (2023)

The fifth meeting of LURN took place on 24 March 2023 in the Open Space of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History. In the focus were introductions to the practical digital tools of ... [more ▼]

The fifth meeting of LURN took place on 24 March 2023 in the Open Space of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History. In the focus were introductions to the practical digital tools of researchers Slack and Zotero, a presentation of the ALUMNI network of UL (Andy Adams) and discussions about the future of LURN. The representants of two sister organizations in Germany and France also attended the LURN5. Mrs. Victoria von Rosen from Frankfurt and Mrs. Olena Kovalchuk from Paris personally joined for a discussion of potential international projects, such as the summer or winter School of ambassadors of the European Scientific Tradition for researchers staying in Ukraine. Likewise, ties with Belgium and the Netherlands will be strengthened after the successful hybrid conference of BeNeLURN on March 21, 2023, in order to find cooperation among scientists from Europe and Ukraine. LURN joined to the framework of the Ukrainian Scientific Diaspora program, launched by the Council of Young Scientists of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. The new elected organizing LURN committee will announce the LURN6 soon. [less ▲]

Krich huet kee kloert Zil a wäert dofir sou laang virugoen, wéi de Putin lieft

Speeches/Talks (2023)

Dëse Krich huet kee kloert "Siegesbild" an kee kloert Zil an dofir wäert en och sou laang virugoen, wéi de Putin nach lieft. Dat fäert d'Inna Ganschow. D'Historikerin a Migratiounsfuerscherin vun der Uni ... [more ▼]

Dëse Krich huet kee kloert "Siegesbild" an kee kloert Zil an dofir wäert en och sou laang virugoen, wéi de Putin nach lieft. Dat fäert d'Inna Ganschow. D'Historikerin a Migratiounsfuerscherin vun der Uni Lëtzebuerg war en Donneschdeg de Moien eis Invitée vun der Redaktioun. [less ▲]

The Ostarbeiters in Belval

in Egberdien, van der Peijl (Ed.) Artistic Performance about the Ostarbeiters in Belval 1942-1944 (2023)

Egberdien van der Peijl presented some artworks based on the ZWANG-proeject photograph sollection of the Ostarbeiters, made on the forced labourer camp sites and or in the steel mills together with DJ ... [more ▼]

Egberdien van der Peijl presented some artworks based on the ZWANG-proeject photograph sollection of the Ostarbeiters, made on the forced labourer camp sites and or in the steel mills together with DJ Yoni. The musical improvisation together with a theatrically played performance imitated the life of an Ostarbeiter in the gallery's basements. The venue was Fellner Contemporary in the city. [less ▲]

Interview with Dr. Inna Ganschow (C2DH, Uni of Lux)

Speeches/Talks (2023)

Throughout her academic projects, Dr Ganschow is working on the presence of the so-called Russian diaspora in Luxembourg, i.e. the emigrant population from former Soviet Republics. Her current project ... [more ▼]

Throughout her academic projects, Dr Ganschow is working on the presence of the so-called Russian diaspora in Luxembourg, i.e. the emigrant population from former Soviet Republics. Her current project deals with Soviet forced labourers during the Second World War and is commissioned by the Luxembourg government. In her work, she decided to compare the situation of these forced labourers, mainly young women coming from Ukraine, with the local population, in the Belval region in the south of Luxembourg. Another interview topic is LURN network (Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network) which aims to connect Ukrainian researchers displaced by the war and who are temporarily working in Luxembourg for research institutions. It also aims to provide additional points of contact with the Luxembourg research community. The LURN already organised three different meetings and workshops since its creation in August 2022, facilitating Ukrainian scholars contacts in Luxembourg new environment, and stimulating new research projects. [less ▲]

Paper and ink in the Soviet camp 188 in Tambov: capturing the camp life of Luxembourger conscripts

Presentation (2022, October 27)

In the talk by Inna Ganschow, the camp experience in the Soviet Union will be treated as a consequence of the forced conscription, namely in its artistic processing. Secretly written diaries and letters ... [more ▼]

In the talk by Inna Ganschow, the camp experience in the Soviet Union will be treated as a consequence of the forced conscription, namely in its artistic processing. Secretly written diaries and letters of Luxembourg Wehrmacht soldiers or poems of deceased comrades learned by them by heart, they also reached their homeland. The camp literature, which has its roots in the prison and prisoner of war literature, has a dimension of the documentary speaking about the Luxembourger conscripts in the Soviet detention 1943-1953, which as a text genre does not always fall under the term "literature" meaning "fiction". Ego documents, as contemporary history researchers call them today, represent private, handwritten texts of a personal nature. The range of texts to be examined in the presentation ranges from the smuggled out notes and letters that their released comrades took with them to Luxembourg the diaries, speeches and self-made dictionaries to poetry, short stories and drawings, some of which were created in the camp and some immediately after returning from Tambov and other camps in the Soviet Union. Going through these few valuable pieces of paper from 1943 to 1946 and collecting them as a catalog of the genres, the presentation will show, how the biographies and the methods used by the writers of the texts managed to capture or to record the camp life. The question that is in the foreground is the examination of the thesis of the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and neurologist from Vienna, that giving meaning to life in the camp - logotherapy - can have a self-healing effect and increase the chances of survival. The written texts of the Luxemburgers in the Soviet camps in Russia as well as in East Germany or Poland are considered with this possible intention in mind that the writing helped to give meaning to the life, suffering and destiny of their authors. The focus of the talk lies on leitmotifs, images and topoi, which the authors use, consciously or unconsciously, to find the necessary spiritual support and (re)gain the feeling of being in control of their own lives. [less ▲]

Die Uni Luxemburg vernetzt kluge Köpfe für die Nachkriegszeit

Article for general public (2022)

"Am Campus Belval sollen die Forschenden aus der Ukraine durch das LURN (Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network) ein interdisziplinäres Netzwerk aufbauen, also Forschende außerhalb ihres Fachgebiets ... [more ▼]

"Am Campus Belval sollen die Forschenden aus der Ukraine durch das LURN (Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network) ein interdisziplinäres Netzwerk aufbauen, also Forschende außerhalb ihres Fachgebiets kennenlernen. Zusätzlich sollen sie Berührungspunkte mit der luxemburgischen Forschungslandschaft bekommen." [less ▲]

Toy created by an Ostarbeiter

in Cauvin, Thomas; van Donkersgoed, Joëlla (Eds.) HistorESCH. Histories of Esch Told in 25 Objects (2022)

During the war, the steel industry in Esch played an important strategic role for the Germans. To ensure and increase production, unskilled additional labour was needed. Thus, the German occupiers ... [more ▼]

During the war, the steel industry in Esch played an important strategic role for the Germans. To ensure and increase production, unskilled additional labour was needed. Thus, the German occupiers resorted to the occupied peoples of Soviet Union and Poland, who were transported to Luxembourg to work in the steel mills and mines. The first so called Ostarbeiter entered Luxembourg during October 1942 and were placed in different barracks called Ostarbeiterlager. Most of these barracks were located in the south of Luxembourg, close to the iron and steel industries. One of those camps was situated close to what is today the Ramerish roundabout. In Esch, they worked in the ironworks. Although the inhabitants were forbidden to communicate with the Ostarbeiters, some inhabitants gave them food or clothing to compensate for the lack of food and the poor living conditions. In return the Ostarbeiters were crafting wooden dynamic toys for Luxembourgish children. [less ▲]

Die unfreien Befreiten. Über die lange Heimkehr der sowjetischen ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus Luxemburg.

Scientific Conference (2022, May 17)

Inna Ganschow untersucht in ihrem Vortrag die verschiedenen Typen totaler Institutionen im Sinne Erving Goffmans auf dem Weg von ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus der Sowjetunion nach Luxemburg und zurück. Von den ... [more ▼]

Inna Ganschow untersucht in ihrem Vortrag die verschiedenen Typen totaler Institutionen im Sinne Erving Goffmans auf dem Weg von ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus der Sowjetunion nach Luxemburg und zurück. Von den nationalsozialistischen Durchgangs- und Kriegsgefangenenlagern über die luxemburgischen Werk- und Ostarbeiterlager bis hin zu den sowjetischen Sammel- und Filterlagern endete die lange Reise nach Hause oft nach einigen Monaten oder Jahren erneut in einem Lager oder einer Zwangsansiedlung. Die Repatriierung junger ukrainischer, weißrussischer und russischer Frauen wird anhand von erhaltenen Dokumenten aus erster Hand, verschiedenen Lager- und Betriebsunterlagen sowie Augenzeugenberichten rekonstruiert. Die Rückführung wird im Hinblick auf ihre Funktion analysiert, die eine Bestrafung, eine Belohnung oder ein Schutz sein konnte. [less ▲]

Help for Ukrainian Refugees

Speeches/Talks (2022)

The interview focuses on the work of the migration researcher Inna Ganschow as a volunteer in a German organization MMS-Humanitas e.V. helping to transport and accommodate Ukrainian refugees in ... [more ▼]

The interview focuses on the work of the migration researcher Inna Ganschow as a volunteer in a German organization MMS-Humanitas e.V. helping to transport and accommodate Ukrainian refugees in Luxembourgish and German families. In addition to talking about the experience of an interpreter accompanying buses from the Ukrainian-Luxembourg border to Germany, the scientist shares her observations on the emergence of a new diaspora. [less ▲]

Heilsgeschichte aus dem Osten

Article for general public (2022)

Der russische Ultranationalismus kann als „politische Religion“ aufgefasst werden. Beeinflusst dieser ideologische Überbau russischsprachige Gemeinschaften in Luxemburg?