Outrage by usual suspects over anti-fascist organization losing its nonprofit status

A demonstrator carrying the VVN organization's flag with the red triangle symbolizing political prisoners, mainly communist, in front of the former Buchenwald concentration/internment camp entrance in Germany.

By Carolyn Yeager

THE LONG-RUNNING SCAM OF a “holocaust camp survivors organization” that dates back to 1945 may be coming to an end.

The Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime/Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA), is being denied its nonprofit tax benefits status by Berlin because it was cited as a left-wing extremist organization or group by the Bavarian state domestic intelligence agency. According to a report in Der Spiegel magazine, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz is keen to cut tax benefits for groups that try to influence political debate.

Several other nonprofit organizations, Jewish leaders and politicians have, not surprisingly, condemned the decision, including The Left Party, some of its members, and the head of the German branch of Friends of Nature. The VVN-BdA posted a statement on its website that this decision endangered its survival. The group has only 6000 members in Germany but more foreign members.

A brief history of the VVN

Already in June 1945 in Stuttgart, the communists had formed “an association of political prisoners and persecutees of the Nazi system" and in the following weeks and months, the allied forces permitted other such groups in all four occupation zones.

The VVN (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes) was initiated by representatives of the labour parties, which had always opposed the National Socialists when they were in power. It set out to be an umbrella group for everyone according to its manifesto of August 1946, but was mainly composed of the political prisoners (communists) in Buchenwald. Some had taken a Buchenwald Oath to “never again let facism become a reality—Our motto is the extermination of Nazism to its roots.” The red triangle symbol sewn on the concentration camp uniforms of political prisoners was adopted as the logo. Some found this incompatible and left the organization at that time, leading to a political narrowing of its purpose.

In East Germany's DDR, the VVN name was changed to the Committee of Anti-fascist Resistance Fighters. In West Germany it was led by the SED (Socialist Unity Party) and the DKP (Communist Party), and was widely viewed as a “Communist front organization.” From the outset, the VVN ostensibly concerned itself with the care, counseling and compensation for “victims of Nazi persecution.” One problem for them as a non-profit charity was the statute that excluded payments from anyone who advocated communism! In actual practice, the “charity” worked against SS reunions, against the nationalist NPD (National Democratic Party), and against revisionist history including what it calls Auschwitz denial.

In 1971, the VVN expanded to include the “Association of Anti-fascists” (BdA). This extended the membership to “anyone who felt a bond with concentration camp survivors and their legacy,” changing the organization considerably during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1989, it it became officially known that most of the VVN's work at the federal level had been financed with funds from the DDR (Communist East German government). The end of this funding brought a financial crisis, resulting in the resignation of the president and secretary of the national board, leading the organization to then become less dogmatic, and open to unaffiliated anti-fascists. In October 2002, the West German and East German groups merged, bringing the membership to around 9000.

In 2005, a report by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution found the VVN-BdA to be “influenced by left-wing extremism.” It found that members and former members of the DKP and the Left Party still held leadership positions; that the organization held to the belief that a market economy was capitalistic and thus necessarily supportive of right-wing activity; that a socialist/communist dictatorship was the only alternative to fascist threats. It found that communist crimes were consistently qualified, ignored or denied by the organization.

Since then, the constitutional protection reports have not mentioned the VVN-BdA, except in the states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.

What is the purpose of such an organization today?

Today, the VVN-BdA claims to fight racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism; illegal discrimination (national origin, race, sexual orientation, ideology); and publishes a magazine titled Antifa. They have initiated and supported further campaigns to ban the NPD as an unconstitutional political party.

Is it a charity or a political organization? It's nonprofit status exempts it from various taxes, and allows supporters to write donations off on their tax returns. The question is over whether a charity should have the ability to engage politically.

The Bavarian intelligence agency regards the VVN-BdA's use of the term "anti-fascism," as meaning not just the fight against right-wing extremism (according to their definition of such), but also to mean agitation against the democratic state itself and its institutions. I would agree. However, I'll be surprised if the ruling against the VVN holds; more than likely a compromise will be found that will allow what began as a concentration camp survivors association to continue to flourish freely in Germany as an anti-government, anti-democracy fifth column. We'll follow it here and let you know.