During World War II, in a last desperate move to the west, 25 German divisions hurled themselves through a 60-mile front that was barely held by six divisions of U.S. troops. The battle for control of the front that extended from Monschau to Luxembourg began in the early morning of Dec. 16, 1944.

For George J. Pinsch, 73, a Baltimore barber and Luxembourg native, December brings back memories of the war, the Nazi occupation of his homeland and the friends and neighbors who disappeared into concentration camps and were never seen again.

"On May 10, 1940, the Nazis invaded Luxembourg, and two years later, declared it German territory," said Pinsch, who lives in Cockeysville.

The Germans confiscated all automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles and took food supplies for their soldiers. A curfew was imposed, houses were blacked out and the electricity was on only a few hours a day.

"It was very depressing and you could never be carefree - not in those times," Pinsch said. "There were no lights, so both houses and the streets were dark."

Every day brought a struggle for food, and even when food was found, it could be seized by the Germans, Pinsch said.

""They did this at the point of a gun barrel and then they would take everything you had worked all day to gather away from you," he said.

The Germans unleashed a more sobering lesson as they tightened their grip on the small country of 1,706 square miles that is surrounded by France, Germany and Belgium.

Pinsch recalled the imposition of the German draft and how at first the residents ignored it.

"The Germans then went out and rounded up 25 young boys and executed them. It was a lesson. My two older brothers were drafted into the German army but survived the war and eventually came home," he said.

Perhaps the most feared presence in daily life was the Gestapo.

"The Germans were very cruel. They were torturing people all the time and it was well-known if you were taken to a certain house which was Gestapo headquarters, you would not come out alive," he said.

The only source for accurate information about the war was the Sunday British Broadcasting Corp. broadcasts that were beamed into Luxembourg. If the Nazis caught residents listening to them, they were arrested.

"My father listened to them every Sunday at 11 a.m. but this was very risky. You couldn't tell anyone that you listened to those broadcasts. You couldn't even tell your best friend. You trusted no one," Pinsch said.

As a prelude to D-Day, Allied bombers carried out attacks June 2 on the country's railway facilities to render them useless to the German army.

"The shortest way to France is through Luxembourg, and that's why they came," Pinsch said.

After Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and his 3rd Army liberated Luxembourg on Sept. 10, 1944, he established his headquarters there.

"Patton's troops poured through Luxembourg for days, and it was hard to cross the street. Sometimes you had to wait for a half-hour to get to the other side," he said.

"When we were liberated, several tanks stopped nearby my home. People were coming out and giving the soldiers champagne and wine. One of the GIs gave me a pack of Camels and I got sick after two cigarettes," he said, with a laugh.

Pinsch recalled the events of Dec. 16, 1944, when the Battle of the Bulge began.

"We had no warning about the Bulge and no one ever thought that the Germans would come through the Ardennes. And the winter of 1944 was one of the worst in memory in Europe. The snows were so high that the streetcars were stuck in drifts, and soldiers froze to death in their foxholes," he said.

"The battle was about 20 miles away from the city, and cannons roared around the clock. Every time an anti-aircraft battery near my house started hammering away, I fell out of bed," he said.

The weather eventually improved and with the aid of constant heavy fighter-bomber raids and counterattacks by the 1st and 3rd Armies, the tide of battle slowly turned.

"Luxembourg was quiet on Christmas Day," Pinsch said. "We knew what was going on, and we hoped that it would be over soon."

In early January of 1945, Hitler realized the futility of continuing the battle and withdrew his forces. Germany had suffered 100,000 casualties and lost 1,000 aircraft during the conflict.

After the formal German surrender on May 7, Patton was appointed military governor of Bavaria, and after his outspoken criticism of U.S. policies, was relieved as commander of the 3rd Army.

He was injured in an automobile accident near Mannheim and died at a military hospital in Heidelberg on Dec. 21, 1945.

Patton was buried at Hamm, a military cemetery in Luxembourg, along with 5,000 other U.S. soldiers.

Pinsch left Luxembourg and came to the United States, settling in Baltimore in 1953. Since then he has owned a barbershop - currently on the 18th floor of the Legg Mason Building, with a commanding view of the city.

Pinsch returns often to his homeland to visit his family, and makes it a point to visit Patton's grave. He even took his grandsons there.

"There are many monuments to Patton in Luxembourg, and you ask anyone about him there, young or old, and they will tell you," he said. "He has not been forgotten."