Daniel Eagan, writing for the Smithsonian, considers the importance of the recently recovered 18-minute film With the Lincoln Brigade in Spain, by Henri Cartier-Bresson (clip here):
With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is not high art, but it is a passionate film that complements Cartier-Bresson’s other work. It...
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During a visit to a secret detention center in Argentina employed during the Junta years (1976-83), the Spanish investigative magistrate Baltasar Garzón--suspended for his attempt to open an investigation of crimes against humanity committed during the Franco dictatorship--took advantage to defend the principle of universal jurisdiction, which stipulates that any domestic courts may try...
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The newly redesigned website of the office of the Spanish Prime Minister, the Moncloa Palace, no longer mentions Franco as a former head of state, but instead only lists the country's five Prime Ministers since 1976, Público reports. The previous iteration of the website listed leaders going back to the early nineteenth...
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"This is War! Robert Capa at Work" along with a selection of Spanish Civil War work by Gerda Taro--a combined exhibit that first opened at the International Center of Photography in New York two years ago--has made it to Madrid, El País reports. The show will be up at the
Alan Singer, who teaches at Hofstra, was asked to give this year's graduation address at University Heights High School in the Bronx. He turned to Dolores Ibárruri for inspiration:
Stand up! Defend the rights of children! Endure sacrifice rather than grant victory to forces that represent oppression and tyranny. Teachers!...
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David Rovics has written a song honoring Lincoln vet Bob Steck. Read the lyrics at Anti-War Songs / Canzoni Contro la Guerra or listen to it here:
They say people get conservative /
The older that they age /
They say that being radical /
Is just...
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A section on Lincoln vet Abe Osheroff at the Voices Education Project. Includes great photos.
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As reported earlier, the Spain's 2007 Law of Historical Memory did not annul Francoist sentences, although it did, ambiguously, declare the tribunals that issued them to be “illegitimate.” As a result, it is now up to individual victim's families to request actual legal annulments. After Andulucía's request for an annulment in the...
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José Ignacio Torreblanca, writing for the Financial Times, assesses Spain's victory at the FIFA World Cup in light of the state of the country:
Rarely can sporting triumph have come as such a welcome distraction as World Cup victory has...
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An hour-long radio debate on the impunity of Francoist repression and the possibilities of seeking of legal recourse, broadcast last month by Contratiempo. Featuring Emilio Silva, founding president of the Association for the Recuperation of Historical Memory, as well as three magistrates: Ramón Saéz Valcarcel, Ignacio Ubaldo González de la Vega, and José Miguel García...
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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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Teesside, an industrial region in Northeast England that in the nineteenth century grew to be a center of shipbuilding and iron and steel production, spawned no fewer than thirty International Brigade volunteers. Of the nine who were born in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, moreover, six played leading roles in Spain: five rose to the rank of Lieutenant...
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The first thirty-six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for Phase IV were submitted December 30, 2024. Phase IV is intended to focus on volunteers on whom we have minimal information. At some point in the future, I plan to resubmit some volunteers who were returned as not found or on whom no information...
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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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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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