Charter - Basic Declaration on Tasks and Goals of the International Camp Collective of Ravensbrück, April 1965

25.05.2020

Representatives properly chosen by national Ravensbrück member association in the following countries

Austria

Belgium

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Denmark

Federal Republic of Germany

France

German Democratic Republic

Netherlands

Norway

People’s Republic of Hungary

People’s Republic of Poland

arrived at an agreement on April 26th 1965 to form a new International Ravensbrück Committee. They decided that the aims and nature of the International Camp Collective should be as follows:

a) The symbolic headquarters of the International Ravensbrück Camp Collective is in Ravensbrück, where our comrades from the GDR, aided by their fellow citizens, have erected a memorial and a museum at the site of our struggles and our suffering.

b.) The International Camp Collective of Ravensbrück will join the families of our dead comrades in honoring and defending their memory. It will work to maintain and develop further the friendship we attained in the camp, uniting all of us who were prisoners in the camp regardless of differences in nationality, political views, race or religion.

The International Camp Collective of Ravensbrück will work to promote mutual understanding between different nations, contributing in this way towards maintaining peace. The International Camp Collective of Ravensbrück will also:

  1. work to prevent fascist murderers and their backers from escaping their just punishment by hiding behind legalistic paragraphs. It will take a lead in struggling against any revival of fascism.

  2. work towards preventing a return to any forms of oppression of individuals and nations and join in fighting for the freedom and independence of all peoples;

  3. endeavor to pass on to young people the ideals of the antifascist resistance struggle;

  4. contribute towards maintaining peace and friendly understanding between nations;

  5. provide a comprehensive picture of camp history by collecting historical material from all countries.

Every country represented in the Collective shall send two representatives as delegates to the International Camp Collective of Ravensbrück. A presidium of seven members shall head the Camp Collective. One member of this presidium shall be named President of the Camp Collective. The headquarters of the presidium shall be in Paris.