FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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1987 British-made film that aired
on television in the USA shortly after being produced. It is the story of a mass escape from a
Nazi death camp in Sobibor on October 14, 1943. The full movie is available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNjRR9Sfl2c.
Jews have often been accused of going to their deaths during the Holocaust like "sheep to the slaughter," but this wasn't true. Many resisted; however, their resistance is often left out of our school history books. Instead we are mostly presented with stories of individuals or of small families dying or simply surviving the Holocaust.
Escape from Sobibor and stories of the Anti-Nazi resistance are important lessons of our capacity to fight back especially when united. The mass escape from Sobibor was only made possible because prisoners lived and identified as a collective. Individual resistance often failed and often meant retaliation by the SS who would kill twenty, thirty, or more for the defiance of one. Prisoners at Sobibor valiantly and against all odds decided to change their situation despite extreme control and power over them.
First Lieutenant Alexander "Sasha" Pechersky as well as a few of his men planned and led the escape. Sasha was a Soviet prisoner of war. He had been sent to the eastern front in October 1941, but had been captured near Viazma. After having been transferred to several camps, the Nazis discovered that he was Jewish, and sent him to Sobibor.
Sasha made a big impression on the other prisoners of Sobibor. Leon Feldhendler, who had been discussing escape with a group of other prisoners, now found someone who not only had the military background to plan an escape, but also someone who could inspire confidence in the prisoners. There were 600 prisoners at Sobibor and about half of them escaped.
Next time we are discouraged by the reality that those that oppress us have a lot of power over us, let us remember the prisoners at Sobibor. Divided we are weak, but united we are unstoppable!
We must work together to form worker, student, and soldier unity. Some believe that the odds of overthrowing capitalism are too great. However, if we unite under one flag, one party, one class, we CAN and WILL overthrow our oppressors and change the world. THE ONLY SOLUTION IS COMMUNIST REVOLUTION
Escape from Sobibor teaches an important political lesson of unity and courage which is an inspiration to the entire working class.
The movie, however, leaves out a key feature of the rebellion, and of anti-Nazi resistance all over: the crucial role of Communists. The movie features a young woman named Luka who Sasha Pechersky pretended to be in love with so he could conspire with the other planners of the escape. But it leaves out that Luka, the daughter of a German communist, had refused under torture to tell the Nazis where her father had escaped to—when she was only eight years old.
The movie also leaves out the key role played by a Polish Communist named Solomon Leitman who served as interpreter and liaison between the Polish Feldhandler and the Russian soldier Pechersky.
Readers who want to know more about this could read Pechersky's account in Yuri Suhl's They Fought Back, Richard Rashke's book Escape from Sobibor, or Allan Merson's Communist Resistance in Nazi Germany. They would learn of the underground networks of resistance, the communist leaflets, graffiti, neighborhood and on-the-job actions throughout occupied Europe, the bravery—and mistakes—made in this struggle to the death against capitalism and fascism.
It's no surprise that a movie shown on TV in the US would leave out the role of communists. But our critique of the communist movement in the 20th century--that they didn't get rid of the system that breeds fascism--shouldn't lead us to making that mistake. Their heroism and principled class struggle provide us with plenty of lessons we can learn for the fight ahead for a communist world.
ALL OF US OR NONE
By Berthold Brecht (1945)
Slave, who is it that shall free you?
Those in deepest darkness lying.
Comrade, only these can see you
Only they can hear you crying.
Comrade, only slaves can free you.Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.
One alone his lot can't better.
Either gun or fetter.
Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.You who hunger, who shall feed you?
If it's bread you would be craving,
Come to us, we too are starving.
Come to us and let us lead you.
Only hungry men can feed you.Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.
One alone his lot can't better.
Either gun or fetter.
Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.Beaten man, who shall avenge you?
You, on whom the blows are falling,
Hear your wounded brothers calling.
Weakness gives us strength to lend you.
Come to us, we shall avenge you.Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.
One alone his lot can't better.
Either gun or fetter.
Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.Who, oh wretched one, shall dare it?
He who can no longer bear it.
Count the blows that arm his spirit.
Taught the time by need and sorrow,
Strikes today and not tomorrow.
Everything or nothing.All of us or none.
One alone his lot can't better.
Either gun or fetter.
Everything or nothing.
All of us or none.