Never Again!

The history of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) is inseparably linked to internationalism in the anti-fascist struggle of the peoples. Internationalism was and remains the answer to the nationalist and chauvinist ideology of fascist rule, whether in Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria or other countries. Fascist ideology and politics was and is a direct threat to all peoples, bound up with imperialist plans of expansion and domination — plans that could only be countered through the united struggle of all countries and peoples threatened by these regimes.

This anti-fascist struggle was an alliance of peoples, expressed in practical solidarity with the persecuted and in organised resistance. It included the rescue of those hunted by the regime and the support of resistance groups in cross-border anti-fascist work. Even in the countries of exile, this internationalism was alive: it created the conditions for the executive board of the SoPaDe to operate in Prague, the Central Committee of the KPD in Moscow, the 'German Cultural League' in London, and for German anti-fascists in exile to build 'Free Germany' committees and other political structures of anti-fascist action.

Anti-fascism as internationalism was most clearly visible in the fight to defend the Spanish Republic. Here internationalism took shape in the International Brigades, which — against the supposed non-intervention stance of the Western powers — offered practical solidarity with the threatened Republic. The strength of international solidarity managed to halt the fascist advance for several months. Many anti-fascists went to Spain knowing they were not only fighting Franco, but indirectly confronting the fascist threat in their own countries as well.

Internationalism was also alive in the concentration camps. Through the clandestine cooperation between German and foreign prisoners, collective survival was secured. In almost all the larger camps, conspiratorial international prisoner committees were formed. In Buchenwald concentration camp, an illegal International Military Organisation was even established, forming the basis for the self-liberation of prisoners on 11 April 1945. It was only fitting that the liberated prisoners of the camp, on 19 April 1945, swore a common oath — a legacy that remains binding for all survivors of Buchenwald, from whatever country they came.

The resistance fighters and victims of the Nazi regime wished to lend a political voice to the process of democratic reconstruction. To this end, representatives of organisations of political prisoners and resistance fighters from 17 European countries — East and West — came together as early as 1945, and in February 1946 in Warsaw founded the FIAPP (Fédération Internationale des Anciens Prisonniers Politiques — International Federation of Former Political Prisoners).

The aims of the FIAPP were formulated in its statute as follows: 'To fight actively for the total suppression of fascism in all its forms and wherever it appears, and for the eradication of fascist ideology; to combat by all means any visible or invisible activity in favour of a rebirth of fascism; to develop activities aimed at strengthening international solidarity for the close cooperation of peoples in the various fields of political, economic and cultural life, so that a lasting world peace may be secured and a new war prevented; to represent the interests of former political prisoners before governments and other national and international bodies; to fight for the democratic education of peoples; to erect monuments to the victims of fascist barbarism and to maintain the memorial stones of the martyrs; to establish international archives concerning fascist prisons and camps.' These aims remain as relevant today as they were sixty years ago.

Members of the FIAPP, across national and party boundaries, were those associations 'who, faithful to the ideals of freedom, rose in fraternal solidarity against fascist oppression: the survivors of the glorious partisan formations who fought alongside the Allied Armies for victory over Hitler's Germany; the survivors of the International Brigades from the freedom struggle of the Spanish people; the great number of illegal fighters against Nazism; and finally all those persecuted for religious and national reasons who escaped the hell of the fascist concentration camps and prisons.' (Our Appeal, 1 July 1948)

The Cold War left its mark on the FIAPP as well. Conflicts within the socialist states — particularly the USSR–Yugoslavia dispute — led to the unjustified exclusion of the Yugoslav partisan federation SUBNOR. The East–West confrontation meant that in Western Europe, especially in France and Italy, additional organisations of partisans, deportees and victims of fascism formed alongside the FIAPP member associations. Instead of promoting the unity of resistance fighters, the political forces of anti-fascism risked drifting apart.

In the early 1950s, an attempt was made to bring together the different positions and organisations of former resistance fighters and deportees in the interest of the political effectiveness of the voice of resistance fighters across Europe. The euphoria of the anti-fascist new beginning had given way to the reality of increasing restoration and remilitarisation, East–West tension and growing danger of war.

The year 1951 — the founding year of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (Fédération Internationale des Résistants, FIR) — was 'characterised by an increasing flaring up of fascist and Nazi propaganda. Favoured by the break of the alliance that had existed between the Allies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, old Nazis and neo-fascists in Western European countries, now integrated into the Atlantic Alliance, offered themselves as an anti-Soviet bulwark.'

In this precarious situation, those who had actively participated in the anti-fascist resistance and national liberation struggle against the Nazi and fascist aggressors and occupiers recognised that the unification of European resistance fighters was an imperative of the hour — to counter the rebirth of Nazi-fascism, to watch over the re-won democratic freedoms, to defend the values of the resistance movement and to strengthen those principles that formed the basis of the founding of the United Nations. This was the spirit from which the FIR was born, and to which it has remained unwaveringly faithful to this day. (Oskar Wiesflecker)

With the founding of the organisation in the summer of 1951 in Vienna, the FIR took on the task of representing the political convictions and visions of the resistance fighters: 'Never again fascism! Never again war!' It represented the victims of fascism in their social and medical claims, and it worked for the commemoration of resistance fighters and illegal resistance groups in many countries.

In the following decades, the FIR organised congresses on medical, political and historical themes. Already in the 1950s, the necessity became clear to preserve the memory of the achievements and merits of the resistance struggle against all forms of social forgetting. This also involved demonstrating that the defeat of German fascism was not solely the work of military formations, but that the role of partisans and resistance fighters deserved proper recognition.

The medical and social conferences of the FIR were also of high professional quality. They addressed the health consequences of persecution in fascist detention facilities and the medical consequences for family members, as well as the enforcement of adequate compensation. There were repeated disputes with welfare authorities over how to assess long-term health damage from imprisonment.

During the Cold War, the FIR's work was closely linked to questions of peace, disarmament, understanding and cooperation between states of different political systems. The FIR gave former resistance fighters a voice against the politics of military confrontation and the real threat of war. Member associations in East and West undertook numerous initiatives to overcome the politics of bloc confrontation.

Particularly noteworthy is the FIR's political solidarity with the German member organisation VVN. When the West German government attempted at the end of the 1950s to ban the organisation of the persecuted as a 'successor organisation of the banned KPD', the FIR organised an international solidarity movement for the VVN. Protests from almost all European countries led to the failure of the banning process.

A central task was the fight against the resurgence of neo-fascist organisations and political restoration, particularly in the Federal Republic of Germany. When in December 1959 the desecration of the Cologne synagogue set a despicable example, the FIR proposed convening an 'International Conference against the Resurgence of Nazism and Anti-Semitism'. Together with the International League for Human Rights and other organisations, it initiated this conference, at which 130 delegates from 13 countries participated in Florence in early March 1960.

The FIR supported the creation of a system of security and cooperation in Europe. Together with other veterans' organisations, particularly the World Veterans' Federation (FMAC), the FIR prepared a 'World Meeting of Former War Participants for Disarmament' in 1979 in Rome. In recognition of its manifold activities and initiatives for disarmament and international cooperation, the United Nations named the FIR 'Ambassador of Peace'.

The continuing neo-Nazi and far-right activities in several European countries prompted the FIR to convene a 'European Meeting against Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism' in Brussels in 1973, attended by 150 delegates from 17 European countries. This meeting and other actions helped prevent a European neo-fascist meeting in Antwerp.

Against the open representatives of fascist tradition and historical revisionism such as HIAG and neo-fascist groups, the FIR organised mass demonstrations in Strasbourg and Cologne and other activities. Several tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the SS associations and against the statute of limitations for Nazi and war crimes.

Like other organisations, the FIR had to respond in the 1990s to the changes in the political situation in the world. The social and political problems of former partisans and resistance fighters in the former socialist countries increased enormously; the financial resources for political work decreased. At the same time, the average age of former resistance fighters and victims of the Nazi regime rose. It therefore became indispensable to open the political structures of the FIR and its member associations to today's generations.

This process was completed at the XIII Regular Congress in Berlin in 2004, when the FIR adopted a new statute enabling the integration of younger anti-fascists. Since that time, the organisation has borne the name 'International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists' (FIR). The Congresses of 2007 in Athens and 2010 in Berlin confirmed this political course.

Today the FIR has member organisations in more than 25 European countries and in Israel. The political circumstances have changed, but the principal task is fixed in the motto 'Never Again!' — never again fascism, never again war. Based on the community of struggle against fascism, the member associations of the FIR today stand up for peace, political and social human rights, and democracy. Together with members of today's generations, the FIR acts against neo-fascism, anti-Semitism, racism and terrorism and their social roots.