On 31 August 1942, shortly after the announcement that conscription would be extended to all men born between 1920 and 1927, a strike began in the northern town of Wiltz. The strike spread rapidly, paralysing the factories and industries of Luxembourg. The strike was quickly repressed and its leaders arrested. 20 were summarily tried before a special tribunal (in German, a "Standgericht") and executed by firing squad at nearby Hinzert concentration camp. Nevertheless, protests against conscription continued and 3,500 Luxembourgers would desert the German army after being conscripted. Collaboration Collaboration with the Nazi occupation is an aspect less often talked about in Luxembourg. Studies have shown that collaboration was a phenomenon in all layers of society. There was, however, an over-representation of civil servants among the collaborators. On average, the collaborators were younger than the general population. In early September 1944, approximately 10,000 people left Luxembourg with the German civil administration: it is generally assumed that this consisted of 3,500 collaborators and their families. In 1945, 5,101 Luxembourgers, including 2,857 men and 2,244 women were in prison for political activities, constituting 1.79% of the population. 12 collaborators were sentenced to death and were shot in Reckenthal in Luxembourg City. 249 were sentenced to forced labour, 1366 were sentenced to prison and 645 were sent to workhouses. Repression Faced with opposition from the general public the regime took brutal measures against any form of resistance. After the general strike of 1942, Gustav Simon proclaimed a state of emergency and introduced the German Standgerichte. Thousands were arrested and tortured. Hundreds were murdered in the concentration camps. Whole families were deported to eastern Germany and replaced by German families, mainly from South-Tyrol and Eastern Europe. The headquarters of the Gestapo, the Villa Pauly, became the symbol of this terror. In August 1940, the Gestapo had established its headquarters in the Villa Pauly in Luxembourg City, with field offices in the Villa Seligmann in Esch and the Villa Conter in Diekirch. On 9 September 1942, the Gauleiter announced a "Resettlement operation for Luxembourg. From then until 1944, more than 1,410 families (4,200 individuals) were resettled to the East, the Sudetenland and Upper Silesia. Their property was stolen and they were to be educated into becoming "good Germans", being forbidden from returning to Luxembourg. From 1943, in addition to families deported for political reasons, the Germans started resettling families whose sons evaded conscription into the