Chapter 5

Mattheo Weber

Director

After the defeat of Hitler’s last offensive in the Ardennes, Nazi forces fell back on all fronts.
The Allies bombed one German town after another, with devastating effects.

The end of the war drew near.
On the ruins of this battlefield, it’s time to build a new conflict free Europe of peace.

Never again !

I’ve wanted to make this documentary for so long! It’s great that everything has just fallen into place with Camille, Seydou and Nicolas, as well as our teacher, Madame Schäfer, who also got really into what we were doing.

We all had family members who lived through the war in this part of the world. For me, it’s my 95 year old grandmother, Rose Thill, who’s still as sharp as a tack!

I wanted to make this documentary for her.

There you go gran, that’s great, you can seated.
I’ll stand beside the camera and I’ll ask you some questions.
Look at me, don’t look at the camera.

So, during the Second World War, you were in the Resistance, here in Luxembourg. You hid fugitives, people who didn’t want to submit to the Germans, that’s right, isn’t it?

Gran has a strong character. She needed it, given that she was in the Resistance. When the Germans came back in December 1944, she hid in a friend’s cellar, along with other locals from Clervaux.
She was captured by German soldiers while she went out to look for food.

When they checked her identity papers and discovered she had been in the Resistance, they wanted to execute her on the spot.
Thankfully, their officer stopped them and took her to Clervaux prison.

According to my grandmother, this German had received medical treatment a few weeks before from an American doctor who had been taken prisoner during the clashes in Schumannseck.

Of course, I couldn’t help thinking of Nicolas’ great-grandfather.
How crazy would that be – what an ending! 

In any case, since the war, my grandmother has been a real believer in the idea of Europe.

They put me in the prison of Clervaux for a few days, then when they retreated, they brought me across the border, to Saarbrücken.
The town was in a terrible state of devastation.

Nothing was left standing, not one house.
Everything had been knocked down and blown up.

The few people who were still there roamed the streets.
They looked thin and very hungry.

Seeing these borderlands so devastated convinced her that Europeans absolutely needed to reconcile. She was freed quite quickly, in 1945. When she returned to Luxembourg, she got involved in politics.
She stood in local elections just after the war.

She was even a member of Joseph Bech’s cabinet a few years later. He was one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
She worked towards implementing the first European treaties, most importantly, the creation of the ECSC.
This was the forerunner of today’s European Union.

Our team’s travels through the Land of Memory territories continue.

Fascinated by this subject, delighted and surprised in equal measure at what they’ve found out and the people they’ve encountered, they continue to recount their adventures in France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg.

Story continues here