Stop the danger of war – for a new European security architecture

23. Februar 2022

In its latest Newsletter FIR presented the following tasks to solve the political conflict:

From our point of view, there is a solution to this problem, to which all sides can actively work on:

A propagandistic de-escalation and preparation of a European security conference in OSCE format, in which contractual agreements are concluded which correspond to the security interests of all states in Europe.

Those who do not want Russian medium-range forces in Kaliningrad must also contractually agree not to position any elsewhere near the Russian border.

Those who want Russian troops to be withdrawn near their own borders must not provide for NATO troops on their own border.

Whoever does not want a political-military escalation in Europe must prevent NATO – contrary to all political agreements – from expanding further east.

Those who want a de-escalation of the situation must return to confidence-building measures (such as the open sky agreement), the principles of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, and to genuine arms limitation and disarmament treaties that have been unilaterally terminated by the United States.

Not dangerous threatening gestures and armament of Ukraine, but diplomacy, a common security architecture and the recognizable will for disarmament are necessary in this situation.

The FIR and its member federations raised already several years ago the demand for a new policy of détente. This is more topical than ever. The peace forces in all European countries must publicly stand up for this.

The full declaration, you can find on facebook-page of FIR

100 years Prof. Ilya Semyonovich Kremer

21. Januar 2022

We remember one of the most active comrade in arms of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR), Prof. Dr. Ilya S. Kremer, because of his 100 birthday on 22 January.

Born 1922 in Gomel (Soviet Union), he studied 1939 at the faculty for history of the Leningrad University, from 1940 at the Moscow University. The fascist attack of June 1941 changed also his life. Instead of studying, he took part in the protection of the homeland, in fortification work and until 1943 in an aircraft factory as a lathe operator. In summer of 1943, he became a soldier in the Red Army and took part in the fight for Berlin. In an interview, he reported:

“It wasn’t until 1943, when the Red Army had already suffered terrible losses that I was sent to the front. So I was put into a training unit, and in 1944, I joined the anti-aircraft artillery of the 5th Corps of the 1st Belarusian Front. Our route then led from Lublin to Berlin via Warsaw, Poznan and Landsberg on the Warta River.” It was not until November 1945 that he was demobilized and returned to Moscow.

Two years later, he was able to complete his studies in 1948. As an historian and professor of international relations, he was subsequently editor and lecturer in history at the Moscow Automotive Technical School. In the mid-1950s, he came to the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1974, he was appointed professor at the Department of International Relations of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the CPSU. As a member of the Soviet Committee for European Security, he accompanied the process of détente policy scientifically and practically.

Of central importance was his work in FIR. Several decades he was political secretary of the FIR and representative of the Soviet (Russian) committee of war veterans in the FIR office in Vienna, temporarily as secretary general and member of the presidency of the FIR. In this context, he developed various international contacts. He participated in numerous FIR congresses, in congresses for European security, in the World Congress of Scientists for Peace, etc. On behalf of FIR and the Russian Committee of Veterans he visited various veterans’ organizations of Europe, the USA and Israel with the aim of developing cooperation between national anti-fascist and pacifist organizations.

During the reactivation of the FIR since 2004, he was of enormous value as advisor and mediator. He really worked in that time – in the best sense – as a “grey eminence”, because of his intensive political contacts all over the world. FIR appointed him since 2004 as a member of the honorary presidency and distinguished him 2019 with the “Michel Vanderborght Award”.

Ilya S. Kremer in Franfurt/M at a congress of VVN-BdA

He died on 23 March 2020 at the age of 98 years in Moscow. We remember him as a comrade and good friend.

FIR is saddened by the death of EP President David Sassoli

11. Januar 2022

We were saddened to learn that the President of the European Parliament died this morning in an Italian hospital.

Sassoli was the son of a fellow member of the Italian Resistenza. He never forgot or denied these roots in his political life. We remember that in his inaugural speech after the European elections, he referred in no uncertain terms to the anti-fascist roots of a united Europe. We also did not forget that he subsequently changed his vote on the historical revisionist resolution of September 19, 2019, which he had agreed to out of factional discipline, to rejection. This showed us once again that his actions were shaped by a fundamental anti-fascist conviction.

His death is a great loss for his family, his political partners in the European Parliament and for his comrades-in-arms in the ranks of ANPI, of which he was a member.

Our sympathy goes out to them.  

The progressive forces in Chile have won!

20. Dezember 2021

With large satisfaction, the FIR took note of the result of the presidential election in Chile. Not the right-wing conservative Pinochet supporter José Antonio Kast could defend his lead in the first election round, but the representative of the left forces Gabriel Boric received with 56% of the votes a clear confirmation in the runoff. FIR congratulates the newly elected Chilean President and the Chilean people for this victory of the progressive forces.

It is a social confirmation of the process that has been fought in the streets for several months of political protests against social injustice and educational privileges. The first result was the creation of a constitutional commission to change the old Pinochet constitution, and now a president has been elected who comes from the protest movement. 

We wish the elected president and the Chilean people every success. Nevertheless, we also know that progressive movements in Latin America are always in danger of being threatened and destabilized by outside forces, more precisely by right-wing forces from the USA. The FIR cannot forget how 50 years ago the socialist government under President Salvador Allende provided hope and awakening in Chile, but then was replaced by the Pinochet regime through the CIA-supported coup of the military.

The FIR and its member federations were afterwards part of the world-spreading network of the Chile solidarity. We provided help for the Chilean refugees and supported their fight for the freedom of the country. This is another reason why we welcome this recent success of the progressive forces in Chile.

¡El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido – venceremos!

UN resolution “combating Nazism”

5. Dezember 2021

After the FIR Bulletin 62 went to press, we received the attached graphic about the decision of the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution with the unwieldy title “combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” For several years, this resolution has been introduced to the session by Russia and other states, and this year it again received the approval of the General Assembly, with 121 votes in favor, 53 abstentions, and 2 votes against.


In the chart below, you can see how each country voted on this issue. A comment is superfluous

Obituary Henz Siefritz (1946-2021)

22. November 2021

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With deep sadness, we have to say farewell to a longtime comrade and friend, who for many years helped to shape the work of the FIR also on a responsible level, Heinz Siefritz, our longtime financial secretary. He died at the age of 75 years in the hospital last week, after he had increasingly health problems in recent months.

Heinz Siefritz was a socially engaged person throughout his life. In his youth, he was active in the anti-nuclear movement. After his training and further education, he stood up for the social and societal interests of his colleagues in the company and later as a trade union secretary.

As an anti-fascist, who still personally met the contemporary witnesses from resistance and persecution, he engaged himself after his professional retirement in the VVN-BdA on district and federal level.

When in 2004 the FIR moved its seat to Berlin and a new cashier was looked for, he took over this task. He never understood his role as an accountant, but brought himself as a political financial secretary into the common work. Thus, he was involved not only in the meetings of the leading body and in the preparation of our congresses; in addition, he represented the FIR several times in international conferences, on commemorative events or with member federations. His house at Lake Constance was open for antifascist guests like for example Prof. Ilja Kremer, who visited him there. Moreover, many comrades of the FIR and its member federations could experience him as a committed and cheerful comrade-in-arms.

Heinz Siefritz at the congress of Austrian KZ-Verband

In mourning, we take now leave and express in particular our deep sympathy to his wife Inge. 

Dignified birthday celebration 100 years Albina Moimas in Kassel

2. November 2021

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On October 30, 2021, at the invitation of FIR, representatives of the Society and political friends congratulated Albina Moimas, a 100-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and a comrade-in-arms of the Italian Resistenza in Kassel.

Under the conditions of the Corona rules, it had to be a small gathering. Nevertheless, the vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee, friends of the Italian partisan organization ANPI, who also brought the congratulations of ANED, representatives of the city of Kassel and the Foreigners Advisory Council Kassel, a member of the Hessian Parliament, friends from the VVN-BdA Kassel, the Peace Forum and the Stolperstein Association, as well as a representative of the Catholic Church, who brought the greetings of the Bishop of Fulda, came to this birthday celebration. The Volkswagen Academy and active people involved in commemoration and remembrance work with Auschwitz also offered their congratulations.  

It was an altogether dignified event, which showed the jubilarian the social recognition she receives today as a member of the Italian Resistenza and Auschwitz survivor.

Secretary General of FIR, Vice-President of International Auschwitz Committee, comrade of ANPI and a member of the Italian community in Kassel. In the center Albina Moimas with her daughter.

FIR is shocked by desecration of the memorial Auschwitz

6. Oktober 2021

With dismay and anger the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Anti-Fascists had to learn that on Tuesday the memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau, the symbol of the industrial mass extermination of Jewish people, Sinti and Roma and others by German fascism, was desecrated with anti-Semitic slogans.

If someone thinks that with such graffiti he can erase the truth about the mass crimes or the significance of the merit of the Red Army, which liberated the camp on January 27, 1945, then this person is mistaken. The world will always remember these historical events connected with Auschwitz. And all anti-fascists will stand up for the fact that despite such desecrations there will be a dignified commemoration in the future as well. At the moment of such attacks we feel especially connected with the Auschwitz Memorial and the International Auschwitz Committee.

An effective reaction against such attacks remains the anti-fascist remembrance work. Thus the FIR plans together with the Belgian Auschwitz Foundation and the War Heritage Institute under the slogan “Train of the Thousand” for the coming year again an international youth meeting in the memorial Auschwitz.

Obituary retired Colonel ZOLTÁN VICZIÁN

24. September 2021

After a patient suffering Zoltán Viczián, member of the honory presidency of FIR, died quietly on 15th of September 2021 at the age of 94 in Hungary. Our dear friend was born on 13th of January 1928.

Already at the age of 16 he fought againts Hitler and Hitler’s Hungarian troops from Salgótarján to Berlin on the side of the Red Army until the day of victory. He recounted many times when Soviet soldiers learned that the war was over, tossed their caps in joy, and fired at them. It meant everything to us. The joy that they were not destroyed in the XX. century during the barbarism, they could go home to their loved ones, people could live in peace. Zoltán Viczián after returning to Hungary quickly became involved in cleaning up the ruins and the revival of the country. He first helped in Salgótarján to the guardianship as a social worker and carried on the lives of poor and orphaned children. He founded the Heves County Football Association, was an employee of the Heves County Civil Command and has been active in MEASZ for several decades as a county leader and was also a member of the national presidency of MEASZ. He was proud to have been an honorary board member of the FIR as well too. He received many accolades for his work and was proud of the Miklós Radnóti Anti-Racist Award. In July this year a delegation from the MEASZ presidency honored him with the SUBNOR award of our Serbian sister organization in Eger. That was the last time FIR president Vilmos Hanti and a further member of MEASZ met him. We preserve his memory as an example to follow. Rest in peace!

Mikis Theodorakis – musician and antifascist died at the age of 96 years

2. September 2021

One year ago, the FIR congratulated the legendary Greek composer and anti-fascist Mikis Theodorakis with a “newsletter” on his 95th birthday. Today we have to announce with regret that he has passed away.

We remember his fantastic musical contributions, his diverse compositions, his folk songs as well as the great setting of the “Canto General” based on verses by Pablo Neruda.

At the same time, we remember him as an anti-fascist fighter, who fought against the German occupation of Greece in the ranks of the Greek People’s Liberation Army ELAS as a teenager. At the age of 18, he was imprisoned and tortured for the first time. As a communist fighter, Theodorakis was arrested again in July 1947 during the civil war and deported several times, in December 1948 to the camp island of Makronisos. After his release, he went to Paris, where he studied music. As early as 1957, he received his first awards for his compositions. In 1960, he returned to Athens, where he worked as a composer and politician, including as founder of the Lambrakis Youth. In 1964, with the singer Maria Farantouri, he published the Mauthausen Song Cycle, a tribute to the former concentration camp inmates. With the coup d’état of the fascist Obrist’s in 1967, Theodorakis had to go underground again. The Obrist’s banned his music, even singing and listening to his songs were punishable by imprisonment. He was arrested, tortured and – despite serious illness – deported to the Oropos concentration camp. Only an international solidarity movement succeeded in his release in 1970. Theodorakis went into exile again to France. Internationally, he became a symbol of unbroken resistance to the Greek dictatorship.

In 1972, he met Pablo Neruda and Salvador Allende. Theodorakis’ setting of the “Canto General” became an anthem of the Chilean resistance after the coup against Allende in September 1973.

As a leftist without party, he was elected to the Greek parliament several times after the end of the Obrist rule, and in 1990, was even appointed as a minister without portfolio. Even in his old age, Theodorakis spoke out clearly on current issues, especially against the falsification of history and against the neo-fascist “Golden Dawn”.

Mikis Theodorakis remains unforgotten as a musician and anti-fascist in the FIR and its member associations.

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