The FIR remembers the liberation and the liberators

12. Mai 2025

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The FIR addresses the following political message to the associations of former veterans of the anti-fascist struggle, their family members and their political supporters in all European countries and the political public on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation from fascism and war and the day of victory over Nazi barbarism:
May 8, 1945 was the “dawn of humanity”, as Peter Gingold, Jewish communist and German fighter in the ranks of the Resistance and the Italian Resistenza, put it in his memoirs.
On this day, all members of the anti-Hitler coalition, the fighters in the military units of the Allied forces, the partisans in the territories occupied by German fascism, the men and women of the anti-fascist struggle, in illegality, in exile or in prison, proved that the Nazi beast could be defeated through the joint action of the peoples. The unconditional surrender was only the visible expression of the heroic struggle of the peoples for their liberation, for the high blood sacrifices that the military units of the Soviet armed forces in particular had to make during the advance on the Reich capital Berlin.
When we commemorate this day of liberation/ day of victory, we remember all the men and women who risked their health, their freedom and their lives in all formations of the anti-Hitler coalition to defeat Nazi barbarism. We remember all the soldiers in the ranks of the Allied forces. We will not allow their memory to be disregarded or suppressed today for political reasons. We protest against the desecration and removal of memorials, against government instructions to exclude representatives of successor states of the USSR from public commemorative events. It is particularly outrageous when such exclusion comes from the government of a state that sees itself in its legal position as the successor state of fascist Germany. Those who believe that they can differentiate between “good” and “bad” liberators on the basis of daily political considerations are misusing the memory of Liberation Day for objectives that damage the memory of the liberators.
On this day, we also remember that in the debates of the Allies, in the anti-fascist resistance and even in the concentration camps, considerations for an anti-fascist-democratic new beginning after liberation became clear. The prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp formulated it in their oath of April 19, 1945 with the words “Destruction of Nazism with its roots” and “Creation of a new world of peace and freedom”. These messages are relevant for anti-fascist action today and tomorrow.
Therefore, for the FIR and its member federations, the memory of May 8 and 9, 1945 is not a historical commemoration of the victims, but an obligation to preserve the political legacy of the survivors, of all members of the anti-Hitler coalition for today and to keep it alive for the future.
Vilmos Hanti, President
Dr Ulrich Schneider, Secretary General