Version imprimableThis concentration camp, liberated by the prisoners themselves on 11 April 1945, was one of the largest deportation and forced labour camps in Germany. It was also the main detention camp for political prisoners. Among them were many comrades of the left-wing opposition to Stalinism and of the 4th International who, in appalling conditions, continued to resist and defend their programme. They saved dozens of Jewish deportees from certain death by distributing them their own red triangles identifying political prisoners.
When the camp was liberated, the Frenchman Marcel Baufrère, the Austrians Ernst Federn and Karl Fischer, and the Belgian Florent Galloy drafted a joint text known as the ‘Buchenwald Declaration of Internationalist Communists’ and managed to publish a few copies, which were distributed to German-speaking deportees.
Behind the portraits of these comrades, to which had been added those of Martin Monath and Marcel Hic, it was in a heavy silence that, on Saturday 11 October, the procession of participants passed through the camp gates. And it was near the central square, where the 250,000 or so Buchenwald deportees passed through, 56,000 of whom perished there, that the first tribute was paid to them as militant members of the 4th International.
In the afternoon, in the nearby town of Weimar, a symposium dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Buchenwald Declaration of the Internationalist Communists brought together historians and activists.
24 October 2025
Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.
