Fédération Internationale des Résistants
 |
|
| Founded | 1951 Vienna, Austria |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Focus | Antifascism |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
Europe |
| Method | campaigning |
|
Official language
|
English, German, French |
|
Key people
|
Vilmos Hanti, President, Ulrich Schneider, Secretary General |
| Website | http://www.fir.at |
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists also known by its French initials FIR (Fédération Internationale des Résistantes - Association des Antifascistes) is an organization of veterans of the anti-Axis resistance fighters, partisans, members of the anti-Hitler coalition. During the Cold War, the work of the FIR was closely connected with issues of peace, disarmament, understanding and cooperation of countries of different political systems. The FIR gave the former resistance fighters a voice against the policy of military confrontation and the real threat of war. Member organizations in West and East took numerous initiatives to end the policy of confrontation.
The FIR was founded in June 1951 in Vienna. It was formed by an earlier organization called the International Federation of Former Political Prisoners; the latter organization had been founded in Paris in 1947. (Other sources say 1946)
In the following decades, FIR organized conferences on medical, political and historical themes. The aim was also to prove that the destruction of German fascism was not only the work of Army organizations, but that the role of partisans and resistance fighters were kept in good memory. To preserve the memory of the post-war generations, FIR set-up a historical commission, which published a total of ten “International issues of the resistance movement”, studies of the antifascist resistance fight in various European countries, including impressive reports on the uprising in Paris, Prague and Northern Italy as well as documents on the resistance in the concentration and extermination camps and the international participation in the national liberation struggle in various European countries, with a specific attention to the Jewish resistance movement. The aim of this memory was the historical education of young generations.
The medical and social conferences of the FIR highlighted the health consequences of persecution in Nazi prisons and the medical consequences for family members and the enforcement of appropriate compensation. There were repeated argumentation with social supply points about how long-term health damage by the prison time can be evaluated. Reputable physicians sat for the interests of a former persecuted and helped those that appropriate care and financial compensation was given.
A key task was the fight against the resurgence of neo-fascist organizations and political restoration, particularly in the Federal Republic of Germany. FIR repeatedly documented the reality of fascist crimes, to show what were the inhuman results of such a policy. But FIR did not only intelligence work. As Nazi graffiti became increasingly impertinent in Germany and further to the desecration of the Cologne synagogue in December 1959, FIR suggested to convene an “International Conference against the resurgence of Nazism and anti-Semitism”. Together with the International League for Human Rights, the Union of Israeli Jewish communities in Italy, the ANPPIA and ANED, FIR organized this conference in March 1960 in Florence, which was attended by 130 delegates from 13 countries.
...
Wikipedia