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Luxembourg's Ministry of State and the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth have announced that a Holocaust education centre will open its doors at the Abbey of Cinqfontaines next year.

During a ceremony held at the abbey on Sunday in memory of the nearly 300 Jews who were interned there before their deportation, Luxembourg's Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch, announced the opening of a centre for citizenship education and remembrance of the victims of the Shoah (also known as the Holocaust) in 2022.

During the Second World War, the former Abbey of Cinqfontaines was requisitioned and used in Luxembourg as a place of internment for Jews. Internment in appalling living conditions preceded deportation to Nazi concentration and extermination camps such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

On 27 January 2021, the Luxembourg government and the Jewish Consistory of Luxembourg signed a restitution agreement on unresolved issues following the spoliation of Jewish property during the Second World War. This agreement provided for the acquisition by the state of the Abbey of Cinqfontaines, its renovation and the establishment of an educational centre dedicated to the memory of the Nazi crimes against the Jews and to the transmission of this memory to new generations.

Education Minister Claude Meisch emphasised: “In these moments, you have to have the courage to stand up and say no to intolerance and exclusion. Only in this way can we ensure that 'NEVER AGAIN' is not just a hollow slogan".

This place of Holocaust remembrance will be enhanced by its becoming a centre for citizenship education, where, confronted with history, visitors will learn about human rights and understand how to oppose anti-Semitism and racism.

The themes to be addressed will include the period of the Shoah, the ongoing fight against anti-Semitism and racism, as well as the promotion of humanism and human rights. Examples include the Holocaust and Luxembourg, exile and migration, human rights, "living" diversity and tolerance, fighting hate speech and understanding and preventing discrimination.

This renovation project, as proposed by the steering committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of State, the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth and the Luxembourg Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, provides for the following: an outside route connecting the significant spots of the site; a place for commemoration; a structure for the accommodation and catering of participants in the activities; rooms for educational activities and training.

Activities will start gradually from 2022, alongside the planning of the renovation and redevelopment works.

Whilst the centre is aimed primarily at young people, schools, youth centres and youth organisations, it will also be designed so that its message of tolerance and the defence of human rights reaches all audiences, from teachers and educators to researchers and adults in general. Consequently, a wide range of activities will be offered including, for example, visits to Cinqfontaines or the World War II remembrance circuit in the region, educational workshops, European youth exchanges, project days, seminars, conferences, training courses and meetings with experts.

The site should eventually be made more easily accessible by public transport and by its integration into pedestrian, cycling and thematic circuits.

The management of the site will be entrusted to the National Youth Service (Service national de la jeunesse - SNJ). Activities will be coordinated by the SNJ and the Zentrum fir politesch Bildung (ZpB), with the assistance of a support committee bringing together the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth, the Ministry of State, the ZpB and the SNJ.

The multidisciplinary team, which will be gradually put together, will work closely with the associations and national institutions concerned, in order to offer as varied a programme as possible. It will also develop international cooperation with organisations sharing the same missions.