With the end of World War II, self-help groups of former resistance fighters were founded in "anti-fascist committees", known as "Antifas", involving working class militants, in particular but not only Communists[1][2][3][4] which were banned immediately by the military administrations of each of the British and American occupation zones for being far politically left.

[7] Their concern, next to providing social help for those in need, was to bring the voice of resistance, the political and moral weight of the opponents of the Nazi regime to form a new anti-fascist, democratic Germany.

[citation needed] The initiative for the VVN came from representatives of the labour parties, which had committees that provided direct assistance to people persecuted or victimised by the Nazis, whether political, religious, or racially based.

[citation needed] Representatives from all the regional organisations in the four occupied zones met in Frankfurt am Main from July 20–22, 1946 and adopted a charter for the "Society of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime".

[citation needed] From March 15–17, 1947, the 1st Inter-zonal States Conference of the VVN convened in Frankfurt am Main with 68 delegates from all four of the occupied zones and the city of Berlin and formed an organisation representing all of Germany, with a similarly constituted council and two co-chairmen at the helm.

Having experienced terror personally, they wanted to be true to the Buchenwald Oath, to never again let fascism become a reality, "Our motto is the extermination of Nazism to its roots.

Prominent Nazi opponents, such as Eugen Kogon, who were close to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) resigned from the VVN for political reasons.

[citation needed] In 1949 and 1950, the Stalinist purges had repercussions in the Soviet occupation zone, later to become the German Democratic Republic (GDR), with the SED accusing leading members of the VVN of being agents of the west.

At the same time, in connection with the Rudolf Slánský trial in the former Czechoslovakia, the policies of the GDR leadership began to evidence an increasing anti-semitism toward the Jewish Communists who had fled to western countries after 1933.

The VVN's publishing house was dissolved and in its place the Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters (Komitee der antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer) was set up.

[citation needed] In 1990, after the democratic revolution in the GDR, the Association of Former Participants of the Anti-Fascist Resistance, Persecutees and Survivors (Interessenverband ehemaliger Teilnehmer am antifaschistischen Widerstand, Verfolgter des Naziregimes und Hinterbliebener) (IVVdN) took over as successor to the Committee.

Compounding that, were the declaration of incompatibility by the SPD in May 1948 and the resignation of prominent Nazi adversaries Eugen Kogon, Heinz Galinski and Philipp Auerbach, which all caused the VVN to be viewed in public discourse as a "Communist front organization".

The anti-communist climate continued to plague members of the VVN during the postwar era, though in sight of constitutional protection and during the 1970s, they were at times criticized by radicals.

[citation needed] From the outset, the VVN concerned itself with care for the victims of Nazi injustice, as well as the admonition and remembrance of the crimes of National Socialism.

This extended the possibility of membership beyond just the persecuted and their family members, to young who have felt a bond with concentration camp survivors and their legacy.

In the wake of the student protests of 1968 and the growth of the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), many young people became interested in the debate over Germany's Nazi past.

According to the 1989 Verfassungsschutzbericht of Lower Saxony (page 26), until the fall of communism, all applications for full-time VVN employees had been reviewed and approved by the Chairman of the German Communist Party (DKP).

[11] In October 2002, the West German VVN-BdA in Berlin merged with the East German Interessenverband ehemaliger Teilnehmer am antifaschistischen Widerstand, Verfolgter des Naziregimes und Hinterbliebener (Interest Group of Former Participants in the Anti-Fascist Resistance, Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, and Survivors) and the Bund der Antifaschisten (Federation of Anti-Fascists).

The VVN-BdA initiated a nationwide campaign in early 2007, lasting till that December, that called for a renewed effort to ban the NPD.

The campaign included informational tables and events throughout Germany and had celebrity support from Hannelore Elsner, Frank Werneke and the board of 1.

It found that The report acknowledged that the VVN-BdA had, since 1989, stopped describing ultra-left violence and injustice as commendable; nevertheless, Communist crimes were consistently qualified, ignored and even denied.

In addition, it claims the fight against right-wing extremism is a pretence under which organization tries to influence the middle class and co-opt democrats for its goals against the democracy.