Thank you to everyone who attended the powerful and thought-provoking talk by Inna Ganschow, we had a great turnout.

Dr. Ganschow, a historian and journalist with deep expertise in Eastern European migration and memory studies, shared insights from her recent research on the more than 4,000 Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian forced laborers brought to Luxembourg during WWII. Her presentation shed light on how the stories of these individuals, many of them teenage girls, have been largely forgotten in Luxembourg’s public memory.

She discussed how key sites, such as the ARBED steel plant in Esch/Alzette (now the location of the University of Luxembourg Belval campus), were once centers of forced labor. Despite the historical significance, no public memorials or plaques exist to honor these victims. Dr. Ganschow emphasized the need for historical recognition and remembrance, especially as physical traces of this past disappear.

The talk was based on her recent book ‘Nobody cried, there were no tears left’, and is part of her broader work at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH). The book is currently only published in German but the English translation should be available next year.

We thank Dr. Ganschow for her impactful contribution as our guest speaker and for helping bring these hidden histories back into view.