Antifa til the day I die, how I found out about my double connection to the Holocaust (long)

[303squadron]

Forgive me for my long post, but it's a story......

It all started when I was 12 and I asked my mother what my father did in the war - World War II. I would have asked him myself if I could, but he had passed away when I was four years old. She said something vague like, "He was in the Marines in the South Pacific, but I don't I know any specifics. He didn't talk about the war." That answer wasn't good enough for me. Thus began my lifelong quest to discover history. By the time I had finished 9th grade I had read every book in my school library and in our county/city library about the Pacific Theatre of Operations and many books about the European Theatre of Operations too.

Now while my father's story is not a connection to the Holocaust I tell it because it ignited in me a lifelong passion for history leading to an undergraduate degree with history as a major. I've never stopped learning about history even to this day. In the past few weeks I have literally visited a couple of dozen important historical sites, including Oradour-sur-Glane (look it up).

My first connection to the Holocaust came from my father in law. I never got to meet him due to the fact that he passed away when my wife was 12. He also took part in World War II, serving as a captain in a medic Corp attached to Patton's Third Army. He entered France about three weeks after D-Day. Originally, his job was to patch up US soldiers......but then Patton's army entered Germany and started opening up the concentration camps. My father in law then took his unit into the camps, trying to save as many as they could. We know this story because he wrote letters home describing what he saw. His mother saved all these letters and because I'm the family historian they came into my possession. I consider them direct historical evidence of the Holocaust!

Four years ago my wife and I decided to visit Krakow, Poland and while we were there to travel to Auschwitz. There is another reason why I wanted to visit Poland. My ancestors are all Polish and Ancestry DNA confirms that I'm probably as much Polish as any Pole living in Poland. 2nd generation Polish American on one side of the family, 3rd generation on the other.

When you visit Auschwitz you see several areas commemorating events with pictures and names of the deceased. It was there that I made a discovery - on one of the walls - a picture and a name...my mother's maiden name!!! Here was a victim who was killed for taking part in an attempted escape. I was shocked. Returning to America I found the Auschwitz-Birkenau on-line site. The Nazis kept good records of who they murdered in the concentration camps, but most of those records from the other camps were destroyed. Not at Auschwitz-Birkenau however! The Auschwitz-Birkenau website has a searchable database on-line of the victims and when I searched on my mother's maiden name over 50 hits were returned. Over 50!!!

When the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, they immediately began to consolidate their power by imprisoning and killing anyone who they thought could be a threat to them. Over 1.9 million Poles, mostly of the Polish intelligentsia were murdered. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians - anyone with a brain was considered a threat. Auschwitz-Birkenau was originally set up to take Polish "political" prisoners and most were killed there at the execution square by firing squad ....or worse. Somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 Poles were murdered there.

In 1940, Polish Americans represented 4% of the total US population. By wars end they represented 8.5% of U.S. fighting forces. What did my father do in the war? He served in the 3rd Marine Infantry Division and took part in the invasion of Bougainville and Guam. I've even been able to find a first hand account of a battle his unit fought in at Guam. Sempre Fi!!!

I'll be antifascist until the day I die.

[Woodswalker]

1. It's a shame many Americans have been led to believe Antifa is Bad

In pre WW2 and during the war Europes Anti Fascists "Antifa" were an organization that formed in Germany and other countries in Europe to fight the uprising of Fascism. Unfortunately for Europe and the rest of the world they were rooted out and murdered by Hitler's followers, many dying by execution or in concentration camps.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

5. This just isn't true.

Antifaschistische Aktion (ANTIFA) was a wing of the German Communist Party (the KDP).

Their primary aim was to destroy liberal democracy in Germany. To that end ANTIFA and the KDP declared that the liberal Social Democratic Party in Germany (the SPD) were "fascists."

The SPD was the rough equivalent politically of the Democratic Party in the USA (perhaps slightly more "left." ) It was people like us that ANTIFA branded as "fascists."

From Wikipedia (from the second time this week, emphasis added):

The late 1920s and early 1930s saw rising tensions mainly between three broad groups, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on one side, the Nazi Party on another and a coalition of governing parties, mainly social democrats and liberals, on the other side...

Both the Communists and the Nazis explicitly sought to overthrow the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic while the social democrats and liberals strongly defended the republic and its constitution. As part of this struggle, all three factions organized their own paramilitary groups...

The KPD regarded the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as its main adversary and adopted the position that the SPD was the main fascist party in Germany. This was based on the theory of social fascism that had been proclaimed by Joseph Stalin and that was supported by the Comintern during the late 1920s and early 1930s, which held that social democracy was a variant of fascism.

Consequently, the KPD held that it was "the only anti-fascist party" in Germany and stated that "fighting fascism means fighting the SPD just as much as it means fighting Hitler and the parties of Brüning."

In KPD and Soviet usage, fascism was primarily viewed as the final stage of capitalism rather than a specific group or movement such as the Italian Fascists or the German Nazis and, based on this theory, the term was applied quite broadly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifaschistische_Aktion

The KDP and ANTIFA aided the Nazis rise to power. Their slogan was "Nach Hitler kommen Wir," which roughly translates as "After Hitler, Our Turn."

There "strategy" was to first destroy liberal democracy by attacking the SPD, so the Nazis could take power, and then their plan was to supplant the Nazis.

I do wish more liberal Democrats studied the history of the period.

ANTIFA's enemy was people like us.

[Woodswalker]

8. Right Wing Revisionism at it's very Finest Rain

Similar to what Republicans do today, like saying Democrats were the true slave owners in the south. Very clever but your wrong. The original Antifa which formed in the early 1930s was an Anti Fascist paramilitary group. Although alot of its funding came from the east it's primary objective was to quell the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. This is largely what America's young are emulating today by calling themselves ANTIFA.
You tapdance and make your best attempts at re-writing history but in the end we all know the facts. My Parents were young teens in Frankfurt Germany at the time period and suffered during WW2 and they gave me first hand accounts of the ANTIFA movement and their cause and unfortunate subsequent failure. Yes they had Communist leanings and were even funded by Stalin but look at the outcome of WW2 and tell me Fascism/Nazis was the better option.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

9. This is a malacious lie.

German ANTIFA in the 20s and 30s was only "anti-fascist" if you buy into the idea that liberals--including the Social Democratic Party in Germany at the time were the real "fascists."

The liberal SDP were ANTIFA's main targets, not the Nazis. ANTIFA's aim was to destroy the Weimar Republic and liberal democracy in Germany. And they accepted that the Nazis would take power first. This is all well-established history.

You would do well study the actual history of the period and to stop with the insulting spread of disinformation.

Read the Wiki articles on Antifaschistische Aktion and KDP leader Ernst Thälmann and the KDP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifaschistische_Aktion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Germany

A brief quote from the last, but all three make the same general point:

Under Thälmann's leadership the party directed most of its attacks against the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which it regarded as its main adversary and referred to as "social fascists"; the KPD considered all other parties in the Weimar Republic to be "fascists"

Germany had options between fascist NAZISM and Stalinism Communism. ANTIFA's prime aim was to eliminate the liberal alternative. And working with the Nazis towards that end, the totalitarian forces succeeded in bringing down the Weimar Republic. A shameful history. ANTIFA's actions were villainous, not heroic. Not even close.

That the true history.

[LeftInTX]

7. The current group does some good, but also causes headaches.

I liken them to the climate activists who throw ketchup at art in Europe.

[Best_man23]

2. Information on Oradour-sur-Glane

The World at War series (produced in 1973) visited Oradour-sur-Glane and briefly tells the story at the beginning of the first episode.

[Karadeniz]

3. I love history, too! Thanks for the post!

[Delphinus]

4. Grateful

for your sharing.

[LeftInTX]

6. Thank you so much for your post.

However, antifascist does not equal Antifa.
Antifa considers many Democrats to be fascist.
Their idea of fascism is not our idea of fascism.

Yes, Antifa is an anti-fascist group, but they don't believe that elections can fight fascism.