Despite all meeting restrictions the member federations and the representatives of the FIR are active in the political activities. Just in the actions against racism and police violence in Athens, Budapest in Lisbon, in different cities of the Federal Republic of Germany and beyond that the FIR was visible, as some pictures show.

Protest in front of US-Embassy in Budapest

FIR in a protest meeting “Black Lives Matter” in Kassel

In Nuremberg at a manifestation of several thousands against racism.

The International Federation of Resistance Fighters congratulates you and all members of your Federation on behalf of the 75^th anniversary of the Days of liberation, the Day of Victory.

Because of this specific situation, we only can send you our greetings in this electronic way, not personally – but it is for sure, these greetings are coming from our heart.

We will never forget the heroic fight of all members of the Anti-Hitler-Coalition, the allied armies, the partisans and resistance fighters, the deported and victims of the fascist regimes.

FIR honored this year especially the liberation of Paris by the French Soldiers and Fighters of the Résistance in August 1944, the liberation of the determination camp Auschwitz by the soldiers of the soviet army January 1945, and the self-liberation by the prisoners of the concentration camp Buchenwald April 1945. These are only extraordinary examples of the whole liberation fight of women and men, of soldiers and partisans, of resistance fighters and prisoners.

Not to forget means also to defend the historical truth of the WWII, the liberation and the liberators. That is why we fight today and tomorrow against historical revisionism, against destruction of memorial places.

We preserve the legacy of the survivors as they declared it in the “Oath of Buchenwald” and other documents. They swore: “The destruction of Nazism with its roots is our slogan. The creating of a new world of peace and freedom is our goal!”

This oath is the political legacy of antifascists all over the world until today. It means to be active against all forms of neo-fascism, racism, Antisemitism, xenophobia and intolerance. It means fighting for peace, solidarity, democracy and human rights for all people.

This year we need to celebrate the days of liberation, the day of victory virtual, in our minds and our hearts. Nevertheless, it is for sure our common spirit is able to change the world for a peaceful and solidary future – Antifascism is our goal for today and tomorrow.

Stay in good health and all the best for all of you.

75 years ago, on 8 and 9 May 1945, mankind experienced the final military crushing of German fascism. These dates mark the victory over the inhuman regime of Hitler fascism,

– which excluded, persecuted and imprisoned political opponents and dissenters,

– which murdered millions of people from a self-constructed race alone as Jews, as Sinti and Roma, as Slavs,

– which covered the states in Europe and even countries and peoples in other parts of the world with war, occupation and annihilation, with the aim of imperial hegemony and the destruction of the Soviet Union,

– which, in its cruel outcome, cost the lives of at least 55 million people.

Today in some countries of Europe the historical truth is denied, the liberators from the fascist barbarism are disregarded, the collaborators with the fascist occupant are honoured as “freedom fighters”.

Against these forms of historical revisionism, we emphasize as FIR:

The fascist plans of world domination were stopped by the common activities of the anti-Hitler coalition. It was the members of the armed forces of the allies, above all the members of the Soviet army, who carried the main load of the war, which destroyed this threat also militarily.

It was the partisans and resistance fighters in all countries occupied by fascism, with the communists in the front rows, who gave their lives for the freedom of their homeland.

Part of this anti – Hitler – coalition were also German anti-fascists, who fought illegally in Germany, in the ranks of the partisans or together with the allied forces for the liberation of their own country.

We remember all those women and men who – often at the risk of their lives – made the liberation possible.

The scandalous declaration of the European Parliament on 19 September 2019 is a bad example, an ideological relapse into the worst period of the Cold War. Contrary to all scientific evidence, it is claimed that it was only with the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty that “the course was set for the Second World War”.

In this text the oppressors and the oppressed, the victims and the criminals, the occupiers and the liberators from fascist barbarism were equated untruthfully. It is also claimed that with the end of the war only one “totalitarian rule” was replaced by the other.

The FIR stresses in contrast to this:

May 8/9, 1945 was the day of liberation and victory

– for all peoples threatened by German fascism,

– for the prisoners of the fascist concentration camps, who had been sent on death march while still in the agony of the Nazi regime,

– for the forced labourers who had to perform slave labour in various forms for German industry, agriculture and war policy,

– for the Nazi opponents in Germany itself.

It marks the beginning of a new policy in international relations. The community of action of all Nazi opponents created the basis for the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of the foundations of international law for the prosecution and conviction of the main war criminals in the Nuremberg Tribunal. These legal norms are still valid today, as the General Assembly of the United Nations has repeatedly confirmed.

At that time the common slogan of all anti-fascists was “Never again war! Never again fascism!” For the FIR and its member federations, this is an obligation for today and tomorrow.

We act together with the today’s generations

– against neo-fascism, extreme right and right-wing populism,

– against xenophobia, racism, religious intolerance and anti-Semitism,

– against war, imperial hegemony, state and non-state terrorism and their social roots.

Liberation forms the basis for the vision of a “new world of peace and freedom”, as the prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp called for on 19 April 1945.

In their sense, the member organizations of FIR fight today for the realization of comprehensive political and social human rights, for peace and democracy. Together we celebrate 8/9 May 2020 as day of liberation and day of victory.

The FIR reminds in these days of the self-liberation of the concentration camp Buchenwald by the prisoner resistance on 11 April 1945. This event is symbolic for the success of the common anti-fascist acting.

Already in the year 1943, the illegal International Camp Committee (ILK) in CC Buchenwald, in which Belgian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Soviet and Czech anti-fascists worked together, assigned politically reliable prisoners to build up a military organization from experienced prisoners for self-protection. Under the leadership of the German communist Otto Roth, German, French and Soviet prisoners in particular were trained for this purpose.

For months, weapons and ammunition from SS stocks were obtained and deposited in safe places. From the carbine production in the Gustloff factories, weapon parts were smuggled into the camp and assembled there. The Soviet prisoners produced incendiary flasks as well as cutting and stabbing weapons with very simple materials. At the beginning of 1945, it was even possible to smuggle a complete machine gun into the camp during the arrival of an evacuation transport. The task of the military organization was to protect the prisoners from destruction during the Allied forces arrived.

The military advance of the Red Army in the east and of American troops through Hesse towards western Thuringia in early April 1945 led to considerations of military action. On April 2, the ILK still rejected an armed uprising, but demanded that the planned evacuation by death marches be delayed. When on 6 April 1945 46 prisoners, who the SS considered to be part of the illegal camp committee, were called to the gate, the resistance became apparent: The camp hid the wanted persons from the SS.

When units of American tank forces arrived near the camp, the ILK issued the order to revolt on 11 April 1945 at 2.30 pm. The prisoners’ armed combat groups stormed the main gate, switched off the electricity in the barbed wire fence, occupied the guard towers and captured weapons. At 3:15 p.m., camp elder Hans Eiden announced: “Comrades, we are free!”

With this action, the ILK saved over 20,000 prisoners from the planned extermination in the last hours of the camp, including over 900 children and young people who had already been under the special protection of the camp resistance before. The armed prisoners captured about 220 SS members and other Nazis. On April 13, 1945, a commander of the 3^rd US Army took over the liberated camp.

In addition, because of this self-liberation, the prisoners self-confidently stood up for their freedom appeal on April 19, 1945 and formulated the “Oath of Buchenwald” in their respective languages. In it, they swore: “We will only stop the fight when the last guilty stands before the judges of the nations! The destruction of Nazism with its roots is our slogan. The creating of a new world of peace and freedom is our goal! We owe it to our murdered comrades, their families.”

This oath is the political legacy of antifascists all over the world until today.

While all over the world – despite the Corona pandemic – the memory of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from fascism and war is kept alive, commemorating the victims and honoring the liberators of the anti-Hitler coalition, a Prague district government is indulging in a political scandal that cannot be surpassed in its provincialism and small-mindedness.

Despite international protests and interventions, including to the Czech state government, on Friday 3 April the monument of Marshal Konev, who as supreme commander had achieved the military liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp and Czechoslovakia, was dismantled and transported away. Only a few weeks ago, on 27 January 2020, Czech anti-fascists have honored Marshal Konev at this memorial in memory of the victims of the fascist extermination policy.

Obviously, the district government tried to use the exceptional situation because of the health-related initial restrictions to carry out this desecration of the monument without public protests. Apparently, they wanted to prevent that on the liberation day of the Czech capital or on Victory Day thousands of Prague citizens would again make a pilgrimage to this monument and commemorate the liberators with flowers and other honors.

Following on from the scandalous declaration of the European Parliament on 19 September 2019, which was used as a legitimation, particularly in the Baltic States and in Poland, to remove monuments of remembrance of the liberators, we are now witnessing another appalling example in Prague of the consequences of this historical revisionism.

The FIR and its member federations are however sure that the Czech anti-fascists and many citizens will retain the memory of the liberators despite this outrage and will remember in worthy public forms Marshal Konew and the thousands of fighters in the ranks of the Red Army, who accomplished the liberation achievement.

With deep sorrow, we have to inform, the Greek resistance fighter Manolis Glezos died on Monday at the age of 97 years. He had previously been hospitalized because he had difficulty breathing and chest pain. Glezos was politically active until his old age.

He had become known to a broad public when, together with Apostolos Sandas, he took down the swastika flag from the Athens Acropolis during a life-threatening action on 30 May 1941. It was a symbolic act of resistance against the German occupying forces. Many Greeks followed this example at the time. Up to the present day, Glezos and Santas have been considered a symbol of the resistance of the peoples against fascist foreign rule and oppression. During the war, he was arrested and tortured several times. His younger brother was executed by the occupying forces.

After the liberation of the country from the fascist occupation, Glezos first headed the Communist Party newspaper “Rizospastis” as editor-in-chief. The newspaper was banned in December 1947; in 1948, he was sentenced to death for this activity. Due to strong protests, especially from abroad, this sentence was not carried out. Glezos was not released until July 1954. In the following years he received further long prison sentences for his political activities. Immediately after the military coup on April 21, 1967, he was sent to prison again. It was not until 1971 that he was released through a general amnesty. He was sentenced 28 times for his political activities, including three times to death.

After the fall of the military junta he was, among other things, chairman of the United Democratic Left (DFA) and mayor of the municipality of Apiranthos on Naxos, where he was born. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1984 for PASOK. In 2002 he founded the group “Active Citizens”, which cooperated with the then Synaspismos (now SYRIZA). In 2012, he was elected to the Greek Parliament for SYRIZA. He was the oldest member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 7 July 2015.

Despite his old age, in recent years he has always vehemently defended the legitimate demands of the Greek people regarding compensation for the damage caused by the German fascist occupation.

The FIR and its member federations mourn with the family, his fellow combatants and the Greek anti-fascist movement. We will keep an honorable memory of him.

It is with deep sorrow that we must announce the death of our long-time comrade and member of the Honorary Presidency Ilya Semyonovich Kremer. He died March 23, 2020 in Moscow at the age of 98.

Ilja fought in the ranks of the soviet army in the great Patriotic War and participated in the liberation of Berlin 1945. He was active for decades for the FIR, as political secretary, as representative of the Soviet and/or Russian veterans federation and as senior consulter and advisor for international relations.
FIR honored him with the Michel Vanderborght Award and confirmed him as a member of the honorary presidency several times.

Our condolences go to his family and the comrade of the Russian Veterans Union. We will keep an honourable memory of him.