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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg City
Ettelbruck [Ettelbrück]
Esch-sur-Alzette
Grevenmacher
Mondorf-les-Bains
Troisvierges
Jews are first recorded in Luxembourg in the thirteenth century. This small community was effectively wiped out in a series of massacres and expulsions that took place between 1349 and 1530. In 1795 the territory was incorporated into France and Jews were once more able to take up residence. The country became increasingly independent between 1815 and 1867; during this period the Jewish community grew in size, building the first modern era synagogue in Luxembourg City in 1823. Refugees swelled the community further, especially in the late nineteenth century and during the Nazi era. By the time of the German invasion in 1940, the Jewish population had increased from less than 1,200 in 1927 to around 4,000. Most fled or were deported; of the 720 who remained almost all were murdered. Altogether about 2,000 Luxembourg Jews died as a result of the Holocaust. Some 1,500 survivors returned after the war; today Luxembourg has a Jewish population of about 1,200.
Before the Holocaust there were synagogues in Luxembourg City, Esch-sur-Alzette, Ettelbrück and Mondorf-les-Bains. The first two of these were destroyed in 1941; the latter two were badly damaged.
Dedicated on 28 June 1953, this was one of the first synagogues in Europe to be rebuilt after the Second World War. It replaced an elaborate, domed Moorish-style building of 1894, which was destroyed in 1941. The current building elegantly combines Art Deco and early Modernist motifs. The Great synagogue also houses the Jewish community’s offices. The 1894 building can be seen at:
http://brussels.mfa.gov.il/mfm/Data/45208.jpg
The current building can be seen at:
http://jewish-community.org.lu/
Address
Telephone
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Website
Old Jewish cemetery
Cemetery Malakoff
The cemetery was established in 1817 on a sloping site near Tour Malakoff, an old entrance to the city. It remained in use until the 1890s. About one hundred gravestones survive, though most that predate the 1840s are now illegible. The oldest are towards the bottom of the hill. The cemetery was significantly damaged during the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg, as well as by landslides in the 1960s. It is owned and maintained by the city authorities.
Address
Access
Rue Jules Wilhelm (Passage de Treves)
The key can be obtained from Room 9
Ville de Luxembourg Etat Civil
BP42, 2010 Luxembourg
New Jewish cemetery
Bellevue is the largest Jewish cemetery in the country and is still in use. The site was acquired by the Jewish community in May 1883 after the Clausen cemetery had become too small. The gravestones are inscribed in German, French and Hebrew. The cemetery has been owned and maintained by the city authorities since 1961.
Address
10 Rue des Cerises, Limpertsberg
Luxembourg City’s history museum has a collection of Judaica, including Torah scrolls, Havdalah spice boxes, silver Shabbat candles and other objects.
Address
Telephone
Fax
Email
Website
A few hundred metres from Luxembourg’s main railway station is the site of Hollerich station, from which local Jews and others were deported to labour and concentration camps. A small museum-cum-memorial commemorates the site. Opening hours may be limited or appointments required.
Address
Telephone
Website
Jews first settled in the Ettelbrück and Medernach areas, about 30 kilometres north of Luxembourg City, in the 1820s. It proved difficult to organise timely transport to the capital for burial rites, and this cemetery was founded near the town’s southern entrance. The first funeral took place in 1882; the cemetery contains about 190 burials.
Located near the border with France, this is Luxembourg’s second-largest city. A Romanesque-style synagogue was built here in 1899 and destroyed in 1941. It has since been rebuilt in an austere style derived from that of the original, with an apsed basilican plan, with a women’s balcony at the rear, and tall thin stained glass windows.
For a photo of the original synagogue, see:
Esch-sur-Alzette Synagogue
Address
52 Rue du Canal, Esch-sur-Alzette, 4051 Luxembourg
The cemetery, located near the northern entrance to the town, was built in 1905 and later enlarged. It contains a few hundred graves. The cemetery was twice vandalised in the 1990s.
An open plaza lies on the site of the destroyed synagogue of Esch. Here, three small stele commemorate the deported Jews of the town. See
photo.
Address
Place de la Synagogue
This museum-cum-memorial commemorates the resistance to the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg, and includes information on the fate of the country’s Jews. Opening hours may be limited or appointments required.
Address
Place de la Résistance
BP145 4041
Esch-sur-Alzette
Grevenmacher, on the banks of the Moselle river near the German border, was home to several Jewish families before the Second World War. The small community prayed in a private house. The cemetery contains 38 graves, the oldest of which date from the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the deceased came originally from Germany, especially the area near Trier.
The famous spa of Mondorf-les-Bains is located on the border with France, south-east of Luxembourg City. The Moorish-influenced former synagogue, built in 1899 and heavily damaged during the Second World War, has been looked after by the local authority since 1995.
See
photo.
Address
Rue du Moulin
Troisvierges lies in northern Luxembourg. After the Nazi invasion of 10 May 1940, Jews were taken here and held in the monastery of Fünfbrunnen. The site was called a ‘retirement’ or ‘old age home’ (Jüdische Altersheim), but in reality was a concentration camp where Jews were held until deportation further east. Today, a monument in honour of the deportees stands in the monastery courtyard.
See
photo.
Or Chadash Liberal Jewish Community:
Address
Telephone
42 Rue du Kiem
Strassen
Luxembourg
+352 31 65 94
Consistoire Israelite de Luxembourg:
Address
Telephone
Fax
45 Avenue Monterey
2018 Luxembourg
+352 45 29 14
+352 47 37 72
Esch-sur-Alzette,
Canal Synagogue (accessed June 2008).
Esch-sur-Alzette,
Holocaust Memorial (accessed June 2008).
Fünfbrunnen Monastery/deportation site (accessed June 2008).
Great Synagogue before destruction (accessed June 2008).
Jewish Community of Luxembourg (accessed June 2008).
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Cemetery Project, ‘Luxembourg’,
JewishGen (Luxembourg) (accessed March 2007).
Lerman, Antony, ed. The Jewish Communities of the World, New York: Facts on File, 1989.
Luxembourg City,
History Museum (accessed June 2008).
Luxembourg City,
Deportation Memorial (accessed June 2008)
Luxner, Larry. ‘Luxembourg’s Jewish Community seeks Payment, Recognition for WWII’,
Jewish Telegraph Agency, 16 August 2006,
article (accessed November 2007).
Moyse, Laurent.
Les Cimetières Juifs du Luxembourg, undated article (accessed June 2008).
Moyse, Laurent.
Naissance et Evolution de la Communauté Juive de Luxembourg, undated article (accessed June 2008).
Pflock, Andreas.
Auf Vergessenen Spuren. Ein wegweiser zu Gedenkstätten in den Niederlanden, Belgien und Luxemburg,
Herausgegeben von der Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Bonn 2006.
Sloame, Joanna. ‘Jewish Virtual History Tour: Luxembourg’,
The Jewish Virtual Library (accessed November 2007).
World Jewish Congress, ‘Luxembourg’ (accessed March 2007).
(June 2008)
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