#OtD 6 May 1933 Nazis raided the Institute of Sex Research in Berlin. It was a pioneering org which supported LGBT rights, and equality for women. It employed numerous trans workers and pioneered gender affirmation surgery. Its library was then burned https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10648/nazis-raid-sex-institute
Happy Birthday Robert Smith, lead guitarist of Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1982 to 1984 and continuous member of post-punk band The Cure since 1978, born on this day in 1959 in Black Pool, UK
#OtD 19 Apr 1943 the Warsaw ghetto uprising broke out in earnest when Jews fought back against Nazi attempts to deport them to the Treblinka extermination camp. Although defeated after 27 days it was the biggest armed Jewish rebellion of the Holocaust https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9062/Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising
#OnThisDay, 19 Apr 1967, Katherine Switzer becomes the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon as a registered runner, despite the organiser physically trying to stop her.
#OtD 15 Apr 1989 the Hillsborough disaster took place during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest resulting in 97 dead and over 700 injured. Though caused by police negligence, police and the press blamed Liverpool fans https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8641/hillsborough-disaster
#OtD 13 Apr 1985 Danuta Danielsson, the Polish-Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor, hit a neo-Nazi on the head with her handbag in Växjö, Sweden. The Nazis were then chased out of town. We have some anti-fascist merch here to help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/anti-fascist
#OtD 13 Apr 1890 Black Philadelphia docker and IWW member, Ben Fletcher, was born. Joining the IWW in 1913, he organised a multiracial union on the Philadelphia docks when many unions were still segregated. Learn more in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e73-ben-fletcher/
#OtD 12 Apr 1943 young Walter Mayer was jailed by a Nazi court in Düsseldorf for looting and being a member of the anti-fascist Edelweiss Pirates. He later escaped a concentration camp. This is our podcast about the group, including Walter: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/72-edelweiss-pirates-swing-kids/
#OtD 11 April 1945 expecting the arrival of US troops, the resistance in the Buchenwald concentration camp rose up and seized control of it. This delayed the Nazi evacuation of the camp which helped save many lives. US forces arrived later that day. More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/11244/liberation-of-buchenwald
40 years ago today Back to the Known is the second EP by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on this day in 1985, and it's a return to their punk roots.
#OnThisDay, 10 Apr 1864, army surgeon Dr Mary Edwards Walker is captured by the Confederates during the US Civil War. She later receives the Medal of Honor.
As well as serving in the Civil War, and being a dress reformer who preferred to wear trousers, she was also a suffragist who declined to take her husband’s name when they married.
#OnThisDay, 9 Apr 1944, Lise de Baissac returns to France to resume work as a Special Operations Executive courier. The British SOE supported the French resistance.
She gathered and passed on information, and took part in armed attacks. At one point she rented a room in a house occupied by the local commander of the German Forces.
Muriel Byck also arrives to be a SOE wireless operator. She dies of meningitis whilst still in France.