On the eve of National Commemoration Day, the commune of Mamer remembered the resistance of the Luxembourg people during the war years 1940-1945, and the victims who lost their lives for the homeland under the Nazi regime.
First in Holzem on the Place de la Résistance, then in Capellen along the Route d’Arel and finally in Mamer near the church, Mayor Luc Feller, Aldermen Roger Negri, Ed Buchette and Alderwoman Francine Closener, in the presence of members of the local council, representatives of associations and citizens, laid flowers at the monuments on behalf of the commune and the Enrôles de Force of Mamer, Capellen and Holzem, and symbolically bowed their heads before those who sacrificed their lives.
In his speech, Mayor Luc Feller recalled the collective resistance of the Luxembourg people against German occupation when, on October 10, 1941, over 90% of the population answered “Luxembourgish” three times to questions about their ethnicity, nationality and mother tongue in a forced referendum, known at the time as the “Personenbestandsaufnahme”.
It is this courageous act by the civilian population that is remembered on the day of the national commemoration. Had the result of this referendum been different at the time, Luxembourg would probably have ceased to exist after the war.
This National Commemoration Day is therefore also about remembering what happened in the past, because ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, said the Mayor, quoting a speech made by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1948.
