Argentine human rights groups are turning the tables on Spain, hoping to open a judicial probe of murders and disappearances committed during the Spanish Civil War and the early years of Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship.
More here.
Screening on April 23:
In this riveting and inspiring new film, Osheroff reflects on the meaning of his activism, exploring the ideas that animated his actions and sharing wisdom built up over a lifetime of commitment to the "radical humanism" that defined his politics and philosophy. Presenting the film on...
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Reed Brody today in The Guardian:
Thirty-five years after the death of General Francisco Franco, Spain is finally prosecuting someone in connection with the crimes of his dictatorship, and of the Spanish civil war which came...
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Yesterday the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, together with other organizations such as the left Spanish labor unions, kicked off what is going to be a week of mass international protests against the persecution of Judge Baltasar Garzón for his attempt to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed during the...
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El País reports: The organizations for the recovery of historical memory on whose behalf Judge Baltasar Garzón initiated an investigation of Francoist crimes--an case that resulted in Garzón's being accused of overstepping his judicial boundaries, and facing a possible 20-year suspension--are now charging the Supreme Court Justice in question with overstepping his judicial...
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An interesting post at DailyKos linking Spain's memory of the Civil War with the situation in the United States:
After the transition to democracy, there was a Pact of Forgetting that was felt to be the only way to move forward. It allowed past Nationalists to participate in the nascent...
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From the AP:
The appeal claims the indictment is "contrary to law and implies a serious challenge to judicial independence."
More here.
While looking through the photographs of the Mexican Suitcase to write a text for the catalogue of the exhibition that will open next September at the ICP in NYC I identified some images that match some of the sections of the HCB documentary. In one instance there is a photograph showing both the camera...
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A fascinating initiative from the University of California at San Diego, together with a group of Spanish organizations, to create an online audiovisual archive of victims' testimonies:
It aspires to constitute itself both as an archive of the repression and as an archive of the multiple political cultures (communism,...
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Compiled by Peter Davison, reviewed by Juliet Gardiner for the Telegraph:
It is the portable Orwell, the condensed autobiography that Orwell never wrote, but maybe had his health rallied, he would have.
More here.
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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