Anne Chisholm, in this Sunday's Telegraph, and Michael Eaude, in the Independent, review Javier Cercas' Anatomy of a Moment, a prize-winning fictionalized history of the failed February 1981 coup:
The Anatomy of a Moment is extensively researched, rigorous with the facts. It is not only history, though, for where...
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A team of researchers directed by Luis Avial has been scanning the surroundings of the Jarama river--where the Lincoln Battalion faced its first bloody battle in February 1937--in search of the graves of fallen soldiers, La Razón reports. The researchers are confident they may well discover mass graves with the remains of British,...
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Ronald Fraser, author of the pathbreaking oral history Blood of Spain, reviews Julián Casanova's newly translated The Spanish Republic and Civil War (Cambridge, 2010) in the most recent issue of the New Left Review:
The belief that the Spanish Civil War can essentially be reduced to a struggle...
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Jim Jump sends us the new IBMT Newsletter with, as usual, a wealth of information: obits for Sam Lesser and Penny Feiwel, news on the Jubilee Gardens IB Memorial and a full overview of all UK memorials, information on the possible location of George Nathan's grave, an announcement of a new play on...
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ALBA and Veterans for Peace are proud to announce the Annual ALBA Bill Susman Lecture by Marjorie Cohn, editor of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse (NYU Press, 2011), past president of the National Lawyers Guild, professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and author of three other books (see www.marjoriecohn.com): "Human...
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Alan Warren writes: Last week I was examining letters written by Welsh Brigader Alwyn Skinner in the Richard Burton archives at Swansea University. I made a note of one passage written on August 14th 1937 when Alwyn was based at Tarazona de la Mancha. He writes the following:
One night this week...
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AFP reports:
Spain's attorney general's office on Tuesday rejected a demand that it open a national probe into allegations that newborn babies were stolen from their mothers and sold to other families for decades under a policy approved by Franco's dictatorship. ... "The attorney general's office refused to open an inquiry at...
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Donna Brennan and Arya F. Jenkins, of AllReel Media, have kindly shared a 10-minute video compilation of "Songs for the Cause," the benefit concert held this past October 16 at the Museum of the City of New York, with Pete Seeger, Patti Smith, and Guy Davis. The compilation includes selections of the speeches given by...
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In its on-going coverage of the State Department cables made available by Wikileaks, El País has published a report from the US ambassador in Santiago sent after the death in 2006 of dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose heading made a tongue-in-cheek reference to Chevy Chase's famous running gag on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update...
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The ALBA website features several full-fledged thematic introductions and lesson plans, such as this unit on Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, prepared by Peter N. Carroll, Fraser M. Ottanelli and Rajel Ibañes Sperber:
Jewish men and women accounted for over one fourth of all international volunteers and played a prominent...
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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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