For the Nazis, it was too easy. They dispensed with the usual excuses, and announced to the occupied Grand Duchy of Luxembourg that it was the first country to be honored with annexation to the Third Reich since the shooting started. Incidentally, they said, Luxembourg men would be drafted into the German Army.
In front of the blast furnaces at Schifflange, men paused to talk. Somebody turned off the blowers that forced the drafts into the fires. The strike was on. The German-controlled newspaper, Nationalblatt, called the strikers "enemy agents."
The German Gauleiter, Gustav Simon, was quick to discipline the new citizens...