Originally published in the Summer 2020 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 62, printed August 14. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer 2020 issue or download the full PDF, see this post. For the full web catalog, see our Full Issues page.

This past May 9 was the 75th anniversary of the day the German military surrendered to the Red Army and partisan forces in the Eastern Front of World War II. The date is celebrated there as the official victory over fascism.

To mark the occasion, a group of progressives in Odessa, Ukraine, recorded a video with their thoughts and feelings about the anniversary. During the war, the Black Sea city had been occupied by Nazi-allied Romanian fascists, who slaughtered thousands of Jews and other “enemies of the state.”

The video message has been posted on the website of the Richmond-based Odessa Solidarity Campaign, which is coordinated by the Virginia Defenders.

For information about the antifascist struggle in Odessa, visit: http://www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org.