With deep sorrow we learned of Delfina Tomás’ death in early May 2025, after she had dedicated her entire life to fighting for freedom and preserving the memory of those who had fought for it.
At the age of seven, she went into exile with her family and lived in very harsh conditions until she was able to stabilize her situation, which enabled her to pursue an academic education. In the 1950s, she came into contact with the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) and settled near Vienna with her husband Joan Lipp, a Mauthausen survivor. As a member of the Communist Party of Austria, she participated in its youth activities and began working as a secretary and translator for the FIR in 1959. Later, she worked as a translator for the World Peace Council. She met survivors of the Mauthausen camp, translated the inscription on the memorial to the Spanish Republicans of Mauthausen into German, and, after her return to Barcelona in 1977, maintained a long-standing connection with the Amical de Mauthausen y otros campos y de todas las víctimas del nazismo de España.
In October 2021 and at the FIR Congress in October 2023 in Barcelona, she was honored for her work and commitment with the Michel Vanderborght Award and as a member of the Honorary Presidency of the FIR.

We express our condolence to her family and her comrades in arms.

Oath of Buchenwald

Comrades!

We, the Buchenwald anti-fascists, are reporting today in honor of those murdered by the Nazi beast and its helpers’ helpers at Buchenwald and its outside details.

51,000 captured!

51,000 shot, hung, trampled upon, beaten, choked, drowned, starved, poisoned – hosed down.

51,000 fathers, brothers – sons died a torturous death because they were fighters against the fascist murder regime.

51,000 mothers, women, and hundreds of thousands of children are decrying.

We the survivors, we the witnesses of the Nazi beastly activities in faint anger saw our comrades fall.

If there was something that kept us alive, it was the thought: The day of revenge will come!

Today we are free!

We thank the allied Armies of the Americans, English, Soviets and all Freedom Armies who fought for our as well as the freedom of the entire world.

We remember at this position the great friend of the anti-fascists of all countries, an organizer and initiator of the fight for a new, democratic, friendly world.

F.D. Roosevelt. Honor his memory!

We Buchenwalders, Russians, French, Polish, Czechoslovaks and Germans, Spanish, Italians and Austrians, Belgians and Dutch, English, Luxembourger, Romanian, Yugoslavs and Hungarian fought together against the SS, against the Nazi criminals for our liberation.

One idea inspired us: Our cause is just – victory must be ours!

In many languages we lead the same, hard, merciless fight that yielded many victims. And this fight is not over yet.

Hitler flags are still waving.

The murderers of our Comrades are still alive!

The sadistic torturers are still walking about.

For this reason we swear in front of all the world at this Appellplatz (roll call place of concentration camp) at this city of the fascist greyness:

We will cease our fight when the last guilty person stands before the judges of the people.

The eradication of Nazism as well as its roots is our guiding principle.

The rebuilding of our new world of peace and freedom is our goal.

That is what we owe our murdered comrades and their families.

In demonstration of your cooperativeness with this fight, lift your hand in the oath and repeat after me:

WE SWEAR!

Translation goes here …

As we have already announced on various occasions, the meeting will take place from Friday, April 4 (day of arrival) to Monday, April 7 (day of departure) at the Buchenwald Memorial.

So far, groups from Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Italy and, of course, Germany have registered. We are also expecting participants from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, the Netherlands and other Balkan states. We are also expecting smaller delegations from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

In order to guarantee overnight accommodation in the youth hostels (Erfurt/ Weimar and Bad Sulza), we require binding registrations by 15 January 2025. Details on registration and the program can be found in the attached flyer.

At the beginning of December, we learned from our comrades of FNDIRP that Serge Wourgaft had passed away at the age of 108. This news fills us with deep sadness, as he was a comrade who was active for many decades of his life for the common anti-fascist idea.
Serge Wourgaft was born in Odessa on August 31, 1917. His family came to France in the 1920s. As a young man, he took part in the Resistance’s fight against the German occupation, was arrested and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. As a member of the French inmate group, he contributed to the self-liberation of the camp on April 11, 1945. Even after the liberation, he was responsible for the medical service in the camp.
After his return to France, he was press attache to the Minister of Food Supply, editor at the Reuters news agency and member of the cabinet of the Minister of Public Works and Transport.
In 1957, on behalf of his organization FNDIRP, he began working for the World Federation of Veterans (FMAC/WVF), of which he became Secretary General in 1979. In this function, he worked closely with the FIR, which was expressed, for example, in the war veterans’ “Rome Appeal” on company policy. When he gave up this function in 1997, he was elected President of the FMAC/WVF for another three years. In 2000, he relinquished this function and became Honorary President.
He also held other social functions, e.g. as Chairman of the Special Committee of NGOs for Disarmament in Geneva or as Chairman of the Liaison Committee for the Transportation of the Disabled (COLITRAH).
Serge WOURGAFT was highly honored as a Resistance fighter, Commander of the Legion of Honor, Grand Officer in the National Order of Merit and recipient of the War Cross, the Resistance Medal and numerous foreign awards.
He was associated with his organization FNDIRP until his last breath. In May 1998, he was elected a member of the FNDIRP’s Honorary Committee. Since 2013, he was editor of the FNDIRP’s monthly newspaper “Le Patriote Résistant”. He was also actively involved in the “Concours National de la Résistance et de la Déportation” and in other contexts.
Our condolences go out to his family and his French comrades. We will keep Serge Wourgaft in honorable memory.

It is with sadness and respect for his life’s work that we bid farewell to Giacomo Notari, partisan and long-time witness to the Italian Resistanza. He died a few days before his 97th birthday in his home town of Marmoreto di Busana (Reggio Emilia).

Born on December 6, 1927, he – like his brother Giuseppe – joined the partisans as a teenager. He joined the 145th Garibaldi Brigade “Franco Casoli” at the age of 17. His combat name was “Willy”. Their operational area was the mountains near Reggio and the area around Ligonchio, Busana and Cervarezza. He took part in sabotage operations against bridges and telephone lines. Of particular importance during the retreat of the German units in April 1945 was the defense of the Ligonchio hydroelectric power plant against its planned destruction. His brother Giuseppe was killed on March 11, 1945. Giacomo Notari was not only a fighter, he was also a staunch anti-fascist and became a member of the Communist Party as a partisan.

After the end of the war, he alternated between working in his father’s fields and political commitment to a new anti-fascist beginning. He attended evening classes at the “party school” in Bologna, became a local councillor in Busana and was elected to the provincial council in the early 1960s. He was mayor of Ligonchio from 1970 to 1983 and president of ANPI in the province of Reggio Emilia from 2002 to 2016. He combined this role with his great commitment as a contemporary witness. He initiated and supported regional commemorative work and the “Banditi e rebelli” exhibition, which also received international recognition. In this work, he was connected with FIR.

Giacomo Notari lived in his home town of Marmoreto di Busana until the end. He died at the end of November 2024. We express our deepest sympathy to his family and his comrades from ANPI on the loss of this important anti-fascist personality.