Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project. Saul Freidberg provided several short biographical sketches on fellow veterans. The sketches provide insight into Friedberg as well. by Saul Friedberg, April 23, 1996 Joe Gibbons Although Gibbons was a very close and dear friend, I don’t remember very much about him beyond that I knew him in...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. Cultural Life in a Concentration Camp By Morgan Havard, London Chairman of the International Brigade Association The Volunteer for Liberty, Volume 5, No. 1, January 1944 I cannot imagine feeling any more impotent and helpless than I...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. “Of Comradeship and Courage: Three Friends, Three Volunteers” by Morris Brier The Volunteer, v.9 n. 3, November 1987, pp. 8-10. Why at this stage of history do I speak of three comrades, three friends? To me...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. “Remembrance Day” by Tom Kozar, November 11, 1988 Originally published in The Volunteer, V. 10, no. 3, December 1988. Today is Remembrance Day and as I woke to the sounds of Vera Lynn’s voice singing the words...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. The Noblest Fruit of Them All by Jim Persoff The Volunteer, Volume 3, No. 5, 1981 When the 14th anti-aircraft battery took up a position in Madrid, somewhere between the Parrios “Tetuan” and “Chamartin,” a team of...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. Albin C. Ragner: Mostest First-Line Infantryman by Benjamin Goldring The Volunteer, Volume 5, Number 2, June 1983. Albin C. Ragner, Lincoln Battalion Veteran, does not appear to have made it into any books or any print on...
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Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project. Saul Freidberg provided several short biographical sketches on fellow veterans. The sketches provide insight into Friedberg as well. Eugene David Bronstein By Saul Freidberg, April 22, 1996 Bronstein was born in NYC about 1915. He went to CCNY, from which he was graduated in 1934, where he...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. A Shout of Triumph By Lloyd L. Brown The Volunteer, December 1975, p. 7 Like millions of people around the world, my fellow-Soldiers at a U. S. Army base were overjoyed to hear that Hitler’s forces...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. “My Grandfather, Sam Gonshak,” by Amber Glassberg Originally appeared in The Volunteer, V.9, No. 3, November 1987. An essay submitted for an Honors English Class for which Amber received and A++ by her teacher Mrs....
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. “What Wonderful People” by Leo Rosenberg Originally published in The Volunteer, Volume 10, Number 3, December 1988. One of my sons, who lives in Cleveland, sent me a human interest item the other day. I had...
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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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