September 29, 1940
By wireless to the New York Times.
The new Nazi-controlled government running Luxembourg has had its first "public mass meeting" of the "folk German movement" since the occupation of the tiny Grand Duchy by the Germans. The chief of the Civil Administration, Gustav Simon, has proclaimed the birth of a "new order" for Luxembourg within the "framework of the Great German Reich."
Simon declared: "Luxembourg is German." He denounced the former government and Grand Duchess Charlotte, "who fled because of her guilty conscience." Luxembourg, he added, was "entering a new order because she was faced with new facts. Germany has already taken over the development of the new order."
"Luxembourg derives from the German race and the population therefore must be treated as thought it was already German. I really believe that Luxembourgers in their innermost being are just as good Germans as citizens of the Old Reich. Yes, I even believe that Luxembourgers have for centuries been among the best Germans of the Reich. That is no phrase, but historic truth."
Herr Simon also said that Luxembourg had never been independent, but was only a "weak vassal state of France."
By decree, the Grand Duchy has already been incorporated into the "customs sovereignty of the Reich." Thanks to its "richly developed iron and steel mining industries," Luxembourg provides Germany with a "valuable asset."
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