Luksemburg
Oznacz
Udostępnij
Trasa
Centre Cinqfontaines – Place of remembrance and educational centre is a monastery built in 1906 for the congregation of the Sacred Heart. In 1941 it was confiscated by the Nazis who used it as a place of internment for Jews from Luxembourg. About 300 Jews who had previously been expelled from their homes were interned here. Most of them were later deported to concentration camps to Eastern Europe. In 1969 a memorial was inaugurated near the monastery.
In 1906 to1907 the Congregation of the Sacred Heart had a monastery built in Cinqfontaines/Fünfbrunnen by the German architect Johannes F. Klomp from Dortmund. Between 1909 and 1910 a chapel was added to the monastery.
In March 1941 the Nazis confiscated all the monasteries in Luxembourg. In August the first Jews were sent to the monastery called ‘Jewish Retirement Home’.
More and more Jews from all over the country were concentrated in the monastery that proved rapidly too small. The plan to erect concrete barracks was not completed due to deportations in July 1942. The living conditions for the mostly old and ill inmates became very difficult, especially as their food supplies were reduced by the Nazis.
From 1941 to 1943 Jews were then deported to the ghettos and extermination camps in Eastern Europe. The monastery was situated near a railway line, which facilitated the deportation of the Jews. The ’Aeltestenrat’ responsible for the implementation of the orders issued by the Gestapo was established in Cinqfontaines. On several occasions the head of the Gestapo went up to Cinqfontaines for inspections followed by restrictions imposed on the inmates.
About 300 Jews passed through Cinqfontaines, and at least 20 of them didn't survive their internment.
In 1969 a memorial was erected near the monastery to commemorate the victims of the Shoah from Luxembourg. The Memorial was created by the Luxembourgish sculptor Lucien Wercollier. The inscription, a Jewish prayer, in Hebrew says:
'May your soul be woven into the beam of the living’
Every year on the first Sunday in July a commemoration is held at this memorial. In 2020 the monastery was bought by the Luxembourg government in order to serve as a pedagogical site on the Shoah. Following an agreement with the Jewish community of Luxembourg, the monastery of Cinqfontaines was acquired in 2020 by the State with the aim of setting up a place of remembrance and an educational centre. Since 2022 the Service national de la jeunesse (SNJ) and the Zentrum fir politesch Bildung (ZpB) have offered educational activities based on the following themes: “Remembrance of the victims of the Shoah”, “Raising awareness of anti-Semitism and racism” and “Fostering democracy and human rights”.