1942 Luxembourgian General Strike - The Strike and Its Consequences

The Strike and Its Consequences

Reaction to the policies was swift among the Luxembourg population, especially against the forced conscription policy. Within hours, a number of Luxembourgers discussed possibilities and decided to organize a general strike. Leaflets calling for the strike were printed, and distributed clandestinely throughout the country by resistants. On August 31, 1942, the strike officially began in the northern Ardennes town of Wiltz with a gathering of local Luxembourg town officials, led by local town officials Michel Worré and Nicolas Müller, refusing to go to work. These were gradually joined by other local workers, among them the employees of IDEAL Lederwerke Wiltz, a large industrial tannery belonging to the Adler & Oppenheimer group before "aryanisation". News on the strike spread rapidly.

Soon thereafter, workers from the southwestern industrial towns of Schifflange and Differdange were alerted, and also refused to go to work. In Schifflange, Hans Adam, a worker of German origins sounded the alarm across the valley to alert all workers.

In Differdange, news of the strike spread throughout the workforce by word of mouth, and increased in intensity on September 1. On September 2, 156 mill workers refused to take their shift, and many of those who were already working stopped. The German directors of the mill warned the millworkers that they could be killed for their actions. A few workers got back to work, but approximately 50 still refused, and declared they were on strike. At 10 a.m., German authorities reacted and designated who they held as responsible for the situation: Jean-Paul Schneider, Nicolas Betz, Alphonse Weets, Robert Mischo, René Angelsberg, and Ernest Toussaint. The six men were arrested, tried by a special tribunal, sentenced to death, and deported to the Hinzert concentration camp where they were shot. Their families were sent to prison and work camps in Germany.

The strike spread also to Esch-sur-Alzette, the capital of the Luxembourg mining area, all aspects of the administration were paralysed, including administration, agriculture, industry and education structures.

The central post office in Luxembourg received rumours of the strike in the morning, and received formal confirmation of the strike by early afternoon, which disrupted the distribution of mail that evening and the following day.

Throughout the country, schoolchildren were kept away from school, teachers refused to teach, laborers refused to work, there was no or little production of steel, milk, and other products.

Although the exact number of strikers is unknown, the movement did have a strong effect on the country and the occupying forces, and revitalized resistance movements. The strike was also widely publicized internationally by the allied press.