 |
 |
 |
German Democratic Republic Out of Darkness into the Stars In the GDR anti-Fascism became the founding myth for the new state and the new society. The glorification of the Communist Resistance and the commemoration of the victims of Fascism and of the liberation of the country by the Red Army all contributed to turning the people of the GDR into a population of Resistance fighters, martyrs, and finally victors in the face of history. The assumed past they all had in common was the anti-Fascist Resistance. Its objective was achieved in the liberation by the Red Army, which in turn made a future in an anti-Fascist, Socialist state possible. The former concentration camp in Buchenwald was one of the important sites of national commemoration. The story of the so-called self-liberation of the camp, a fixed element in the master narrative, was one of the founding myths of the GDR that provided the state with historical roots and self-awareness. |
 |
On 14 September 1958 the Buchenwald National Memorial was inaugurated on Ettersberg Hill near Weimar. A monument by Fritz Cremer forms the centre of the ensemble. A group of figures is built up like a pyramid and represents eleven different types of people. The myth of the self-liberation is clearly conveyed by a poster from 1960. Cremer's group of prisoners appears to be striding into the future before the rising sun. The state insignias of the GDR - the hammer and compasses - are inscribed in the sun, the bright future. A close connection between the struggle of the anti-Fascists and the foundation of the GDR is clearly established here. |
 |
The novel "Nackt unter Wölfen" (Naked Among Wolves) by Bruno Apitz contributed to the effectiveness of the myth of anti-Fascism. It was published at almost the exact same time as the inauguration of the Buchenwald National Memorial and immediately became a bestseller. Bruno Apitz counted as extremely credible: he had spent eight years as a prisoner in Buchenwald and had survived. The book had a circulation of many millions and was translated into twenty-five languages. "Nackt unter Wölfen" deals with rescue of a little Polish-Jewish boy, Stefan Jerzy Zweig, by the Communists working in the Resistance shortly before the end of the War and it also treats the self-liberation of the camp. Apitz fails to relate that the true story of the child's rescue did not end there. A young Sinti boy named Willy Blum was put on the deportation list in place of young Stefan. In 1962 the novel "Nackt unter Wölfen" was made into a film by Frank Beyer. In the central scene at the end of the film an SS officer enters the barracks and sees the child. But at this moment it becomes clear that the times have changed. The SS loses its power over the people. The boy can cautiously dare to come forward. |
  |
|
