In a defeat for the principle of universal jurisdiction, El Salvador's Supreme Court will not honor an extradition request for thirteen former military officers accused of planning and ordering the killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter during the country’s civil war, the New York Times reports:
The Salvadoran...
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ALBA Executive Director Marina Garde was interviewed live this morning on BronxNet TV about the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, which will be awarded this coming Sunday to Kate Doyle and Fredy Peccerelli. Watch the interview here.
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This past March 23, Vernon Bown, one of the last surviving US volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, passed away at the Veteran’s Administration Rehabilitation Center in Martinez, California. Vern Bown grew up in North-Western Wisconsin. After serving in Spain he joined the Merchant Marine during World War II. In the 1950s, he was...
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The British children's writer Leila Berg, who died late last month, was a staunch supporter of the Spanish Republic, Rosemary Stones writes in The Guardian. Two of her lovers dies fighting in the International Brigades. Read the full obituary here.
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Rob García, whose father was a Basque Republican child refugee in the UK, announces a series of events to commemorate the Guernica bombing and the evacuation of 4,000 Basque children to Great Britain, to be performed by the Na-mara duet ( Paul McNamara and García himself). More details here.
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John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco, at Dissident Voice, recalls Langston Hughes' poem "Barcelona Air Raid" in relation to the increased use by the US administration of unmanned drones:
In targeting non-state individuals, questions of human rights and rightful protections readily present themselves. They center on uncovering the criteria that deem certain individuals...
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May Franco be called a "dictator" after all? Público reports on a new chapter in the ongoing saga around the controversial Diccionario Biográfico Español whose first 25 volumes were issued a year ago by the Spanish Royal Academy of History: The commission appointed to investigate the case has recommended that an appendix...
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"Witness," the BBC World Service radio show, commemorated the bombing of Guernica last week. Listen to the 9-minute program here. In Germany, Der Spiegel did the same.
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The Los Angeles Times is looking forward to HBO's upcoming film Hemingway & Gellhorn, by Philip Kauffman, starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman. The movie premiers on May 28. Trailer here.
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Writing in the Guardian, Fiona Maddocks reviews the Impossible Brilliance weekend dedicated to composer and Lincoln vet Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997):
A charismatic figure with a cult following, who fought in the Spanish civil war and then left anti-communist America to live in Mexico City, Nancarrow wrote most of his music for...
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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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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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