Professor Rafael Escudero has criticized the Spanish Attorney General (fiscal), Público reports, for misinterpreting the legal consequences of the Law of Historical Memory, which was adopted in December 2007, and which declares Francoist sentences "illegitimate," without going so far as to annul them altogether. As families of several prominent victims of Francoism--notably the poet...
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An oral history account of Åge Kjelsø, who served in the Thälmann Battalion and was arrested after the May 1937 events, published in Danish in the mid-1970s and recently translated:
From Albacete I went to the Andalucian front in southern Spain, and in the war of manoeuvre there we came...
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NYU student Melissa Howley blogs about her adventures in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade archival collection:
I looked through the Milton Wolff collection on this trip to the Tamiment Library. Immediately upon opening the box and scanning the folders I was drawn to the Hemingway Correspondence.
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Acclaimed director Ken Loach, whose Land and Freedom (1995) loosely follows George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, will be awarded a Goyesca award for his Spanish Civil War film at a new Spanish festival for political cinema that will take place in November in Ronda, The Olive Press reports. See Loach's film in...
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The Spanish Civil War photography exhibit with rediscovered images from Capa, Taro, and Chim, continues to attract media attention worldwide. In addition to Public Radio International, see the Financial Times, BW Gallerist, Huffiington Post, and Mexico City's El Universal.
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Daniel Coysh, in the Morning Star, reviews Hugo García's new book on Republican and Nationalist attempts to shape public opinion in the UK:
The Spanish civil war remains a subject both endlessly fascinating and divisive for the left in Britain thanks to its status as the first war against...
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Yesterday the Telediario of Spanish national television covered La Colonia: Spanish Immigrants in New York, 1898-1945, a photography exhibit curated by ALBA Board member James D. Fernández, and co-sponsored by ALBA. The segment can be viewed here (beginning at the 01:01:18 mark.) The show has already received a good amount of coverage in the...
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Utopia Productions based in Guillena, Andalucía has produced a CD of a live concert performed by the 24-year old Andalusian singer-songwriter, Lucía Sócam. She lends her voice to those who were forced to remain silent for so many years. All 18 songs are based on testimony by different people who tried to save the...
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The Spanish Civil War exhibit at the International Center of Photography was the covered today by The World from National Public Radio and Public Radio International. Images, background details here. Listen to the segment here.
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Dr. Venturino Giorgio Venturini, the retired Italian jurist and Spanish Civil War researcher, provides a very detailed overview of Garzón's career and cases brought against him in CounterCurrents:
During an examination of Spain 's human rights record in May this year at the UN Human Rights Council, Mexico asked...
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Although this text by Ivens is little known—and has never been translated before—it offers an eye-opening reflection on the power of his filmmaking.
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Antifascism has long been synonymous with American values. In 1934, student activists at New York’s City College arguably understood this better than many do today.
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After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, the Seegers family did not hesitate to join the resistance. They had experience fighting fascism: their son Piet had fought for the Spanish Republic. When Tom King started digging into his family history seventy years later, he fell from one surprise into the other.
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Tina Modotti’s short life took her from Italy to North Beach and from there to Mexico, Berlin, Moscow, and civil-war Spain. Rightly known as a pathbreaking modernist photographer, she was also a radical activist. “Modotti spent the second part of her working life fighting for revolution.”
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Kirsten Weld has spent years studying Latin American dictatorships and the citizens who fight to hold them accountable. That experience has proven valuable in her current role as president of the AAUP chapter at Harvard, which, in March, sued the federal government for targeting students and faculty—and won.
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Targeted by the far right, Rutgers historian Mark Bray and his family went into exile in October. Speaking with The Volunteer from Madrid, he reflects on the current political situation. “Fascism shamelessly takes over institutions that, under liberal norms, are supposed to remain neutral.”
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I. In the Beginning Second child, Bernard, born March 1, 1915 Older brother, my father, Jacob (Jack), born June 3, 1912 Younger sister, Roslyn, born (June 1, 1922) disabled, hospitalized, died February 10, 1942 Their father, Abraham, died March 21,1930 Their mother, Nettie, died April 29, 1953 Bernie Brilliant student, graduated High...
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The title of this new occasional feature of The Volunteer is the Esperanto word for “archive.” In it, we will present, translate, and contextualize iconic non-English language documents related to the anti-fascist struggle in Spain.
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In recent years, citizen groups in Leipzig and Madrid have fought to preserve the buildings that were backdrops in two of Robert Capa’s best-known photographs. Their steadfast dedication has created two sites of historical memory whose significance extends far beyond Capa’s original images.
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On November 8, 1937, Salaria Kea, a 26-year-old African American nurse from Ohio, had been in Spain for seven months and one day. The country was in disarray. Half its territory was controlled by fascist rebels. Cities were being bombed, and civilians were killed by the thousands. Thousands more were forcibly displaced. But Kea...
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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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