Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. Albin C. Ragner: Mostest First-Line Infantryman by Benjamin Goldring The Volunteer, Volume 5, Number 2, June 1983. Albin C. Ragner, Lincoln Battalion Veteran, does not appear to have made it into any books or any print on...
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First to Fight: American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Explore this pivotal event in Spanish–and world–history and culture! Parallels to today include Syria, Ukraine, & the rise of rightwing populism. Oct. 29 – Northampton – Breakouts in Spanish and in English. $25. Lunch and materials provided. Led by Kelley Brown, Easthampton HS....
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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.   Eugene David Bronstein By Saul Freidberg, April 22, 1996 Bronstein was born in NYC about 1915. He went to CCNY, from which he was graduated in 1934, where he...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. A Shout of Triumph By Lloyd L. Brown The Volunteer, December 1975, p. 7   Like millions of people around the world, my fellow-Soldiers at a U. S. Army base were overjoyed to hear that Hitler’s forces...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer.   “My Grandfather, Sam Gonshak,” by Amber Glassberg Originally appeared in The Volunteer, V.9, No. 3, November 1987.   An essay submitted for an Honors English Class for which Amber received and A++ by her teacher Mrs....
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Late this May 2016 I attended the 6th annual “Anti-Fascist Harbor Event” in the port of Germany’s second largest city Hamburg, on the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the formation of the Inter-national Brigades. It was organized by the German KFSR: Kämpfer und Freunde der Spanischen Republik ’36-’39, the Fighters and Friends of...
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Blast from the Past is an ongoing series of posts reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer.   “What Wonderful People” by Leo Rosenberg Originally published in The Volunteer, Volume 10, Number  3, December 1988. One of my sons, who lives in Cleveland, sent me a human interest item the other day. I had...
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 Blast from the Past is an ongoing series reprinting articles from historical issues of The Volunteer. Gus by Ed Lending The Volunteer, Volume 5, Number 1, February 1983. It’s reassuring to know that our comrades will not pass out of our lives un-commemorated. My own failure to fittingly solemnize one comrade’s death has been...
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La Prensa was a Spanish language daily that thoroughly covered the Spanish Civil War, including occasional stories, like the heartbreaking one translated here, about the Lincolns. Spanish-language journalism in the US is a largely untapped source for the study of American involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Tuesday, October 19, 1937 ********************** He was...
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James D. Fernandez, New York University Eighty years ago this week, in the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla, a group of right-wing generals staged a military coup, aimed at overthrowing Spain’s democratically elected government. The July 1936 uprising unleashed what would come to be known – somewhat inaccurately – as the Spanish Civil...
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