Gert Hoffmann, International Brigade veteran (1920 – 2014)
Gert Hoffmann (1920 – 2014), veteran of the International Brigade
On July 9, one month after his 97th birthday, Gert Hoffmann, passed on peacefully and safely at home in Austria.
Gert joined the International Brigade in 1938. Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic he, along with some 400,000 Spanish, crossed the border into France where they found themselves interned on the beaches in southern France. In 1940, when the Germans invaded France he joined the French Resistance and continued on with the fight against fascism.
A life-long activist and humanitarian, he strongly believed that it was only by “overcoming Injustice, Intolerance and Exploitation and by giving the millions of needy a chance to live without hunger and poverty – and, by respecting their way of life” that peace could ever be achieved.
In a recent letter to the ALBA community, reflecting on the anniversary of World War II and the current state of the world he wrote, “As I am about to leave this beautiful world, I feel compelled to state that I have not for one moment lost faith in the fact that our ideals were just and that the future of humanity will be socialism.”
Read his complete letter to ALBA.
Read Hoffman’s short memoir on WWII here.
In the name of my deceased parents I thank Mr Gert Hoffman and the thousands of International Brigades volunteers that went to Spain to fight the good fight. My parents were among the 400,000 the crossed the French border in 1939. Eventually they made their way to South America where I was born.