The highly respected Spanish Civil War scholar Ángel Viñas, who recently completed an authoritative trilogy on the Republic and whose edited collection of essays on foreign diplomats during the war was published this summer, shares his findings on Stalin's role in Spain on WAIS, the listserv founded by the late Ronald Hilton:
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Legendary animated film director Hayao Miyazaki said in an interview that he is considering a new film set during the Spanish Civil War. The film would be a sequel to his Porco Rosso, in which an Italian fighter ace is cursed with a pig's face after watching the spirits of killed pilots rise...
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At a ceremony in Glasgow's Clyde Street, the recently restored monument to the Scots volunteers who fought in Spain was rededicated, STV reports.
The last surviving Scot who served in the war, Thomas Watters, 97, was among those attending the event ... Over 2,000 volunteers went from the UK, and over...
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The local government of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is ruled by the right-wing Partido Popular, is refusing to remove a monumental statue of Franco--despite the fact that 2007 Law of Historical Memory orders the disappearance from public spaces of all symbols invoking the dictatorship. As Público reports, officials are arguing that the sculpture is...
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An interesting piece by Alastair Sooke in the Telegraph:
If anything, the lens of the high-definition camera appears to have usurped the eye of the artist in today’s theatres of war. ... when it comes to modern warfare, has reportage superseded art altogether? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently,...
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Antifascistas, the exhibit on British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War organized by the International Brigade Memorial Trust, opened earlier this month in Manchester, after a successful couple of months in London. Review here.
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The 35th Toronto International Film Festival is featuring the North American premiere of Alex de la Iglesia's new Spanish Civil War film, Balada triste de trompeta (The Last Circus; trailer here):
a wild and hilarious film that exposes the nature of political conflicts in his country’s recent history. Set...
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Peter Wong reviews Army of Crime, a new film on the French Resistance during WWII, which is running this coming week at the San Francisco Sundance Kabuki:
A riveting political thriller, Robert Guediguian’s historical drama “Army of Crime” spices the summer filmgoing season with an enthralling ensemble portrait of heroic...
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Bernard Knox, renowned classicist and Spanish Civil War veteran, died this week, age 95. From the New York Times obit:
An American born and raised in Britain, Bernard Knox led a life as richly textured as the classics he interpreted for modern readers. After studying classics at Cambridge, he fought with...
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In an op-ed for today's issue of Público, the writer Félix Población, inspired by a resolution adopted in June by the Friends and Family of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (FFALB), argues it is high time that Madrid names a street after Oliver Law, the Brigade's African American commander, who died in the summer...
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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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