I have just read the writ with which the presiding judge dismisses, on the grounds of an expired statute of limitations, the so-called “New York” case against Baltasar Garzón. In this writ of dismissal, as well as in his previous writ of indictment, the judge claims that New York University has concealed or fudged...
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Arturo Conde, writing for Univisión, praises James D. Fernández's exhibit of Spanish immigrants in New York, currently on display in Asturias, Spain:
Fernández’s exhibit, “The Colony: A Photographic Album of Spanish Immigrants in New York, 1898-1945,” which has just made its way from New York to Spain on tour, points out that,...
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Given recent events in Spain, Helen Graham writes in today's Independent "Paul Preston's monumental, rigorous and unflinching study" of repression in the Spanish Civil War has become "important and opportune in ways that reach far beyond the purely academic." Preston's The Spanish Holocaust, which will be released in the US next month, traces "the...
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Another hurdle has been cleared in the fight against impunity in Guatemala, in which the winners of this year's ALBA/Puffin Human Rights Award have played a seminal role. This morning the Associated Press reports:
A former U.S.-backed dictator who presided over one of the bloodiest periods of Guatemala’s civil war has no...
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Peter N. Carroll, ALBA's chair emeritus, will give the annual Len Crome lecture organized by our British friends in the International Brigade Memorial Trust this coming Saturday, March 3, at 2:30pm, at London's Imperial War Museum. Peter will speak on "“The Spanish Civil War in the 21st Century: From Guernica to Human Rights."...
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Judge Baltasar Garzón, whose career was terminated recently by the Spanish Supreme Court, received a standing ovation from Argentina's Congress as President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner thanked him, on behalf of "millions of Argentines," for his groundbreaking work in defense of human rights (video here.) Garzón's disbarment, President Kirchner said, is "an offense...
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Within a couple of days' time, the last surviving German and Scottish volunteers of the Spanish Civil War, Fritz Teppich and Thomas Watters, passed away. Victor Grossman sends us a note on Teppich (below); an obit from Neues Deutschland is here (in German). A BBC obit for Watters is here; a brief...
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In an ostensible attempt to save face, the Spanish Supreme Court absolved Judge Baltasar Garzón yesterday from "prevarication," or knowingly making a decision against the law, in relation to Garzón's opening of an investigation into crimes against humanity committed by the Franco regime during and after the Spanish Civil War (NYTimes, Guardian)....
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ALBA's James D. Fernández is interviewed by the Spanish press about the baffling court case around Garzón's stay as holder of NYU's King Juan Carlos I Chair. The case was eventually closed. Read the interview here (in Spanish).
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The online magazine FronteraD just published a polemical review (in Spanish) by me of a David Rieff's polemical book Against Remembrance. Read it here.
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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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