Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime - Association of Anti-Fascists of the FRG (Germany)

Verein der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten der BRD

Last modified: 2005-10-22 by santiago dotor
Keywords: vvn-bda | triangle (red) | stripes: 9 (blue-white) | union of persecutees of the nazi regime - association of anti-fascists | verein der verfolgten des naziregimes - bund der antifaschistinnen und antifaschis |
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by Marcus Schmöger, 12 June 2002

• Introduction
• Description

See also:

• Auschwitz KZ (Poland)
• German Communist Party (Deutsche Kommunistische Partei / DKP)
• Political Parties (Germany)
• Germany

Introduction

The VVN-BdA (Verein der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime - Association of Anti-Fascists of the Federal Republic of Germany) was formed as an all-German organisation from local committees in 1947, and was known as VVN (Verein der Verfolgten des Naziregimes); about 1968 it was renamed to VVN-BdA, the specific mention of female/male forms (Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten) was added sometimes in the 1990's. At the beginning the VVN included persecutees of different political ideology, but more and more the communists took over control. Around 1960 the government even tried to ban the organisation as unconstitutional, but failed. Nowadays, the VVN-BdA is basically an organisation influenced by the DKP, with just remnants of anti-fascists from other parties.

The Eastern German branch of the VVN had a different history; the organisation (VVN-BdA) is still independent, although cooperating with the West German VVN-BdA.

Sources:

• Homepage of the VVN-BdA homepage
• e-mail from VVN-Bda, 4 October 2001
• author's own observations at the 1st May 2002 demonstration in Munich
• Verfassungsschutzberichte or Reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution at the Verfassungsschutz website

Marcus Schmöger, 12 June 2002

Description

The flag the VVN-BdA uses is based on the blue-white striped prisoners' uniform, and shows the red triangle of the political persecutees. It is used since 1947; however, in the meantime —exact dates unknown— a different flag had been used: black-red-gold, in the center a yellow circle with the red triangle. Since the 1990ies the traditional flag has been used again. The current version includes inscriptions of parts of the long and short form of the name.

Marcus Schmöger, 12 June 2002