The
second Antifascist Harbour Event, organised by members of the KFSR (Kämpfer und
Freunde der Spanischen Republik) and Antifascists from Hamburg, was held in
Hamburg from the 18th. to the 20th. May.
Four comrades from Belfast
attended. On Friday we attended a meeting in the Ernst Thälmann memorial
building, where at one time he lived before his arrest in 1933. A talk was
given on Thälmann and Comrade Etkar (Edgar) André. Both had been harbour
workers. André was also arrested in 1933 but was executed in 1936, Thälmann was
executed in August 1944. The building is situated on Ernst Thälmann Platz which
was a pleasant surprise and contains a photographic exhibition and other
artefacts and is a great tribute to Thälmann and the pre-war Communist Party of
Germany (KPD) which of course is still illegal having been banned in 1956,
hence the surprise that the authorities still allow a square to be named after
a famous Communist.
Saturday saw us board a boat for a sailing trip around
Hamburg Harbour where we went to various parts of the docks where the workers
exposed to the world, and especially the Spanish government, the role of the
Nazi government and the Condor Legion who embarked from Hamburg in the guise of
tourists.
The Dockers were not convinced of the “tourist” guise,
especially when some of their “luggage” seemed to be overtly heavy.
Deliberately dropping some of this “luggage” on the quayside revealed packages
containing bullets, bombs and other
equipment not normally associated with tourism. Quite a number of these dockers
paid for their activities with their lives. Later that day we went to the
International Seamen’s Club (Duckdalben) and learned about the role of the
Viennese born Communist seaman Wolf Hoffman who fought with the 11th brigade of
the International Brigades, along with
his brother Gert.
Comrade Hoffman was wounded and returned to Belgium to
be with his family who had fled Austria after the Nazi takeover. The family was
Jewish and so had little alternative.
Comrade Hoffman was arrested in 1940 and sent to
Dachau concentration camp.
He was later transferred to Gross-Rosen camp and died
there on March 12 1942.
His son Thomas came from Vienna for the weekend’s commemoration and it
was good to meet him. We were entertained by anti-fascist singer Achim Bigus
who sang a number of songs including Christy Moore’s Viva la Quince Brigada.
On the Sunday we visited comrades who run the Willi Bredel Society.
Bredel was a writer and served with the Thälmann
battalion in Spain. He died in 1964. His daughter was in attendance.
Afterwards we went to the local cemetery where
volunteers from the Spanish Civil War are buried and also comrades who perished
in the camps. It was a historic weekend that brought home to us the role of the
heroic KPD and the continuing need to fight fascism. We thank Reinhardt, Peter,
Ulrike, Hilde and all the other comrades at the KFSR who made us so welcome in
commemorating the more than 100
volunteers from Hamburg who fought in Spain, and of course those comrades from
that city who gave their lives in the struggle against fascism alongside their
leader Ernst “Teddy” Thälmann. The event attracted people from Denmark,
Britain, Austria, Ireland, and obviously members of the KFSR from various parts
of Germany. We are looking forward to next year.
Vorwärts und nicht vergessen!
Ernest Walker, Belfast
