Anarchist Memoirs

Two new books underscore the vital connection between anarchist history and anarchist memoirs. The recent publication of Rudolf Berner’s (alias Frank Tireur) Die Unsichtbare Front: Bericht Über Die Illegale Arbeit In Deutschland (1937) (translation: The Invisible Front: A Report from the Underground Activists in Germany (1937)) helps us understand a long-overlooked dimension of anarchist history. In 1937, Rudolf Berner, a Swedish anarchist, traveled in disguise as a tourist from revolutionary Spain on a "secret mission" to establish clandestine contacts between German anarcho-syndicalists in exile and the anarcho-syndicalist underground in Germany. In this story of his journey Berner describes the resistance of German anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists to the Nazi regime. He conveys a vivid impression of the extreme life situations and the fears and hopes of a small but important section of the German resistance (160 Pages, Libertad Verlag Berlin/Köln 1997, Hardcover: DM 32,00). Ana Delso’s new memoirs, Trescientos Hombres y Yo: Estampa de una Revolución (translation: Three Hundred Men and I: Picture of A Revolution) adds to existing literature on the travails faced by exiled Spanish anarchists. It is one of the few accounts of this period written by a woman. This book, which includes a preface by Martha Ackelsberg, is published by Madrid’s Fundación de Estudios Libertarios ‘Anselmo Lorenzo’ (1998, 157 pages).