WARLUX nodegoat database, on recruits of Schifflange/Luxembourg, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History/University of Luxembourg

Computer development (2023)

Project WARLUX - Soldiers and their communities in WWII: The impact and legacy of war experiences in Luxembourg is a research project based at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History ... [more ▼]

Project WARLUX - Soldiers and their communities in WWII: The impact and legacy of war experiences in Luxembourg is a research project based at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) (University of Luxembourg). The projects focuses on the war experiences of male Luxembourgers born between 1920 and 1927 who were recruited and conscripted into Nazi German services (Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and Wehrmacht) under the Nazi occupation in Luxembourg during the Second World War. Publication of a pseudonymized dataset. [less ▲]

The violent turn in soldier’s letters

Speeches/Talks (2023)

The ego documents, especially war letters from the front of the soldiers, have been studied from many points of view. The letters contain much information about the use of 'violence', whether in terms of ... [more ▼]

The ego documents, especially war letters from the front of the soldiers, have been studied from many points of view. The letters contain much information about the use of 'violence', whether in terms of the striking power of the weapons and the encounters and dealings with locals, prisoners of war or the 'enemy'. As the main task of the soldiers was to use violence to win or avoid being killed, the understanding and use of violence (towards enemy soldiers and locals) is a constant factor in the letters. As authors such as Latzel (Latzel 2004) and Buchbender (Buchbender and Sterz 1983) have studied the expression and use of war letters by soldiers, I, too, have come across many references and hints of the concept of violence in the sources in my current project. In the WARLUX project, we have collected the ego-documents of Wehrmacht soldiers' (letters, diaries and photographs). In my contribution to this conference, I will discuss the use and reference of ‘violence’ in soldiers' letters during the Second World War in the context of an in-depth study of the reading and analysis of the letters. Even if the sources are biased from the interpretative side, these doubts are nevertheless urgent to consider when studying violence and the effects of violence in wars. After a historiographical overview, I will present my current project and the extensive results of the war letters and diaries of Wehrmacht soldiers. With the help of digital tools (e.g. topic modelling and text analysis), I will present the results of the representation and justification and understanding of ‘violence’. Following the conference's theme, I will analyse different sources in which the ‘violent turn’ can be depicted. I will grasp soldiers' perceptions (and beliefs) about using force and the meaning and motivation to hold arms and pull the trigger. Even though the role of soldiers is clearly defined, the use and application of the concept of force are still worth further discussion. Soldiers' letters are one of the most widely circulated sources on the Second World War - over two billion letters were sent between the front and home. These letters are a rich yet controversial source, but they offer multiple opportunities to analyse the use and understanding of violence by millions of individuals. [less ▲]

Data Management Plan - Title: WARLUX - Soldiers and their communities in WWII. The impact and legacy of war experiences in Luxembourg

Report (2023)

Bottom-up history

in Block, Christian (Ed.) Lëtzeburger Journal (2023)

The Warlux project aims to reconstruct life stories during the Second World War, both at the front and among the relatives of forced recruits in Luxembourg. The research project will come to an end this ... [more ▼]

The Warlux project aims to reconstruct life stories during the Second World War, both at the front and among the relatives of forced recruits in Luxembourg. The research project will come to an end this summer. Yet science is actually only scratching the surface. [less ▲]

Verbindung zur Heimat. Kriegsbriefe in der Forschung und die Nutzung von digitalen Werkzeugen

Article for general public (2022)

Letters as a study of the history of personal stories/fates. The Warlux project aims to collect the personal war experiences of men and women who were conscripted into labour and/or military service by ... [more ▼]

Letters as a study of the history of personal stories/fates. The Warlux project aims to collect the personal war experiences of men and women who were conscripted into labour and/or military service by the Nazi occupation administration during the Second World War in Luxembourg. In order to present the individual perspective and the personal impact of the war at the front, in the labour camps and at home, we have collected over 5000 letters and diaries from the families concerned via an appeal for donations in 2021. The letters all need to be organised, structured and read. Digital tools such as scanners and text recognition help historians prepare the letters for analysis. [less ▲]

The Politics of Graves – Negotiations, Practice and Reactions about Fallen German Soldiers of World War Two and Their Resting Places in Russia

in Rydel, Jan; Trobst, Stefan (Eds.) Instrumentalizing the Past: The Impact of History on Contemporary International Conflicts (2022)

The coming to terms with the past is essential as a negotiating point in interstate relations, especially in the consequences of the Second World War. Not only the question towards compensation, guilt and ... [more ▼]

The coming to terms with the past is essential as a negotiating point in interstate relations, especially in the consequences of the Second World War. Not only the question towards compensation, guilt and victimhood but as well in numbers and losses of humans - and their remains. The dealing of the commemoration of the dead and their resting places makes an integral part in the history politics. After the end of the Soviet Union, the new Russian Federation signed an agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany on the war graves in both countries. Based on this document, the German War Grave Commission is allowed to work on the Russian territory, recovering, exhuming and building new cemeteries for the German dead. Its workflow and the access to the former soldier graves consist not without difficulties. Starting with the diplomatic and political issue of the traces of the Wehrmacht in Russia and the Soviet Union, continuing with gaining access and the permission for excavations and constructing new burial grounds in Russia, the work of the German organisation met obstacles, reservations and incomprehension. The cemetery constructions were restricted by local negotiations partners. Protests appeared by veterans and the local population. The fallen Wehrmacht soldiers, who attacked the Soviet Union and committed crimes against humanity, trigger very controversial discussions alongside the official Russian narrative of the Great Patriotic War. Based on the negotiations regarding the graves of the deceased, a policy about historical images arose, which can be interpreted as politics of graves [less ▲]

CROWDSOURCED ARCHIVES - PRIVATE ARCHIVES AND PERSONAL COLLECTIONS

Speeches/Talks (2022)

Data collections are essential for historical research. In addition to official archives and state institutions, collections from research institutions and private holders face different challenges in ... [more ▼]

Data collections are essential for historical research. In addition to official archives and state institutions, collections from research institutions and private holders face different challenges in creation and consistency, preservation and use. While most private collections are stored in official and state archives due to donations or the acquisition of private holdings, crowdsourcing data as private collections is a different approach. Crowdsourcing has become popular in Citizen Science and public history projects in the last decade. Although crowdsourcing is not (always) meant to create an archive, the data or contributions collected are an archive nonetheless. This paper aims to highlight the possibilities and pitfalls of crowdsourcing to build an archive of private origin. In February 2021, a team at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg launched a call for contributions to collect ego documents about the war generation. As part of the project, "WARLUX - War Experiences in Luxembourg", the team is researching the personal side of the history of the Luxembourgish war generation. To uncover the individual experiences of these men, women and families, the team asked the public to share their family stories, letters, diaries, photographs and other personal documents. The researchers aimed to enrich records on individuals, which had not yet been collected or published. While the crowdsourcing campaign was intended as complementary research material, we have created a unique digital archive of personal memories and individual voices in the form of first-hand documents and a novelty in the cultural landscape in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. In my presentation and paper, I will explore the possibilities of crowdsourced (digital) private archives, their pitfalls and challenges such as copyright and GDRP and sensitive information and its future implementation into official cultural institutions. [less ▲]

"Mapping" biographies in relational databases - The case of Luxembourg soldiers in the Second World War

Scientific Conference (2022, July 25)

The Impact and Legacy of War Experiences in Luxembourg” researches the personal side of the history of Luxembourgish youth born between 1920 and 1927 who were enrolled into German services under the Nazi ... [more ▼]

The Impact and Legacy of War Experiences in Luxembourg” researches the personal side of the history of Luxembourgish youth born between 1920 and 1927 who were enrolled into German services under the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg during World War II. The research focuses on personal testimonies and their individual war experience to uncover these men, women, and families’ individual experiences. Using a relational database to represent their war experiences, we face several challenges, such as a data structure that is too rigid and strict to “map” the fluid and unpredictable life patterns of our study subjects. We developed a data model where we treat different life stations (military unit, POW camp etc.) as equal data levels like our recruits (as persons). Each “life station” or event we treat as a “person” and create a separate “biography” to include all relevant data. Afterwards, we link the life stations or events with the actual person in the database. The aim of my contribution is the “translation” of lives, with its twists and turns into a static data set such as a relational database to map the individual war experiences of our study object. [less ▲]

Between fulfilling the legal mandate and clarifying the fate of dead soldiers of World War II - The efforts of a private association to exhume and identify German war dead

Speeches/Talks (2022)

Over one million German military dead of the Second World War are missing. The private association VDK Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (VDK) is, as the German War Graves Commission the official ... [more ▼]

Over one million German military dead of the Second World War are missing. The private association VDK Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (VDK) is, as the German War Graves Commission the official representative of the German government responsible for the localisation and exhumation of German military graves, the identification of the dead, the reburial and the maintenance of military cemeteries worldwide. More than 75 years after the end of the violent conflict, the VDK has completed its work in Western Europe, but has continued its systematic search for graves and remains of German Wehrmacht soldiers in Eastern Europe, especially in the Russian Federation. The paper presents the localisation, recovery and identification of remains and uses a case study in Russia to discuss the complexity of German remains both in German society and politics and in the host country Russia. The difficulty in dealing with dead bodies marked as perpetrators and held responsible for inhumane crimes is only one challenge for the VDK. In addition, the paper reviews the hesitant use of DNA identification, the lack of interest in clarifying the fate of MIA soldiers in German post-war politics and the existing resentment towards Nazi dead, which delays or ignores the forensic processing of German war dead. [less ▲]

DIGITAL COLLECTION - DIGITAL COLLECTION of PROJECT WARLUX-Soldiers and their communities in WWII: The impact and legacy of war experiences in Luxembourg

Speeches/Talks (2022)

In February 2021, a call for contributions was launched through the media (newspapers and radio) to collect ego-documents about the men, women and their families affected by the Nazi draft during the ... [more ▼]

In February 2021, a call for contributions was launched through the media (newspapers and radio) to collect ego-documents about the men, women and their families affected by the Nazi draft during the Second World War. The response was overwhelmingly successful, and the team received more than 200 calls and messages in the first few days. The collection phase (February to October 2021) involved visiting families to bring the originals to campus, where they were scanned and indexed. Interaction with donors and the public was a pivotal activity to enrich the personal documents with additional information about the individuals' backgrounds for an in-depth analysis. After completing the survey process, the team collected 160 collections (from 160 contributors), creating the central source of documentation for research into personal experiences of war. [less ▲]