Dresden, Germany, 65 years after firebombing
Human blockade keeps neo-Nazi marchers out
By
John Catalinotto
Published Feb 17, 2010 4:27 PM
Progressive residents of Germany won a victory as 12,000 people used their
bodies and their organization to blockade a neo-Nazi march in Dresden, a major
city in Saxony, located on the Elbe River in the southeast of the country near
the Czech border. It was a welcome triumph not only over the fascists but over
the German government which was prepared to defend the neo-Nazi marchers.
Anti-Nazi blockade, Dresden, Germany, Feb. 13. Banner reads: ‘Never again
fascism! Never again war!’
Photo: Gabriele Senft
|
The fascists had chosen Feb. 13 for their march for a special reason. It was
the 65th anniversary of when U.S. and British bombers had dropped so many
incendiary bombs on the center of this German city that it created a firestorm,
sucking out all the air and burning or suffocating between 35,000 and 70,000
German civilians.
The neo-Nazis wanted to take the legitimate grievance over this war crime and
make it their issue. It’s to the credit of the German anti-fascists that
they joined together — 600 organizations and 2,000 individuals supported
the Dresden-based coalition — and came from all over the Federal Republic
to physically stop the Nazis.
The success required both a countrywide mobilization and a political struggle
against those who simply wanted to make a symbolic protest, that is, to protest
the neo-Nazi march but not confront it. The anti-fascists succeeded in both
areas. “It wasn’t easy,” said Lena Roth, spokesperson for the
Dresden anti-fascist coalition. “We took casualties from Nazi attacks and
it was icy cold, but it was worth it.” (German daily Junge Welt, Feb.
15)
A stream of Twitter messages that Workers World followed showed how the
anti-fascists coordinated their actions to block the Nazi march into Dresden. A
favorite signoff on the site was “Dresden Nazifrei, no pasaran,”
meaning “No Nazis in Dresden, they shall not get in.”
Young workers played a major role in the anti-fascist blockade. Ringo Bischoff,
federal youth secretary of the service workers union ver.di, stated: “The
ver.di-youth is committed to an anti-fascist program and will also in the
coming period remain active against Nazis and rightist ideologies in the
factories and the union.” (Junge Welt, Feb. 15)
The role of the government, which mobilized thousands of police to protect the
fascist marchers, boomeranged. Support for the counterdemonstration grew after
people found out that the state in Saxony would allow a major fascist march to
take place. As anti-fascist Joachim Guilliard from Heidelberg told Workers
World, “There was one bus from here going to Dresden. But when people
found out what the government was doing, the organizers had to hire two more
buses.”
The chairperson of the Union of Victims of the Nazi Regime, Heinrich Fink,
said, “The successful blockades have impressively shown that in the
struggle against the old and new Nazis we can rely only on ourselves, and not
at all on the state regime or the police or the courts.” (Junge Welt,
Feb. 15)
Dresden: Feb. 13, 1945
Dresden is known for its art museum, the bridges across the Elbe and the brutal
fire-bombing as World War II drew to a close. Germany’s neo-Nazi movement
has no right to seize Dresden’s history as its issue. At the time, there
was little protest of this brutal slaughter of civilians that was a common
event in the war waged by imperialist forces — on both sides — and
in which Germany’s Nazi-led military reveled.
Except that it was home to Germans, Dresden was the least likely military
target. Its population had doubled as German civilians from the east ran before
the advance of the Soviet Red Army. The British and U.S. military fire-bombed
Dresden because it was a military experiment they could get away with. In
addition, it was a show of force and ruthlessness to the Red Army, as later on,
in an even more dramatic and inhuman way, were the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in Japan.
For readers who are unfamiliar with the firebombing of Dresden, perhaps the
best way to learn of it is to read “Slaughterhouse Five,” the novel
by Kurt Vonnegut, who himself was a prisoner of war, forced to work underground
in Dresden when the bombing took place. A factual description might leave one
numbed by numbers, while Vonnegut’s novel makes vivid the charred logs
that were the remains of tens of thousands of civilians.
The imperialist politicians who ordered Dresden’s destruction are gone,
but their successors in the Pentagon and the British military are now carrying
out a slaughter of civilians with newer weapons in the mountains and valleys of
Iraq and Afghanistan. What is the current offensive on Marjah, Afghanistan, but
another war crime? Neither the Nazis nor the “democratic”
imperialists should be allowed to get away with war crimes.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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