Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I.M.: Ferdinand Hackl

Unplanned, an extra post, after I read about the death of Ferdinand Hackl. I quote Gerhard Hoffmann in the ALBA-newsletter:
"On the 10th of May has died Ferdinand Hackl, ex member of the International Brigades, prisoner in the nazi Concentration Camp of Dachau.  Ferdinand Hackl was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1918, in a very poor worker family. Since his childhood he knew the penuries of the underprivileged of the society. With 15 years he joined the Communist Youth and was consequently imprisoned by the fascist chancellor Dollfuss.
In 1937, we see him in Spain in the 86 Brigada Mixta, fighting in the South and Centre.  In January, he is among the volonteers who undertake the vain attempt to halt the fascist advance on Barcelona, which ends in the Camps in the  South of France, in St. Cyprien and Gurs.  In 1940, France is occupied by the Nazi Wehrmacht and Ferdinand falls into the hands of the Gestapo who bring him to the Nazi Camp of Dachau, from where he is liberated in April, 1945 by the US Army.
Ferdinand Hackl has been an active political fighter unto the end, although critical with regards to the obvious failors of the Communist Party, he was never prepared to abandon it.
The few surviving Austrian brigadistas and the many friends he has all over the world will never forget this never tiring fighter against the in justice of our society and for a socialist world."

This video on Youtube shows Mr Hackl in a German spoken documentary of survivors of the Lichtenfelde Concentration Camp. 

No comments:

Post a Comment