Videos of speeches given at the unveiling of the new IB memorial in Madrid this weekend: UK brigadista David Lomon; AABI president Ana Pérez; Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Complutense University: University Rector José Carrillo.
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A beautiful slideshow of this weekend's events can be found here.
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The Spanish media has prominent coverage of this weekend's events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the International Brigades: El País interviews three brigaders; Público's headline affirms that the brigaders' legacy is alive and well; ABC covers the trip to Albacete. A full overview of Spanish-language news coverage...
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Translation of remarks made by the President of the Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales (AABI), Ana Pérez, at the inauguration of the monument to the International Brigades at Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain. October 22, 2011. A monument to the International Brigades is, above all, a monument to international solidarity. And in this...
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Today,a group of about twenty “Friends and Family of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade” and three ALBA Board members (J. Fernández, G. Herrman and Marina Garde), visited the Jarama battlefield. From the vantage point of an appropriately makeshift memorial to British volunteer Kit Conway and other fallen British volunteers, we surveyed the valley and points of...
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Judge Baltasar Garzón welcomes the news that ETA, the terrorist organization that fights for Basque independence, has announced a definitive end to its armed struggle, El País reports from Seattle, WA. From Seattle, Garzón travels regularly to Colombia, where he is working as Special Advisor to the Mission to Support the Peace...
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Marina Garde and James D. Fernández, who represented ALBA at the unveiling of the new memorial to the International Brigades yesterday in Madrid, send along photos:
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On October 22, 1936, exactly 75 years ago, President Largo Caballero signed the decree which brought into existence the International Brigades. Today, several hundred people, including four IB veterans, three representatives of ALBA, and a considerable contingent of Friends and Family of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, attended the inauguration of a monument to the...
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Jim Jump, our IBMT friend from across the pond, sends along stirring video footage and a slide show from the October 1 gala in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the IB's founding. Here's a film by Sanum Ghafoor based on the IBMT gala evening in London on 1 October, including excerpts from the performances and interviews...
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Philosophy Football, the British company that recently sponsored the 75th anniversary gala honoring the British International Brigaders, have come out with a new T-shirt for "Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade." For more tees inspired by the IBs and Spanish Civil War, see here . See here, and click "dissenters."
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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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