Today's El País Emilio Silva writes a combative op-ed to mark the 10-year anniversary of the day that volunteers began digging in Priaranza del Bierzo to look for the remains of his grandfather, executed during the Spanish Civil War. Soon after, Silva founded the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica:
The Edinburgh Anarchists have been kind enough to post a review essay on Scots volunteers in Spain, published last year by Stuart Christie (of Christie Books, which this blog has featured before) in the Scottish Review of Books:
A new and fascinating contribution to Scotland’s role in...
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Gail Dolgin, the associate producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Forever Activists: Stories of Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, directed by ALBA board member Judy Montell, has died, the Oakland Tribune reports:
Dolgin was a longtime board member of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, a proposal reviewer for...
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The BBC reports:
A plaque with the names of those from Merseyside who lost their lives fighting in the Spanish Civil War has found a permanent home in Liverpool. The memorial, with the names of 27 local people, has been unveiled at the Unite building in Islington. The city's office block has...
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Alberto Bullrich, in the Comment Factory, writes that Spanish fascism is alive and well:
Falange Española de las J.O.N.S. ... is the euphemism used before, during and after the Spanish Civil war for the blueshirt Fascist party of Spain. It still exists as a group, organization or political ‘party’, whichever...
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James D. Fernández was interviewed on Spanish national radio about his exhibit on Spanish immigrants in New York, which has already attracted a lot of media attention. (October 13; listen here.) Sebastiaan Faber was interviewed on Radio Círculo Bellas Artes (Madrid) about Spanish historians' role in the debates about historical memory. (October 18;...
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After a six-month delay, the Spanish Supreme Court has finally removed Falange Española--Spain's fascist party--from the case in which Garzón is being charged with overstepping his judicial boundaries when he initiated an investigation of crimes against humanity committed during the Civil War and under the Franco regime. The fascists were one of the two...
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In an editorial today, El País calls attention to the "strange paralysis" that seems to have befallen the third of the cases brought against Judge Baltasar Garzón: a charge of illegal wiretapping in his investigation of corruption in the Valencian branch of the opposition party, the Partido Popular. El País questions...
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Ten years after founding the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH), Emilio Silva estimates that there are still more than 1,800 mass graves to exhume in Spain, El País reports. The Spanish government will soon publish an online map detailing their exact locations. Since 2006, a year before the approval of...
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On Saturday, October 16th, Pete Seeger, Patti Smith, and Guy Davis performed at an unforgettable fundraising event for ALBA, "Songs for the Cause: Music, Education, and Activism," sponsored by the Puffin Foundation and hosted at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). (See photos by Alan Entin here.)...
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The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Learn more at our website or
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My grandfather (Nana), Suresh, moved to the United States in 1959 as a young man on a student visa pursuing his master’s degree. His parents, my great grandparents, sought value in being ‘foreign educated’ and bringing his education home – to Mumbai, India to run their family business. 2 years after my Nana moved...
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Peter N. Carroll, a respected and prolific writer, poet, and US historian, died after a short illness on September 16, surrounded by his family. He was 80. Born in New York City in 1943 to a secular Jewish family, Peter grew up in the Bronx and Queens, where his father worked as a composer,...
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LA RÉPUBLIQUE -QUOTIDINEN DE COMBAT RADICAL ET SOCIALISTE, February 5, 1938 Foreign Volunteer Arrested On March 27 last, 29 North Americans were arrested on board the boat Sans-Pareil while they were attempting to reach the Spanish Coast. They were sentenced to a prison term for violating the decree of February 18, 1937 on the...
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The “Spanija” series translates selected autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatian or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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The Spanija series translates select autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google Translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatioan or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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Peter Verburgh’s translation from the French Newpaper Le Journal about a group of 29 Americans arrested in France. “29 American Volunteers Arrested in Muret” Le Journal, 5 April 1937 Toulouse, 4 April- The Control services of the Non-Intervention Committee do not remain inactive, especially with the help of the French Police and Gendarmerie. Thus...
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ALBA Board Member Steve Birnbaum made the trek on Memorial Day to the Home of Eternity Cemetary in Oakland, California to pay tribute to ALB veteran Hans Joachim. Joachim was born in Berlin, Germany in 1906 and moved to the US in 1924. He served in Spain with the George Washington Battalion and later...
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Please find attached photos of my visits to the graves of Lester Rowlson and Tersil Obriot last weekend. I left a brigade flag and a fresh white rose at each. ,,, I was also proud to include aspects of my Clapton CFC scarf; you might have heard of this small football club in London that...
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Peter Verbergh translated this article from CeSoir describing the arrest of the Dallet-Nelson Group. “The Interrogation of the Passengers of the Sans-Pareil”, CeSoir, March 29, 1937 (From our Special Correspondent) Perpignan March 28 (By Telephone) Yesterday morning around 10am, The Coast Guard Vessel Cebère docked in the port of Port-Vendres alongside the torpedo boat...
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Only five veterans of the Spanish Civil War are known to be buried in Virginia outside of Arlington National Cemetery: two in Richmond, two in Norfolk, and one in Big Stone Gap. ALB Tribute visited the graves of Harry Edward Farris and Thomas Moore in Richmond as well as Manuel Lizarrago and Crawford Morgan...
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ALBA's project to provide a complete list of the more than 2,800 individuals who left from U.S. territory to fight with the Spanish Republic
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