This Is AntiFa: France
This is Laon, France:
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-laon-aisne-picardie-france-43926641.html
My grandparents lived there when my mother, brothers and sisters and myself went to visit them when I was in High School. I met my uncles, aunts and cousins.
My grandfather died 2 weeks after we left for home here in America. It was 1974
Laon is about 100 miles north of Paris in the Picardy region.
During the war my family lived in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France in the north east not far from Luxembourg/Belgium. My grandfather was a Police Captain and Antifa.
When the Nazis first invaded France in 1940, my family traveled to the south of France, also known as Vichy. As families along the road traveled to escape the Nazi invasion, the German planes would shoot - rat-tat-tat-tat - along the roads at the people. My family lived in the south for 18 months when my grandparents decided to return due to homesickness.
My mother told me stories of Nazis just walking into homes and taking food and whatever. Of wearing gas masks to school. And of neighbors who were forced to wear the star on their clothes and disappearing mysteriously (at least to my mom and her siblings) in the middle of the night.
My grandfather belonged to the Resistance. Mom remembers hearing my grandparents talking escape routes if he got found out. And she remembers my grandfather having a code book and listening to the the BBC very low on the radio. When the part from De Gaulle would speak on French for French, there would be codes spoken and my grandfather would follow them to know the message. He knew when the invasion began in Normandy. When Paris was liberated.
When the fighting came to my family's town the people hid in the cellars underground. Heavy fighting took place above for 3 days and nights. And then, silence.
One of the men crept upstairs and opened the door. Coming down the street was a lone tank. As it got closer he saw the American Flag and grinning G.I.s. Everyone spilled out and there was celebrating for a week straight.
My grandfather would bring home a different G.I. every night to share in his family's meager meal. He loved the G.I.s.
On a side note: When I married my first husband I knew him to be adopted. At the time he had no interest in finding out who he was. We had my daughter together. And divorced over 30 years ago. Recently he did one of those genetic tests. It turns out he is half Italian and half Jewish.
I mention this because of my mother seeing jewish families disappearing. And though she died 2 years ago, one of her granddaughters turns out to be part Jewish and the 'tribe' she came from was the Jewish tribe that made up the bulk of the deaths in those fascist concentration camps.
Now I see things happening in this country that has me alarmed. I remember the stories we used to beg my mom to tell us of France and of the war. I remember how my grandfather belonged to the Resistance. I remember the books I read in my 20s about that time to learn the history. And now I have a daughter and 2 beautiful little girls who carry Jewish blood while Fascists march with tiki torches in Charlottesville trashing Jews.
I see the racist and bigoted 'President' and his gang. The ever twisted and sick Steve Bannon and his poison being written everyday to those weak minded, angry fascists in waiting.
I have a Resistance sticker on my car both to honor my grandfather but, also to stick up my middle finger to America's nazis and fascists who want a replay of that dark time.
I know the horror and suffering that the uprising of fascism in this country can bring.
But, anytime someone tries to trash Antifa or thinks that Antifa are thugs, I cheer them on. I support and am a fan of Antifa. I wish I was in my 20s and could take part. But, for now, my support is for Antifa.
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