The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 25, July 19, 1938 Just outside of Belchite towards Fuentes de Todos, a shell landed in the Estado Mayor of the Lincoln, killing commander Reiss and Battalion Commissar Parker. One of the corpse fell against Frank Rogers – a piece of shrapnel wounded him in the leg....
Read more »
Written During An Airplane Attack by Daniel Hutner American Volunteer Killed In Action –September, 1937 The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 1, No. 15, September 20, 1937 Dawn still sleeps; but we awake, Aware that soon those shadows in The sky may hover. Everywhere about us the earth is raw, With wounds from...
Read more »
The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 32, September 17, 1938. You know, when we got all those new Spanish recruits late in May, we looked at them and a lot of us thought “Hells Bells, look at the kindergarten broke loose.” Why, those kids –they didn’t shave, some of’em would cry if you...
Read more »
The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, no. 33, October 6, 1938 There is not a man of us who did not like and appreciate Teniente Johnny Cookson Adjutant of the Transmission Company of the 15th Brigade for he combined the rare qualities of a man of science, a good organizer, and a sincere simple and...
Read more »
The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 31, September 5, 1938 We moved down off the hill in single file, the taste of breakfast still in our mouths –coffee, chocolate, ham and sardines, bread, marmalade and plums. There was a comfortable weight inside us., and there was, too, the inevitable nervousness, the pre-action...
Read more »
Two Poems by Miles Tomalin The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 35, November 7, 1938 TO ENGLAND From the English Dead We, who were English once had eyes and saw The savage greed of those who made this war Tear up from earth, like a hog loose in flowers So many lives as young...
Read more »
One Who Came Back by Joseph Rehill The Volunteer for Liberty, v. II, no. 29, August 13, 1938 I have been asked time and again “What made you boys come back to Spain?” Some comrades. I am sure must think that we had committed a crime and came back as fugitives from justice. I...
Read more »
Fighting Men from a Fighting Union by Archie Brown, Political Commissar, Co. 1, Battalion 58 The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 32, September 17, 1938. The nights were cold enough for picketing but in the bargain, there were the cops and the strike breakers. Broken heads and even killings were common. On July...
Read more »
George F. Redlich was born on March 22, 1919, in Stillwater, Oklahoma to German immigrants Frederick Wilhelm Redlich and Bertol (Eckold) Redlich. When George was about twelve-years old, his father moved the family from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago, Illinois. The move was prompted by his father’s job loss and the hope that he...
Read more »
Judith Montell and Connie Field’s 1990 documentary Forever Activists: Stories from the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which was nominated for an Academy Award, is now available for streaming online, through Vimeo’s on-demand service, here.
Read more »
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
sign up to receive email updates from ALBA. Support ALBA through a tax-deductible gift! To inquire about a donation, please contact the ALBA office at info@alba-valb.org or 212-674-5398.
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.
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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.”
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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.”
Read more »
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...
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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...
Read more »
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
Search the Database