15. Juni 2017
At a ceremony for the opening of a statue commemorating Auschwitz during documenta14 –time in Kassel (Germany) representatives of FIR met with Auschwitz-survivors. FIR-Vice-president Christos Tzintsilonis, accompanied by Aristomenis Syngelakis, Marian Turski (International Auschwitz Committee, Poland), Albina Moimas (Italy) and General Secretary of FIR Ulrich Schneider. Ulrich Schneider took in this ceremony the floor for a greeting word.
10. Juni 2017
During the opening of the intenational art-fair documenta14 in Kassel (Germany) FIR participated at a commemoration of the SS-massacre in Distomo (Greece). The General Secretary of FIR took the floor for the following greeting words:
Liebe Kameraden und Freunde, Die Internationale Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer (FIR) – Bund der Antifaschisten, die Dachorganisation der Verbände ehemaliger Partisanen und Widerstandskämpfer gegen den Faschismus, Deportierter und Verfolgter des Naziregimes und ihre Familienangehörigen, sowie der Kämpfer in den Reihen der Anti-Hitler-Koalition sowie Antifaschisten heutiger Generationen mit Mitgliedsverbänden in fast allen europäischen Staaten, Israel und Lateinamerika ist solidarisch mit all denjenigen, die am heutigen Distomo Tag an die faschistischen Verbrechen am griechischen Volk erinnern. Anfang April dieses Jahres haben wir nachfolgende Grußbotschaft an eine Demonstration in Athen geschickt: Die FIR steht auf der Seite aller griechischen Organisationen und sozialen Initiativen, die sich für die gerechten und begründeten Forderungen des griechischen Volkes für die Wiedergutmachung seitens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aufgrund des erzwungenen Besatzungsdarlehens und der Schäden, die in Griechenland durch Nazi-Besatzungsmächte während der Zweiter Weltkrieg angerichtet wurden, einsetzen. Bis heute sind die deutschen Regierungen nicht bereit, dieses offene Problem zu lösen. Mit einer einmaligen Zahlung eines unbedeutenden Betrags von 115 Millionen DM nach dem Bonner Übereinkommen vom 18. März 1960 versuchte der deutsche Staat, die Forderung zu erfüllen. Aber die ausstehende Zahlung ist viel mehr. Die FIR unterstützt die griechischen Anträge in diesem Fall und fordert die deutsche Regierung auf, keine ernsthaften Verhandlungen mehr zu blockieren. Deutsche Reparationen für griechische Menschen fehlen noch! Diese Aussage ist auch hier und heute gültig. In diesem Zusammenhang möchte ich noch an ein weiteres faschistisches Verbrechen erinnern, dass sich heute vor 75 Jahren in der CSR ereignete, das Massaker an den Menschen der kleinen Stadt Lidice bei Prag. Auch dort wurde einige Jahrzehnte behauptet, es handelte sich um Maßnahmen der Kriegsführung – wie auch bei dem Verbrechen von Distomo. Doch der internationale Druck war letztlich zu groß, so dass auch die Bundesregierung nicht nur die deutsche Verantwortung für das Verbrechen eingestehen musste, sondern nun auch einen ernsthaften Beitrag zur Erinnerungsarbeit leistet. Unser gemeinsamer politischer Druck muss dazu führen, dass eine solche Haltung bald auch gegenüber dem griechischen Volk eingenommen wird.
3. Juni 2017
75 years ago the village was destroyed by the Wehrmacht and SS
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of anti – fascists commemorates the 75th anniversary of the crimes of the German occupation troops against the Czech civilian population.
75 years ago, on 10 June 1942 German troops murdered in Czechoslovakia in the village of Lidice about 20 kilometers northwest of Prague the whole male population, the women were deported in concentration camps and most children were killed in CC Chelmno. Two weeks later German troops murdered more than 30 men in Lezaky, about a hundred kilometers east of Prague.
As a justification for these massacres, the Fascist occupation troops called the successful bombing of Reinhard Heydrich, the planning commissioner for the “final solution” of the Jewish question and the highest NS functionary in Bohemia and Moravia. In fact, at the end of May 1942, a small group of Czechoslovak resistance fighters trained in the UK managed to kill this responsible for numerous crimes against the Czechoslovak population.
For revenge and as intimidation, the village of Lidice was destroyed and the men of Lezarky were shot. But this terror could not suppress the illegal resistance struggle in CSR. Czechoslovak antifascists contributed to the liberation of their country from fascism.
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) reminds the fighters against Fascism, who have kept their courage and struggle despite terror and persecution. But we also recall the broad solidarity of the anti-fascists around the world, which contributed to the fact that Lidice could never be forgotten.
We welcome the fact that the Czech government is organizing this Memorial Day in dignified form. As a special appreciation, we see the decision of the Slovakian government to honor one of the resistance fighters posthumously with high honors. These are important signals against all attempts of falsifying history:
The anti-fascist resistance was not responsible for this massacre but the fascist occupation policy. We will not allow the relativization of fascist crimes and the rehabilitation of fascist collaborators!
7. Mai 2017
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Antifascists greets all participants of the celebrations on the day of victory and the commemorative actions “immortal regiment”.
May 8/9, 1945, is and will remain for antifascists in all parts of the world the day of liberation and the day of victory over fascist barbarism.
All of us who celebrate this day with events and other commemorative activities show that the memory of the victims of the fascist barbarism and the fighters against fascism is an important task for all of us. The participants of the “immortal regiment” commemorative event in Russia and in many other countries around the world remind us of their family members, friends and relatives, who sacrificed their lives in the ranks of the anti-Hitler coalition crushing of fascist military machinery.
This recollection is more important than ever before, because we are witnessing the transformation of Fascist collaborators into “freedom fighters” in different countries, in the Baltic States or in the Ukraine. Against such forms of historical revisionism, we need the public memory and recollection of those men and women who have opposed the fascist threat, with all their might, with their freedom, their health, and part of them with their lives,
To commemorate and thank these fighters and victims at this day is the obligation to carry on the political legacy of the survivors, as in the “Oath of Buchenwald” of the former prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp of 19 April 1945: “the destruction of Nazism with its roots and the creation of a new world of peace and freedom “.
17. April 2017
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Antifascists and their member associations in more than 25 countries of Europe and Israel recall the 80th anniversary of the criminal bombing of the Basque city of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the German “Legion Condor”.
This attack on an undefended city has been a “breach of civilization” in history. It was an attack by a foreign power against a legal government and was directed only against the civilian population. The attack also meant the destruction of the “holy city of the Basques”, a symbol of their free-democratic traditions and their self-conscious culture. The result was devastating: 80% of all buildings were destroyed, among the roughly 6,000 inhabitants there were 1654 dead and 889 injured, according to the Basque government. For the Nazi Luftwaffe and Hermann Goering, the destruction of Guernica was “a complete success of the Luftwaffe”. Spain was thus a test field for the planned World War II.
Picasso’s painting “Guernica” – painted for the world exhibition in Paris in 1937 – immortalized the crime, the horror in the face of the devastations of the war. It is the visualized accuse of its victims. “Guernica” is a symbol of the rejection of war and its destructive force.
To this day, there are great lacks in historical and political reconstruction. Since the end of the Franco regime, politicians and anti-fascists have demanded in vain that the Picasso painting should be handed over to the city as a symbol of the recognition of suffering and reparation. Twenty years ago the former German President Roman Herzog wrote a letter of apology and reconciliation to the victims of Guernica and her descendants. However, this gesture remained. That was, however, more than all the Spanish governments are still ready to contend with the Basque city.
The refusal, which today’s post-franquist Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (PP) shows that the Spanish society has only worked down the Franco dictatorship. Honors of the regime are just as much a part of the agenda as the fact that the judgments of the injustice of justice continue. These include the “honorable remembrance” and the pensions that Germany had left to the war members of the “Legion Condor” and Franco’s “Blue Division”, who were fighting against the Soviet Union on the side of the Fascist troops.
80 years after the bombing of Guernica, this act and the responsibility of the German “Legion Condor” are often forgotten. The FIR and its member federations – not only in Spain – are working to ensure that these events remain a permanent place in the collective memory of the peoples. They should be a permanent warning symbol against all violations of international law.
25. Februar 2017
On 16 March, as every year since 1991, in Riga, the Latvian capital, there will be a worship, an honorary march and a flag-lined rally at the Freedom Monument in honor of the Latvian units of the Waffen-SS.
With Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bulgaria, Latvia is one of the Eastern European states where units of the Waffen-SS and other anti-Semitic death squads collaborating with the Nazis are celebrated as national idols. This is done with state toleration and partial open support from authorities.
The Riga “Ehrenmarsch” is an unprecedented provocation for the members of the victims of the Latvian police and SS units and for the Jewish, Russian-speaking and other minorities in the country. It stands not only in contrast to the fundamental values of the European Union, whose other advantages the Latvian state likes to accept, but is also a provocation against the Russian Federation and thus a threat to peace in Europe.
In Latvia, anti-fascist demonstrators are exposed to considerable reprisals (telephone monitoring, travel restrictions, administrative chicanery, police, state influence on hotels and event organizers). This also applies to supporters who come from Germany and other countries.
It is therefore more important in 2017 as well to show solidarity with the Latvian antifascists. The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) and its member federations call for a trip to Riga and to participate in the anti-fascist demonstration on 16 March.
At the same time they call on March 15, 2017, in Rome, Brussels, Budapest, Athens as well as in several German towns to protest in front of Latvian embassies and consulates in Europe against the glorification of Nazi collaborators and mass murderers and to demand freedom for Latvia’s anti-fascists.
We demand:
• Conclude the tribute of Nazi collaborators and murderers!
• Recognize the Baltic participation in Nazi genocide!
• Freedom for “Latvia without Nazism”!
• We call all antifascists to send protest messages to Latvian embassies and Latvian consulates!
4. Dezember 2016
1. Anti-fascism is more relevant than ever! Even more than 70 years after the historic victory in May 1945 over fascist regimes in Europe anti-fascism is a more recent political idea than ever. The current problems of political, economic and social causes require from all people joint actions – not facing political party boundaries – for a socially just, peaceful and democratic development in all parts of the world. 2. Stop the resurgence of right-wing populism and neo-fascism With great concern, that we see the increase of the political influence of extreme right forces, from violent neo-fascists to right-wing populist groups, in different European countries. These groups engage ostensibly to the serious concerns of the people, but give nationalist and racist responses to the existing problems. Moreover they propagate and practice increasingly violent forms of conflict, such as arson attacks on “foreigners”, hunting refugees and other excesses. The refugee movement caused by war and social need – which only can be answered by practical solidarity of all European countries – is answered by them with a demand for authoritarianism, intolerance and nationalist chauvinism. At the same time they propagate ideals of former fascist movements (Bandera, Horthy, Mussolini, Ustasha and other “models”). This is in contradiction to international declaration, especially the resolution of the United Nations General assembly to the topic preserving memories (7 Dec 2014). The FIR and its member federations as internationalist movement stand together against racism, xenophobia, neo-fascism, nationalism and extreme right-wing populism. We support protests like the demonstration in Riga et.al. 3. Eliminate the threat of war – for the protection of peace Fascism and war are two sides of one medal. That is why the political slogan of 1945 was “destroying the Nazism with its roots and creating a new world of peace and freedom”. The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Anti-fascists has as “ambassador of peace” of the United Nations a moral order to work for non-military solutions for the conflicts in the world. We fight in particular the causes of war and warmongers who want to impose their imperial goals, their needs of raw material and geopolitical interests on the backs of peoples. We expect the United Nations to support peaceful means of settling e.g. in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or in Ukraine. That is how FIR acts as part of the international peace movement. As a new form of threat we can see terrorist attacks. Partly with “religious” reasons, partly with the standard criticism of “Western values” attacks against the civilian population in various European countries are carried out in particular. We condemn such inhuman acts of violence in the strongest terms, but we cannot forget on the other hand, that such forces have been financed and used as “weapons” in the late Cold War. We call the countries concerned by terrorist attacks not to use such brutal acts as a pretext to dismantle democratic rights and to establish authoritarian rules. 4. Preserving memories – against historical revisionism The memory of the common anti-fascist struggle of the peoples and military parts of the anti-Hitler coalition is a permanent task of FIR and its member federations. In several European countries, notably the Baltic States, in Poland, in Ukraine and in countries of the former Yugoslavia we see on various political and social levels attempts and tendencies to falsify the antifascist memories. Monuments of the anti-fascist struggle were destroyed or even rededicated. Former collaborators of the SS are recognized as “freedom fighters” and on European level there are attempts to establish a “solemn ceremony against totalitarianism” on 23 August. We oppose those attempts of historical revisionism. On the other hand we are proud that in all these countries also veterans and antifascist groups do their duty for the historical truth and defending such memorial places for the liberation from Nazi-fascism and for the liberators. The tasks of the FIR and its member federations remains to preserve the historical memory of the resistance of the peoples, to the women and men who sacrificed their lives, who fought in the ranks of the anti-Hitler coalition or for their convictions or have been victims from other reasons of fascist exclusion in the concentration and extermination camps. To pass their experiences on to present and future generations is one of the most important tasks, standing in front of our organizations. We cooperate particularly with memorials at the places of camps, with archives and historical institutions and antifascist initiatives conveyance of history. Outstanding examples of this work are the exhibition “European resistance against Nazism” and the international youth meetings, documenting the impressive forms of conveying history to the young generations. 5. The unit of the anti-fascist forces consolidate – win new generations! Since 65 years, the FIR is working as an international umbrella organization of all the different fighters and forces of the Anti-Hitler-Coalition, former persecuted and today’s anti-fascists. Their strength is the commonality that results despite different political party orientations, social visions or religious values. The path of the “torch of FIR” impressively emphasized that community. In our ranks are comrades and friends
Each way to antifascism is welcomed in FIR. This unit must be developed renew, because the witness’s generation is leaving us. And we call all member federations to open their structure for the today’s generations. In that way we are challenged to share the ideals of the anti-fascist legacy with the post-war generations, who bring their own issues and perspectives in political disputes. For FIR therefore the task is: In connection with the present generations we preserve the legacy of the fighters and persecuted and fight for democracy, humanism, social justice and “a new world of peace and freedom.”
26. November 2016
With deep sorrow we have to take note of the death of prof. Velko Valkanov this week-end.
Just after the XVII regular congress of FIR in Prague confirmed him as member of the honor presidency of FIR, he was very excited about, he died at the age of 88 years.
Prof. Valkanov was an active historian and journalist, who analyzed and published in several media. As antifascist he advised against right-wing policy and tendencies not only in Bulgaria, but in various parts of Europe. He faced the history and gave answers to the today’s situation and for future tasks. That is how we will remember him.
Because of his very active work in the sense of FIR the XVI FIR congress in Sofia 2013 named him first time as member of honor presidency. With his death the Bulgarian antifascist movement lost a highly estimated figure. We will not forget him. We would like to express our condolences also to his family and all relatives.
28. Oktober 2016
The Executive committee decided to hold the XVII regular congress of FIR November 18 – 20, 2016 in Prague. Since the XVI regular congress in Sofia we could experience a number of important developments of the political work. Impressive commemoration activities of the 70th anniversary of Day of Victory and common activities like the international youth meeting in Auschwitz underlined importance of FIR and the meaning of the work with the youth. On the other hand confirms the problematic development (f. e. danger of war, problems for refugees, and uprising of extreme right groups) not only in Europe but in different parts of the world the necessity of anti-fascist and anti-racist activities also in the future. Therefor a strong and authorized to act organization is necessary. So the tasks of the coming congress will be to make a realistic balance of our common work of the last years and to define the coming tasks. In addition we have to elect the leading committees. At the evening of November 18 – as an opening ceremony – we will hand over the Michel-Vanderborght-Award to partners of FIR. The closing will be a common commemoration ceremony in Lidice on Sunday morning. More than 50 delegates and guests from about 20 European countries and Israel are expected. Also guest from international structures and social organizations of Czech republic. The preparation of the congress has been done with excellent support of our Czech member federation CSBS. The conference and the accommodation will be in TOP Hotel Praha (Congress Center). Working languages at the congress are English and Russian. If somebody is interested to participate as guest, please ask the national federation or contact the FIR-office.
31. Juli 2016
For months, the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Anti-fascists and its member federations follows with great concern the political development in Turkey. It was already visible that the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan started on one hand an increasingly expansionist policy with the support of IS troops in Syria, on the other hand domestically he practices a restriction of democratic freedoms, particularly freedom of the press. Nevertheless, Erdoğan was chosen by the EU administration in spring 2016 as a helper in the refugee question, he should solve the problem of the influx of migrants to Europe – rewarded with 3 billion euros.
With the military coup in Turkey in mid July 2016, this development has not been stopped, but developed further amplified. The failed coup that would itself certainly brought no increase in democracy is used by Erdoğan to secure its power – with anti-democratic means and repealing fundamental freedoms. Tens of thousands of teachers, judges and heads of university departments are already released, many soldiers are imprisoned. The repression goes on and now it hits especially journalists. Criticism of the current repealing “European Convention on Human Rights” overlooks that this have already taken place in recent months in Turkey with serious violations of civil and human rights.
Every day we see further restrictions on democratic freedom. For Academics the free passage is prohibited, thousands of passports are canceled, and over 50,000 public sector workers have already lost their jobs. About 50 newspapers and other media lost their licenses, so that public opinion is only controlled by the government media. In addition, the police and military repression of the Kurdish people continues undiminished in southeastern Turkey.
For these reasons, we call for political solidarity with the democratic forces of Turkey, the unions, the persecuted political parties, the democratic media and the civil society organizations. Their freedom must be restored. We are in solidarity with the people of Turkey, who resist an authoritarian Islamist state in the sense of President Erdoğan.
We call the European Union to demand from the Turkish government in compliance with European values: democracy, rule of law, press freedom and the right to freely assemble, to express themselves peacefully or to pursue one’s own religion. Accession negotiations with Turkey can be made not only depends on whether the death penalty is to be reintroduced.
We expect the European Union to demand from the Turkish government under President Erdoğan the restoration of democratic rights and freedoms in Turkey instead of deals at the expense of war refugees.
