The Volunteer, September 2006

8/14/2019 The Volunteer, September 2006

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The Good Fight Continues ALBA's newest book, page 12

...and that government of the people,by the people, and for the people,shall not perish from the earth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

TheVolunteerJOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

TheVolunteerVol. XXVIII, No. 3 Sept 20

The next generation picks up the story. See page 3.

Harry Randall, one o the stars o the newSpanish documentary about the vets, Soulswithout Borders.See page 7.

The two youngest kids on the block. Milt Woltoasts prominent anti-war activistCongresswoman Barbara Lee at her thbirthday party. Photo by Wanda Henig.


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THE VOLUNTEER Sept 2006

Bristol Launches Year ofConferences

In the frst o what promises to bea busy year o commemorative activi-ties, the Group or War and Cultural

Studies o the University o Bristol,England, hosted a three-day coner-ence entitled War Without Limits:Spain, 1936-1939. Speakers hailedrom as ar away as New Zealand,Canada and Israel and as close by asBristol, London and Belast.Approximately 40 papers were givenover the three days. The wide range otopics touched on such aspects asSpanish American poets, the role o

the International Committee o theRed Cross, British IBers in the SecondWorld War, Jewish volunteers, and re-pression in the region o Galicia orGibraltar during the conict, to name

just a ew. The organizers wereProessors Martin Hurcombe andDebra Kelly.

Three plenary lectures were givento a ull house. Mike Richards o theUniversity o the West o England

spoke on Public and PersonalMemories o the War as SocialHistory. Paul Preston o the LondonSchool o Economics recounted theWar Crimes o General Franco, un-hesitatingly describing the persecutiono Loyalist Spaniards as a holocaust.French historian Rmi Skoutelskycommented on photographers and

photographs o the Spanish Civil Warin a session entitled The First Conicto the Media Age, or How GeneralFranco lost the War o Images.

Two documentaries were also in-cluded in the program and wereintroduced by their directors. Bothflms had Welshmen as protagonists.The frst, Filming the Brigaders--Homageor Historyby Colin Thomas, is themost polemic. Ostensibly a documen-tary on the history o the IB and theirmemory in Wales, it actually comparesthe experiences o two Welshmen whoought in Spain, one in the IB and the

other in Francos Foreign Legion. Thelatter is presented in a more avorablelight, as is the cause he ought or,while the International Brigades areseen under a most negative perspec-tive. Needless to say, the question andanswer session that ollowed was al-most as hot as the record temperaturesoutside. The second flm, The Return

Journeyby Sarah Dickens, is the storyo the recently deceased Alun Menai

Williams, a Welsh medic in the IB, andhis frst return to Spain in 67 years,where he had the honor o unveiling aplaque to British dead o the 15thBrigade on the Ebro battlefeld.

By all accounts, the conerencewas a success and a great start to whatpromises to be a busy year.International congresses on theInternational Brigades are scheduledor Salamanca in October and Paris in

mid-November. In addition, an ofcialcongress with backing rom theMinistry o Culture will be held inMadrid at the end o November.

Robert Coale

Spain Marks 70th AnniversaryTo mark the participation o inter-

national volunteers in the SpanishCivil War, several Spanish organiza-tions have planned a series ocommemorative events or October.

On the 70th

anniversary o theNationalist uprising, a small numbero veterans o the InternationalBrigades are expected to participate public programs and to receive thethanks o the Spanish people or theieorts to deend the Spanish Republ

During the frst weekend oOctober, the University o Salamancais hosting an extensive internationalconerence on the theme The

International Brigades: 70 Years oHistorical Memory. The program,which includes dozens o speakers, weature a roundtable discussion ocus-ing on the North American volunteerswith speakers Moe Fishman, MiltonWol, and ALBA Chair Peter Carroll.

The Madrid-based Association oAmigos o the International Brigades(AABI) has organized a variety ocommemorative events to ollow the

academic conerence in Salamanca.These include an introduction o theinternational veterans to the Congreo Deputies; the unveiling o a monument to the IBs at Morata de Tajua,one o the battlefelds on the Jaramaront; and a ceremonial tribute to thelast Spanish commander o the IBs,Pedro Mateo Merino.

These events will be ollowed bytrip to Zaragoza in the Aragon regio

where the Lola Soler Blazquez oundtion will bestow the new Social FighAward on the surviving veterans othe International Brigades.

Additional commemorative evenwill be held in Barcelona.

Continued on page

CorrectionsIn the last issue oThe Volunteer, weneglected to mention that $500 othe money raised at the Bay AreaReunion in March was contributedto The School o the America'sWatch. In addition, the hospital towhich money was sent is the WilliamSolar Pediatrics Hospital in Havana.

70th Anniversary Homage around the World


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2 THE VOLUNTEER Sept 2006

No Jubilem La MemriaIn November, the Catalonias orga-

nization No Jubilem La Memria willhost its ourth annual gathering in

Mar, Priorat, Catalonia, during theweekend o November 4-5. To markthe 70th anniversary o the outbreako war, the main themes will includethe reasons or the conict and thetragic events o the early days. Theprogram will include conerences, flmdocumentaries, and commemorativeacts. As always, International Brigadeveterans will be especially welcome.For more inormation, please email

Angela Jackson at [email protected]. More details o theprogram will soon appear on the webpage www.nojubilemlamemoria.tk.

No Jubilem La Memria recentlyreceived a grant rom the Catalan gov-ernment to mount a small itinerantphotographic exhibition, Prelude tothe Last Battle: The InternationalBrigades in the Priorat, 1938 (Preludide lltima Batalla: Les Brigades

Internacionals al Priorat, 1938). Theyhave also been awarded unding orurther research in this area.

Memorial for Welsh Coal MinersOn Sunday, July 16, Britains

International Brigade Memorial Trustand Big Pit National Coal Museum un-veiled a plaque to commemorate theinvolvement o Welsh miners in theSpanish Civil War. The ceremonies

were held at Big Pit National CoalMuseum and began with songs romC r Cochion Caerdydd.

La Columna Spanish Civil War re-enactment group also perormed atvarious venues, ollowed by screen-ings o several flms about the eventso the 1930s.

Argentine Documentary FilmAter many years o hard work, a

group o Argentine flmmakers hasproduced the frst documentary flm

about their countrys volunteers in theInternational Brigades.Titled Those men--Argentinian

Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, theflm was directed by ErnestoSommaro and researched by JernimoBoragina. The flm consists o morethan 700 historical photographs andinterviews with veterans o the bri-gades. What is more, the flmmakerswrite, Victor H. Morales, the most im-

portant sports commentator inArgentina and Latin America, contrib-uted commentary that reects theeelings o the Spanish tragedy.

The project has taken severalyears, and although we received col-laboration rom dierent people, wedid not receive any institutional sup-port. As a consequence, the resultsrom this project have a double valueor us. It is a dream come true to pres-

ent this flm or the 70th anniversary,and we hope we can inaugurate aphase in which Latin Americans could

be represented in this fght or ree-dom and against antiascism.

The premiere was scheduled orJuly 20 at the Colon Theatre in Mar delPlata and by end o the month in thecapital city.

For urther inormation, [email protected].

Documentary on Palestine IBsA new flm about the Palestinian

volunteers in the InternationalBrigades, made by Eran Torbiner, hadits premiere screening in Israel in July.

The English title o the flm,Madrid beore Hanita, requires explana-

tion: During the 1930s, the ofcialposition o the yishuv (who represened the Jewish population in Palestinewas to send money and aid to the

Spanish Republicans, BUT not to en-courage people to volunteer to fght iSpain. This was the position oZionism not only in Palestine, but alsin Europe: that the fght in Eretz Israand the eort to create a solid yishuvwas more important to Jews thanfghting in Spain.

Hanita, a little settlement near thborder o Lebanon, created in 1938 indifcult place, became a symbol o th

fghting or the creation o settlemenand, ultimately, o the fghting orJewish statehood. That is why the slogan o Zionists to discouragevolunteering or the Spanish civil wawas Hanita has precedence overMadrid, or, as Eran translated it,Hanita beore Madrid.

The flm is, consequently, aboutthose who, despite the ofcial (andwidespread) attitude, thought that

MADRID had precedence over HaniThe new flm includes Palestinia

Jewish volunteers. Apparently, noArab or Armenian volunteers are stialive; we searched or them, but it wnot easy. Those interviewed in the flare Dora Levin, Salman Salzman,David Ostrowski, Shemuel Segal, onancient Israeli who lives now inGermany (Kurt Goldstein), and alsoamily and riends.

This is a very moving flm ocusing on personal sentiments o people

For more inormation about theavailability o the flm, contact theflmmaker: [email protected].

70th Anniversary Homage around the World

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By Victoria Ronga, MaryellenGroot, Laura Williams

We had heard the stories.We were sophomores atReading Memorial High

School in Massachusetts; the storieswere directed towards us and the sto-ries would soon become about us.

As sophomores enrolled inHonors World History II, or our se-mester exam grade we were requiredto participate in National History Day,a national competition in which stu-

dents create a project displaying, inexquisite detail, an event in historyollowing that years theme. For the2005-2006 competition, topics had toclearly connect with the theme oTaking a Stand in History: People,Events and Ideas.

Topics could be presented in awide variety o ways either individu-

ally or as part o a group: exhibitboards, documentaries, essays, andperormances. We knew we were go-ing to create an exhibit board, but wesoon became somewhat lost amongstcenturies o world history and insuf-cient topics. We brought our case toDr. Jerey Ryan, an RMHS history

teacher and an extreme AbrahamLincoln Brigade enthusiast.

Something was said along thelines o wanting to explore recent his-tory and he took o. It is better to dieon your eet than to live on yourknees, he dictated, quoting LaPasionaria, with whom we would later

become very amiliar.The Abraham Lincoln Brigade had

never been covered beore as aNational History Day topic, and ourdropped jaws in response to La

Pasionarias quote essentially choseour topic or us. The act that the menand women, who were ordinary peo-ple, were traveling to Spain o theirown ree will to fght the evils o as-cism and to take a stand ordemocracy struck us the hardest.Their connection with the people oSpain and their eelings o responsibil-ity to deend the elected governmentdrove people to volunteer, despite lim-

itations rom the Americangovernment and a multitude o risks.

We then began the task o know-ing the Abraham Lincoln Brigade inits entirety. A circular six-oot exhibit

board was being constructed by usrom wood, plexiglass, batting, abric,screws, hinges, and staples inVictorias basement, what would soon

become a second home, and hundredso note cards were being taken rom

research. The books piled up; the in-ormation and stories owed betweenus even in the hallways at school.Twice we traveled to New YorkUniversity to visit the AbrahamLincoln Brigade Archives at theTamiment Library to touch 1936-39war pamphlets and postcards and

pore over pictures or hours, as well attempting to translate Spanish.

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade bcame the biggest part o our lives; wesoon began to talk about the Brigademembers as though we knew them

personally, and we spoke about themto anyone and everyone as oten as wcould. The objectives o NationalHistory Day are to teach students hoto think critically and develop re-search skills as well as obtainingsel-motivation. True, those goals weundoubtedly reached, but more sothan those objectives we discoveredthe strength the human race possesses, and in turn, the strength we

possess.Many acts were uncovered abou

the Spanish Civil War, but theAbraham Lincoln Brigade oozes undniably o courage and selessness. Ohope to spread the legacy o theAbraham Lincoln Brigade ueled

National History Days:The Next Generation Picks Up the Story

Continued on page

Let to right: Maryellen Groot, VictoriaRonga, Dr. Je Ryan (th grade HonorUS History teacher), James DeBenedict(th grade Honors World History IIteacher), and Laura Williams.


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many late nights. We elt obligated yethonored to create a project that did theBrigade justice, within an impossible500-word limit.

We began National History Day inSeptember with the goal o continuingto the national level o competitionand seeing an A in place o our mid-term. By January our goal hadchanged to inorming others o theAbraham Lincoln Brigade, and all that

they did.Our exhibit on the AbrahamLincoln Brigade was selected rom ourhigh school to move to the regionalcompetition, in which we won frstplace, and proceeded to the state com-petition, where we again won out othe whole o Massachusetts. In June,the legacy o the Abraham LincolnBrigade traveled to Washington D.C.

or the nationalcompetition.As it was in

our school, atregionals, andat states, frstthe colorul and striking war posterswill attract onlookers and then theirnecks will crane to fnd where the in-ormation begins to tell the story. TheAbraham Lincoln Brigade tells a story

that was almost impossible to capturewith just pictures and words. Therewas heart and there was heartbreakthat aected the Brigade members sostrongly they continued to live lives oactivism up until today.

We are todays youth; we have yetto stand up or something that we be-lieve in, something that will better theworld tomorrow. We want you to

know, we are the youth yet we hearyou, and we will never orget what wheard. Thank you or 10 unorgettabmonths.

Pennsylvania StudentReaches National Finals

In the National History Day essaycontest, ninth-grader Lee Kennedy-Shafer at Mechanicsburg AreaSenior High School in Pennsylvaniawon second-place in the state com-petition and went on to be ranked

nine out o over 100 competitors inthe national competition. The paperon U.S. volunteers in Spain, ThePremature Anti-Fascists: TheAbraham Lincoln Battalion in theSpanish Civil War, was based on ex-tensive research in the ALBAarchives.

Kennedy-Shafers conclusion:They were scorned by their govern-ment, but they oresaw theconsequences i they did not halt theadvances o Hitler and Mussolini atthat point. They lost the war inSpain. . . .The brave men o theLincoln Battalion reused to concede,however. They maintained their vigi-lant stand against ascism andpromoted democracy wherever andwhenever they could, making themtruly the premature anti-ascists.

HistoryContinued rom page 3

Former Exiled Children Host Drawings in Moscow

ALBAs traveling exhibition, They Still Draw Pictures: Childrens Art in Wartime,

opened this month at the Cervantes Institute in Moscow.

What makes this show remarkable is its sponsors: the organization ormed

by the Spanish children who were sent into exile by their parents during the civil

war and who have remained in Russia or the past 70 years. Inspired by Jose

Zorilla, o the Spanish counsulate in Moscow, the ninos de la guerra civil spon-

sored the new exhibition.

Curated by ALBAs Anthony Geist and Peter Carroll, this version o the exhibi-

tion difers in content rom the original traveling show. The rst exhibition

consisted o drawings held by the University o Caliornia/San Diego, but curators

eared that continued exposure would damage the originals.

ALBA located another collection o similar drawings at the Avery Library o

Columbia University in New York. Re-curating the show, Geist and Carroll decid-

ed to use digitalized scans instead o original art, allowing the material to be

exhibited without ear o damage. With the permission o archivists at Columbia,

the new show will remain in Moscow through the autumn, then move on to

Spain or exhibition at other university museums.


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By Daniel Czitrom

The winners o this years GeorgeWatt Awards continue to honor thememory o this Lincoln vet (1914-1994),

author, activist, and leading fgure increating and supporting ALBA. Forthose who would like to get a bettersense o his remarkable lie story andhis passionate commitment to radicalsocial change, take a look at his engag-ingly written 1990 memoir, The CometConnection: Escape rom Hitlers Europe.Ater his stint in Spain, George servedin the Army Air Corps during WorldWar II; his plane was shot down over

Belgium and he escaped rom behindNazi lines with the help o localResistance fghters. The Watt Awardsare designed to encourage student re-search and writing on the Americanexperience in Spain, as well as on re-lated topics in the Spanish Civil Warand the larger history o anti-ascism.

For 2006, we were pleased to notea rise in both the number and thequality o entries. We received nearly

30 essays rom all over the UnitedStates, as well as applicants rom theUnited Kingdom, Canada, Australia,New Zealand, and South Arica. Twoo our three winners this year comerom outside the U.S., reectingALBAs increasingly international pro-fle. Starting in 2007, we will acceptessays written in Spanish as well asEnglish.

This year, ALBA is delighted to

award three prizes o $500 each ortwo undergraduate essays and onegraduate essay. We publish here brieabstracts o the winning essays andwill post the entire essays on our web-site: www.alba-valb.org. This yearscommittee o judges includedSebastiaan Faber (Oberlin College),

Gina Herrmann (University oOregon), and Daniel Czitrom (MountHolyoke College).Congratulations to this years three

winners!Undergraduates:Sarah Sackman, Queens College-

Cambridge University, United

Kingdom, The Identity Politics oJews and Arican AmericansDuring the Spanish Civil War.

Irene S. Walcott, New York

University, Fitting the Rules tothe Ranks: A Look Into the Natuo Discipline in the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade.Graduate:Judy Neale, University of

Auckland, New Zealand, AnOrchestrated Litany o Lines:Contra el Guernica LibelobyAntonio Saura.

The Identity Politics of Jews

and African-Americans in theSpanish Civil WarBy Sarah Sackman

Among the 3,000 American volun-teers who ought in Spain were 1,250men and women o Jewish origin andaround 80 Arican-Americans. Thepolitics o identity were especially sa-lient or these volunteers. Theycontended with a plurality o compet-ing identities based on class, politics,

nationality, ethnicity, and race. Otenthey experienced a sense o doubleconsciousness, trapped between howthey saw themselves--as anti-ascists,universalists and Americans--andhow the world saw them--as extrem-ists, Jews, blacks, and un-American.These warring perceptions were un-damental in shaping Jewish and blackexperiences o the Spanish Civil War.

Both Jewish and black volunteers

hoped Spain would allow them toovercome their social marginalization.Yet at the heart o their identity poli-tics lay the paradox that theiruniversalism was rooted in a particu-lar world view. The desire o Jews andArican-Americans to submerge them-selves in the Popular Front originated

in their marginal cultural status.

The study examines the ideo-logical challenges the Lincolns acedto their identity in Spain. The warpromised a rebirth or the volunteersas heroic warriors in a just crusade,enabling their American, radicaland ethnic identities to cohere. Forthe Jews, there was the possibility toshed their ethnic skin and realize acosmopolitan ideal. For the Arican-Americans, they could both be proud

to be black and stand alongside thewhite workers o the world.

However, the experience o theSpanish Civil War disappointed thispromise. The blazing images o theworkers o the world united in aPopular Front belied the complexity

Jewish and Arican-American identitpolitics. The encounter with thou-sands o Jewish volunteers, withArican troops fghting or Franco,

with Cominterns anti-Americanismand the racism o ordinary Spaniardmuddied the progressive ideal o theSpanish Republic. The tensions be-tween being American, being radicaland being Jewish or black were re-awakened by the realities o warare

George Watt Memorial Awards for 2006

Continued on page

Abstracts of George Watt Awards 2006


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Fitting the Rules to the Ranks:A Look into the Nature o Disciplinein the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeBy Irene S. Walcott

My thanks go to the sta at ALBA and toMr. Moe Fishman o VALB or their in-

valuable assistance in aiding my research.

This paper examines disciplinein the Abraham Lincoln Brigadein light o the continuing de-

bate over the motives, experiences andorchestration o the U.S. volunteerswho ought on the side o RepublicanSpain rom 1936-39. The existing rep-resentation o the good fght waged

by the idealistic youth o Depression-

era America is now being counteredby another, revisionist perspective,the dark side o Communist controldirect rom Moscow that orced vol-unteers to stay in Spain and ruthlesslysuppressed any military or politicaldissent. This research seeks to con-tribute to this debate by investigatingone o the important questions: howmuch o the discipline was volun-tary and sel-imposed and how much

was imposed upon the volunteersby Moscow and the Comintern?

Ater a critical analysis o the de-bate itsel, the paper explores theuniquely political nature o theSpanish Civil War and composition othe Abraham Lincoln Brigade. It thenocuses on three specifc aspects odiscipline in the brigades: the role opolitical commissars, the response todesertion and deserters, and the intro-

duction o saluting when theInternational Brigades were incorpo-rated into the Spanish RepublicanArmy. Many primary sources rom theAbraham Lincoln Brigade Archives,now housed in New York UniversitysTamiment Library, were used. Theseincluded the research fles o John

Dollards 1942 study Fear andCourage Under Battle Conditions,oral history interview transcripts romthe 1984 documentary The Good Fight,and papers rom the Moscow Archives

(which have only recently been uncov-ered and made publicly available).Research on this debate led to

several main fndings and conclu-sions. Abraham Lincoln Brigaderswere willing to do anything, evendie, i shown in a democratic and hu-manistic way that what they were todo would urther their political con-victions, advance the fght againstascism and urther democracy

worldwide. A hugely important ele-ment o discipline to the volunteerswas personal and sel-imposed,which is, arguably, what kept themfghting in Spain.

While neither side o the debatecan tell the complete story o the na-ture o discipline in the AbrahamLincoln Brigade, the good fght ar-gument seems to hide ar less thanproponents o the dark side would

like to believe. The ormer may besomewhat over-idealized, but the lat-ter is highly decontextualized (theevidence does not lead clearly to theargument) and so more easily dis-proved. The American volunteerswere strong individuals with strongpolitical convictions and goals or theuture. They brought these convic-tions and their previous experienceso struggle with them to Spain, where

they went to urther their ideals oairness, humanity, individuality,equality, and democracy. Disciplinein the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, i itwas to be successul, had to take thisuniqueness into account. In otherwords, the rules had to ft the ranks.

An Orchestrated Litany of LineContra el Guernica Libeloby Antonio SauraBy Judy Neale

Pablo Picasso painted his now a

mous Guernica (1937)in response tothe saturation bombing o the Basqutown o Gernika by the GermanCondor Legion, which operated in sevice o the insurrectionary Nationaliorces during the Spanish Civil War.Painted or the legitimately electedRepublican government, Guernica wafnally delivered to Spain in 1981, duing the transition to democracyollowing the death o General Franc

The outpouring o political and art-critical commentary which anticipatethe return o this modernist iconand charged political symbol provided the material or a pamphlet by ono Spains prominent post-war paint-ers, Antonio Saura. Entitled Contra elGuernica. Libelo,Sauras satirical litano invective was popularly but mistaenly interpreted as an attack onPicasso and his painting.

The contention o An OrchestratLitany o Li(n)es: Contra el Guernica.Libelo by Antonio Saura is that Sauratextin act restores both Guernica andGernika to their true rames, andconstitutes a revisionist (art) historyspanning the Spanish Civil War, theFranco dictatorship and the transitioto democracy. In support o thiscontention, the thesis orients thereader to the individual and social

voices, languages and literary genresdrawn into Contra el Guernica. Libeloor the orchestration o Sauraspolitical and aesthetic themes, and tothe constant transpositions o theirrespective codes. It thus reveals theartists erudition and suggests keys this problematic text: dialogism

Watt AwardsContinued rom page

Continued on page


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By Miguel ngel Nieto

Editors note: The ollowing article ap-

peared in Madrids El Pas, Sunday, June25, 2006. It has been translated by

Anthony Geist, co-producer o the docu-

mentary flm, Souls without Borders.

Harry Randall lives in theArizona desert, in Tucson.His hands look more like

a pianists than a photographers.In 1937 he was the photographer o

the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, com-posed o 2800 American volunteerswho joined the Second SpanishRepublic in the fght against ascism.

During the long year he ought inSpain, Randall took thousands o pho-tographs and flmed dozens o hours ocombat. Many o these images, largelyunpublished, sat in boxes until a groupo Spanish flmmakers dug them out

and used them in thedocumentary Soulswithout Borders,which aired on

Spanish National TVon June 30.Randalls photo-

graphic archive isthe graphic memoryo an unprecedentedmultiracial epic. Inhis photos black andwhite Americansstand arm in arm, all

wearing the same ragged uniorms.

For the frst time in the history o theAmerican military, black ofcers com-manded white troops, reports theCaliornia-based historian PeterCarroll. The LincolnBrigade was the frst ullyintegrated unit in theUnited States. This hadnever happened beore,and didnt happen a shorttime later, in WWII, when

the US Army remainedsegregated.

Oliver Law,African-American

CommanderThe most legendary

o the Arican-Americansin the Lincoln Brigade,Oliver Law, was ap-proached by an American colonel who

visited Spain in 1937. He asked Law,Arent you ashamed to wear a uni-orm with those bars? And Lawanswered him: I was a corporal inthe American army, because I wasBlack. Here, in Spain, we earn ourstripes or our valor, not or the coloro our skin.

Law earned his stripes, leadinghis men in battle. In 1937 he was kill

by mortar fre in Brunete.One o the last Arican-America

vets died in 1993. In a radio broad-cast, Jimmy Yates said beore he dieIt was in Spain where, or the frsttime, being a Black man, I elt like aree man.

In December 1936 the frstAmerican volunteers shipped out oNew York. They let behind a countrwhose government had orbiddenthem to participate in the SpanishCivil War. They departed rom a city

where nine out o 10 inhabitants hadno idea what was going on in Spain.They were headed or a country whethey knew no one, and where no one

was waiting or them.

They underwent brie basic training in Albacete and saw their frstaction in the battle o the Jarama, inFebruary 1937. The Jarama was thefrst international battle o the CivilWar, and the frst encounter betweenthe orces that would ace each other

Lincolns Star in Spanish Film

Abe Smorodin

Dave Smith

Almas sin fronteras(Souls without Borders)

Directed by Miguel ngel Nieto,Anthony L. Geist, and AlonsoDomingo. Diagrama Producciones(Madrid, 2006), 54 minutes.

Continued on page


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in the Second World War just a ewyears later. German, Italian andMoroccan troops ought on the side oFranco. Volunteers rom 54 o the 66

known countries in the world flledthe ranks o the Republic.David Smith is perhaps the last

surviving veteran o the LincolnBrigade who was in that battle. Whenhe reached the Jarama they asked him,Do you know how to shoot a rie?Sure! he lied. Then he made his wayto the ront. It was February 5, 1937,the eve o an oensive that would cost20,000 lives over 19 days. They had

never beore seen a war, says Carroll.In that sense the Jarama was a bap-tism by fre or all o them.

The only thing that kept us goingwas our political commitment. Wewere so committed that we went into

battle without hesitation, recallsSmith. Another o the surviving vets,Abe Oshero, is also haunted bymemories o the war. On the road toBelchite I realized that hal the men I

trained with were either dead orwounded.

They did everything they could,explains Carroll, but they were notproessional soldiers. But what theylacked in training and experience,they made up or in commitment, spir-it and aith. They were not fghting orthemselves, or or money. They werefghting or deeply held belies. Andthey were willing to die or them.

McCarthy Witch HuntsWilling to Die or Go to Prison.

Robert Steck was captured at theEbro in April 1938 and then trans-erred to the monastery o San Pedrode Cardea, in the province o Burgos,a prison or Internationals that became

an improvised torture chamber.

That same year, while DoloresIbarruri, La Pasionaria, ollowed inter-national accords that orced thegovernment o the Republic to with-draw all the International volunteers,Steck created in San Pedro what theycalled the Institute or AdvancedStudies. In practice it was an under-ground university in which theprisoners learned rom their com-rades whatever they were qualifed to

teach. In this way, we managed tokeep up the good fght, and maintainour ideals.

Back in the US, they paid a priceor having ought in deense o theSpanish Republic. In 1947 the JusticeDepartment drew up a list o subver-sive organizations. The Abraham

Lincoln Brigade was on it twice, und

A (ALB) and V (Veterans o theALB). Jack Sharan and Moe Fishmanwere two o the many veterans whosuered reprisals and lost jobs be-cause o it. Anyone suspected olet-wing sympathies was branded acommunist, and automatically lost h

job, adds Sharan.The case o Steve Nelson had in-

ternational repercussions. Under theSmith Act he was sentenced to 20

years or sedition. The day beore re-porting to prison, Nelson spent theaternoon with his amily in a park inPittsburgh. What were we to talkabout? asked Nelson. How do youtalk about having to spend 20 years i

jail, how do you explain it?

The Lincolns Activist AbesSeventy years later the surviving

veterans o that now legendary

Brigade are still convinced that it was

worth deending the Spanish

Republic. I have made many errors

in my lie, says Abe Smorodin, but

going to Spain was not one o them.

The only thing he regrets is that he

knew that sooner or later he would

leave Spain. But the Spaniards had

to stay there. That was 70 years ago,

and it still tears me up. I cant help

it, he says with tears in his eyes.

Abe Osherof now needs a

wheelchair to move about. He has

just turned 90, and he recently

launched what he calls thePeaceMobile in Seattle. In act, it is a

van with loudspeakers in which he rides the streets o Seattle calling or an end

to the war in Iraq. At the launching o the PeaceMobile, Abe told the audience, I

am 90 years old. Im in a wheelchair, but it would be hard to nd a more commit-

ted activist. As long as this mouth can eat and talk, as long as my head can think

and I have a wheelchair or my body, I will continue to be an activist. What we are

launching here today is a powerul tool or peace.

StarsContinued rom page


11/28


By Michael Nash

At the end o the Spanish CivilWar, as the remnants o theSpanish Republican army,

along with nearly 20,000 civilians,

ed Spain to seek reuge in France, itbecame clear that the French govern-ment was highly ambivalent aboutoering asylum. Feeling threatened

by Hitler and Mussolini, French lead-ers eared antagonizing Germany andItaly. The reugees who made it overthe Pyrenees were, or the most part,orced into internment camps with-out shelter, running water, ood, orsanitation acilities. Disease prolier-

ated and the death rates were high.For men and women on the Let,this humanitarian crisis reinorced theidea that the Western democracies hadnot only reused to deend the SpanishRepublican government but also weredetermined to appease ascism at allcosts. The cause o the Spanish reu-gees became a rallying cry that unitedthe anti-ascist movements in Europeand America.

When France ell to the Germanarmy in June 1940, many o the morepolitically active reugees joined theresistance. Yet during the occupation,Spanish reugees ound that it was im-possible to assimilate into Frenchsociety. Those who reused to work orthe Nazis were sent to the Mauthausenconcentration camp, where more than80% perished. While some o the sur-vivors were able to fnd their place in

postwar society, many had been sotraumatized that they were too dis-abled to take care o themselves.

As early as 1940, the AmericanLet, through the Joint Anti-FascistReugee Aid Committee, had begun toprovide assistance to these SpanishCivil War survivors. During the

McCarthy period, the Joint Anti-Fascist Reugee Aid Committee waslabeled a subversive organization andits undraising abilities were crippled.Aid or the Spanish reugees, however,

was one cause that transcended theLet-sectarian divide. In 1953, NancyMacdonald took the initiative and,with the help o Pablo Casals, James T.Farrell, Mary McCarthy, NormanThomas, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,Hannah Arendt and many others, or-ganized Spanish Reugee Aid (SRA).

As part o its Spanish Civil Warproject, which began with the acquisi-tion o the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

archive, the Tamiment Library at NewYork University recently acquired theextensive historical records o SpanishReugee Aid. This archive tells the sto-ry o the Spanish reugees and the SRArelie eort. More than 10,000 case flesprovide biographical inormation aboutthe men and women who ed FrancoSpain. They include demographic data(inormation about ethnicity, amilies,and regional afliation, politics, and

pre-civil war occupations), the role thatthese reugees played in theRepublican army and government, theorced march out o Spain, and concen-tration camp experiences.

These unique records also docu-ment SRAs relationship with theanti-Franco underground(Communists, Socialists, Anarcho-syndicalists, and the Spanish labormovement), conditions in Spanish

jails, Spanish political prisoners, andeorts by the European and Americananti-Francoists to isolate ascist Spainrom the international community. Apreliminary survey o the reugee casefles reveals that nearly 20% o thosewho received assistance were oCatalan origin. This is not surprising

since the Catalans, with their strongCommunist or anarcho-syndicalisttraditions, played very prominentroles on the Loyalist side during the

Spanish Civil War and later receivedparticularly harsh treatment rom thFranco regime.

Recognizing that these reugeefles are an important repository o thistorical memory o the Spanish CivWar, the government o Catalonia issupporting a project to preserve and

catalog the SRA archives. During thesecond phase o this initiative, theTamiment Library will digitize thesefles so that they can be made availabthrough the state archives inBarcelona.

Michael Nash, an ALBA board member,head o NYUs Tamiment Library.

Tamiment Acquires Spanish Refugee Aid Records


12/28


By Robert W. Snyder

The international journalism thatdefned the struggles betweennationalists and republicans in

Spain is the subject o a fne exhibit at

the Instituto Cervantes in New YorkCity, Correspondents in the Spanish CivilWar 1936-1939. Skillully blendingprose and pictures rom European andNorth American publications, the ex-hibition presents the story o the warand an analysis o the ideas and emo-tions it inspired in the news media.

Newcomers to the story o theSpanish Civil War will fnd a solid in-troduction to the struggle and why it

mattered to so many people.Knowledgeable visitors will be im-pressed by photographs, excerpts romclassic reports, and original copies o

books, magazines and newspapersrom the time o the conict.

Correspondents in the Spanish Civil

War is broadly sympathetic to theSpanish Republic, but balanced includ-ing journalists sympathetic to Franco.The exhibit draws on newspapers andmagazines rom Portugal, the United

States, Sweden, Canada, France, Britain,the Soviet Union, Poland and Italy.Against this broad canvas, many gemsstand out: a chilling account o nation-alist executions o republicans atBadajoz by Jay Allen or the ChicagoTribune; a photograph o MikhailKoltsov o Pravda interviewing the an-archist leader Bueneventura Durruti;Harold G. Cardozo extolling the na-tionalist deenders o the Alcazar or

the British Daily Mail; a copy o GeorgeOrwells essay Spilling the SpanishBeans, which was the oundation o

Homage to Catalonia, in TheNew EnglishWeekly; and reports rom Spain aboutMoors and colored people in the waror the BaltimoreAro-American by

Langston Hughes.The exhibit, supported by the

Fundacion Pablo Iglesias and producein collaboration with El Mundo, is presented in both English and Spanish. I

is accompanied by a catalogue inSpanish o photographs, articles, andessays on the war including historianPaul Preston, and a recent interviewwith Georey Cox, who covered thewar or the British News Chronicle.

Ater New York, the exhibitionwill appear in Lisbon and Madrid.

Correspondents in the Spanish Civi

War runs through September 30, 200at the Instituto Cervantes, 211 East

49th Street, New York, NY. The exhibis open Tuesdays to Fridays rom 12:pm to 6:30 pm and Saturdays rom 1am to 1:30 pm. Admission is ree.

Robert W. Snyder, ALBA board memberteaches journalism and media studies aRutgers-Newark.

Seeking Paul Robeson MemorabiliaThe Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee continues to gather Robeson memorabilia for a permanent Bay Area Paul Robeson

Archive, whose ultimate home will be a public venue where young people can come and learn about this quintessential role model.This past April 8 through August 26, pieces from our collection were displayed in the exhibit Paul Robeson, The Tallest Tree in Our

Forest, at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland.

In more than seven years of collecting, we have received many unique items, including some we hadnt previously known existed;

and so we know there is much additional material to be found. Do you have some memento you would consider donating to our de-

veloping historic archive? How about your family, friends and colleagues? Would you ask them?

Memorabilia can include almost anything related to Robeson:

publicity,promotionalleaets,printedprogramsfromhisappearances

audioorvideorecordings

photographs,posters,artwork

costumesorstagepropsusedbyhim

speechesbyorabouthim newspaperormagazinearticles,pamphlets,correspondence

anautographedcopyofHereIStand

Any material you can provide will be an important contribution to our mission of helping to restore Paul Robeson to his

rightful place in history and making his life and legacy more accessible to the public, especially the youth of today and

coming generations.

Please write us at: [email protected] Visit our website: www.bayarearobeson.org

Media & the Spanish Civil War


13/28


The topic o historical memoryin Spain, part o a larger re-surgence o interest in the

testimonies o victims o repression,will be the ocus o a conerence inNew York. During the past ew years,younger generations in Spain havestarted to conront the unresolvedlegacy o the Civil War and the Francodictatorship. The creation in 2000 othe Association or the Recovery oHistorical Memory, which has workedwith victims amilies to acilitatethe exhumation o mass graves rom

the Francoist repression, has beenaccompanied by the production oa large output o historical researchon the Civil War and its atermath,together with a signifcant body otestimonial literature and flm docu-mentaries. This has coincided witha pro-Francoist backlash that hasattempted to rehabilitate the dictator-ships version o history. The resultingmedia polemics have shown that emo-

tions about Spains past still run deep.Following the publication in July 2006o the report o the ParliamentaryCommission on the Victims o theCivil War and the Dictatorship set up

by the present Spanish Government,this colloquium brings togetherspeakers rom Spain and the U.S. todiscuss the current debates on howthe Republic, Civil War and FrancoDictatorship should be remembered.

Speakers will include:z Julian Casanova, Proessor oContemporary History at theUniversity o Zaragoza and a lead-ing fgure in Spanish media debateson the Francoist repression;z Emilio Silva, Founder o theAssociation or the Recovery o

Political Memory (ARMH);z Francesc Torres, installation artist

and ormer King Juan Carlos

Proessor at NYU, whose photo-graphic documentation o anexhumation will be exhibited inNew York in 2007;z Francisco Ferrndiz, AssociateProessor o Anthropology at theUniversity de Deusto, who is con-ducting an ethnography o the massgrave exhumation process;z Montse Armengou, co-director o anumber o documentary flms on

the Francoist repression or Televiside Catalunya, one o which will bepresented by her the evening beorethe colloquium;z Andrs Soria Olmedo, holder o theFederico Garca Lorca Chair oSpanish Literature at the Universityo Granada and Fall 2006 King JuanCarlos Proessor at NYU, who willaddress the controversy surround-ing Lorcas remains; and

z Gina Herrmann, Associate Proessorat the University o Oregon, who has

undertaken oral history work withRepublican militiawomen as well aauthoring a book on Jorge Semprn

The colloquium will be chaired bJo Labanyi, Proessor o Spanish atNYU, who has a special interest inmemory studies. Papers will be givenin English.

The colloquium will be accompanied by a cycle o documentary flmson the Francoist repression, Imagesagainst Amnesia, shown at the King

Juan Carlos Center at 7:15 pm onThursdays, October 5, 12, and 26, and

November 2 and 9, and at 2:00 pm onSaturday, November 11. The directoro several o the flms will be presentFor details on the colloquium and flseries, see www.nyu.edu/kjc.

ALBA Co-Sponsors International Symposium

The Politics of Memory in Contemporary Spain

The event will take place Friday,

November 10, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at the

King Juan Carlos I Center o New

York University. Other sponsors in-

clude the Department o Spanish

and Portuguese and the Consulateo Spain in New York.

rehearsing 50 years o competingdiscourses surrounding Guernica andGernikaand double entendres,associative irony and black humor.More specifcally, this thesis argues

that Saura eects a return o thereal: a re-viewing o the plastic realityo Guernica and o the traumaticreality o the total war unleashed onGernikas civilian population. Indeed,it argues that read as an art maniesto,Sauras pamphlet locates (Picassos)arts potential not in the representation

o the atrocity through symboliciconography, but in the maniestationo its traumatic aect. Contra elGuernica. Libelo is thus understood alsto engage with a major 20th century

debate in aesthetics: how to do justicto an atrocity o this magnitude.Furthermore, the thesis suggests thatthe intertextual presence o Saurasown art and art theory in his pamphlserves both to link his painting withPicassos and to position it as moreadequate to this task.

Watt AwardContinued rom page


14/28


From the Preace.

Europe had been at war or twenty-seven months

beore the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor onDecember 7, 1941, drawing the United States

into World War II. But except or what the public couldglimpse through newspapers, newsreels, and radio, ewAmericans had aced the horror o modern warare.There was, however, one group o Americans who hadalready conronted the ascist enemy on the battlefeldand had frst-hand experience o the political stakes.

These were the U.S. veterans o the Abraham LincolnBrigade, a volunteer army o about twenty-eight hun-dred men and women who sailed to Europe to fghtagainst ascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Ater nearly three years o bitter, cruel warare, GeneralFrancisco Francos armies deeated the Republican orces inMarch 1939. President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledgedthat U.S. neutrality in the Spanish Civil War had been amistake. Six months later, the same German air orces that

bombed the Basque village o Guernica in 1937 were yingover Poland launching the war that the Lincolns thought

could have been prevented. Although many brigadersreluctantly hewed to the Communist partys non- interven-tionist line in 1939 and 1940, ater Germany invaded theSoviet Union in June 1941, they became enthusiastic aboutthe second chance to achieve victory over ascism.

Even when U.S. military authorities, who were con-cerned about the brigaders ties to the Communist party,attempted to thwart their ambitions by blocking ofcerscommissions and overseas combat assignments, theLincolns remained doggedly loyal to the struggle. AricanAmerican volunteers, who ater serving in the integrated

Lincoln brigade were orced into second-class duties in thesegregated U.S. army, maintained their commitments todestroy the ascist beast; and when fnally given the chanceto fght, they proved to be exceptional soldiers. Whereverthey served, individual Lincoln veterans won innumerableawards or bravery and sacrifce.

Despite their heroism in the second war against as-cism, the Lincolns never overcame the stigma o having

been premature antiascists. By going to Spain, theymarked themselves as radicals whose loyalty to the goverment was suspect. Ater World War II, they were amongthe frst victims o the Red Scare.

Most o the letters in this volume were selected romthousands more that may be ound in the AbrahamLincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) collection in New YorkUniversitys Tamiment Library. Others came rom the personal collections o individuals and their amilies that can

be ound in the ALBA collection or in other depositories.

THE GOOD FIGHT CONTINUES:World War II Letters From theAbraham Lincoln BrigadeAn ALBA Book Editedby Peter N. Carroll, Michael Nash, & Melvin Small

THE GOOD FIGHT CONTINUESTo order, use orm on p. 17 or go to

www.alba-valb.orgThe Good Fight Continues programs or teachers:

www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=8


15/28


From James Bernard (Bunny) Ruker July 14, [1944]

Darling [Helen Ruker]:

Soon, Ill be turning my bak on the Jim Crow United States and with not a single regret. It wont be

goodbye to Jim Crow beause the Army seems to have pledged that it will arry Jim Crow to the ar orners o

the Earth. At least Ill be away rom the main soure and ountain o Jim Crow. Tats a great relie under any

irumstanes. Tat relie and I know you are willing to grant it to me, overshadows any possible eeling o re-

gret at leaving you. I wont be nearly as separated rom you away rom Jim Crow United States as I have been

while I was here. You ouldnt see me in North Carolina when we were only a ew hours o a weekend apart,

when you might have spent a vaation with me. For more than a year we were that lose and yet separated as

muh by Jim Crow as we ould possibly be by miles o oean. Ten or no other reason than Jim Crow, I was

stationed in the most isolated amp in the ountry just as distant rom you as any o the war theaters.

I our hearts ould span Jim Crow, they an span any separation. So I have not the tiniest bit o

maudlinism about adding a new kind o separation to that whih has always been in eec in Ameria. I

hope to return to an Ameria that is not Jim Crow. Ive been hoping that or as long as I an remember, so I

dont bank too muh on my hopes, I just wear them like my dog tags. Just the experienes on the ride to and

rom N.Y. demonstrated that it makes Goddamned little dierene to me i I return at all. Any Amerian

who an live omortably in suh a regime is someone whom I will never understand. So I ould never be

very ontent among them anyway. So I take the oming trip and subsequent events as just another part othe separation that weve already known. . . .

Im sure you dont eel about Jim Crow United States the way I eel and that you eel apable o nding

some satisacion within its limitations. I never did and never will. I have never been satised with all the

limitations that weve put up with. I will never look bak on those times with any satisacion. For every

pleasure there was an insult. For every embrae there was a kik in the ass, or every kiss I was spit on. For

every step toward your house there was a step bak to Hell. My worst regret is that I was not allowed to

leave Jim Crow U.S. sooner.

Te rst thing I will do will be to piss in the waters that wash the shores o the Jim Crow South. It will be

a great day or me to absent mysel rom it. Here I have endured and seen as muh o asism as Id ever expec

to see in Germany or Spain. Ive seen abuses o an entire people perpetuated in the most ynial ashion that

lied and lied to the world. Tat presumed to impose liberty on people all over the world. God help suh peo-ples i its the liberty o the South and o Negroes. Promise an Italian or a Frenhman that his liberty will be

that o Amerian Negroes. Wont he rejoie at that! But arent Negroes expeced to rejoie at their own liberty!

Liberty to ride the bak o the bus. Liberty to be last lass itizens in the lie o the ountry.

Farewell Jim Crow Ameria. Dont promise me that you will rid it o Jim Crow. Promise yoursel. It

wont be long beore we know all the answers to these questions, Hon, and Ill be perecly satised to know

that I played some part in settling them. Whatever Im leaving has been nothing but the hard lot o a Negro

last lass Amerian and that is ertainly nothing to ry over leaving. I still ant rejoie ully at leaving be-

ause Ive seen tears o suering in a Negro womans eyes as late as the bus ride on uesday. Its not joyul to

have that as a picure o the ountry you are serving. But that is the picure.

o you Ill leave all the love in my heart and a hope that my energies will produe happiness or you.

Your husband or always,Bunny

Jame Bernard (Bunny) Rucker (1919-1992) wa reponible for tranporting upplie and viiting dignitarie to the

front, among whom wa Langson Hughe. During World War II, he erved in the army Medical Diviion in Italy

but tranferred into an integrated combat unit, where he wa everely wounded in 1945. He later wa a reference li-

brarian in New Jerey.


16/28


From Alvin Warren Jan 14, 1943[Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana]

Jak BjoseExeutive SeretaryVeterans o Abraham Linoln Brigade100 Fith Ave

New York N.Y.Dear Jak:

I am very sorry that I have not gotten the details o my situation to you earlier than this. I have been

waiting to nd out denitely as to the disposal o my request or a urlough to New York. It has been de-

nitely reused, with the statement that I would not be permitted to enter any oastal areas. However, they

are permitting me to travel to Chiago. So I guess you will have to answer all questions and ac as my rep-

resentative in N.Y. Below is a statement o the acs starting rom the date o inducion.

I was induced into the Army June 8, 1942. I was held at Camp Upton, N.Y. or one month beore be-

ing sent to a Replaement raining Camp. I arrived at Fort Knox Ky July 7 1942. Here I reeived my three

months basi training attahed to a gunnery platoon. During my training period, I was interviewed by my

superior ofers and reommended or Ofer raining Shool. At that time I was the only drated man

out o my entire ompany to be so reommended. Later on I also reeived the highest reommendations

or ofers not speially attahed to my organization. (During that period I was promoted to Squad

leader.) Te ompany ommander asked i I would [like] to stay on as a adre (training personnel) ater

the training period was ompleted. I told him that I would rather not as I preerred to join an acive divi-

sion or enter one o the tank tehnial shools.

Near the end o the training period I was alled in by the Battalion ommander or an interview be-

ore going beore the Ofer Candidate Shool board. Tis interview lasted well over an hour, when the

usual interview o this type lasted only about ten minutes. During the disussion many questions were

asked about my attitudes toward labor unions, Harry Bridges, my politial afliations et. Several days lat-

er I was ordered to appear beore the Medial Board or a physial examination or ofers shool. Tis in

itsel was unusual as it was ustomary to go beore the Ofers Shool Board (and i aepted, then go to aphysial examination.) Te examining ofer turned me down beause o ertain alleged deecs. I was

told at that time, that the ndings o the medial ofer would not aec my status as an enlisted man

and that I would be sent out to acive servie. From then on, until I was transerred, I uncioned as acing

adre on the ompany training sta. Te Commanding Ofer told me at that time that I would soon go

to a division or to one o the tehnial shools.

On Ocober 27, 1942, I reeived a War Department order to entrain or Fort Benjamin Harrison,

Indiana. Here, I entered the H.Q. and H.Q. Post Company, 1530th Servie Unit. Let me tell you some-

thing o the haracer o this ompany. It is omposed o I-B or limited servie men, many o whom, in

my opinion, are malingerers. Further, there are Japanese, Germans, and Italians in this ompany who are

not allowed to go to ombat outts. Some are suspeced o Fasist-Nazi leanings. In addition there are de-

serters, A.W.O.L.s, drunkards, and general troublemakers. It was until reently, staed by non-oms whohave been rejeced by regular outts and many o whom have been in the guardhouse at one or another.

Te main uncion o the ompany is that o a work outt. Tere is no military training arried on at all.

It supplies K.P.s, sentries, prison guards, work details and a host o other non-desript details. It has all the

haraceristis o a dumping plae or undesirables and problems. You an well imagine the state o morale

Continued on next page


17/28


in suh an outt. Ten there is this urther ac. My mail is ensored along with that o the oreign born

and the suspecs.

Upon my arrival at Fort Benjamin Harrison, I immediately asked my rst sergeant i he knew why I

had been sent there and what steps ould be taken to seure a transer into a ombat outt. He told me

that he didnt know the reason that I had been sent in, but that more than likely it would all into one o

the three ategories.

1. Physially unt or limited servies.2. Being o oreign origin, with relatives in the land o my nativity

3. Having partiipated in labor or progressive acivities, suh as my bakground as a member o the

Abraham Linoln Brigade during the Spanish War 1936-1938

I asked i he would attempt to nd out rom the Personnel Division, Post Headquarters what was the

reason and what I do to eec a transer. He said he would. Te result was, as he stated, that H.Q. did not

know the reason why, that I had merely been transerred in on a War Department order. He urther sug-

gested seeing the Post Chaplain to see what he ould do about the situation. Tis I proeeded to do. Te

Chaplain told me, as a result o his inquiries, that I was there beause o physial ondition. He suggested

as the next step, that I apply or a physial examination to nd out the exac nature o the alleged deien-

ies and take the neessary steps to orrec them. I did this. Te medial ndings were that I was perecly

t or ull and acive duty. With this inormation I went to the head o the Personnel Division, Lt.

Tomas, to nd out what my exac status was and how I ould be transerred out to ombat duty. He told

me that he did not know nor ould he nd out what the exac reasons or my being sent to this post were.

Tis was in ontradicion to the ndings o Chaplain. He stated urther, that there was no way I ould be

transerred to other servies. Te only developments sine then is that the Military Intelligene has been

visiting many o my ormer riends and employers, soliiting inormation o a politial nature, about me.

In losing I want to remind you o ertain acs whih I think are important. You know that the Army

is desperately in need o tehnial men. I have ve years experiene with Diesel engines. o make that ex-

periene more valuable to the Army, the year previous to my inducion, I attended a Diesel Engineering

Shool so that I ould qualiy as an expert in my eld. Tis knowledge is needed by the Army now.

Further, my two years experiene in Spain has provided [me] with knowledge that an be very useul inthe ombat servies o our Army. I eel that I an help ahieve suesses with a minimum o ost in lie

and blood. All I want out o the Army is the hane to serve like any ordinary Amerian soldier to be able

to go overseas to partiipate in the battles whih will bring the downall o our ountry's enemies. Any

soure o acion whih you may deide upon has my ull agreement. You may use my name and the acs

in the ase in any way you see t.

Fraternally Yours

Pvt. Alvin Warren

Al Warren (aka Cohen, 1913-1997), who wa born in Brooklyn, wa a truck driver and taxi driver and a

CIO organizer before going to Spain to work in tranport. A corporal in the 29th Infantry, he landed at

Normandy a a demolition expert. He wa later a founder of an anti-Vietnam War group, Veteran for Peace.

letters continue next page


18/28


From Dr. Sidney Vogel Saturday, --[Ft. MClellan, AL]

Dear Ethel [Vogel]:

[]I must tell you about the short arm inspetion, whih I already mentioned to you[....] Yesterday I

did it again and so an give you a better report. Well it seems that x a month by AR [Army Regulation]

# something, men (enlisted) get a short arm inspetion. Atually it is supposed to be an examination or

everything but it resolves itsel atually to ontagious diseases--espeially venereal. Sine I am given an

hour to examine over men you an imagine how thoro it is. he men are lined up by a tough nd Lt.

and are undressed exept or a oat. I sit on a hair and as eah omes to me he opens his oat and lits his

arms so I an see his arm pits (rabs, et.) and then ater a quik glane at his hest & belly we get down to

the short arm. And sine they dont know at this stage o their training how to adequately expose them-

selves or this inspetion, I have to repeat almost times do this, do that, and next, so that I must

have suggested a phonograph reord or the next time. he men seemed like to me even tho the

Lt. helped by bellowing instrutions. Well, with this piture, and the shyness o men exposing themselves

in this way, Id like to make a ew observations. Altho I am a dotor and have seen parts o bodies beore, I

have never seen so many o the same part in so short a time. And it is surprising to see the variations in size,

olor, orm, ontour, and assoiated harateristis o surrounding parts. It surprised me as a dotor, and Ithink a paper ought to be written. rue my judgment may have been warped by the speed up o the work and

I was rather tired aterwards, but I think I am right in saying that there are red ones, pink ones, blue, orange

& yellow; long, short & medium; twisted, straight, urved; symmetrial & asymmetrial; e iient looking

and non; disproportionate; et. ad ininitum and not ad nauseam. his impressed me so muh (and also the

Lt. who had his nose right in it in a rather unsientii nd Lt. way muh to the embarrassment o the men)

that I suggested the use o these variations instead o ingerprints and am going to suggest the same to [FBI

Diretor] Edgar Hoover. here just arent alike, whih observation probably isnt very aute o me.

As I told you the nd Lt., a swell tough guy with a Polish name, and speeh, and warm understanding

young ae, had that ae right into the soure o my work, muh to the annoyane o the men. He too

must have been amazed and he kept asking me various questions re eah one as his wonderment inreased.

I o ourse had no time to answer all. He also made rather pertinent general observations whih I too ouldo made, but I had work to do.

One ase o rabs aroused an exlaim o exitement rom the Lt. and he insisted on a personal exam.

And when I told him I had had them x et. he broke down and openly told me how he had had them, and

a warm bond between me, himsel and the patient developed. And thats all. And thats why, in overom-

ing my insomnia, I no longer ount sheep. So good night little boys and girls until to-morrow at P.M. (I

Allan had been writing this story he would have drawn pitures, whih would have made the story Short

Arm sound better.)[]

All my love,

Sid

Sidney Vogel (1904-1986), a surgeon and psychiatrist, was chief of the Casa Roja Hospital at Murcia. After participating inthe Armys North African and Italian campaigns, he practiced psychiatry in New York.


19/28



20/28


Book Reviews

Churchill and Spain: The Survival ofthe Franco Regime, 1940-45. By RichardWigg. Routledge, .

By Peter Stansky

This is an excellent study o the re-lations between Britain and Spainduring the Second World War.Although it does not orm part o thisstory, one cannot help wondering

whether the Second World War wouldhave taken place i Franco had beendeeated, and i it had taken place,how it would have been dierent? Oron the other hand, i the Republic hadsurvived, would Hitler have invadedSpain with potential serious conse-quences or the course o the war?

But this thorough and well-docu-mented study deals with what didhappen. It is ull o paradox. In part to

get him out o Britain, Churchill sentthe arch-appeaser, Sir Samuel Hoare,as Ambassador to Spain. Hoare in actdid a brilliant job in helping to keepSpain neutral, a neutrality that wasdeeply sympathetic, not surprisingly,to the Axis. Franco helped as he could,most dramatically by sending the BlueDivision to fght against the Russians.But it would have been ar worse orthe Allies i Franco had ully joined

with Hitler and Mussolini. Throughclever diplomacy, the bribing oSpanish generals, the continuing otrade with Spain, the supplying o gas,and the purchasing o wolram (whichwas also being sold to the Germans),Britain and the United States keptSpain out o the war. The Duke o

Alba, Spains ambassador to London,had a special relationship with hiscousin, the British Prime Minister,as he too was descended rom the frst,17th century, Winston Churchill.

The irony o Wiggs story is that inthis situation, Churchill turned out to

be the arch-appeaser. Although thePretender to the Spanish Throne, Don

Juan, was not particularly adroit, he

had a lot o support among powerulorces in Spain, including his premierpeer, the Duke o Alba, as well asquite a ew generals. Hoare, BritishForeign Secretary Eden, Roosevelt,and the U.S. Department o State wereall in varying degrees anti-Franco andwould have been happy to see a tran-sition to a monarchy that might beincreasingly constitutional. Thisseemed to be more o a likelihood as

the Allies began to win the war. Thiswas particularly true as Franco, ratherthan trying to accommodate himselto the situation, in act became moredoctrinaire and stepped up his execu-tion o enemies. But Churchill almostalone strengthened his commitment toFranco and publicly stated that he didnot wish to cause him any trouble.During the Spanish Civil War,Churchill had occupied in turn both

pro-Franco and pro-Republic posi-tions, driven by his commitmentagainst Germany. But as World War IIwas ending, as in his earlier days, hereverted to his hatred o Bolshevismand his conception o the threat thatthe Russians represented ater thewar. As a sop to world opinion, Spain

was not to be allowed to join the worcommunity in the United Nations.Sadly, the opportunity was not taken

and would not happen or 30 years, tmove to a orm o state that, while arom ideal, as it might still be domi-nated by Franco, would have beenpreerable to his continuing oppres-sive dictatorship. Had they wished,the Allies might have been able to tople Franco entirely.

Wigg, in this meticulous study, iconvincing about Churchills impor-tance, and he also gives us vivid

descriptions o the other players, botBritish and Spanish. He stops his stoin 1945. In that year, in a Labour gov-ernment, Clement Attlee, ater whomthe British battalion was named, be-came Prime Minister and Ernest BevForeign Secretary. Why didnt theythrow their considerable power in avor o a change or at least amodifcation o regime in Spain?Presumably the power o the United

States, now more pro-Franco than ithad been, and the heating up o theCold War did not allow or that sadlymissed possibility.

Peter Stansky, with William Abrahams,has written about Julian Bell and JohnCornord and their involvement inthe Spanish Civil War in Journey to theFrontier.

Spain and Britain

Advertise inThe Volunteer

The Volunteerwelcomes paidadvertising consistent with ALBAs

broad educational and culturalmission. For more inormation,contact [email protected].


21/28


The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil

War 1936-1939. By Antony Beevor.Weideneld & Nicolson, .

By Helen Graham

Weighing in at over 900 pages,military historian Antony Beevorsnew general history o the Spanishcivil war is already a best seller inSpain. The English-language edition,published in Britain last June, has re-

ceived much media attention, and at arelatively more manageable 526 pages,it too looks set to become a marketleader. (The U.S. edition appears thisall.) Ater the authors previous block-

busting success with Stalingrad (1998)and Berlin: the Downall (2002), there isan identifable Beevor product thatwill appeal to a large general audi-ence. The product is highlyreadable--or Beevor writes very well--

and combines an original,archive-based take on the military di-mension with an intelligent synthesiso the rest, culled rom the publica-tions o specialist academic historianswhose work would rarely otherwisereach the general reader.

The Battle or Spain ollows this or-mula, and in many respects theresulting work o synthesis ulfls auseul unction in giving a non-

Spanish reading audience access to thefndings o recent specialist research.This is particularly noteworthy in thecase o Beevors treatment o the mur-derous Francoist repression o the

1930s and 40s, on which a huge lead-ing edge bibliography has beenproduced by Spaniards over the last25 years, almost none o which has

been translated into English.In terms o Beevors analysis o the

war itsel, he is most thought provok-ing on the military detail. There aremany nice observations that bringalive the problems ordinary soldiersaced. Much more controversial is his

negative assessment o RepublicanChie o Sta, Vicente Rojo, consideredby many commentators--includingother military historians--to be theoutstanding strategist o the war.Beevor criticizes his military leader-ship and considers him irresponsibleto have engaged in prestige opera-tions, as the author describes theRepublics major diversionary attacksat Brunete, Belchite, Teruel and the

Ebro. Certainly these proved costly to

the Republic in men and material. Busuch actions were vital to projectingan image o military vitality and pol

ical will. Without them, the Republicoremost political leaders knew theystood absolutely no chance o break-ing the international diplomaticdeadlock that, in perpetuating NonIntervention, was killing the RepubliIndeed even Beevors technical criti-cisms o the prestige operationsoten ignore the proound and lastineects o the arms shortages inicted

by Non Intervention.

But Beevor is much less interestein the devastation wrought by NonIntervention than he is in Russian involvement with the Republic. Heassumes rather than demonstrates thRepublican military resistance wasrun by Soviet advisers. Moreover, hesees the Second Spanish Republic atwar as virtually a Soviet satellite. Buagain, this is not a view sustained byhis own substantial mining o newly

Book Reviews

Cold War Lingers in New History

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Helen Graham is the author oThe Spanish Civil War: A Very Short

Introduction.

Continued on page


22/28


Book Reviewscontinued rom

available Soviet sources. Rather, it isan article o aith, much as it has al-ways been or Cold War historians,

rom Burnett Bolloten to RonaldRadosh, and to whose school Beevorclearly belongs. As with his predeces-sors, Beevors anti-communism attimes blinds him to the evidence o hisown material. Many o the reportsfled by the Republics Soviet advisorsindicate their utter powerlessness toaect military outcomes given materi-al shortages and the hugeorganizational and personnel prob-

lems they conronted. They wereequally bewildered by the complexityand diversity o the Republican politi-cal scene, which neither they nor theirSoviet masters ever really understood,let alone controlled. In the end, ocourse, the Cold War view o theSpanish Republic at war is an imperi-alist one: Spain was a blank canvasuntil written on by agendas o thegreat powers. The history o

Republican Spain and the agency o itsprotagonists are entirely written out othe script.

Without any apparent sense o theabsurdity o the proposition, Beevortell us that in August 1936 in Spainthe communists were interested in

building an army only because theyjudged that, compared to the militia, itwould be easier to dominate. But inthe apocalyptic conditions o summer

1936, all o the Republics rontline de-enders were interested in building anarmy to fght Franco. Whether inMrida or Madrid, communists, so-cialists, anarchists and republicanswere absorbed body and soul by pres-ent danger: how might theyconceivably oer an eective resis-

tance to the onslaught o the Army oAricas seasoned troops? Quite sim-ply, how might they stay alive?

Nor is the sociological complexityo Spains wartime mass communismever really explored. Beevor makespassing reerence to the movementssocial and cultural hybridity but neverdraws any conclusions rom this interms o its political trajectory duringthe war, nor to its maniest and obvi-ous weakness when aced with theCasado coup that capsized Republicanresistance in March 1939. Though the

movement purportedly controlled ev-erything in Republican Spain, thehistorian is increasingly awash withevidence (much o it courtesy o theSoviet archives) that indicates quitethe opposite. Ultimately the problemwith Beevors relentless anticommu-nism is the problem o all conspiracyviews o history: they never do justiceto the complexity o how and whythings happen. No doubt many com-

munists at the time believed theirparty-movements rhetoric: that his-tory was on their side, that theirs wasthe grand design. But that belie is anhistorical phenomenon, while Beevorseems to mistake it or a methodology.

Much counteractuality alsocreeps into Beevors assessment, inspite o this being the historians car-dinal sin. I Francoism was bad, heinsists that a victorious Republic, post-

victory, would have engaged in just asbloody a repression. Once again, thisisnt so much argued as stated and as-sumed--indeed there isnt even apassing reerence to the evidence/ar-guments to the contrary available inseveral o the specialist texts the au-thor cites in his own bibliography.

Taken together, the implicit messageo Beevors intense ideological anti-communism, combined with his

equally vehement criticism oFrancoist barbarity, would seem to ba plague on both your houses. Thisis not so very ar removed rom viewexplicitly expressed by some eliteBritish opinion ormers at the time.But or a widely read proessional hitorian to be implying the same in the21st century is myopic and more thanunortunate, ignoring as it does thequite undamental dierences be-

tween the Francoist and Republicanpolitical projects. No doubt the authowould say that this is simply the cur-rent reviewers own article o aith.But in act these dierences are prettmuch empirically verifable i onecompares the judicial, social and economic practices o the Republican staat war (warts and all) with the practies o Francos (emergent) new order.

Ideological blind spots notwith-

standing, Antony Beevors book isworth reading or its broad synthesising coveragealthough the readershould beware o minor errors andgremlins that have inevitably crept ingiven the scale o the authors endeavour. The books real value, however,lies in Beevors thought-provokingmilitary analysis. For even i one disagrees with his conclusions, and therare plenty o grounds or doing so, h

assessments will contribute to andstimulate wider interest in the com-plex ongoing debate over Republicanmilitary strategy and its political andmaterial constraints. And that is no

bad thing.


23/28


ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS

ALBA EXPANDS WEB BOOKSTOREBuy Spanish Civil War books on the WEB.

ALBA members receive a discount!

WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORGBOOKS ABOUT THE LINCOLN BRIGADEThe Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters fromthe Abraham Lincoln Brigadeedited by Peter N. Carroll, Michael Nash & Melvin Small

The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introductionby Helen Graham

Member of the Working Classby Milton Wolff

Fighting Fascism in Europe. The World War II Letters ofan American Veteran of the Spanish Civil Warby Lawrence Cane, edited by David E. Cane, JudyBarrett Litoff, and David C. Smith

The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigadeby Richard Bermack

Soldiers of Salamasby Javier Cercas

Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship toDemocracyby Paul Preston

British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil Warby Richard Baxell

The Wound and the Dream: Sixty Years of AmericanPoems about the Spanish Civil War

by Cary Nelson

Passing the Torch: The AbrahamLincoln Brigade and its Legacy of Hopeby Anthony Geist and Jose Moreno

Another Hillby Milton Wolff

Our FightWritings by Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade: Spain 1936-1939edited by Alvah Bessie & Albert Prago

Spains Cause Was Mine

by Hank RubinComradesby Harry Fisher

The Odyssey of the AbrahamLincoln Brigadeby Peter Carroll

The Lincoln Brigade, a Picture Historyby William Katz and Marc Crawford

EXHIBIT CATALOGSThey Still Draw Pictures: Childrens Art in Wartimeby Anthony Geist and Peter Carroll

The Aura of the Cause, a photo albumedited by Cary Nelson

VIDEOSInto the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil Wa

Julia Newman

Art in the Struggle for FreedomAbe Osheroff

Dreams and NightmaresAbe Osheroff

The Good Fight

Sills/Dore/BrucknerForever Activists

Judith Montell

You Are History, You Are LegendJudith Montell

Professional Revolutionary: Life of Saul WellmanJudith Montell

Yes, I wish to become an ALBAAssociate, and I enclose a check or$30 made out to ALBA (includes a oneyear subscription to The Volunteer).

Name ___________________________________

Address _________________________________

City________________ State ___Zip_________

Ive enclosed an additional donation o_________. I wish do not wish to have thisdonation acknowledged in The Volunteer.

Please mail to: ALBA, 799 Broadway, Room 227,New York, NY 10003


24/28


Dear Friends,Are the editors o The Volunteer

trying to test the wits o its readers ordrive them a little nuts? What is thelanguage o the text on the wonderulSCW posters depicted on pages 2 and

3 o the most recent issue? Could itpossibly be Esperanto? I suspect thatthere is more than one other readerpuzzled by this?

The article on Fred Stix let open aew questions that the author needed,I believe, to address. I had never heard

beore o the ALB accepting volunteerswho had no known political aflia-tions and connections with the Let asis implied in the article about Stix. It

seems so anomalous that it requiressome discussion/explanation. In thearticle, Stix mentions that as a GermanPOW he escaped rom the march east-ward as the Red Army advanced. Hethen notes that when his ellowAmerican POWs were liberated bymembers o the Red Army, they werestripped o their watches. However, hewas not there to witness this and weare not told how he ound out about

this. Again, while looting and rapingby the advancing Red Army--especial-ly, but not exclusively--o Germans, iswell documented, I have never comeacross a report o an incident o thesort reported by Stix. Lastly, I am ba-ed by Stixs service during theKorean War. How did a SCW vet getsecurity clearance to obtain a combatposition in a war against North Koreaand Red China?

Yours truly,Gerald MeyerEditors reply: Esperanto it is: What

are you doing to stop this? Esperantists

[i.e., men and women] in the whole world

act energetically against international

ascism!The stories that Stix tells about the

eastern ront in World War II obviously

cannot be verifed. We were radical, he

says o his political views. But or the re-

cord, there were many other Lincoln

volunteers who had no known political

afliation. Stixs ability to serve in the

Korean War suggests two possibilities: 1)

the absence o clear political afliations

put him under the Army radar; 2) thosewho tried to stop radicals rom serving in

the U.S. Army werent always good at

their work.

Dear Editor,My thoughts on the questions Mr.

Meyer raised:1) Numerous volunteers were non-party members. (Stix i I recall wasone).

2) This is oral history. Stix may haveheard o this type o treatment andtaken it as act.3) There was at least one other volun-teer who ought in Korea as an ofcer.I do not think that the Army regardedStix as a security risk. (This is verymuch a personal observation.) He wasa very low-ranking soldier to have hadas much time in as he did. He did notmake NCO until the tail end o Korea.

I also think that Mr. Meyer needsto keep in mind who the original au-dience or the article was: it wasclearly noted as a reprint courtesy oDAV [Disabled American Veterans].

Chris Brooks

To the Editor,The last issue o The Volunteer de-

voted three and a hal pages to thestory o Fred Stix. I must say I was

outraged that this appeared in ourpublication, dedicated to carry on thelegacy o the Lincolns.

Only a small handul o theBrigade were psychos, turncoats or ad-venturers who actually enjoyedwarare. Stix, by his own admission isone o those. I had a desire to be

around danger. I liked the adrena-line elt in combat. And then, I Iwere young I would volunteer, rightnow, to go to Iraq.

It seems clear that Stix relates towar more rom addiction than convition. I cannot consider him a comrado mine.

There are many lie stories abouLincolns more worthwhile. But weonly learn a little about them in theirobituaries.

Take the lie o Clarence Kailin, alielong activist in Madison, WisconsiHe is a Lincoln vet who made a dierence. Or consider Dutch Schultz,longshoreman and dedicated unioniswho won an award or saving the lieo a ellow worker. For many years

Dutch produced wood sculptures re-ecting a broad social vision.Let us hear about such Lincolns

who lived inspirational lives, and letus do so while they are still with us.

Abe Oshero

Dear Editor,The wartime biography o Fred

Stix was a ascinating story in yourJune, 2006, issue. I admire his bravery

under fre, especially during theSpanish Civil War when he ought--presumably--or the Republican sideHowever, I ound his philosophy sadmisguided--he was a Universal Soldiwilling to fght or any paymaster!Especially galling was his conusedmorality when he said, in Iraq the U.soldiers dont know who the enemyis. Yet he continues, I I were youngI would volunteer right now [to go to

Iraq.] Shouldnt The Volunteer at leasput a preace to disclaim endorsemeno Fred Stix touching but morally

bankrupt lie story?In Solidarity (and anti-ImperialismDanny Li, MidPac Peace activist.

Letters to the Editor


25/28


Alun MenaiWilliams

(1913-2006)

The last surviving Welch volun-teer has died.

Alun Menai Williams, who servedas a medic with the Thaelmann,George Washington, Garibaldi,Abraham Lincoln, and BritishBattalions, had trained as a medicalorderly with the British army. He hadlet the military in the mid-1930s, butwas called up as a reservist to serve

or eight months in Egypt during theAbbysinian crisis o 1936. On his re-turn, the ship was diverted to Majorcato collect British nationals ater a mili-tary uprising in Spain.

Returning to Britain, Alun washeavily involved with challenging thegrowing threat o Oswald MoselysBlackshirts, modelled on Mussolinisascists. Nearly trampled to death by apolice horse in the battle o Cable

Street, he decided to ollow his bestriend Billy Davies to join theInternational Brigades in Spain. Onthe third attempt he was successul,

but he swam into Spain with othersurvivors ater the ship in which hewas travelling, the City o Barcelona,was torpedoed by an unidentifedsubmarine on May 31, 1937.

Immediately sent to the Jaramaront as a temporary medic with the

Thaelmann Battalion, Alun thenjoined the newly ormed GeorgeWashington Battalion and served withthem at Brunete, where he waswounded while trying to save the lieo George Nathan. He was temporarilydemoted rom sergeant to corporal atthis time ater taking out two riemen

to act as stretcher bearers without per-mission o the battalion commissar.Subsequently transerred to the amal-gamated Abraham Lincoln Battalion

ater three weeks with the GaribaldiBattalion (the best dressed battalionin the Brigades), he served at Belchiteand then at Teruel, where he adminis-tered looted brandy to the mortallywounded o the Lincoln Battalion sothat they could die obliviously drunk.The Americans called him TheLimey Doc.

Ater the Great Retreats in thespring o 1938, Alun applied to be

transerred to the British Battalion.Withdrawn across the Ebro inSeptember 1938, Alun carried theBritish Battalion banner at the depar-ture o the Brigades or Barcelona andwas photographed by Robert Capa inthe same sequence as Milton Wol.

On returning to the UK inDecember 1938, Alun was heckled at ameeting to Aid Spain and was accusedo being a communist and a liar. He

then decided to remove himsel romthe history books. He was rarely heardo again, but served in the RAFMilitary Police during World War II,where he bumped into Tiny Hollandrom the Abraham Lincoln Battalionin Barry, South Wales!

It was only in 2003, eight years a-ter the death o his beloved wie,Maudie, that Alun started to write hisautobiography, From the Rhondda to theEbro, subsequently published byWarren and Pell in 2004. Suddenly theworld became aware o this kind,humble and modest man. In May 2005he returned to Spain or the frst timein 67 years to unveil a plaque on Hill705 with the names o 93 English-speaking dead o the XV Brigade. He

also laid some Welsh coal on the grao his riend Harry Dobson, who had

been evacuated to the Cave hospital la Bisbal de Falset (see Angela

Jacksons Beyond the Battlefeld, pub-lished by Warren & Pell).The last years o Aluns lie were

spent in preparing his Spanishchapters or Catalan with his riendand translator, Anna Marti. Alunspent St Jordis (St George) Day on thRamblas in Barcelona signing copieso his book, published under the titlevaig t

The Volunteer, September 2006

Documents