The antifascist-"workcamp" that takes place at the memorial site of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen has been traditionally organised by the group "R.O.T.K.Ä.P.P.C.H.E.N." This year the camp has been organised by independent participants of the former camps, called "Störenfriede" – The Troublemakers - and they have changed the name to an "Antifa – week" (AFA week.)

We plan a week of discussion and action with a radical antifascist theme. We are inviting all interested antifascists to the camp and especially people from Oranienburg who are prepared to fight fascism in their area. 

The week is being organised together with the "Forum gegen Rassismus" in Oranienburg; but we have a separate invitation:

Concentration camp "Sachsenhausen" was built in 1936 under the charge of the SS to the north of the "Reichs"-capital Berlin. It was one of the largest Concentration camps in the old German "Reich." 

Political prisoners, so called "professional criminals", "asocial people", Jehova’s witnesses and homosexuals and towards the end of Camp, more and more Jews, Sinti and Roma as well as people from occupied countries were forced to work there under terrible conditions before their deportation to the extermination camps in the east. In total more than 100,000 people were killed, the last prisoners being freed on the 22.4.1945 by the red army. 

The Antifa – Week.

With the Antifa week we intend to remind people of the crimes committed by the majority of the German people which most people still try to ignore, and at the same make sure that Auschwitz can never happen again.

We do not accept the mainstream view, that it is right to compare the crimes committed by the Nazis to those of the Communists or that they should be allowed to be used to defend the use of military intervention during civil wars such as was the case in Kosovo. 

To us it is much more important to fight against these attempts to ignore and water down history and to understand why this comes about. We must also attack, for example, the racism in the German population as well as the fact that Germany is again becoming a strong military power.

The memorial.

The national memorial at Sachsenhausen was opened in 1961 under the GDR. Since 1990 the camp is under renovation. The way the old East Germany presented history is now being replaced by the view of the new Germany. In 1993 the memorial was damaged in an arson attack from neo-nazis. 

The Antifa – week should be seen as being in critical support of the memorial. We want to help on the excavations of the buildings in which the prisoners were forced to work, where they were killed and where the crematoriums were. 

We have invited speakers and witnesses from the camp to help us work through the camps history, to criticise the work of the memorial and to support the "Sachsenhausen-Kommitee der ehemaligen Hälftlinge" – the organisation of the camp’s survivors. 

In Oranienburg, as in so many parts of Brandenburg, many young people are influenced by the right and racist violence is a part of everyday life. With our presence, we will be able to change this as well as to support the activists and Anti-racists in the area and to increase the networking between Antifascists.

An Antifascist group from Poland will also be coming to the week and we are planning to discuss the German occupation of Poland, German and Polish memorial politics as well as Antifascism in both countries.

If you want to come to the Antifa week, it is necessary to inform us in advance. It is of course possible to come for less than the entire week. Come for a few days or even just one day! To make sure the week will be a success the "input" of all those taking part is very important. So think of ideas for actions and tell us before hand if you would like to for example, give a talk. We will be staying in a building in Oranienburg and will be cooking for ourselves. For each day there will be a cost of between 5 – 12 DM. Dogs are not allowed, please bring a sleeping bag and if possible bikes or even better a car.

Arrival :

Easter Sunday 23 April 2000 at 2 O’clock in the Oberstufenzentrum of Oberhavel. 

Germendorfer Allee 17,  Oranienburg. 

Information is also available on the Web. There you will find our Program, texts about "memorial-politics" as well as information concerning the memorial itself [start].

Program:

Sunday. 23.4 
Arrival and evening Party with bands and Disco in the Friedrich-Wolf-Haus.
 

Monday – Friday.

Mornings.
Work in the "Industriehof", the Jewish cemetery, the Russian memorial or in the camp archive. Afternoons.Talks with witnesses from the time, discussions about the national-socialist history, memorial and Antifascist politics today.

Evenings.
Talks and getting to know each other.
 

Saturday. 29.4
Informal discussion and critique on the week