The 2007 museum show and catalog “Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil War” broke new ground by focusing on the way individuals and communities in New York city responded to the outbreak, conduct, and outcome of the Spanish Civil War. And while New York was a particularly active site for all kinds...
Read more »
Kate Doyle of the National Security Archives, winner of the 2012 ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, reflects on the pursuit of justice in Guatemala in NACLA's new Report on the Americas--a special issue dedicated to "Central America: Legacies of War." Other contributors include Greg Grandin (who interviews Noam Chomsky),...
Read more »
Alan Warren notifies us of an upcoming event around 22 photographs of the retreats in Aragón, depicting American volunteers, for which research has been able to pinpoint the exact location where they were taken (text and announcement in Catalan, in pdf here):
Read more »
Severiano Montero, of the Association of Friends of the International Brigades (AABI), sends a report on recent commemorations and other events:
On February 27, we presented at the Ateneo de Madrid the Fanny Edelman's book "Rebelion militante". Jorge Grela, Vicente González and Miguel Pastrana glossed the human and political significance of this fighter for human...
Read more »
A former Guatemalan soldier has been convicted to more than 6,000 years in prison for his role in a massacre of more than 200 people during the Internal Conflict, the BBC reports. Yesterday, also for the BBC, Paula Dear covered the story of the country's quest for justice.
Read more »
Harry Belafonte, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen are among the members of the Honorary Committee inviting you to join us at the annual event in New York City honoring the volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Guernica bombing, and supporting the fight for human rights. Tickets for the event...
Read more »
Giles Tremlett, correspondent of The Guardian in Madrid, and author of Ghosts of Spain, reviews Paul Preston’s latest book about terrorism and its legacy in Franco’s Spain. “Franco had time to impose his own version of history, which still prevents contemporary Spain from “looking upon its recent violent past in an open and honest...
Read more »
The Biblioteca Afro-Americana Madrid (BAAM), directed by Mireia Sentís, has just published Spanish translations of James Yates' Spanish Civil War memoir From Mississippi to Madrid and a collection of Spanish dispatches from Langston Hughes. Xavier Montanyà reviews both of them in La Vanguardia (pdf):
Both books are of great interest to experts...
Read more »
Granito finally made it to Guatemala. The documentary by Pam Yates and Paco de Onís about the quest to indict the Guatemalan military responsible for massive murder during the Civil War, which ALBA screened at its Human Rights Film Festival last fall, and which features this year's winners of the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human...
Read more »
Laurie Levinger and Anna Moccia-Field have launched a new website with testimonies from Maya survivors of the civil war in Guatemala. Laurie, niece of Lincoln vet Sam Levinger, has been interviewing survivors for more than six years. Her book, What War? Testimonies of Maya Survivors / ¿Cuál guerra? Testimonios de sobrevivientes...
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.
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.
Read more »
On September 24, 1945, Dr. Barsky delivered this speech during the Spanish Refugee Appeal rally at Madison Square Garden.
Read more »
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.
Read more »
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.”
Read more »
The Volunteer is thrilled to honor Dr. Barsky on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
Read more »
For Edward Barsky, political and humanitarian activism were two sides of the same coin. Those who persecuted him begged to differ.
Read more »
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...
Read more »
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.
Read more »
How the 22-year-old Jewish American dancer Janet Riesenfeld performed flamenco to help raise money for the Second Republic under fascist attack.
Read more »
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.
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