70th Anniversary of the Day of Liberation from Fascism – 8th May Should Become Official Memorial and Holiday

On May 8, 2015 the end of World War Two in Europe has its 70th anniversary. The allies prevailed over German fascism, stopped millionfold murder, the suffering and the persecution of dissidents, persons of different faiths, and people living differently. The totality of National Socialist race policy and the war of extermination turned economically and politically opposing systems into allies. On the 8^th  of May 1945 ended the common fight of Soviet Union and Western allies against this unparalleled threat of basic values of humanism, against liberality and democracy.

The victims of the fascist, anti-Semitic, and racist brutality in the years of the Nazi regime still oblige us – to act together, to stand up against “brown non-spirit”, against right wing baiters, against hostility towards groups of persons or against the intolerance of neo-right wing Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) movements. The murders of the NSU (National Socialist Underground), the Nazi marches and Swastika scribblings remind us that the womb out of which Nazi Germany, war, and destruction, grew is still going strong. The strengthening of right wing extremist, racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic forces in Germany and Europe worries us deeply. That is why all democratic and antifascist forces have to vigorously defend the highest good – living in peace and democracy. This can only succeed if society stands together – if politics further support and promote projetcs against Nazis and, if education in schools is complex and nuanced, if the media report precisely and clarifying, and if anti-fascist and civil engagement are honoured and not criminalised.

The day of liberation is a day of commemoration of the victims of racist and political persecution. It is a day of remembring anti-fascist resistance. Being DIE LINKE we are historically particularly connected to communist and socialist resistance. But we also bow with the highest respect to all other political currents of resistance against the Hitler regime.

The 8^th of May 1945 marks the victory over fascist barbarity and war. It ended the millionfold killing by the Nazis. To give the 8^th of May, the day of liberation from fascist barbarity, the place in social memory it deserves we want it to become a nationwide official memorial and holiday – as memorial day for humanity, tolerance, and democracy as well as day of commemoration of the victims and resistance fighters. It is, in the end, not just any other day in the history of Germany. It was the hour of a democratic new beginning after the failure of the Weimar Republic. Just 30 years ago Richard von Weizsäcker said the 8^th of May had become a day of liberation for the Germans. The term “had become” is important, since many Germans considered this 8^th of May after 1945 a day of “defeat”. A nationwide official memorial and holiday would underline the dictum of Weizsäcker in a special way.

Currently, we experience growingly problematic political gestures concerning anniversaries of the Second World War. The federal government obviously does not want to honour this day with a worthy commemorating event. The chancellor does not deem it necessary to take part in the memorial event for the 70^th anniversary in Moscow. We have to experience that federal president Gauck does not honour the role and the victims of Russian society at a memorial event regarding the beginning of the Second World War and instead argues in favour of a militarised foreign policy aimed at Russia. Before the background of more than 30 million Soviet war victims this means turning a blind a to history. For us therefore, the memory of the 8^th of May 1945 is always a memory of the great sacrifices the Soviet Union made to liberate Europe from fascist terror; something which today is often forgotten or ignored but a precondition for the existing democracy in Western Europe since 1945.

The 8th of May as day of the end of the Second World War is not only an anti-fascist memorial day for democracy, humanity, and tolerance but also a day of reminder against war as a means of foreign policy. “Never again war – never again fascism!” – thus was the oath of Buchenwald. This oath is more topical than ever. For us, the memory of the 8th of May 1945 always means to fight for no war ever again originating from German soil. But we observe with sorrow that neither the oath of Buchenwald nor the message of the first social democratic chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Willy Brandt, that war was not anymore the “ultima ratio” but the “ultima irratio” of politics applies to great parts of the political persons in charge in Germany. For the other parties represented in Bundestag war has again become a given option. We will never put up with this. For us – in memory of the 8th of May 1945 – still holds: No to war!