History of Luxembourg The bombardments ended with the American Army nearing Lampaden on February 22, 1945. Altogether, of a pre-war population of 293,000, 5,259 Luxembourgers lost their lives during the hostilities. After World War II, Luxembourg abandoned its politics of neutrality, when it became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations. It is a signatory of the Treaty of Rome, and constituted a monetary union with Belgium (Benelux Customs Union in 1948), and an economic union with Belgium and the Netherlands, the so-called BeNeLux. Between 1945 and 2005, the economic structure of Luxembourg changed significantly. The
Carnival in the Netherlands The Rhenish carnaval in the Netherlands is a derivative of the Cologne carnaval. The Burgundian carnaval originated from the traditional eating feasts during which people would ridicule one another during the carnaval in the Southern Netherlands (nowadays Belgium, Luxembourg and the Dutch Provinces North Brabant and Limburg), especially in the Duchy of Brabant. Carnaval is not only a feast of eating and drinking, but also serves as social role reversal feast which allows people to behave outside the usual acceptable social norm. People will dress up as a character, much as seen during the eve of the Christian feast of