Herman Scheerboom, the last living Dutch veteran of the Spanish Civil War, passed away in the second week of September. Born in 1912, he was wounded at Teruel in January 1938 (shot in the head), and captured at Villalba. When he was finally freed in 1943, he immediately joined the fight against the Nazis,...
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With one unprecedented dissenting vote, the Spanish Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal filed by the defense of Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is being tried for allegedly overstepping his judicial boundaries when he opened a case to investigate crimes against humanity committed under Franco's rule, in October 2008. Público reports that...
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In the New York Times, which also includes a photo album, a slide show, and an interactive feature, Holland Cotter writes about Capa, Chim, and Taro:
They were ... committed to a new style of wartime journalism, which found photographers embedding themselves right in the center of combat...
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ALBA Board members Antonio Muñoz Molina and John Sayles today shared the front page of El País, the most widely read newspaper of the Spanish-speaking world. Muñoz Molina, speaking at the Hay Festival in Segovia, criticized Spaniards' lack of knowledge about their own past. Sayles, meanwhile, screened his new film Amigo, about...
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Sparking media attention world-wide, the International Center of Photography in New York will be opening its doors tomorrow for the exhibit featuring a selection of more than 4,000 negatives of Spanish Civil War material photographed by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim (David Seymour). The two-volume exhibit catalog--which features essays by several...
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As the Jubilee Gardens, home of one of the many British memorials to the International brigades, is getting ready for a major renovation, the Dutch firm West8, which is in charge of the project, is pondering where to relocate the IB monument, LondonSE1 reports.
At last Wednesday's meeting Maarten...
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The Fall Newsletter of our friends at the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) has just come out. In this issue: news on the successful tour of the exhibit Antifascistas; the George Brown Commemorative Lecture; a new IB monument at Perth; reports the memorial ceremony at Jubilee Gardens and a lecture by Richard...
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The Spanish government has announced plans, La Jornada reports, to turn the Mexico-City house in which renowned surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900-1982) spent most of his post-Civil War exile into a culture-historical center that focuses on Buñuel's work but also allows for Spanish-Mexican artistic collaboration more generally. Buñuel's move from the US to...
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Kirkcaldy, Scotland. (Map.) Erected by Kirkcaldy District Council and Friends of the IBA, May 1980 and September 1986 (IBMT). More on NamesOfTheFallen. Recent Photos by Jack Deighton here.
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The first in a new series of posts highlighting monuments to the International Brigades worldwide. Canberra, Australia; S 35° 18.012 E 149° 07.201 (map). Inaugurated in 1993. From Waymarking.com:
The memorial is a wall of sandstone blocks with red brick courses. ... The bronze map was made by Dr Ross...
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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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New information about the New Zealand-born Spanish Civil War surgeon Doug Jolly (1904-1983) has emerged following the recent publication of his biography, Frontline Surgeon.
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On September 24, 1945, Dr. Barsky delivered this speech during the Spanish Refugee Appeal rally at Madison Square Garden.
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In 1944, Barsky wrote A Surgeon Goes to War, an 18-chapter memoir of his time in Spain, which was never published but can be consulted at NYU’s Tamiment Library. This is the first chapter.
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Self-effacing and shy though he was, Dr. Edward Barsky’s experience in Spain made him an outspoken activist, tireless organizer, innovative frontline surgeon, and political prisoner. “Eddie is a saint,” Hemingway wrote. “That’s where we put our saints in this country—in jail.”
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The Volunteer is thrilled to honor Dr. Barsky on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
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For Edward Barsky, political and humanitarian activism were two sides of the same coin. Those who persecuted him begged to differ.
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The time she spent in civil-war Spain loomed large in the life of Martha Gellhorn, the St. Louis-born war journalist. “The truth is that Martha could not stop thinking, feeling, and writing about her Spanish experiences.” “Objectivity bullshit.” That’s what Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) called the journalism of her day. Her letters to personalities like...
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Among the thousands of Jewish volunteers who joined the International Brigades were many descendants of the Sephardim. What was it like for them to “return” to Spain? Three case studies: Lini de Vries, César Covo, and Samuel Nahman, aka Manny Harriman.
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How the 22-year-old Jewish American dancer Janet Riesenfeld performed flamenco to help raise money for the Second Republic under fascist attack.
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Why did Jawaharlal Nehru, future prime minister of India, visit civil-war Spain in 1938? As it turned out, the triangular relationship between Britain, Spain, and India had deep cultural and geopolitical implications.
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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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