Your grandpa sounds like an inspiring man, Lisz, my grandpa fought in Italy against fascism as well and was forever changed by his experiences there. He never collected his medals during his lifetime due to the trauma he suffered. I think he would not recognize the current element that now goes by “Antifa” as anything aligned to what their generation did. A few years ago I was at an anti-racism rally in London, a counter protest to the EDL, “our” side were occupying the park the EDL wanted to assemble in, the park having been named after a Bengali man killed by racists so highly inflammatory for the EDL to want to parachute in a rally there. The police kept the two sides apart, the park was held, the EDL had to turn around and go home. A lot of singing, chanting and love on ‘our’ side,
which was a melting pot of different groups and individuals united against racism, apart from an ominous, growing group congregating in one corner of the park, all white, almost entirely men, dressed in black, faces covered, “Antifa” flags (anarchist symbols). Once it was clear the protest was going nice and peacefully (and had succeeded in its aim of preventing EDL using the park), the Antifa group started deliberately attempting to directly engage with EDL, became violent, entered buffer zones the police had designated to prevent direct conflict, had many arrests and a lot of police time and public money managing them. They were not there to protest and stop the fascists, that’s what we all did together that day, they were there solely to cause disruption with the police. Modern “Antifa” are a disgrace to the legacy of our grandfathers quite frankly, violent thugs who will appropriate any cause to engage in public intimidation and violence.
Modern Antifa are not what they say on the tin, and are not our allies opposing male violence against women and girls.