WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE GERMANY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Germany, Die Platform: Report on Trier's Feminist Day of Struggle (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Together with the Feminist Network and other groups, we participated in

the feminist village on the main market square and in the demonstration
through the city center on March 8th. For most of us, it was a
strenuous, but also very empowering, solidary, and wonderful day. In
glorious weather, we, as FLINTA*s, took the space in the middle of the
city to educate ourselves, engage in conversation, eat together,
commemorate past and current struggles, and give the patriarchy the
middle finger. We provided a platform for this, including KüfA
(Children's Association) and childcare. We participated with a speech on
women's resistance to fascism and a children's workshop, where we gave
children a space to use their voices and participate politically in the
feminist village.

Now it's about bringing the energy and strength of March 8th into
everyday life.

Feminist Day of Struggle is every day!

Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!

---------------------------------------------
Speech at the Feminist Day of Struggle in Trier
March 10, 2025
Content warning: War, persecution, fascist violence

It is February 1942. In Bernburg an der Saale, in present-day
Saxony-Anhalt, Nazi Germany has been operating one of its many killing
centers for two years. Between 1940 and 1943, almost 15,000 people are
murdered here with poison gas. One of them is Helga Beyer. She is 21
years old; her exact date of death is unknown. As a child, she joins the
German-Jewish youth movement; when the Nazi Party takes power, she is
just 13 years old. She is close to the communist opposition, whose
members almost unanimously join the illegal anti-fascist resistance
after 1933. Helga collected money for the families of arrested and
murdered comrades and moved around the German-Czech border region as a
courier and smuggler. She helped comrades establish contacts abroad and
escape. In the summer, she hid leaflets and illegal magazines in the
hollows of her bicycle; in the winter, she used specially prepared ski
poles. At the beginning of 1938, Helga and her sister Ursel were
arrested during a wave of arrests. Only one year of her resistance
activity was mentioned in court; her remaining anti-fascist work
remained hidden from the state. Nevertheless, at the end of her
imprisonment, after three and a half years, she was not released but
transferred to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp and finally
executed with carbon monoxide in the Bernburg killing center sometime in
February 1942.

A total of over 120,000 women were imprisoned in the Ravensbrück women's
concentration camp, including Jewish women, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti
and Roma women, lesbians, and queer people, as well as many political
prisoners like Helga Beyer. Their stories are still told too rarely
today. Yet they showed us what it means to remain in solidarity and
resist even in difficult times. While imprisoned in the Ravensbrück
concentration camp, the political women organized themselves. They
supported each other and other prisoners, organized food and clothing
for each other, and created moments of caring and solidarity among
themselves in the brutal daily life of the camp. This allowed them to
save some of their lives. They even continued their political work as
far as possible. With their limited resources, they tried to educate
themselves and secretly organized commemorative events for International
Women's Day.

The women who resisted fascism were not heroines, they had no
superpowers, and they were not sent by a god. They were students like
Helga Beyer, single mothers like Lilo Herrmann, and workers like Johanna
Kirchner. They were like us. And they fought, courageously and
unyieldingly. It's been 85 years since women in concentration camps
celebrated March 8th as a day of struggle. Today, it's up to us to honor
their courage and continue their struggles.

Alerta, Alerta, Antifascista!

https://trier.dieplattform.org/2025/03/10/redebeitrag-zum-feministischen-kampftag-in-trier/
https://trier.dieplattform.org/2025/03/13/bericht-zum-feministischen-kampftag-in-trier/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca