Saul Friedberg’s short piece on Raleigh Frohman provides crucial information regarding his fate. It figures prominently in Charles Antin’s search to understand his cousin’s disappearance. Together the two articles shed light on Frohman’s service in Spain. Chris Brooks, Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project, 2017. Raleigh Frohman, by Saul Friedberg April 22, 1996...
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A brief article in the March 24, 1939 student paper, The Cornell Daily Sun, with the title “ASU Spring Dance Will Be Tonight” mentioned that the dance was “in honor of Cornell men who fought in the war in Spain.” The American Student Union noted that volunteers Victor Tiship and John Shulman from the...
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Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project. Saul Freidberg provided several short biographical sketches on fellow veterans. The sketches provide insight into Friedberg as well. Murra is mentioned several time in Rolfe’s book The Lincoln Battalion and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the references. I would however like to supplement what...
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Those who read Ed Lending’s Los Rompedores or Jim Persoff’s The Noblest Fruit of Them All may be interested in viewing Gustav Marten’s album of Spanish Civil War photographs. Martens served in the 14th Battery “Dimitrov” DECA (anti-aircraft) along with Lending and Persoff. There are several photographs of Persoff and thumbnail sketches of the...
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Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project. Saul Freidberg provided several short biographical sketches on fellow veterans. The sketches provide insight into Friedberg as well. While over the years I have always felt that my relations with Bill Titus were very important to me, my memories of him lack any real specificity, so that...
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The January 2, 1937 issue of the Socialist Call announced the formation of a 500-man volunteer military formation: The Eugene V. Debs Column (hereafter Debs). The Debs would serve with the Republican armed forces in Spain. The American Socialist party initiated an...
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Henry J. Foner, the popular emcee at the reunions of the Veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade in New York City for many years, died on January 11 at age 97.
Mr. Foner who lost his academic job along with his three older brothers in the 1940s because of Communist ties, became a labor leader of...
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Notes from the Biographical Dictionary Project. Saul Freidberg provided several short biographical sketches on fellow veterans. The sketches provide insight into Friedberg as well. by Saul Friedberg, April 23, 1996 Joe Gibbons Although Gibbons was a very close and dear friend, I don’t remember very much about him beyond that I knew him in...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. Cultural Life in a Concentration Camp By Morgan Havard, London Chairman of the International Brigade Association The Volunteer for Liberty, Volume 5, No. 1, January 1944 I cannot imagine feeling any more impotent and helpless than I...
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From the Spanish Civil War to Nuremberg and Beyond PDPs: 22.5 Graduate Credits: 1 Offered by: Professional Development›History and Social Studies Description What is fascism? Where did it come from? How does it impact human rights? How did ideology shape the Spanish Civil War and WWII? What legacies did they pass on in the...
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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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