Michel Demoulling (1920 – 1945)
Michel Demoulling was born in Rodenbourg on 14 January 1920. His parents were Emil Demoulling and Anne Weyrich. Michel also had an older brother, Alfred Demoulling.
Before the outbreak of the war, Michel Demoulling had been a driver.
On 18 October 1942, at the age of 22, he was forcibly recruited into the Wehrmacht. There he was a private and served as a rifleman. On September 22, 1944, he was wounded under the left scapula during combat operations with the Soviet Army and subsequently became a Soviet prisoner. He was eventually taken to the notorious Tambov camp.
In fact, during the war, the Soviet army did not distinguish between Germans and Luxemburgers, since the Luxembourgers, like Michel Demoulling, wore the uniform of the Wehrmacht. The camp was located in present-day Russia near Tambov-Reda, about 500 km north of Moscow.
It was here that Michel died of illness, a result of malnutrition, on March 30, 1945.
Text: Sophie Kohnen and Manuel Juarez (both 3GPS)
Sources: ANLux CR-0558, images privately owned by the Demoulling family.
The pictures show Michel Demoulling during a weapons exercise and before being transported to a mission. The field post shows the front of a letter to his brother. The original can be seen in the exhibition.
