In late 2023, we sent out a call to the ALBA community requesting short videos from grandchildren of Brigadistas. Given the quality of the testimonies, we decided to create an 18-minute compilation, which will be premiered on December 7.
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As a gift to those who donate $125 or more to ALBA, we offer a facsimile reproduction of the 1938 pamphlet Letters from Spain by Joe Dallet to his Wife. The pamphlet includes 30 letters from Joe to Katherine Puening-Dallet relaying his experiences in Spain and his hopes for a better world. After Joe’s...
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Brooklyn high school student Iago Macknik-Conde, who last year was named a History Day finalist with a project on the Lincoln Brigade, won the most recent National History Day competition with his research on the contribution of the Spaniard Bernardo de Gálvez to the United States’ independence movement. Profiled in the national Spanish newspaper...
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Catalonia’s Alvah Bessie Program Reports Progress An article in The Guardian on May 29 reported that the Alvah Bessie Program, through which the government of Catalonia seeks to locate, exhume, identify, and repatriate the remains of International Brigade Volunteers who died during the Spanish Civil War, has been making strides. By now, the program...
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ALBA’s Monthly Film Discussion Series Kicks Off On July 16, ALBA hosted the first session of its new online film discussion series, sponsored by the Peter N. Carroll Anti-Fascist Education Fund, and geared toward both teachers and the general public. The series features in-depth discussions on important Spanish-Civil-War-themed films. Each session is led by...
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This issue's cover (see the print edition here) celebrates the worldwide antifascist movement. In a year where countries across the globe—including the United States—are facing a surge of far-right parties, France saw a revival of the Popular Front, a broad antifascist coalition that managed to hold the Rassemblement National at bay.
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The Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil War—www.vscw.ca—has opened new galleries that more than double the number of objects on display. It has also added a French version to the existing Spanish and English ones. The new galleries include: The Civil War in Catalonia, https://www.vscw.ca/index.php/en/node/438, with a version in Catalan. The Civil War in...
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The Spanish Civil War has inspired a rich trove of novels, memoirs, histories, and poetry, with new books coming out all the time. Each month, the FFALB book club gets together online to discuss one of these works, sharing our thoughts about its relevance, new insights, literary merits, and more. Anyone interested is invited...
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This year marks the 80th anniversary of many World War II milestones in France, from the D-Day landings in June, 1944, and those of Province in August to the Liberation of Paris. In fact, some activities are already in full swing. For example, on February 2, the Shoah Memorial of Paris opened the exhibition...
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At its annual meeting in New York City, the ALBA Board of Governors elected longtime board member Aaron Retish as its new Chair. The author of several books on revolutionary Russia, Aaron is a professor of Russian history at Wayne State, where he also oversees the Abraham Lincoln Scholarship program. For ALBA, he has...
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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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Teesside, an industrial region in Northeast England that in the nineteenth century grew to be a center of shipbuilding and iron and steel production, spawned no fewer than thirty International Brigade volunteers. Of the nine who were born in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, moreover, six played leading roles in Spain: five rose to the rank of Lieutenant...
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The first thirty-six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for Phase IV were submitted December 30, 2024. Phase IV is intended to focus on volunteers on whom we have minimal information. At some point in the future, I plan to resubmit some volunteers who were returned as not found or on whom no information...
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My grandfather (Nana), Suresh, moved to the United States in 1959 as a young man on a student visa pursuing his master’s degree. His parents, my great grandparents, sought value in being ‘foreign educated’ and bringing his education home – to Mumbai, India to run their family business. 2 years after my Nana moved...
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Peter N. Carroll, a respected and prolific writer, poet, and US historian, died after a short illness on September 16, surrounded by his family. He was 80. Born in New York City in 1943 to a secular Jewish family, Peter grew up in the Bronx and Queens, where his father worked as a composer,...
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LA RÉPUBLIQUE -QUOTIDINEN DE COMBAT RADICAL ET SOCIALISTE, February 5, 1938 Foreign Volunteer Arrested On March 27 last, 29 North Americans were arrested on board the boat Sans-Pareil while they were attempting to reach the Spanish Coast. They were sentenced to a prison term for violating the decree of February 18, 1937 on the...
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The “Spanija” series translates selected autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatian or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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The Spanija series translates select autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google Translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatioan or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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Peter Verburgh’s translation from the French Newpaper Le Journal about a group of 29 Americans arrested in France. “29 American Volunteers Arrested in Muret” Le Journal, 5 April 1937 Toulouse, 4 April- The Control services of the Non-Intervention Committee do not remain inactive, especially with the help of the French Police and Gendarmerie. Thus...
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ALBA Board Member Steve Birnbaum made the trek on Memorial Day to the Home of Eternity Cemetary in Oakland, California to pay tribute to ALB veteran Hans Joachim. Joachim was born in Berlin, Germany in 1906 and moved to the US in 1924. He served in Spain with the George Washington Battalion and later...
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Please find attached photos of my visits to the graves of Lester Rowlson and Tersil Obriot last weekend. I left a brigade flag and a fresh white rose at each. ,,, I was also proud to include aspects of my Clapton CFC scarf; you might have heard of this small football club in London that...
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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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