On the Norwegian island of Utoya, scene of that horrific massacre of young members of the Labor Party by a right-wing Christian terrorist, there is a plaque, tacked on to a tree, honoring the four Norwegian members of the International Brigades who were killed in the Spanish Civil War. Apparently, the young campers had...
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Dan Carrier remembers the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War with a portrait of his great-uncle Nat Cohen, IBer from the UK, and some of his buddies:
A garment worker from the East End, he had already seen political street-fighting, was a regular draw at Communist Party meetings...
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Justice, Spanish Style
According to today's issue of Público:
1. Judge Baltasar Garzón initiates an investigation into the forced disappearance and/or assasination of 113,000 Spaniards by Francoist forces.
2. Judge Baltasar Garzón is accused of judicial malfeasance (prevaricación) for having initiated that investigation, and is suspended from his post as a Judge.
3. An Argentine judge, invoking...
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Veteran Olavi Kantola was killed in Spain when he was in his very early twenties. His nephew Bob got in contact with ALBA when he found out that his Uncle was a member of the Lincoln Brigade
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Over the years, I’ve had a chance to help a significant number of high school and college students and teachers wade into the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Visitors are almost always taken by the immediacy of the primary sources contained in ALBA. For folks used to the apparent omniscience and neutrality of history textbooks,...
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Dublin: Friday 15 July A public meeting, “75 years on – the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War”, will be held at 7pm in the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. The meeting is organised by éirígí to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War and to...
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On 25 June 2011, Manus O'Riordan (Ireland Secretary of the International Brigade Memorial Trust) gave the following address during the Fourth Annual George Brown Commemoration at Woodstock Gardens, Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny, where an olive grove was rededicated in memory of four Kilkenny International Brigade volunteers. Read the speech here (pdf).
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Around 100 people including Italians, British, Americans and Australians commemorated the 74th anniversary of the battle of Brunete with a walk across the roads that were used by the Republican army to approach to the Brunete battlefield. The Italian contingent posted a video.
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A commemorative concert to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, "The Song of Songs," will be performed at Bridewell Hall, London EC4Y 8EQ, featuring Caroline Barnes (violin), Miguel Calvo (cello), Michael Chant (piano), Tom Chant (saxophone), Robert Coleridge (piano), Philip Edwards (clarinet), Alys Hewer (flute), Lesley Larkum (viola), and Catherine Pluygers (oboe)....
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Spain's national evening news evening covered last weekend's London celebration commemorating the creation of the International Brigades 75 years ago. The segment, which begins about 12m:30s into the broadcast, includes footage UK veterans David Lomon and Thomas Watters. See the whole program here. The anniversary attracted considerable media attention, including an editorial in...
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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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