In a letter to the Washington Post, W. Royal Stokes fondly recalls Professor Knox's classes at Yale:
Professor Knox never spoke in class of his wartime experiences, namely, manning a machine gun in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 or parachuting behind enemy lines in France and commanding an infantry...
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The historian and activist Ceferino Álvarez died on August 27, La Voz de Asturias reports--less than two years after his legendary father, Ceferino Alvarez Rey, aka "El Jefe," who passed away in January last year. Álvarez, who published widely, was a leader of the Asociacion de Descendientes del Exilio and the movement...
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The UK National Archives have made available for public viewing 170 more Security Service files, including files on the International Brigade Association. The Archives' website provides access to other SCW-related materials as well, including the transcripts of interviews with Maurice Levine, one of the few Jewish volunteers in the British batallion....
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Select images from the legendary collection of Magnum, founded after World War II by Robert Capa, Chim, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, will be available as e-postcards through Paperless Post, a company specializing in electronic stationary, PR Newswire reports:
"We are excited to be collaborating with some of the most...
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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 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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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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