The Luxembourg government in January 2021 with the Jewish Consistory of Luxembourg, one of the last western countries to formally sign such an agreement.
As part of the agreement, the state agreed to buy, renovate and cover the operating costs of a commemorative learning centre at Cinqfontaines abbey, which was used as a deportation site during the Second World War.
The Catholic community that previously owned the site on Wednesday officially handed over the keys to the abbey, which is located near Troisvierges in the north of the country on the border with Belgium.
Pilot projects at the abbey will launch mid-May this year, the government said in a press release. A fuller programme will be offered from the start of the 2022-2023 school year, including workshops against hate speech.
The Luxembourg centre for political education (ZpB) and the national youth service (SNJ) are helping develop the activities hosted at the new centre, which will be open for schools but also the general public.
Remembrance does not only mean remembering the past, but also showing respect to those who have lived through this painful history
The site will in future also offer more information about the role it played during the Holocaust, as the Nazi regime deported Jews from the abbey. An open day weekend is scheduled for October.
“Remembrance does not only mean remembering the past, but also showing respect to those who have lived through this painful history. Remembrance also means analysing the past with a certain critical thought, to prevent today any resurgence of hatred and any incitement to hatred. In this context, the Cinqfontaines centre will accomplish a double mission, both commemorative and educational,” said education minister Claude Meisch.
In this spirit, the centre will over the coming weeks welcome refugees from Ukraine. “This will impact the activities of the centre, but this act of humanism illustrates the very values that the centre intends to defend and transmit,” Thursday’s statement said.
Dormant bank accounts, insurance contracts
As part of the restitution agreement, Luxembourg last year to Holocaust survivors as part of a €1m fund, in addition to paying €120,000 per annum for 30 years to the Luxembourg Foundation for the Remembrance of the Shoah, which fights against Holocaust denial and racism while also supporting properties with a link to World War II.
Lawmakers on Wednesday voted a new legal framework that will help facilitate restitution of assets to Holocaust survivors or their families.
, laws surrounding the compensation of stolen property during Nazi occupation and pensions for victims of war had excluded many Jewish victims from recuperating any material goods or compensation.
The government in 2018 had introduced the bill to help prevent accounts, safe-deposit boxes and insurance contracts from becoming dormant as well as regulating the deposit of assets that are unclaimed and the restitution of these assets.