For decades, Luxembourg\u2019s experiences during World War II remained fragmented\u2014scattered in archives, oral histories, and private collections. But thanks to the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C\u00b2DH) at the University of Luxembourg, those stories are now accessible to the world. Their online exhibition, WW2.lu, presents a multilingual, multimedia account of Luxembourg\u2019s occupation, resistance, and survival under Nazi rule.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2021 in partnership with the Ministry of State, WW2.lu breaks from traditional narratives by centring on individual voices. Through 33 video testimonies\u2014including interviews with survivors, historians, and animated cartoons\u2014it explores the complex choices Luxembourgers faced. Some resisted; others collaborated out of necessity. Many simply tried to survive. The exhibition\u2019s title, Luxemb(o)urg, even reflects the linguistic erasure imposed by the Nazis, who renamed the country Luxemburg to erase its identity.<\/p>\n
One of the project\u2019s standout features is its use of digital tools to present \u2018unknown\u2019 history. For example, the site includes interviews with descendants of those who fled Luxembourg, as well as archival films of bombed-out towns and liberated prisoners. A section on the M\u00e9morial de la R\u00e9sistance (Resistance Memorial) in Luxembourg City highlights the courage of those who sabotaged Nazi operations.<\/p>\n
Beyond WWII, the C\u00b2DH has digitised other pivotal Luxembourgish stories. Their exhibition on historian Gilbert Trausch (1931\u20132018) offers a virtual tour of his home and library, while the SUDenergie project traces the evolution of Luxembourg\u2019s energy sector from 19th-century gasworks to today\u2019s sustainable utilities. Even the National Miners\u2019 Monument in Kayl, honouring 1,500 miners who died between 1860 and 1980, has been documented digitally, complete with employee records from the era.<\/p>\n
The C\u00b2DH\u2019s work is more than preservation\u2014it\u2019s democratisation. By making these resources freely available in multiple languages, they invite global audiences to engage with Luxembourg\u2019s past. As the centre\u2019s director notes, \u2018History is no longer the domain of the elite.\u2019 Projects like Historesch Gesinn (a crowdsourced history platform) further blur the line between researcher and public, ensuring that marginalised voices\u2014women, workers, minorities\u2014are finally heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A WWII-era Luxembourg passport lies open in a digital archive exhibit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}