Memorials points in Pétange

Remembering the past

The south of the Grand Duchy was occupied like the rest of the country following the invasion of Nazi Germany on May 10, 1940; However, there were occasional battles as units of the French army occupied the area for advanced defense purposes. After the rapidly changing conditions in the following days however, they withdrew and so the entire Minett region, like the rest of the country, came under occupation by the III. Reich - a situation that would last until liberation on September 10, 1944.

The region also played a role in the liberation in 1944, as the south of the country was the first to be liberated by the advancing Western Allies. Today there are a number of monuments honoring this historical moment, but also, for example, the "Liberty Road", the route of liberation that leads from Normandy, France, to Bastogne in Belgium.

There are several memorial sites here in Pétange; at the train station, the railway employees who died during the war years are remembered. A monument is dedicated to the victims among the civilian population, as well as to individual members of the resistance, but also to the resistance against the III. Reich as a whole. Pétange also has a memorial site that commemorates a specific individual fate: the "Square Hyman Josefson" commemorates the first fallen US soldier who died during the liberation of the country.