A Rallying call to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the assassination of Ernst Thaelmann
We mark the 70th Anniversary of the assassination of Ernst Thaelmann as an occasion to commemorate those people who fell victims to fascist, racist or anti-Semitic violence.
We therefore call together on all progressive forces to the following events in Berlin:
Saturday 23 August 2014
10 to 1 o’clock Meeting at the Karl -Liebknecht -Haus, followed by a demonstration to the Ernst Thaelmann monument in the Greifswalderstraße with a closing rally including speeches, music and performances.
Poem by an unknown Soviet prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp
In memory of Comrade Thaelmann
I cannot believe it - Thaelmann is no longer alive!
The best of comrades has gone...
A role model he was to all around him,
The friends’ friend - the enemies he makes anxious. ...
But even if Thaelmann left us
You cannot weaken from the mourning for this friend,
Continue on the path he pointed you!
There comes a time when we avenge his death!
We call on all progressive forces to:
Fight the neo fascism and the threat of war!
Stop rewriting history and historical misrepresentation!
No renaming of streets, squares and facilities, which are named after the anti-fascist resistance fighters!
An end to the modern destruction of monuments!
An end to the demonization of communist and anti -fascist resistance!
On 18 August of this year will mark the 70th anniversary of the day on which Ernst Thaelmann was callously murdered in Buchenwald after more than eleven years of imprisonment.
The 47 years old was arrested on 3 March 1933 in Berlin by fascists. And on the 17th August 1944 was brought from his Bautzen prison cell and transferred to the concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar –and in the early hours of 18 August 1944 shot on Hitler's orders. Thaelmann has no grave - his ashes were scattered in front of the crematorium. His murder, to date, never faced prosecution in the West German justice system.
In the international solidarity movement for his release and for the victims of fascism, his name became a symbol for his unfaltering stance against fascism. Ernst Thaelmann, the Chairman of the German Communist Party and Chairman of the Red Front Fighters League, was known and appreciated around the world before and during his imprisonment. He could, like no other, with simple and clear words display the connection between capitalism, fascism and war. For this, his enemies hated him and still hate him, even today.
They have murdered him, but the ideals that he stood for are immortal!
The memory of the communist resistance and the resistance fighters from the labour movement is being erased from the minds of the people.
Today streets, schools, and places that were named after him and other anti-fascists are renamed, removed, destroyed, as in Ziegenhals. In Berlin, the Ernst- Thaelmann monument is threatened to be demolished by speculators in collaboration with district politicians - despite numerous different announcements, despite the monument protection act. We must remain vigilant for a protection of the monument, especially as they are plans to put a plaque in place to “comment” on the monument, and fight to keep it in place.
For the murder of Ernst Thaelmann , the chairman of the German Communist Party and the Red Front Fighters' League , for the murder of thousands of his fighting comrades and , there is no forgiveness, no forgetting . The victims of the fascist terror , the Holocaust of the Jews, Sinti and Roma in Europe, the millions of war victims, especially those of the peoples of the Soviet Union, will always remind us to fight tirelessly against fascism and war.
The transfer of power to Hitler on 30 January 1933 was made possible by the interdependence of parts of the German capital, the military, police and judiciary with the Nazis. This also became possible as the unity of all antifascists and antifascists, the unity of the working class could not be established.
Since 1990, murders perpetrated by Nazis continue - not only the NSU murders have shown to what extent brutality of the fascist terror in Germany has risen. This was made possible by the involvement of the German secret services, in particular the Federal Office for the “Protection” of the Constitution (Verfassungs-schutz, VS), with Nazis and Nazi terrorists. What is presented to us as an explanation is only the tip of the iceberg. We therefore call for the full investigation of the NSU murders, the naming and shaming of all NSU members and the full scope of cooperation and state grants for “brown” structures and parties (NPD) using undercover officers by the police and the intelligence BND, MAD and VS .This is just the tip of the iceberg, it is also clear that the demands for resolution of the VS and an NPD ban can therefore only be the beginning. A beginning to strengthen the position of all antifascists in a country, where the black/brown parties claiming to be “centre” parties and the state is failing in the fight against the far right , because the progressive left is equated with the far right. Therefore: We must be united as antifascists to fight the brown thugs and murderers, their sponsors and beneficiaries! The continuous and resolute anti-fascist protests and blockades against Nazis in recent months in Dresden, Berlin, Cottbus or Pforzheim are examples of the successes we can achieve when we stand together. Therefore, we call on all Antifascists: Together we're stronger against fascism and reaction! No to totalitarianism and extremism theory, the comparison of left and right! No to trivialization of fascism and criminalization of socialism!
The Europe of the banks and corporations, specifically the policy of German imperialism, has ruined a number of countries - Greece, Portugal and Spain -. The people, the working people of this country are paying for the crisis. At the same time fascist movements are growing, as in Greece, the so-called " Golden Dawn "movement or the Hungarian Jobbik fascists. The recent events in Ukraine make us listen. A coup, a "regime change ", commissioned by the great powers Germany, France and the U.S. – and supported by fascists and anti-Semites, which are sold to us as "opposition". This open provocation against Russia is playing with fire. Stop the imperialist robbery of Yugoslavia, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Mali, Ukraine! Lets put our internationalism into words and action against the imperialist warmongers! The main enemy is in our own countries! Stand together against war!
Vera Dehle - Thaelmann ( granddaughter of Rosa and Ernst Thaelmann) , Board of Trustees " Memorial Ernst- Thaelmann " eV Hamburg , circle of friends " Ernst- Thaelmann Memorial " eV, Ziegenhals , Revolutionary Friendship Association ( RFB ) , V., Action Alliance Thaelmann Memorial, Berlin
Supporters:
Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft, Wien, Österreich; Antifaschistische Aktion Burg (AAB); Antifaschistische Erholungs- und Begegnungsstätte Heideruh e.V.; Antifaschistische Linke Fürth (ALF); Antifaschistische Revolutionäre Aktion Berlin (ARAB); Bündnis für Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Menschenwürde e.V. (BüSGM); Communist Party of Ireland (KPI); Communist Party of Britain (CPB), Scotland, GB; DDR-Kabinett e. V., Bochum; Deutscher Freidenker-Verband (DFV) – Verbandsvorstand) – LV Berlin/Bbg. – LV Nord; Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (DKP); Demokratik İşçi Dernekleri Federasyonu - Gençlik (DIDF-Jugend); Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ); Freundeskreis Palast der Republik, Berlin; Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Bürgerrecht und Menschenwürde e.V. (GBM); Gesellschaft zur rechtlichen und humanitären Unterstützung e. V. (GRH); Gruppe Kommunistische Arbeiterzeitung (KAZ); Hope not Hate, Greater Glasgow, Schottland, Großbritannien; Initiative Buchenwald-Gedenken; Initiativgemeinschaft zum Schutz der sozialen Rechte ehemaliger Angehöriger bewaffneter Organe und der Zollverwaltung der DDR e. V. (ISOR); Kommunistische Initiative – Gera 2010; Kommunistische Plattform in der Linkspartei (KPF); Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD); Marx-Engels-Zentrum (MEZ), Berlin; Ostdeutsches Kuratorium von Verbänden e. V. (OKV); für den RotFuchs – Förderverein e. V.: Götz Dieckmann; für den RotFuchs - Monatszeitschrift: Klaus Steiniger; Sozialistische Jugend Deutschlands (SJD) - Die Falken, Niederbayern/Oberpfalz; Türkiye Komünist Partisi -1920 (TKP-1920); Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Bund der Antifaschisten (VVN-BdA), Berlin-Lichtenberg; Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Verband der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten e.V. (VVN-VdA), Berlin
download here: Call_english.pdf
