Ivana Hoffmann

Ivana Hoffmann was born on 1st September 1995 in Emmerich, a small
German town close to the Dutch border. In her childhood in Emmerich she
discovered her love for Football and spent her time playing for a local club
as well as playing with her half-siblings and cousins. When she was 11 she
moved to Duisburg, an Industrial City in the Ruhr Area where her mother
began working as a cleaner in a Hospital. The family lived in Duisburg
Meiderich, a workers district where Ivana went to school and quickly made
friends. When she went on to secondary education, she had made many
friends in Meiderich due to her friendly nature and her ability to play
pranks on people, many of whom were Kurdish. This close connection to
Kurdish culture and her sense of justice led her to the Young Struggle
Organization in Duisburg where she quickly politicized herself. During her
first year being organized, Germany went through a wave of strikes within
schools and universities and in Duisburg Ivana helped organize and plan
the local strike and got elected to be the media representative of the
school strike in Duisburg in November 2011. In 2012 Ivana participated in a
hunger strike in solidarity with an Iranian immigrant who committed
suicide after experiencing dehumanizing practices by the German
immigration system and quickly got interested in the fight for womens
liberation. Kurdish women guerillas were a big inspiration to her but she
also was very interested in African Culture and Music. After the murder of
Fidan Doğan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Şaylemez she quickly hurried to
Paris to join the protest of her French comrades and came back the next
year. When the Rojava Revolution broke out, Ivana had just finished her
last year of mandatory education and started on her A-levels but the cry
for freedom and peace called her. Following the call to action of the MLKP
to defend the Rojava Revolution, Ivana wrote a letter to her party
demanding to be sent to Rojava and shortly before she could finish school
she wrote a goodbye letter stating
“I can no longer distinguish between the most beautiful colors, I no longer
feel the city wind on my skin, the singing of the birds sounds more like the
call of freedom. […] I want to be part of the revolution in Rojava […] I will
experience what it feels like to hold a weapon in my hand and fight for the
revolution, against imperialism. […] I cannot stand idly by while my sisters,
brothers, friends, mothers, fathers, comrades fight for freedom, for
independence from capitalism. […] I will be like the most beautiful songs
and captivate everyone. I will be a guerrilla fighter full of love and hope.
Long live our Party! Long live the Revolution! Long live Socialism!”
She first arrived in South Kurdistan where she joined the Hüseyin
Demircioğlu-Academy of the MLKP to receive training and quickly
befriended her comrades. When she finished her training she demanded
to be sent to Rojava to fight against the fascist hordes of the Islamic State
which were attacking Rojava at the time. In Rojava, Ivana joined the YPG
and helped build up the Şehid-Serkan-Batallion, named after the first
MLKP fighter to fall in defense of the Rojava Revolution. When Daesh
attacked Serêkaniyê for a second time, MLKP fighters went into the
surrounding villages of Til Temir, among them Ivana, who was eager to
fight against the fascist hordes. In the night of the 7th of March, the
enemy started attacks against Til Nasir, the village Ivana was stationed.
She was woken by comrades and hurried to her position where she
operated a heavy machine gun. In the early morning hours, Ivana’s
position was hit by a missile and she died while successfully defending Til
Nasir.
As socialists, Internationalists, women, migrants and LGBTI+, Ivana serves
as inspiration for all of us. Her friendly and joking interactions with
comrades and friends, her thirst for
knowledge and her deep care for righteousness and equality made her an
outstanding comrade. The courage she showed on the streets of Duisburg
and Paris, in the mountains of
Kurdistan and in Til Nasir and her uncompromising internationalism turned
her into what she wanted to be – a guerrilla fighter full of love and hope!
Ivana Hoffmann is immortal.
Şehîd namirin