NO PASARÁN!The International Brigades and their Jewish Fighters in the Spanish Civil War

1936—1939

E x h i b i t i o n

Berman Hall, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of JerusalemThe Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry

Division of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal

Academic directionProf. Haim Avni

Researcher and exhibition curatorDr. Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber

DesignDov Abramson

Research assistantSebastián Klor

International Brigades’ veterans were imprisoned together with Dolly Steindlingat the French concentration camp in Gurs and were among his colleagues in thefight against the Nazis. This exhibition was made possible by the Dolly SteindlingFund at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

I dedicate my efforts in preparing this exhibition to the memory of myfather, Carlos Ibáñez Fransoy and his family, who were crushed in thewar and also lost their right to talk about their defeat.

Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber

2003, All Rights Reserved.

The publication of the exhibition catalogue was made possible by the support ofLa Asociación de Amistad Israel-España

Foreword

The Spanish Civil War was undoubtedly a central event in world history in the yearspreceding World War II. “No Pasarán!” (They shall not pass!), the battle cry of thosewho defended Madrid against the army that rebelled against the republican authorities,became for the members of that generation a universal motto against Fascism and Nazism.In the decades that have passed since then the world has forgotten what contemporariesconsidered to be the first stage in the battle against the regimes of evil, a conflict thattook place on Spanish soil. The purpose of this exhibition is to draw the attention of thepresent generation to that complex and multi-faceted episode, and to the role played init by Jews.

We do not claim to present an exhaustive study of the topic, for this is over and abovethe possibilities inherent in an exhibition, especially when many aspects of the subjectstill await research. It is our intention to reawaken public interest, and above all academicinterest, in an historical episode to which members of that generation often attributedsimplistic qualities that were far from realistic.

This exhibition will focus on those who volunteered to serve in the International Brigadesand other fighting units. We are fully aware that the exhibits, collected through muchdiligent effort over a lengthy period of time, do not represent all groups and types ofvolunteers who participated in the fighting, nor do they present them in true proportionalrepresentation: volunteers from various national and linguistic backgrounds, fighters whowere killed in action or about whom documentation has not survived — all these havenot received their due in this exhibition. Furthermore, we have purposely refrained fromgiving prominence to the role played in or the attitude to the Brigades of famouspersonalities such as Josip Broz Tito, Willy Brandt, Pietro Nenni, Ilya Ehrenburg, PabloNeruda, or Ernest Hemingway. In addition, we did not refer here to the thousands ofSoviet soldiers who served in the Republican Army as advisers and instructors, for theywere recruits, not volunteers. On the other hand, we consciously stressed the participationof Jews in the various military frameworks, including volunteers from Palestine — EretzIsrael. We did this because from their point of view at the time — and in retrospect afterthe Holocaust — volunteering to fight in this war was indeed a first battle against themurderers of their people.

Prof. Haim Avni Dr. Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber

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1. Introduction

The Second Spanish Republic, constituted after the bloodless overthrow of the monarchyin April 1931, was threatened almost from the beginning by political forces which opposedits very existence. Royalists and the supporters of General Primo de Rivera’s dictatorialregime (1923—1930) were not the only ones who negated a republican democratic state.Communists and revolutionary-Marxist elements in the Socialist Party, too, considereddemocracy to be a means to achieve their own ends, and not as a positive objective inits own right; the anarchists, with their large and very influential trade union, wereopposed to any form of centralized government and boycotted the elections; and theFalange, the small party that took after Italian fascism, located on the extreme right wingof the political spectrum, awaited its opportunity. To this should be added the separatisttendencies of Catalonia and, to a lesser degree (at that time), of the Basque region andof Galicia. The society that sprouted such a diversified political reality, marked by somany opposing factions, was far from achieving the socio-economic stability upon whicha democratic regime rests. Agriculture, the largest sector of Spain’s economy, was taintedwith feudalism — a small minority of owners of estates and multitudes of landless farmers;there was little industrial development and even that was concentrated in only a fewregions; a huge number of illiterate persons; and an extensive church system with muchproperty that justified and was part of the “old regime.” All these led to attempts during1932—1934 by anarchists, a group of army officers, and the socialists, each in their ownturn, to bring about political change by force of arms or rebellion. In all these cases thearmy and the police, which remained loyal to the government, put down the rebels. Butthe great amount of blood spilled and the mutual assassinations were a precedent for thefuture civil war.

In the elections of February 1936, after two years of rule by a right-wing coalition thatannulled most of the reforms adopted by the first republican government of 1931—1933, the Popular Front gained a majority of the seats in the Spanish parliament — theCortes. The Front was comprised of the radical republicans, of the two fractions of thesocialist party, the communists who — following the instructions of the Comintern —changed their tactics, and additional regional allies, while the anarchists refrained fromattacking the elections, and many of their members participated in them. The electoralvictory heralded forceful implementation of all the reform programs in agriculture, inthe relationship of church and state, and more, which had been put aside, and it wasaccompanied by waves of violence, killings, and political assassinations. It was then thatthe seeds of rebellion began to sprout among the military and the political right wing.

The uprising erupted on 18 July 1936 with the active participation of the vast majorityof the army’s officers and soldiers. An especially important role was played by large units

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of Moroccan mercenaries stationed in Spanish Morocco under the command of GeneralFrancisco Franco. Unbridled violence raged throughout all of Spain during the firstmonths of the Civil War: mass executions of those who supported, or were suspected ofsupporting, the Left were carried out by the rebelling forces in the areas under theircontrol; anarchists and extreme leftists murdered clergymen, monks, and nuns, as wellas supporters of the Right, in the areas under republican rule.

From the very first moment the rebels were openly supported by Germany and Italy,while the democratic powers, led by France and Great Britain, preferred not to intervene.An international pact calling for non-intervention and prevention of military aid for thewarring parties, joined by almost all European countries, led to the convening of TheNonintervention Committee on Spain London on 9 September 1936. The supervisorybody of The Nonintervention Committee also included representatives of… Germanyand Italy, despite the fact that at that very moment, and throughout the entire Civil War,they openly supplied the rebels with vast quantities of modern weapons, instructors, andtens of thousands of soldiers. After some hesitation, the Soviet Union began to supplythe republican authorities with weapons and officer-instructors. From October 1936,the Comintern took upon itself to recruit and organize international brigades. What atfirst seemed to the rebels to be a speedy and successful military campaign soon became,due to popular opposition and the aid received from the Soviet Union and Mexico, abloody war that dragged on for thirty months. In its course, new military tactics soonto be applied by Nazi Germany in World War II were experimented with, such assystematic bombing of the civilian population. The fate of the Basque town of Guernicabecame the tragic symbol of this innovative type of warfare.

[1] Flag of the Spanish Republic.

[2] Poster: portrait of Manuel Azaña,first prime minister of the Republic(1931—1933) and its president fromMay 1936.

[3] A street in Madrid during the CivilWar. The poster reads: “!No Pasaran! — Fascism wishes to conquer Madrid —Madrid will be the grave of fascism”

[4] Banknotes from the pre-republicanperiod (1928) and notes issued bymunicipal authorities to serve as legal

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tender during the hostilities.

[5] Map of Spain marking the battlefields onwhich the Brigades fought.

[6] Picasso’s painting: Guernica.

2. The Volunteers and the Structure of the Brigades

The total number of foreign volunteers who came to the aid of the Republic is uncertain,but it is estimated that throughout the entire period it reached about 40,000 who camefrom some 50 countries. The French accounted for about a quarter of them; groups ofGermans, Italians, and Poles numbered about 5,000 each; there were about 3,500Americans, 3,000 Belgians and British, 2,500 Czechs and Canadians, about 1,500Hungarians, Yugoslavians, and Austrians, and some 1,000 Cubans. There were manyJews in each of these national groups; all in all they accounted for about 15% of thecombatants. Their presence was particularly notable among the Poles, the Germans, theRomanians, and the Americans, and in specialized fields such as medical services.

Communists were most conspicuous among those who came for ideological reasons, butmany of the volunteers were persons with leftist inclinations who had no party affiliation.At the same time, there were many whose decision to volunteer arose from the economiccrisis, great distress, and unemployment in their home countries. There was also no lackof adventurers who sought a change from their routine lives. These may have been thefirst to experience a sense of disappointment which motivated them to desert and try toreturn home, but they were not the only ones.

From the inception of the Brigades in October 1936until early 1938, the structure of the units and theirdemographic composition underwent many changes.The general intention of the Central Command,led by André Marty and his chief political commissaryLuigi Longo, was to concentrate the fighters inlinguistically and ethnically uniform units. With thepassage of time and in view of the high casualtiesand the varying number of new volunteers, manychanges took place and regular Spanish troops were added to the Brigades to fill theirranks.

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[1] Spanish women welcoming members of the Brigades with flowers and a poster reading:“To the internationals — Greetings! Brethren!”

[2] Structure of the Brigades and the ethnic origin of the volunteers, based on data fromearly 1938.

[3] In her book, General Manfred Stern, alias Emilio Kleber, author Sidi Gross draws aportrait of the Jewish commander of the XIth Brigade which fought in defense of Madrid.Like many other Brigades’ commanders, Stern operated under an alias. His two brothers,Wolf and Leo, also fought in Spain.

[4] Mate Zalka — known as Pavel Lukacs — a Hungarian-Jewish general, was the firstcommander of the XIIth Brigade. This page from a battalion’s news sheet includes newsof his death in battle.

[5] Henryk Torunczyk, a Polish-Jewish colonel, was the last commander of the XIIIthBrigade. He also commanded the “International Unit” created out of foreign volunteerswho remained in Spain after the brigades had left the country.

3. Arrival in Spain

Foreigners living in Spain came to the republic’s defense immediately upon the outbreakof the nationalist rebellion. Individually and in groups, they enlisted in the political partymilitias which bore the brunt of the defense of the Republic in the first stages of theconflict. The group that took the name of Ernst Thaelmann, secretary general of theGerman Communist Party who was then imprisoned in Germany, is but one example.

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Numbering fourteen members, twelve of whom were Jewish,it joined those fighting on the Huesca front. New volunteersspontaneously began arriving in Spain, at first legally and later— after the non-intervention pact was signed — clandestinely.After the decision to establish the brigades was taken,recruitment became orderly in October 1936: the volunteersreached Paris, where they reported to the offices of theCommunist Party, were equipped, and then were taken acrossthe border into Spain. After a short stay at the Cataloniantown of Figueras, they were transferred to the brigades’ centralbase in Albacete. There the brigades were organized, underwentpartial training, and sent to the front.

[1] Placard of the Popular Olympics,planned to be conducted in Barcelonain protest against the holding of theOlympic Games in Berlin. The Olympicswere cancelled as a result of the uprisingagainst the government. Some of theparticipants, already in the country, wereamong the first foreign volunteers.

[2] A group of French sportsmen whowere to participate in the PopularOlympics.

[3] Farewell party for the first volunteersfrom the Arbeter Jugent Klub, a club in Paris for immigrant Jewish youth from easternEurope. Many members of this organization soon left for Spain.

[4] Without similar uniforms — the first volunteers in Spain. First on the right in thefront row is Emanuel (“Mundek”) Mink, a participant in the Olympic Games that werenot held. He was a veteran communist from Poland, wherehe had spent time in jail, who was to become the lastcommander of the Jewish company named after NaftaliBotwin.

[5] “The Internationals — We Are Brothers of the SpanishPeople!” — a parade in the streets of Albacete, the centralbase of the Brigades. The volunteers underwent training

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in villages in this region, where they were forced to becomeused to harsh conditions and military discipline, whichmany thought was too similar to that of a “bourgeois army.”In this linguistic Tower of Babel, Yiddish solved the problemfor many of the Jewish volunteers.

[6] Items of military paraphernalia: belt buckle from whichhung a water flask and other equipment; belt hook to carryan ammunition pouch; lance-corporal stripes.

[7] Two of the Brigades symbols: 1. A three-pointed star worn onthe beret. 2. The communist symbol — a five-pointed star thatcould serve as a sort of button in a shirt buttonhole. It bore aclenched fist — the symbol of the Popular Front and the militarysalute of the Republican Army, and in thebackground a map of the Iberian Peninsulaand the slogan: “International Volunteers forFreedom, 1936—1937.”

[8] Reconstruction of uniforms of some ofthe Brigades, done on the basis of varioussources. 1. “Dimitrov” — Bulgarians andYugoslavians; 2. “Garibaldi” — Italians; 3.“Rakosi” — Hungarians; 4—6. “Mackenzie-Papineau” — Canadians; from Mike Chapell and Ken Bradley,International Brigades in Spain, 1936—1939. Actually, uniformswere much less orderly.

[9] Propaganda poster issued by the Brigades: “All the nationsof the world in the International Brigades — in support ofthe Spanish people”.

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4. At the Front

From their first deployment on 8 November 1936 in defense of Madrid, the InternationalBrigades fought as part of the Republican Army on all major fronts of the Civil War, asis shown by the battle map. The weapons they received were scanty, and in part old andoutdated; the training they underwent — at least at the beginning — was rather pathetic.Military discipline was alien to the revolutionary spirit of many of the volunteers, andthe heavy casualties suffered by the units broke the spirits of those who could not reconcilethemselves to the disparity between the image of the war at the time of their enlistmentand the reality they faced later on. Though there were desertions and attempts to returnhome, the majority of the volunteers, imbued with anti-fascist ideology, mustered enoughstrength to stay on and fight.

[1] Daily life at the front, from Britons in Spain byWilliam Rust, published in London in January 1939while hostilities were still raging. The illustrations anddescriptions included in the volume are characteristicof all the brigades, not only of the battalions that werecomprised of Britons.

[2] Personal eating utensils — a plate, spoon and fork,— collected from the defense trenches in the battlefieldsof Catalonia.

[3] A cup, a tin of fish (?) from Norway and a canopener, also found in the fields. “Today sixty of usemptied a field of lentils, and this was an easy andpleasant job,” wrote Wilfred Mendelson, a Jewishbrigadier from the USA, in one of his letters, thuspointing to one of the activities engaged in by his unitbehind the front lines. “The trouble is that we willhave to eat these lentils later,…” he continued. Apparently,canned food from Norway was only available to add somevariety to their meals…

[4]XV International Brigade, edited and originally publishedin Madrid in February 1938, while the fighting was atits height. It is a collection of contemporary reports,eyewitness testimonies, songs, etc. and many photos andmaps of the battles in which volunteers from Great Britain, the USA, Canada, and Ireland,

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who served in this brigade,participated. The map on thecover is of the battles on theJarama front, along the highwaybetween Madrid and Valencia,which the American volunteersreached on 23 February 1937 andheld until June. Originally editedby Frank Ryan, a facsimile editionwas published in 1975 by FrankGraham, himself a volunteer inthis brigade.

[5] Letters from the front. HarryFischer, a signalsman and runner in the AmericanLincoln Battalion, gives a detailed description ofthe battle at Brunete: troop movements, lack ofweapons, air attacks, citations from orders issuedby officers, and — above all — hunger, terriblethirst, the burning sun, sorrow at the death ofcomrades in arms, fear, and… nostalgia.

[6] Postcard bearing the slogan: “Moretrenches! More bunkers! And thus they shallnot pass!”

[7] Battlefield remains: ammunition clip foran 1891 model Mosin Nagant rifle; ring-pinof the safety catch of a hand grenade; metalsections of an improvised Laffite grenade,with attached diagram; ammunition clip forMauser (?) rifle; same for an English rifle;Russian container for lubricating oil for rifles and machine guns.

[8] Pasaremos! (We Shall Pass!), organ of the XIth Brigade, one of many such newsletterspublished by the Brigades — some as wall newspapers, others printed sheets — thatincluded propaganda statements, memorials to the fallen, jokes, medical advice, etc. Inthe page on display: instructions in German and Spanish how to fire at moving targets.

[9] List of personnel and weapons of the command of the XIIth Brigade: officers, men,

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wounded, dead, rifles, machine guns, rocket-projectedgrenades, artillery…

[10] “I am death…!” wrote Bulgarian-born LeonAnawi on a self-portrait that he drew on the backof a photo and gave to his niece before he set outto fight in Spain. He fell in battle while serving withthe Balkan Company of the XLVth Brigade.

[11] Blagoje Parovic was an important member of theYugoslav Communist Party. He was killed in action inundetermined circumstances. Sandor Ceresnjes whoparticipated in that battle and tried to stop Parovic’s bleeding.According to the testimony of Ceresnjes’ son, he did thiswith the handkerchief on display here. Ceresnjes would laterfall victim to a political purge when he served as a departmentdirector in the Hungarian Office of Information. He wasrehabilitated only many years later.

5. Between Battles

As a matter of course, long tours of duty at the front also included days of rest in nearbyvillages as well as leaves, group or individual, behind the lines. Movies, politicalindoctrination lectures, and entertainment programs were conducted for entire units.Individually, many spent the lull between battles writing letters filled with ideology andyearning, composing fiction and poems related to the reality of the war, playing musicalinstruments, and other such activities, each in accordance with his own inclinations. Inthe cities behind the lines, like all soldiers far from home, leaves were spent in search ofentertainment, sex, alcohol, and also “normal” pleasures such as bathing, shaving, andsleeping in a linen-covered bed. The soldiers were warned about the dangers of alcoholand venereal disease. Among the Jewish soldiers were those who sought and found inBarcelona a “bourgeois” Jewish restaurant whose menu aroused nostalgic memories ofhome.

[1] Notice of a movie screening. The repertoire included Soviet movies, one of the mostfamous being Tchapaiev, about the civil war in… Russia.

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[2] A page from La Voz de la Sanidad (Newsletter of the Medical Services), warning ofthe dangers of alcohol, venerealdisease, etc., and tips how to preventthem.

[3] A poster warning not to squanderammunition, food, and energies. Theartist, Mauricio Amster, was a Polish-born Jew who immigrated to Spainin 1930 and volunteered for militaryservice in 1936. He was dischargeddue to weak eyesight and worked asa graphic artist for the Ministries ofInformation and Education.

[4] Cigarette lighter. Cigarettes were a scarcecommodity which members of the Brigades oftenrequested of their relatives back home.

[5] Alvah Bessie’s Spanish Civil War Notebook —private journal from February to December 1938of a volunteer in the American Lincoln Battalionwho after the war became an author and scriptwriterin the USA. The diary includes many detaileddescriptions of battles, illustrations from militaryoperations, and sketches of routine life betweenbattles. The document on display is a note fromthe censor requesting that he write hisletters in more legible handwriting.The closing paragraph contains thefollowing: “We also would like toinform you that the censors do notsteal cigarettes,…” probably in reactionto something he had written in hisletter.

[6] Parts of a shaving razor, an indispensable, but sometimes rare, commodity when oneis on leave. “I have some blades — but no razor; a bit of soap — but no brush or mirror”wrote Sandor Voros, an American volunteer, while trying to figure out how to shave aftera quiet night’s sleep.

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[7] Greeting card for 1937—1938: “The year ofworld-wide victory over Fascism.” The text on thecards reiterates one of the basic concepts of thebrigades: The battle for Spain is a battle for thevolunteers’ own countries.

[8] From communal singing to the battle newsletter— a collection of photos depicting lifein the Brigades on “souvenir letters” — postcards sent home. In this case, thewriter sends his best wishes for an “Anti-fascist Xmas & New Year.”

[9] “Mother, your son is fighting fora humane and just cause, be proud ofhim!” Postcard issued by the WarMinistry. The three-pointed and five-pointed stars indicate that the sloganwas equally intended for mothers of members of the Brigades and of Spaniards.

[10] Letter in Yiddish and a photo of David Lipton: “Dearest Mom and Dad, I amsitting on a mountain between vines and olive trees covered by the blood of Spain,watching the sun set and crying and crying.” He asks their forgiveness for sneaking awayto join the war. He was killed in action three weeks later, about the time his parentsreceived the letter.

[12] Envelope bearing a French stamp and containinga letter from Spain of a member of the Brigades. Thiswas done at times in order to conceal their whereaboutsfrom the authorities in their home country.

[13] Dabrowszczak — organ of the XIIIth Brigade. Thisissue contains a Polish translation of Spanish poet RafaelAlberti’s poem dedicated to the volunteers. The photoshows Zofia Schleyen, a member of the editorial committee and the poem’s translator,

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together with Ignaz Potazman, another member of thecommittee.

[14] The Lincoln Battalion. Joe Taylor, who is holding acopy of Die Freiheit, the Yiddish newspaper of theCommunist Party in the USA, was the adopted son of aJewish family. Behind him is Edwin Rolfe, a poet whosereal name was Solomon Fishman, and whosefamous poem about Madrid brought tears tothe eyes of Ernest Hemingway.

6. The Naftali Botwin Company of the Palafox Battalion, Thirteenth (Dombrowski)Brigade

In December 1937, fourteen months after establishment of the International Brigadesbegan, Second Company of the Palafox Battalion was declared a Jewish company namedafter Naftali Botwin, a Jewish Communist sentenced to death in Poland in 1925 for themurder of a secret agent who infiltrated party ranks. The company, with its own flag,special newsletter, and choir that sang in Yiddish, soon came to symbolize the widerJewish participation in the Brigades. The fact that it was created so late is related to theupgrading of the Dombrowski Battalion, most of whose members were Polish, to abrigade and the creation of units within it for the Ukrainian and Jewish minorities.Opposition to the establishment of a Jewish unit was also widespread among many Jewishcombatants who considered themselves to be “internationals” fighting against fascismand were on close terms with their comrades in the units in which they served. The greatnumber of casualties suffered by the Brigades and the declining number of new volunteers,together with propaganda considerations at that time, were a fitting background for thecreation of the Jewish company. And, indeed, it gained much attention outside of Spain.

[1] The Yiddish version of the order establishing the company. A similar one was issuedin Polish.

[2] The company’s first mixed platoon. Standing, from left to right: in the center (withdark beret), Max Geler; last, Moishe Szafran. Sitting, from left to right: Moishe Rozenberg,

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Emanuel Mink, and Alter Szerman, the platoon commander, holding a copy of NeiePresse. Sitting alone in the front row is Yaakov(Jasza) Zawidowicz. The rest are mostlyunidentified Spanish soldiers who complementedthe platoon.

[3] The last page of issue no. 5 of Botwin containsthe following pictures and information: Companycommander Karol Gutman — killed in action;Micha Sapir — critically wounded at Lerida inApril 1938; Leon Rubinsztein — criticallywounded at Caspe in March 1938; Alter Szerman— wounded on the Ebro front in 1938; IsraelHalbersberg — killed in action; Emanuel Mink— twice wounded. On the front page — burialof the Botwinist Yehezkel Honigstein, the lastcasualty of the brigades in Spain.

[4] Officers of the Palafox Battalion. Standingfrom left to right: Jozef Lis, Ignacy Borkowski,Wiktor Mencel, unidentified, Mayer (Marian) Zysman, unidentified, Emanuel Mink.Seated from left to right: Alter Szerman, Israel Halbersberg, T. Chevtchenko (second incommand, Botwin Company), two unidentified.

[5] The “Botwinists” — photo of the company’s soldiers at Pradel on 23 July 1938,before the hard fighting at the Elbo in which many of them died.

[6] Service record of Joseph Rzepkowicz. Born in Poland, he was a former yeshiva studentwho joined the Polish Communist Party. He served in the Botwin and other companiesand was critically wounded in June 1938 in the battle of the Ebro. He was evacuated,as a war invalid, to the USSR and returned to Poland after World War II. Following thewave of antisemitism that flooded Poland after the Six Day War in 1967, he emigratedto Israel with his wife and daughter, passing away in Holon in 1992.

[7] Freiheits Kemfer — the company’s newsletter — with the motto common to all thebrigades: “For your freedom and ours!” The first three issues bore this name; from thefourth it was called Botwin. The last two issues — nos. 5 and 6 — appeared after mostof the volunteers were evacuated from Spain.

[8] The history of a photo: Olek Nuss (left), poet, editor of the newsletter, and composer

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of the company anthem, and his comrade Henri(Yehiel) “Largo” Sulewic on leave in Valencia,May 1937. Both were incarcerated in the Frenchconcentration camp at Gurs. Olek was put todeath at Auschwitz, while Henri/Yehiel survivedand lives in France, but all his papers andphotographs from Spain remained buried in theground at Gurs. This photo, the only one inhis possession, was sent to him in 1957 by themother of their comrade Shaia Kinderman, aftershe cut out and kept the picture of her son, whowas standing between the two.

[9] Memoirs of the war in Spain, inYiddish, by Gershon Dua-Bogen, Oif diShpuren fun Gevure (On the Track ofHeroism). The author was an active PolishCommunist who later became for a shortwhile the secretary-general of the PalestineCommunist Party until he was expelledfrom Palestine. He was among those whoinitiated the creation of the BotwinCompany.

[10] Zikhroines fun a Botwinist (Memoirs of a Botwinist) by Efraim Wuzek, a volunteerfrom Palestine — Eretz Israel. The book was published in Warsaw in 1964.

[11] Moshe Krempel and his family. Krempel was a Botwinist and a typical case of amember of a religious family who volunteered to fight in Spain. He, too, returned toPoland after World War II and emigrated to Israel in the wake of the wave of antisemitismthat swept Poland after the Six Day War.

[12] The Botwin Company leaves an impression in Buenos Aires, Argentina: A Yiddishpamphlet about the company, published in 1939 just prior to the final defeat of theRepublic, including a moving message by the ambassador of republican Spain.

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7. Volunteers from Palestine-Eretz Israel

The Spanish Civil War broke out about four months after the eruption of the so-called“Disturbances” or “Arab Revolt” in Palestine. The Jewish community — together withthe British Mandate authorities — were facedwith a serious situation marked by defensiveactions, fighting, and acts of terror. The partiesrepresented in the Histadrut (General JewishFederation of Labor) were naturally favorablyinclined toward the Spanish Republic whichwas defending itself against its enemies, butonly very few members of Hashomer Hatzairand other Zionist left-wing parties allowed thissympathy to take the form of volunteering.

“Hanita [a Jewish frontier settlement] takespriority over Madrid” was the slogan coinedsomewhat later, and the volunteers wereostracized. We know of only one volunteer — Salman Salzman — who was identifiedwith a right-wing party. Jewish members of the Palestine Communist Party were at thetime in a different situation. As members of a party which included Arabs who openlysupported and even participated in murderous attacks on the Jewish community ofPalestine, and with their hands tied by the Soviet decision concerning “Arabization” ofthe party and its territorial character, volunteering for Spain provided a solution to theirpredicament. Police pressure on the Communist Party and its leadership, the willingnesson the part of the authorities to even release communist prisoners if they left the country,and the enmity of the organized Jewish community against them probably made theirdecision easier. It is estimated that about 180 residents of Palestine fought in Spain,including some who were studying abroad when hostilities broke out. Among them werethirteen Armenians, six Arabs, and one Christian of Russian origin.

[1] The names of known volunteers from Eretz Israel, and photos of some of them.

[3] From Madrid to Berlin (in Hebrew), by Israel Centner, a member of the PalestineCommunist Party, about the participation of volunteers from Eretz Israel in the InternationalBrigades.

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[4] Page from the Palestinian passport of ShmuelSegal. It was issued by the British Mandateauthorities following his evacuation from Spain,and only after much effort, on condition thatSegal would not return to Palestine.

[5] Notice published by veterans of the SpanishCivil War about the passing of a volunteer fromEretz Israel, Jezy Bryn, who died in a Polishprison after being falsely accused of espionage.It appeared in the Yiddish newspaper Yisroel Shtime on 15 September 1976.

[6] A group of Eretz Israel volunteers in Spain: Top row, from left to right: MateuszElman, Aharon Ginzberg, Marcel Langer, Nachum Sofer, two unidentified; second row:Avraham Yungstajn, Ruth (Haya) Maitis, Shlomo Yaffe. Bottom row: unidentified, MosheEstracher, two unidentified.

[7] The itinerary of a volunteer from Eretz Israel: David Karon

A. Palestine passport no. 62476: Born 1915 in Homel; agricultural laborer; resident ofMikve Israel. Height 164 cm, grey eyes, brown hair… Received French visa and transitpermits in September 1937.B. Spanish military service record no. 76.018: Party affiliation — anti-fascist; enlistmentin brigades — 17 October 1937; at the front from 6 December 1937 to 24 September1938; participated in action at Zueva,Extremadura, Aragón, Lérida, Fayón andEbro; equipment received — coat, pair ofshoes, pants, two shirts, belt, and rucksack;payments received — 310 pesetas per month;allowed to leave Spain with 300 francs inhis possession.C. Certificate of honor for the internationalcombatants of the 35th Division. Awardedto “the fighter for honor as a volunteer inthe sake of freedom…. The soldiers of theDivision and all Spaniards will never forget those who defended the independence of thehomeland…. Spain, October 1938.”D. Two photos and a permit to take photographs out of Spain: “We hereby confirm that

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in the possession of comrade David Karon are 26 photos and 0 negatives, and that theydo not contain anything of military importance.”E. Letter from the Headquarters of the International Brigades in Barcelona to theCommittee to Help the Spanish People, in Tel Aviv: Comrade David Karon is returninghome due to the retreat… please extend him your help…F. The Government of Palestine Immigration Department confirms on 24 January 1939the receipt of the transit permit of David Karon issued in Barcelona on 9 December1938.G. The District Officer Settlements of the Government of Palestine summons DavidKaron “to pay the sum of francs 2576.86 centimes received by you from His Majesty’sConsul General at Marseilles, for your repatriation to Palestine.”

David Karon returned to the agricultural training farm in the moshava Hadar (nearRamataim) and was warmly received, despite the fact that he was expelled from it whenhe decided to volunteer for service in Spain. He passed away in his kibbutz, Kfar Menahem,in 2001, when preparations for this exhibition were at their height. We are grateful tohim and his family for lending us these documents.

[8] Imre Jacobi, who played football in Hungary and was a member of the Eretz Israelnational football team. He was active in the Palestine Communist Party, and was killedin action at Jarama, Spain. The two photos: Imre and his team in Hungary; with a friendin Tel Aviv.

[9] A memorial monument erected at Sierra Pandols, part of the theater of war duringthe Ebro campaign, commemorating a few officers including Mark (Mordechai) Millmanfrom Eretz Israel, a young communist fromHaifa who was studying agriculture in Francewhen the Civil War broke out, andcommanded a unit of Spaniards in the XVthBrigade. The memorial was erected duringthe fighting by the chief engineer of thisbrigade, Percy Ludwig, a British Jew ofRussian origin, to commemorate seniorofficers who died in action. It survived thesystematic destruction of all such memorialsby the Franco regime due to its remotelocation in the hills, and is apparently theonly one which specifically noted a combatant from Palestine. Many years after the war,Percy Ludwig sent Salman Salzman, one of the Eretz Israel volunteers, a sketch mapshowing the location of the memorial.

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[10] A Jewish Captain in Fighting Spain (in Hebrew), byMordechai Avi-Shaul, a biography of Mark (Mordechai)Millman.

[11] David Kami, an engineer from Eretz Israel, and the“Red Orchestra”: After his evacuation from Spain, Kamiwas in France, where he joined the “Red Orchestra,” theanti-Nazi espionage network established by Leopold Trepperwhich caused much havoc to the Nazis. He was captured,tortured, and executed without revealing any of theorganization’s secrets. In additional photographs: Vera Ackermann and Michael Makarov,both of whom also fought in Spain and later joined the “Red Orchestra.”

8. Women in the Brigades

Women served in the fighting units that spontaneously sprang up during the early stagesof the Civil War. Pictures of women holding weapons while standing guard at barricadesor participating in marches fired the imagination of many. One of the combatants of theThaelmann Group, which was dispatched to the Huesca front, was Golda Friedman,who fought alongside her husband; the first casualty among the British volunteers waspainter Felicia Brown, who was living in Spain when the anti-republican uprising brokeout. Women were also combatants in the militias of the anarchists and the POUM. Thiswas not the case with the Republican Army units and the International Brigades, oncethey were established: here their roles were restricted to medical services -— at the frontand behind the lines — as translators, and in the spheres ofadministration, education, journalism, and photography, somewithin military units and others on an independent basis.

[1] Poster calling upon women and men to enlist in thevolunteer army, probably from the very first stages of the war.

[2] Clara Thalmann, a German sportswoman who arrivedin Barcelona to participate in the swimming competitionsof the Popular Olympics and joined the anarchist militia.

[3] Simone Weil, the French-Jewish intellectual, fought inthe ranks of the anarchists.

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[4] Mika Etchebehere, author of Ma guerre d’Espagne à moi, was a Lithuanian Jewesswho served in the POUM militia alongside her Spanish-born Argentine husband HipolitoEtchebehere. When he was killed, she took command of the unit he had led.

[5] Elizaveta Parshina, from the USSR, was a translator from Russian into Spanish, andalso served with a sabotage unitbehind the enemy lines. In Spainher alias was Josefa Pérez Herrera.She related her story in anautobiography, La Brigadista.

[6] Marion Merriman, an Americanvolunteer and the wife of RobertMerriman, commander of theFifteenth Brigade, who is seen inthe photograph to her left. Sheserved as a sergeant at Brigadesheadquarters.

[7] Evelyn Hutchings, a New York photographer, served as a lorry driver and thus —like some of the nurses and doctors in the medical services — was near the battlefront.

[8] Service record of Anna Srulovici (today Hana Israeli), who came from a Hassidicfamily in Chernowitz and served as a nurse in several Spanish hospitals. During WorldWar II she fought in the ranks of the French underground forces, returning to the USSRafter the war. Today she lives in Israel.

[9] Françoise (Fritzi) Brauner, an Austrian-Jewish doctor, examining children at a refugeecenter.

[10] Batsheva Steinberg, a nurse and volunteer from Romania, is photographed togetherwith her future husband Dr. Jakob Biezinski on the balcony of the hospital in Murcia.Between the two is her friend, known by her alias as “Borka,” who fought with thepartisans in Yugoslavia after the Spanish Civil War.

[11] Adelina Abramov, Argentinian-born and raised in Russia, served as a translator forthe Soviet advisors aiding the Republican Army.

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[12] Two women photographers:Margaret Michaelis, an Austrian-Jewishanarchist who had been living in Spainbefore the outbreak of the Civil War.She served as a photographer and herphotos were used by the Republic’sMinistry of Information; Gerda Tharo,a German-Jewish photographer, workedwith the famous photographer of thebrigades, Robert Capa, and was hisgirlfriend. She was killed whiledocumenting the fighting at Brunete.

[13] American journalist Gina Medem visited Spain and published many articles in theYiddish press. Her book, Los Judíos Luchadores de la Libertad (Jewish Freedom Fighters),was published by the Commissariat of the International Brigades.

9. The Anarchists and POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista), a Communist Anti-Stalinist Party

Ideological differences between the anarchists and the republican government centeredaround anarchist demands that social revolution and agrarian reform be implementedimmediately, even while fighting was still in progress. POUM supported this demand,and also earned the enmity of the communists because of its sharp criticism of the Stalinistregime in the USSR. Both parties succeeded in preserving the autonomy of their militias,especially in Catalonia, with only partial subordination to the “Popular Army” of theRepublic. There were units of international volunteers within these two militias: womenand young men who were not accepted by the brigades were received with open armshere and served alongside elderly anarchist volunteers. As communist influence increased,due to the Soviet military advisors and experts and the supply of arms, tension grewbetween the government and these militias. The crisis took a violent turn in Barcelonaat the beginning of May 1937. An attempt by the police, under its communist commander,to forcefully gain control of the telephone communication center which was underPOUM domination led to an exchange of fire with casualties. This resulted in barricadesbeing thrown up throughout the city and the withdrawal of anarchist and POUM unitsfrom the front for an advance on Barcelona. The crisis was settled through negotiationsafter which the government, under communist influence, succeeded in disbanding themilitias and persecuting members of the two parties.

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[1] Two postcards (reproductions of posters) with opposing messages: one of the FAI(Federación Anarquista Ibérica) and the other of the government in Madrid. The latterproclaimed: “First win the war!! Fewer emptywords!” in reaction to anarchist demands andefforts to carry out social and agrarian reformsimmediately, during the hostilities.

[2] Four fighters in the anarchist Durruti Column,October 1936. George Sossenko, on the extremeright, was a sixteen-year-old lad from the USAwho lived with his parents in France and crossedthe border into Spain during the early stages of the war. His father located him andbrought him home by claiming that his mother was very ill; George returned to Spainafter finding her in excellent health.…To his right: Eugène Rappaport fromFrance, Joan Mayol (a Catalonian), andPierre Carpentier, another Frenchman.

[3] Benjamin Lewinski, commander ofa POUM unit in which George Orwell,author of 1984, served. Orwell recordedhis first meeting at the front withLewinski and the unit in his book,Homage to Catalonia.

[4] Members of the anarchist militia.The woman in the picture is Clara Thalmann.

[5] An anarchist in the Brigades: On the left is Pat Reid, an Irish-American who servedin the Lincoln Battalion. Next to him is his communist comrade in arms, Harry Fisher.This was one of the rare occasions in which an anarchist served in a communist-controlledbrigade. He was sent back to the USA after making disparaging remarks about the SovietUnion and Communism.

[6] Emma Goldman, the American anarchist of Lithuanian origin, during her visit toValencia. The receipt issued by the secretary-general of the anarchist labor union for thesum of £554 is for monies which she raised in England to help the civilian populationin Spain.

[7] A Las Barricadas! — memoirs of the German anarchist Helmut Kirschey.

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[8] One issue which journalist Mathieu Cormanattempts to explain in his book, Salud Camarada:Cinq mois sur les fronts d’Espagne, published in1937, was the enmity of anarchists and POUMmembers to the Church, the murder of about7,000 priests, monks, and nuns, and thedestruction of hundreds of churches.

[9] The bloody conflict in Barcelona in May1937 is described in the Yiddish pamphlet, DerEmes vegn Shpanien, published on 29 May 1937 in Paris. Its anarchist authors decry thesuppression of the two Spanish parties by the republican government.

10. In the Republican Air Force

The majority of the Spanish Air Force’s planes — 225 of 450 — remained under thecontrol of the republican government, but most of them were older models and lackedtrained crews. The nonintervention pact, which Germany and Italy openly violated, leftthe Republic without sources which could supply planes and parts or train crew members.Until the Soviet Union began to fill this gap clandestinely but on a regular basis, volunteerstried to help the Republic in the air. Their pay was many times higher than the pocketmoney received by volunteers in the Brigades. Soviet aid took the form of sendingprofessionals and of supplying modern planes. Jews were among the leading persons inthis field as well.

[1] “General Douglas” was the alias of the Soviet-Jewish general Yaacov Shmushkevichwho was sent to Spain to help the republican government reorganize and train its airforce. His story is the subject of aYiddish book bearing that title byDimitri Zilmanovitz, published inMoscow in 1986. After his returnto the USSR, Shmushkevich wasappointed commander of the Sovietair force in the East, and latercommander-in-chief of the entireforce. He was twice awarded the“Hero of the Soviet Union” medal,but was later put to death as partof Stalin’s “purges.” The photo is

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of Yaacov Shmushkevich and his family shortlybefore he was arrested.

[2] André Malraux, the renowned Frenchauthor and — many years later — France’sminister of culture, organized a volunteer airsquadron whose story he recorded for posterityin his book L’Espoir and in the movie Sierrade Teruel which was produced in Spain in1938, while the war was still being fought.Paul Nothomb, author of André Malraux enEspagne, served under him in that squadron.

[3] Ben Leider, an active member of the Communist Party in the USA and correspondentin Spain of its newspaper, The Daily Worker, served as a pilot. His plane, a SovietPolikarpov I-15, was downed with him in the battle of Madrid in February 1937. Hewas among the few whose bodies were returned for burial to the USA. The poet andeducator Bezalel Friedman wrote a lengthy poem in his memory, which is on displayhere.

[4] Walter Katz, a German Jew, was one of the first volunteers in 1936. In July 1937 hewas transferred to the base at Albacete to organize a squadron for night bombing. InApril 1938 he participated, at his initiative, in the battle of Barcelona, and was shot downwith his plane.

[5] Herman Feld was a member of the squadron established by André Malraux, and latercommanded a Spanish air unit. He was killed in action on the first anniversary of theCivil War — 18 July 1937.

[6] Postcards produced for the Republican Air Force.

11. Medical Corps

The conditions under which the medical teams were forced to operate in the battlefieldwere most primitive. From the many testimonies about the efforts of volunteers in theMedical Corps emerges the sorry picture of surgical operations conducted without electriclighting and running water, sometimes under fire, of a lack of blankets, sheets, and evenbandages, and above all of understaffed teams, often lacking in professional training,doing their best to bear up under the burden of work and responsibility. The role played

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by Jews in the medical services was proportionally large and most conspicuous. The CivilWar — and the creativity of the internationals — were also fertile ground for the creationof innovative equipment and techniques, such as a mobile operating theater, more efficientblood transfusions, and more.

[1] Leo Eloesser, an American surgeon, and Dr. Françoise (Fritzi) Brauner, of Austria,performing an operation in a Brigades’ hospital at Mataró, Catalonia, in 1938.

[2] The Czech-Jewish surgeon Bedrich Kisch and an assistant extracting a bullet froma wounded soldier at a Brigades’hospital in Benicasim, 1937.

[3] Czech-Jewish journalist andauthor Egon Erwin Kisch (brother ofDr. Bedrich Kisch) being treated atthe brigade hospital in Benicasim fora toothache. While there heinterviewed Max (“Maxel”) Bair, afarmer from the Austrian Tyrol whohad sold his cows in order to comeand fight for Spain. This meeting was the inspiration for his story Die drei Kühe (TheThree Cows).

[4] “Jewish Freedom Fighters in Spain” is the legend of the banner in Yiddish at thecenter of this group picture of soldiers recuperating from their wounds at Orihuela, inthe Alicante region. In the photo, taken by American-Jewish journalist Gina Medem,appear Aaron Johnson, a Black Jew from the USA, and Chi Chiano, a Chinese Jew,together with their comrades from Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and France.

[5] The diary of Australian nurse Agnes Hodson is included in Judith Keene’s The LastMile to Huesca. The title of her book is taken from the poem by the well-known Englishpoet and member of the Brigades, John Cornford, who was killed in action in Spain.

[6] Hospital discharge form of Nachum Sofer, a Romanian-born Eretz Israel volunteerand an artilleryman in the Anna Pauker Platoon, who had been wounded by machine-gun fire. The form, which he signed, states that he is returning to his unit at his ownrequest. In an interview conducted 65 years later, he claimed that he did so because hewas feeling good and was bored in the hospital.

[7] Edward Barsky, Irène Curie, and Albert Einstein — three of the more notable

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supporters of the Republican Army’s medicalcorps. Barsky, a surgeon at the “Beth Israel”hospital in New York, founded the Medical Bureauto Aid Spanish Democracy with the objective ofcollecting donations in the USA. He traveled toSpain where he organized an American hospitalon the Jarama front. He planned a mobileoperating theater that could be used at the frontlines, and was appointed chief medical officer ofthe international medical services in Spain. IrèneCurie was president of the medical aid organizationin France, and Albert Einstein was known for his support of the American aid organizationand of the Spanish republic’s struggle.

[8] In the postcard: The first wounded soldier to receive a blood transfusion in thehospital of the 35th Brigade.

[9] Dr. Menashe Flato, in uniform in Spain, and — a few years later — in the Chinesecivil war (second from the left) standing with Mao Tze Dung.

12. Relations with the Spanish

Interpersonal relations between members of the Brigades, combat soldiers who spentmost of their time at the front, and the Spanish population were of necessity limited towhen they were on individual leave or recuperating from wounds and diseases behindthe front lines. Organized group contacts took place when the units were bivouacked invillages near the front line and also within the brigades themselves, for the number ofregular Spanish soldiers in them continually grew as the war progressed and the numberof casualties increased. Relations were sometimes mixed. There is evidence that theinternational volunteers sometimes looked down upon the “locals” while, on the otherhand, there were cases of enmity on the part of Spanish anarchists because they identifiedthe volunteers with the communists. Between these two extremes we find many expressionson the individual and group level of mutual friendship, comradeship, and high esteem.These took a practical form when some Brigades initiated constructive contacts with andcontributions to the welfare of the local population.

[1] Poster: “The internationals, united with the Spanish in fighting the invaders!”

[2] Spanish phrase-book, published in the Soviet Union and purchased in Valencia by

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Shmuel Segal, a volunteer from Eretz Israel. The Spanish equivalents of “comrade”, “aCommunist youth,” “espionage,” and “wall newspaper,” as well as the text of the communistanthem, the “International,” in Spanishare a few examples of what it contained.

[3] Peter Frye (many years later, a directorand actor at the “Habima” theater in TelAviv) and little Juanita. Many membersof the Brigades developed warm relationswith children and through them with theolder population.

[4] Members of the Brigades and Spanishwomen — romance with or withoutresults: Kurt Julius Goldstein, a volunteer from Eretz Israel, did not marry the nurse inthe two photos. Today he lives in Germany. Marcel Langer did marry his Spanish Cecilia.On the eve of his execution in a Vichy prison in Toulouse, he wrote to her and hisdaughter Rosita: “Toulouse, March 13, 1943. My dear little wife, when you hold thisletter in your hands, I will no longer be in this world…” Langer was born in the Polishcity of Auschwitz, immigrated to Palestine, worked in Haifa, joined the PalestineCommunist Party, and left for France.When the Spanish Civil War brokeout he joined the Brigades and foughtin their ranks until the evacuation fromSpain. In World War II, as a memberof the French underground, he wascaptured, tortured, and executed.

[5] Harry Fisher wrote in a postcardto his sister, brother-in-law, and nieceon 27 June 1937: “Dear kids! Just backfrom Madrid. Finest city in the world.Finest people in the world!”

[6] Identification with the cause that led to joining up: Lea Kraus, a Jewish Communistfrom Yugoslavia who had already been imprisoned there for her political activity, fills outthe form to join the Spanish Communist Party. The photo also was taken by the Yugoslavpolice for the purpose of identification.

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[7] Pierre Feintuch with Spanish orphans. Born in Poland, he was active in communistcircles in Belgium and France, and participated in the suppression of the anarchists andthe POUM in Spain. He died while fighting with the French underground in WorldWar II.

[8] Soldiers of the XVth Brigade helping to harvest grapes. Their contribution to thelocal population was probably greater in other spheres — celebrations, dancing, andsport competitions.

[9] Front page of the organ of the Ernst Thaelmann home for Spanish children establishedby the XIth Brigade. Similar institutions were established and run by other internationalvolunteers.

[10] Poster of a festival for Spanish children, organized by soldiers of the Brigades in1938, at the height of the Ebro River battle.

[11] Adoption of Spanish children, in France, by a former member of the Brigades, AnnaSrulovic. The children’s parents were imprisoned by the Franco regime, while theirgrandmother and aunt were ill and tending for the aunt’s children whose father had alsobeen sentenced to life imprisonment in Spain.

13. Farewell to Spain

On 21 September 1938, Juan Negrín, the republican prime minister, informed the Leagueof Nations that the soldiers of the International Brigades would be evacuated from Spain.This unilateral announcement was in line with the previous proposals of the NoninterventionCommittee which called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Spain. At this stagethe brigades, whose manpower had dwindled due to heavy casualties and the paucity ofnew volunteers, could no longer play an important and vital military role. By disbandingthem the republican government hoped to expose to the world the refusal of Franco andhis allies to abide by the proposed even-handed agreement.

[1] A document from what has survived of the files of the republican Ministry of Defense.It lists the sites at which each brigade was to concentrate and its national composition,this in preparation for their discharge and withdrawal from Spain. A marginal notation:“The Jews remain with the citizens of their countries.”

[2] A farewell parade of volunteers marching in the streets of Barcelona, received withflowers and cheers by the residents. In his diary, Alvah Bessie recorded testimonies by

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some of his colleagues that what theyexperienced during the parade made all thehardships they had endured worthwhile.

[3] Sammy Nahman (Manny Harriman) ofthe USA, a Sephardic Jew who, according tofamily tradition, was descended fromNahmanides. Here he smilingly leaves Spain,the country from which his forefathers hadbeen expelled in the fifteenth century and towhich he returned as a volunteer. He servedin the Lincoln Battalion and was twice wounded in action.

[4] Certificate of honor in the name of Prime Minister Juan Negrín to Nachum Soferfor his service on behalf of the freedom of Spain. Such certificates were presented to thevolunteers when they left Spain at the end of 1938.

[5] “Ani rubia” (Blond Annie), a farewell poem written by Catalan Josse to Anna Srulovic,a volunteer in the Brigades. “This short dedication I write for you, little Annie, in amoment of pain and farewell….”

[6] About one-third of thevolunteers did not live to see theday of evacuation; their graves arespread throughout the battlefieldso f Spa in . Comrades andacquaintances commemoratedsome of them even before hostilitiesended by publishing their writingsor eulogies in their memory: JohnCornford, an English poet whosepoems — some of them dealing with the war — were well known, fell at the young ageof 21; Julian Bell, a nephew of Virginia Woolf, who died in the defense of Madrid;Wilfred (Mendy) Mendelson, a student leader from the USA; Dave Doran, the politicalcommissary of the Lincoln Battalion, who was captured and then murdered; Joe Dallet,an American volunteer who fell in action on his first day in battle.

[7] Abraham Sasson, who had grown up in a New York orphanage, was killed in action.His friends, “graduates” of the same orphanage, held a memorial meeting for him andfive others of that institution who died in Spain. The pamphlet includes a call forcontributions to bring home another nine — including one prisoner.

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14. Trapped in France and North Africa

Simultaneously with the evacuation of the International Brigades from Spain, a growingwave of refugees sought shelter in France. When the Republic collapsed, the internationalunit that had been put together out of the remnants of the volunteers who remained inSpain also crossed the border into France, acting as rearguard for the long lines of refugees.During the winter of 1939, about 500,000 refugees and former soldiers were concentratedin makeshift camps without minimal housing or sanitation facilities at Saint Cyprien,Argeles, and other points along France’s Mediterranean coast. A more orderly campcontaining wooden cabins was then under construction at Gurs in the lower Pyrenees.Within a year the Vichy government imprisoned many Jews at all of these sites, as wellas in Camp Vernet in which more “dangerous” former volunteers and refugees had beenconcentrated. The authorities transferred groups of soldiers from the Brigades togetherwith other refugees to a camp in southern Algeria. Former volunteers in the SpanishBrigades, including many Jews, were among the first to join the French underground.

[1] Photograph by Robert Capa: General view of a refugee camp — most probably atArgeles — on the Mediterranean coast in the winter, without minimal housing facilities.

[2] The Vernet detention camp which had beenused to detain prisoners of war in World War Iand was converted into a detention camp formembers of the brigades who were considered“politically dangerous” as well as other communists.

[3] Moshe Kilimnik, with a Spanish comrade, ina French hospital. He succeeded in illegallyreturning to his country of origin, Romania,without being detained in a French camp.

[4] A representative of the British National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief wroteto the Zionist Organization offices in London: “I discovered in St. Cyprien a handfulof about 36 Palestinian Jews who had been with the International Brigade…. Theconditions in this camp are very bad indeed.” The writer assumes that they had beenforgotten there when other British nationals were repatriated to their countries andproposes that the Zionist Organization do something on their behalf. The letter wasforwarded to Moshe Shertok (Sharett).

[5] A group of Eretz Israel volunteers at the Gurs detention camp.

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[6] The international military delegation of the League of Nations confirms that NachumSofer, of Eretz Israel, is being held at the Saint Cyprien camp.

[7] Four brigade members from theArbeter Jugent Klub in Paris in thedetention camp at Saint Cyprien. Sittingon the right is Ignaz Potazman.

[8] Mir gedenken! (We remember!), thebulletin in Yiddish of the Friends of theBotwin Company in the USA, 1939,requesting donations to help formermembers of the Brigades who are inFrench camps.

[9] Hinter Stecheldrot (Behind Barbed Wire), apamphlet published in May 1939 in the camp atGurs. Its pages reflect the inmates’ organization andtheir cultural life.

[10] Letter from Armand Abramescu, a Jewishvolunteer from Romania who served in Spain as anexpert on cartography and topography, written inthe Gurs detention camp on 20 July 1939. He reportsthat 14,000 inmates participated in the 14th of Julycelebrations conducted in the camp, that a bigexhibition which they had mounted “will be sent to Paris,” and that he and his cousinAlbert Finkelstein, also a former combatant in Spain, are assiduously attending classesbeing conducted there. All traces of Abramescu were lost in the Drancy concentrationcamp and his cousin perished atAuschwitz.

[11] Romanian members of theInternational Brigades at the camp inGurs. The first to the right is a Jewishvolunteer, Leonte Tismaneanu, who losthis right arm fighting in Spain.

[12] From the photo album of BenjaminLubelski: Djelfa, a train station in the

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Saharan Desert, hundreds of kilometers south of Algiers, where communists and“dangerous” members of the Brigades were detained. Max Aub, the well-known Spanishauthor of German-Jewish origin who was imprisoned here, made the camp the subjectof his poetry book Diario de Djelfa (Djelfa Diary).

[13] Haim Adler of Eretz Israel, a former member of the Brigades, who enlisted in theBritish Army in World War II and served on the North African front, wrote his girlfriendabout a very emotional chance meeting with Brigades members who were released fromthe concentration camp after the freeing of Algiers and were now on their way to theUSSR: “I saw these men, my comrades in arms, persons who underwent four years ofmost miserable life in the concentration camp in Africa…. Their hair has grayed, theireyes have dimmed, their teeth have blackened, their hands shake, and their backs arebent — but their hearts remain clean, strong, and full of faith…”

15. Prisoners of Franco

At first, soldiers of the International Brigades who fell into captivity, whose leftistinclinations were clearly evident, could not expect to be treated as prisoners of war. Thereare many testimonies about the execution of prisoners. The political commissaries andofficers among them were preferred subjects for such treatment. This changed only afterthe Republican Army captured many soldiers of the Italian expeditionary force. Jewishprisoners were often presented in anti-republican propaganda as proof of “the Jewish-Communist conspiracy” against Spain.

[1] Carl Geiser, an American volunteer, relates the story of captive Brigades membersin the concentration camp at San Pedro de Cardeña in his book, Prisoners of Good Fight.He himself was about to be executed by a firing squad, as the anti-republican forces werewont to do, but just then the latter changed their policy and he was saved.

[2] American-Jewish volunteer Lou Ornitz tell his story in a pamphlet entitled Capturedby Franco, published in 1939 by the “Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade” to raisefunds to help those still imprisoned.

[3] Jack Coward, an English laborer who was captured in Spain, tortured, and releasedonly after the fall of the Republic, called his book Back from the Dead.

[4] An American, Sid Rosenblatt, testified that his captors photographed him in thenude, focusing on his circumcised organ in order to “prove” that the Brigades were partof a Jewish-Communist conspiracy against the Spanish nation. Other Jewish captives

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related similar experiences. In the photo, Rosenblatt is seen a short while after his releaseattending the wedding of a comrade in arms.

[5] Two volunteers from Eretz Israel (the first two on the right), Dov Halperin andMichael Segal, were executed the moment they were captured. The others in the photo,all from Palestine, are (continuing from right to left): Robert Aaquist, who fell in thebattle of the Ebro; David Alexandrowitz, who probably died while fighting with theFrench anti-Nazi underground; Yitzhak Yaffe, killed in the fighting in Córdoba in 1937,and Moshe Lewin, who survived.

[6] Walter Gregory recorded his experiences in the war and in captivity in The ShallowGrave. In a document reproduced in the book, the British Foreign Office demands thatthe volunteer who has just returned from captivity repay the travel expenses incurred inbringing him home. The demand was not honored…

16. Retrospective Writings by Brigade Members

The many years that passed between the Civil War and the period in which some of thevolunteers recorded their memoirs no doubt influenced their writing. In addition to theadvanced age of most of the authors, the vicissitudes of history — and the ideologicaland political disappointments they brought in their wake — also influenced the way theynow related to the events that had led them to volunteer. The vision of a world markedby progress and equality, in which they all sincerely believed, had collapsed by the time

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most of the memoirs were written. For Polish-Jewish volunteers, the wave of antisemitismin Poland during and after the Gomulka regime was enough to uproot many of themfrom what, until then, they had believed to be their homeland. On the other hand, forthem as well as all the other Jewish and many of the non-Jewish volunteers, the Holocaustenhanced their sense of having participated in the first battle against the enemies ofmankind and the Jewish people. There is no doubt that all these and other experiencesinfluenced the content of the memoirs written by the veterans. Bearing this in mind, thetendency of most of the authors to leave Spain and the Spanish people out of thisretrospective “account taking” is even more notable: the positive attitude toward themdid not change with time.

[1] In his book, Yidn in Shpanishen Birgerkrieg (Jews in the Spanish Civil War), BenjaminLubelski described events and personalities from the war and his impressions after a visitto the battlefields many years later. After Spain, and imprisonment in Djelfa, he returnedto Poland, holding important positions in the Polish foreign ministry, and emigrated toIsrael after the Gomulka wave of antisemitism. The book was published following theauthor’s retirement from long years of service in one of the Hebrew University libraries.

[2] Arthur G. London, a Czech volunteer, wrote about the Spanish Civil War in hisbook, Espagne, which was translated into several languages and is here displayed in itsFrench edition. During World War II the author fought in the ranks of the Frenchunderground against the Nazis, was captured and imprisoned in the Buchenwaldconcentration camp. Returning to Czechoslovakia, he held the position of deputy foreignminister in its Communist government. He was falsely accused during the purge ofRudolf Slansky and his colleagues in 1952, but his life was spared and he was laterrehabilitated.

[3] Oesterreicher im spanischen Bürgerkrieg (Austrians in the Spanish Civil War) is anattempt by some veterans and supporters of democratic Spain to sum up their role inthat war. The failure of the general strike and uprising in Austria in February 1934,followed by the suppression of the Left, encouraged many who survived it to volunteerfor the International Brigades.

[4] These two books, by Italian-American John Tisa and D.P. (Pat) Stephens, a Canadianof Armenian origin, are part of the extensive corpus of memoirs by nationals of manystates.

[5] Spain’s Cause Was Mine, the memoirs of Hank Rubin who served as a medic in theBrigades.

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[6] Ilex Beller was to become a successful artist who painted in the naive style. One ofhis paintings is on the cover of his book De mon shtetl à Paris (From My Little Town toParis) in which he recounts way-stations in his lifetime: from Poland to Belgium andFrance, his life as an exploited worker in Paris, his experiences as one of the first volunteersin the International Brigades, and how he survived the Holocaust.

[7] The Anti-Warrior: A Memoir was written by Milt Felsen, an avowed pacifist whofought in Spain and also served with a special unit of the United States Army duringWorld War II. He was one of the few International Brigades’ veterans who were allowedto enlist for such service.

[8] Our Fight: Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Spain 1936—1939,an anthology of memoirs, articles, and poems edited by Alvah Bessie and Albert Prago,two of the veterans, contains some of the most outstanding works of this genre. Alsoincluded is Prago’s article on Jews in the Brigades. The title is misleading: the unit wasa battalion, not a brigade.

[9] Memoirs by veterans of the Brigades were published in several languages and indiverse locations. Yuogoslavia and Ireland, where the two books displayed here appeared,are but two examples of many. Lazar Udoviciki, Spanija moje mladosti: Pismo mojoj deci,Belgrade 1997; Eoghan Ó Duinnín, La Niña Bonita agus An Roisin Dubh, [Ireland] 1986.

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[10] His comrades called David Tulman “the red rabbi.” Born into a poor, OrthodoxJewish family in rural Hungary, Tulman became a militant leftist but continued to keephis religious tendencies while fighting in Spain. At his colleagues’ request, he used to singthem cantorial chants; indeed, toward the end of his life he was a cantor in a Parissynagogue.

[11] In American Commander in Spain Marion Merriman, widow of Robert Merrimanwho commanded the XVth Brigade, recounts their joint path from the university inBerkeley, California, to Moscow, and from there to the war in Spain. The figure of Robertmatches one of Ernest Hemingway’s leading heroes in For Whom the Bell Tolls. He wasexecuted after being taken captive in the battle of the Ebro.

17. Homage and Commemoration in Retrospect

Praise and glory were not heaped upon volunteers in the International Brigades whenthey returned to their homelands. In the West, their communist-inspired participationin the war was held against them, preventing them from fully contributing their capabilitiesto the war against Hitler. In the Soviet Union, after short periods of appreciation andin some cases even appointment to senior positions, many of them became victims ofpurges after being suspected of ideological deviation, and many of those who were notexecuted spent the best years of their lives in concentration camps. Some other veteransfilled senior posts in the communist regimes of Eastern Europe during the early yearsof their existence, but many of them, too, were later the victims of purges. Spain becamea constitutional monarchy in 1976 after the death of Franco. In 1986, when the SocialistParty was in power, the country rather hesitatingly celebrated the jubilee of the Brigades’establishment. Only another decade later, under a rightist government that wished toput a distance between them and the Franco period, were the volunteers presented withofficial certificates of honor and enabled to request Spanish citizenship.

[1] “In their memory! Here lie forever the Jewish volunteers who fell bravely in Madridduring the Spanish Civil War in defense of freedom (1936—1939). Your [freedom] andours…” is part of the epitaph on the commemorative monument in the Fuencarralcemetery in Madrid, unveiled in 1988 in the presence of Israeli ambassador Shlomo BenAmi and Salman Salzman, president of The Israeli Association of Volunteers of theInternational Brigade in Spain, 1936—1939. Many Jewish and non-Jewish brigademembers are buried in this cemetery. When unveiled, the tombstone carried the namesof fifteen dead, to which four more were added later.

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[2] The monumentcommemorating the Jewishfallen in the cemetery inMontjuich, Barcelona, wasdedicated in 1990. Erectedat the initiative of Bernard(Dov) Lieberman and agroup of Jewish veterans,the inscriptions are statements by Luigi Longo, the firstcommissary-general of the Brigades, and Israeli PresidentChaim Herzog.

[3] Medals and insignia issued in honor of Brigades’ veteransby several countries (the USSR, Cuba, the GermanDemocratic Republic [East Germany], Romania, andYugoslavia) and by various organizations in Spain.

[4] Commemorative medal issued by East Germany inhonor of Hans Beimler, a Communist who fell in defenseof Madrid. A tombstone in the Montjuich cemetery bearinghis name is near that commemorating Lluis Companys, the Catalonian president duringthe Civil War, who was executed by the Franco regime.

[5] A Ukrainian poster, 1969, in honor of volunteersfrom Bucovina. In the first photo is General ManfredStern, commander of the XIth Brigade, who was bornin this region, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,but at the time of the Spanish Civil War, Bucovina waspart of the Kingdom of Romania. After returningto the Soviet Union, he was arrested and exiledto Siberia, where he died before being rehabilitated.

[6] Certificate from 1996 confirming that ShmuelSegal, a combatant in the Brigades from EretzIsrael, is eligible — under certain legal stipulations— for Spanish citizenship.

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[7] “Homage to the volunteers for freedom — the International brigades!!” is the textof a poster produced to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the brigades in 1996.

[9] Festive commemoration of the brigades in Israel: a forest named after veterans of theBrigades was planted on the fiftieth anniversary of their establishment.

[10] Military comrades: a soldier in the Brigades and a Spanish soldier meet in 1996,sixty years after the event…

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to all who helped us collect and document the items appearing in this exhibition.They are very many — and not all will be enumerated here — but our heartfelt thanks to themall.

The following persons and institutions granted us permission to display photos to which theyhold the rights:

Ruth Levin — Section 7, Item 1 [7/1]*; The Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade, [12/6]; thequarterly journal Raíces, Madrid [8/12]; Prof. Cary Nelson and the archives of the AbrahamLincoln Brigade at Tamiment Library, University of New York [5/14, 7/1, 8/7, 12/8]

The following persons provided us with documents, photos, and items on display in the exhibition:

Archives of the Spanish Foreign Ministry [13/1]; Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales[2/1, 17/7, 17/10]; Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem [14/4]Alexander Abraham [14/10]; Anchel Archilla [1/4, 3/6, 4/2, 4/3, 4/7, 5/4, 5/6, 7/9]; MosheBachar [7/2]; Ivan Ceresnjes [4/11, 5/9, 17/3]; Magi Crusells [8/13]; Merce Gasco [17/2]; SidiGross [2/2]; Asuncíon Ibáñez [1/1]; Amirah Inglis [7/1, 14/13]; Mark Israeli [3/7, 7/1, 8/8, 12/11,13/5, 17/3]; Sara Jacobi [7/1, 7/8, 17/9]; Yehuda and Gidi Karon [7/7]; Aliza Krempel [6/11];Carlos Lázaro [10/4]; Victoria Leorda (Tismaneanu) [7/1, 14/11]; Eunice Lipton [5/10]; JoséLópez [1/1]; Peter Lubelski [14/12]; Amnon Meroz [12/6]; Judy Nahman-Stouffer [13/3]; RivkaPoal [17/2]; Leonardo Senkman [6/12]; Luis Serrano [1/1]; Lumitza Shapp [7/1, 14/11]; WilmarStern [17/5]; Ernesta Tager [4/10]; Dora Zavidovique [6/2]. Special thanks to Rachel Zbyszewskiand Zvi Locker who helped us with their connections.

Our heartfelt thanks to the veterans of the International Brigades who gave so freely of their timeand allowed us to exhibit photos and documents in their possession:

Jacques Biezin [8/10, 11/9]; Alfred Brauner [8/9, 11/1, 11/2, 11/3]; Eugene Downing [16/9];Harry Fisher [4/5, 5/7, 5/8, 5/11, 5/12, 12/5, 13/7]; Yaacov Harari [7/1]; Hana Israeli [3/7, 7/1,8/8, 12/11, 13/5, 17/3]; the late David Karon [7/7]; Moshe Kilimnik 14/3, 17/3, 17/4]; EmanuelMink [6/4, 6/5, 6/6]; Ignaz Potazman [5/13, 7/1, 7/6, 14/7]; Hank Rubin [11/8]; Salman Salzman[6/1, 7/9]; Shmuel Segal [7/4, 12/2, 17/6]; Nachum Sofer [11/6, 13/4, 14/6]; George Sossenko[9/2]; Henri (Yehiel) Sulewicz [6/8, 17/1]. Special thanks to Theo Francos, Hans Landauer, DoraLevin, and David Ostrowski who extended their help and advice.

We extend our thanks to Prof. Yoram Tsafrir, Director of the Jewish National and UniversityLibrary, and to Rafael Weiser, director of its Department of Manuscripts, Archives, and Exhibitions,who lent us their advice and guidance, and enabled us to mount this exhibition.

*Henceforth, items will be designated in this manner, referring section and item in the exhibition.

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