Koitscho Koitschew (1922 - 2019) was a doctor, anarcho-syndicalist and FAU member.
Life
Born to a peasant family in rural Bulgaria, he became an anarcho-syndicalist as a teenager in the 1930s. He graduated from highschool in 1942 and joined the anti-fascist resistance, he was also conscripted by fascists, both in World War II. He also became a passionate advocate for Esperanto to unite humanity with one language. After the war, he enrolled as a medical student at the University of Sofia and was active in the anarcho-syndicalist movement.
After the takeover of Bulgaria by Stalinists, he was sent to a 'labor reeducation camp' and tortured, but he survived and was eventually released back to Sofia. He was expelled from the university and had to work as a construction worker and painter in the 1950s. He reenrolled in 1965 and graduated in 1969, then emigrating to East Germany as he married an East German citizen.
In East Germany he worked as a doctor in Dresden, and communicated with numerous anarcho-syndicalists hiding underground in East Germany and Bulgaria, including Augustin Souchy, leaving the Stasi to have 1,400 pages on him as they monitroed him. After the collapse of East Germany, he began to attend many FAU meetings and establishing contact with the IWA and translated material from Bulgarian to German and vice versa. He also became a passionate writer of poetry, and described as a witty, kind and devoted man.[1]