'D'Preise sinn do': Aloyse Schartz, 93, Remembers 10 May 1940 in Dudelange

Eighty-six years to the day after the Wehrmacht entered Luxembourg, Dudelange resident Aloyse Schartz, 93, recounts the morning his father came home early from the steelworks night shift to announce the German invasion. He was six. His father, a Schmelzaarbechter (steel-furnace worker), said simply: 'D'Preise sinn do.'

Key facts

• Date of the invasion: Friday, 10 May 1940.
• Witness: Aloyse Schartz, 93 in 2026, six years old in 1940.
• Family context: father was a steelworker on night shift; came home early to warn his wife and son.
• Local landmarks in his account: Bettembourg's Cellula (Wehrmacht position); the area near Dr Goerens (French machine-gun position).
• Most residents fled; many returned only years later.

The morning

Schartz, today 93, told RTL Lëtzebuerg that his father appeared in the family flat earlier than usual: 'They are sitting at Bettembourg, near the Cellula.' Between 14:00 and 15:00, the message changed: 'Everyone inside. The French are coming. They are already at Dr Goerens with a machine gun.' Most neighbours fled into cellars or out of town. The Schartz family stayed in their flat by the window — a posture Aloyse remembers as both reckless and ordinary.

What Dudelange experienced

Dudelange in 1940 was a steel town of roughly 14,000 people, anchored by ARBED's Schmelz furnaces. The Wehrmacht's southern advance pushed into the commune that morning, and many residents joined Luxembourg's larger wave of flight to France that lasted weeks and became the country's defining May 1940 memory. For those who returned, the German occupation lasted until September 1944.

Why the testimony matters in 2026

Witnesses old enough to remember 10 May 1940 directly are now in their nineties at the youngest. RTL's interview with Schartz forms part of a steady transition from lived testimony to documentary memory: cinematheque-led oral-history projects, school programmes and the National Resistance Museum at Esch-sur-Alzette have moved to capture and curate these accounts before the last witnesses are gone.

Bottom line

'D'Preise sinn do' — three words that Aloyse Schartz, 93, has carried since age six. On the 86th anniversary of the German invasion of Luxembourg, his testimony makes one of the country's defining historical mornings feel like a Friday morning in 1940 — sudden, ordinary, and remembered for life.