17. Hollerich Train Station

17. Hollerich Train Station

The former Hollerich freight train station is located in the south western part of the city. It was inaugurated in 1900 when the train line Luxembourg-Petingen built by the Prince Henry Company was taken into service.

After the general strike in 1942 and in contrast to the central train station, its location off the main track was therefore ideal for purposes that the general population should not become aware of. It became the loading station for many families that the Nazi occupiers considered to be anti-German and were so able to be transported to the eastern border of the German ‘Reich’ for forced resettlement. Beginning the 17th of September 1942 till the 31st of August 1944, a total of 4.187 people or rather 1.138 families were crammed into these freight trains to be deported to Silesia. The German occupying forces confiscated all their property and possessions. Seventy-two people did not survive transportation in the overfilled trains.

In addition, about 700 Jewish Luxembourgers left Hollerich and were brought to extermination camps.

In 1996, the train station, which had in the meantime been shut down, became a memorial for the victims of deportation. There is a museum on the ground floor with an extensive exhibition and the ‘Centre de Documentation et de Recherche de l’enrôlement de force’ on the subject of forced recruitment and resettlement.

There are two commemorative plaques on the former station platform and a monument for the numerous victims with the emphasis placed especially for the victims of forced resettlement.

Interesting Detail
In total, about 11,200 Luxembourgers faced forced recruitment into the German army (Wehrmacht) or forced labour for the German ‘Reich’. More than 2,700 did not return. In addition, 3,600 Luxembourg girls and women were forced into labour service for the German ‘Reich’. Of these, sixty lost their lives as a result of inhumane living conditions.

Significance for Human Rights
The Hollerich train station, like many other memorials, is an important symbolic reminder of an inhumane totalitarian regime within which the individual person’s fundamental rights had lost their meaning and were sacrificed in order to serve an ideology. This site is a reminder for coming generations and it is significant that the Hollerich train station itself can function as a memorial that informs visitors of imposed resettlement and the Nazi policies of coercion.

Article 3
Everyone has the right to life and to live in freedom and safety.

Article 9
Everyone has the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.