the volunteer, march 2005

8/14/2019 The Volunteer, March 2005

1/24

...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. XXVII, No1 March 2005

Milt Wolff eyes a sculpture of himself byJo Davidson at an exhibit in Atlantaabout the Spanish Civil War. See page 4.Photo by Scott Chester.

San Francisco Mime Troupe musicians perform The Lives and Times of theLincoln Battalion, written by Bruce Barthol, directed by Peter Glazer, at theBay Area Reunion. The show will be performed May 1 in New York. Photoof vet Chuck Hall appears behind the performance. See page 3.

Utah Phillips with the RadicalCheerleaders. See p. 3.

Catalonia Honors Aviators, p. 6Report From Catalonia, p. 7Dispatch From Madrid, p. 8Tales of Franco, p. 9

Front Lines of Social Change, p. 12Benicassim: Plaque Tempest, p. 15Memory is Lazy, p. 17Book Reviews, p. 18


2/24

The Soviet Union and Stalin himself rallied early to thRepublics cause, devoted huge resources to it, and stayetill the end. This was an unprecedented act of internationalism, of the same kind as that shown by the InternationaBrigades.

It is long past time that champions of the Republicsbattle against international fascism stopped this hypocritical sniping at the Republics major ally, the Soviet Union,and at Joseph Stalin, without whose support the invaluabSoviet aid would never have been given.

Sincerely,Grover FurrMontclair State University

Gabriel Jackson replies:Professor Furrs letter treats of one of the most painfu

and controversial aspects of the Spanish tragedy.Personally I have long believed, as expressed in writ-

ings of Marcelino Pascua, Republican ambassador to theSoviet Union in 1937, that Stalins rule combined severautterly different strands: great intelligence and success instarting the construction of a socialist society in one coun

try, essential aid (partially paid for and partially donatedto the defense of the Spanish Republic, and extreme para-noia in regard to his enemies, especially so-calledTrotskyites. I say so-called because in 1937, when Nin

2 THE VOLUNTEER March 2005

TheVolunteerJournal of the

Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade

an ALBA publication

799 Broadway, Rm. 227New York, NY 10003

(212) 674-5398

Editorial BoardPeter Carroll Leonard LevensonGina Herrmann Fraser Ottanelli

Abe Smorodin

Book Review EditorShirley Mangini

Art Director-Graphic DesignerRichard Bermack

Editorial AssistanceNancy Van Zwalenburg

Submission of Manuscripts

Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk.

E-mail: [email protected]

Please continue sendingme The VolunteerIndividual/Family $30.00

Senior (over 65) and Student $20.00

Library $40.00

Veterans of the Spanish Civil War No Charge

I would also like to send __ gift subscriptions @____ $_____

To

Address

I would like to make an additional contribution to ALBA $_____

Enclosed is my check for TOTAL $_____

Name

Mailing address

Telephone number

Email address

Please make checks payable to ALBA.

Send to 799 Broadway, Rm. 227, New York, NY 10003

You can make contributions online atwww.alba-valb.org.

Letters

To the Editor:Gabriel Jacksons otherwise fine article on Juan Negrn

(The Volunteer, Dec. 2004) contains one seriously inaccuratestatement. Jackson states: The kidnapping and torturedeath of Andres Nin, and of numerous less famousTrotskyites, anarchists, and dissident communists, becamean international scandal. This is untrue.

There is strong, but not conclusive, evidence to tie theSoviets, through Alexander Orlov, to the death of Nin. Butthere is no evidence at all that the Soviets were involved inany other assassinations whatsoever. Neither Costello &Tsarev, Skoutelsky, Kowalsky, nor Radosh et al. found any

such evidence, and all scoured the primary sources.However, recent studies have revealed that significant fas-cist spy rings did exist in the Spanish Republic and weresmashed with the help of the Soviet NKVD. These actionsunquestionably aided the defense of the Republic.

Some may reply: But the Soviets may have engagedin murders but left no evidence. Historians should basetheir conclusions upon evidence, not upon opinion unsup-ported by evidence, which is just another name forprejudiceanti-communist prejudice, in this case.

Letterscontinued on page


3/24


4/24

Trisha Renaud

An important art collection, Onthe Side of Freedom: JoDavidson and the Spanish Civil

War, opened at Atlantas HighMuseum of Art in December, bringingthe Lincoln Brigades last commander,

Milton Wolff, face-to-face with a bustof himself made in the midst of thefighting in 1938.

Wolff, along with Brigade veter-ans Jack Shafran, Matti Mattson andLou Gordon and the late veteran BobThompsons widow Sylvia Thompsonattended a reception on December 12as guests of honor and previewed theexhibit of sculptures recently donatedto the citys largest museum.

The new collection contains nine

bronze busts of figures associatedwith the Spanish Republican struggle,including a bust of Wolff and DoloresIbarruri, known as La Pasionaria.American sculptor Jo Davidson creat-ed the busts when he traveled to Spainin 1938.

Wolff, speaking to guests at lastmonths reception, said he remem-


AtlantaAtlantas High Museum Showss High Museum ShowsSCW SculpturSCW Sculpturee

by Ernest Hemingway

NINE MEN COMMANDED the Lincolnand Lincoln-Washington Battalions. Thereis no space to tell about them here butfour are dead and four are wounded and

this is the head of the ninth and last com-mander, Milton Wolff, 23 years old, tall asLincoln, gaunt as Lincoln and as braveand as good a soldier as any that com-manded battalions at Gettysburg. He isalive and unhit by the same hazard thatleaves one tall palm tree standing wherea hurricane has passed.

Milt Wolff arrived in Spain March 7,1937, trained with the WashingtonBattalion and after reserve service atJarama fought through the July heat

and thirst of the blood bath that wascalled Brunete as a machine gunner. InSeptember in the blowing dust ofAragon at the taking of Quinto and thestorming of Belchite he was leading asection. In the Fifteenth BrigadesPasschendaele at Fuentes de Ebro hecommanded a machine gun company.In the defence of TerueI fighting in thecold and the snow he was captain and

adjutant. When Dave Reiss was killed aBelchite he took over the battalion andthrough the March retreat led it wiselyand heroically. When finally it was sur-rounded and cut to pieces through no

fault of his, outside Gandesa he swamthe Ebro with its remnants.

When what was left of theFifteenth Brigade held at Mora del EbroWolff trained and reorganized his bat-talion and led it in the great offensiveacross the Ebro that changed thecourse of the war and saved Valencia. Ithe high mountains of Sierra Pandols,attacked repeatedly under the heaviesartillery and aviation bombardments othe war, they held their gains and

turned them over intact to theSpaniards when the Internationals werwithdrawn. He is a retired major now attwenty-three and still alive and prettysoon he will be coming home as othermen his age and rank came home afterthe peace at Appomattox courthouselong ago. Except the peace was madeat Munich now and no good men willbe at home for long.

Milt Wolff, Lou Gordon, Jack Shafran, Sylvia Thompson, and Matti Mattson pose with sculpture of Milt Wolff. Photo by ScoChester.

MILTON WOLFF: Papas Portrait from the Original Davidson Catalogu

Continued on page 5


5/24

THE VOLUNTEER March 2005

By Mary Kay McCoy

The city of Rivas Vaciamadrid,located 10 miles outside Spainscapital, is determined to recover

the silenced history of the Civil War.According to its mayor, Jos Masa, Itis our historic duty to remember, tokeep alive through memory, not toforget all those who, more than 70years ago, gave the best of themselvesand their lives to try and save the firstdemocracy in our country.

Last June, Rivas held a multitudi-nous concert to pay tribute to the menand women who fought alongside theRepublic in the struggle to saveSpanish democracy. The event wasorganized by the Association for theRecovery of Historic Memory, directed

by Emilio Silva, and the FoundationContamname, in collaboration withthe municipal government. Nearly15,000 people gathered to honor the741 oldsters who came from all

parts of Spain and abroad for theunprecedented occasion. The mani-festo of the tribute closed with thefollowing words: We want to saythank you. We want you to know weadmire and respect you. And thatwith the strength of your memory weare going to work together to con-struct the society which you foughtfor; one of peace, liberty and social

justice.

As noted in The Volunteer (Dec.2004), another series of events tookplace in November in Rivas to com-memorate the 67th anniversary of thBattle of Jarama and to honor the rolof the International Brigades. Theactivities, which again enjoyed thegenerous cooperation of the city government, were organized by theAsociacin de Amigos de las BrigadaInternacionales (AABI), directed byAna Prez. They included a visit tothe nearby battlefields; the inaugura

tion of the exhibit Volunteers forLiberty, put together by the AABI;and a roundtable with talks by historans Peter Carroll and Jess Gonzlezde Miguel, writer Jorge Reverte, andthe Lincoln volunteer, Milton Wolff.Wolff was joined by camaradas TheoFrancos (France), Giovanni Pesce(Italy), Simon Radwanski (Belgium),and Bob Doyle (Ireland).

Carmen Barahona, councilwomafor culture, emphasized that the

international volunteers should servas a constant reference point for theyounger generations. Our youth munever forget that the democracy theyenjoy today had its precursors; allthose who fought to defend theSpanish Republic.

Mary Kay McCoy is a translator living inMadrid.

Monument to the International Brigades in Rivas Vaciamadrid

Rivas, Spain:It is our duty to remember

bered sitting for Davidson after writerErnest Hemingway suggested thatDavidson include a representative ofthe International Brigades in his lineof sculptures.

Davidson, Wolff joked, had clay

left over and I was the only onearound. Work on his bust took twodays, Wolff said, and then he thoughtnothing more about it.

But the plaster models Davidsoncreated were sent to Paris for bronzecasting and then shipped to NewYork, where they were exhibited laterthat year at the Arden Gallery. Theopening of Davidsons exhibit in 1938was a fundraiser for the SpanishChildrens Milk Fund, chaired by

writer Dorothy Parker. Other writers,including Hemingway, contributed tothe event by writing profiles of thefigures depicted in the busts for a cat-alog that accompanied the exhibit.

Hemingway described Wolff, 23at the time he sat in front of Davidson,as being tall as Lincoln, gaunt asLincoln, and as brave and as good asoldier as any that commanded battal-ions at Gettysburg. (See page 4.)

Speaking at the Atlanta reception,ALBA chair Peter Carroll recognized

the veterans who were present fortheir physical and moral courage.

The Davidson collection, whichwill become part of the museumspermanent collection, was donated by

Jesse and Sherri Crawford of Atlanta.Jesse Crawford is an ALBA boardmember. One sculpture in the collec-tion, that of an unnamed Spanishpeasant, was donated by the family ofthe late Mary Noreen Skillman, whoseson Jim Skillman is another ALBA

board member. The bust of LaPasionaria was donated in honor ofSylvia Thompson, a longtime activistand volunteer for VALB.

Sylvia Yount, curator of Americanart at the museum, was instrumentalin arranging the acquisition of the col-lection and the opening of the exhibit.

Trisha Renaud is an Atlanta journalist.

Atlanta SCW SculptureContinued from page 4


6/24


By Angela Jackson

The Association of Aviators of theRepublic (ADAR) unveiled anew memorial dedicated to two

Spanish Republican fighter pilots,Manuel Vega Gomez and Josep TorrasPujol, on November 1, 2004. The pilotshad been killed near the small villageof El Molar in the Priorat, Catalonia,during the civil war. I had been invit-ed to attend the ceremony by ADAR,one of the many groups in contactwith our association in Mar, No

Jubilem La Memria.As people gathered within the

walls of the cemetery at El Molar, Ilearned that about 500 Republican sol-diers were also buried there in anunmarked common grave. Oppositethe cemetery gates, amongst the pines,was the building that had been usedas a hospital during the Battle of theEbro. It was on the site of an old leadmine, now abandoned.

The short ceremony, hosted by

veteran flyers, included speeches bythe Mayor of El Molar, the Presidentof ADAR, Squadron Leader FrancescVials, and the Secretary, SimFiestas, formerly a fighter pilot.

As we walked into the center ofthe village after the ceremony, I wasintroduced to one of the local vil-lagers, Conrado Escoda Salvador. Asmall group gathered to listen to thestory he was telling one of the veteran

pilots, ngel Sanz Vallecas. As ayouth in 1938, Conrado had beenworking in the countryside near thevillage and had seen a plane crash. He

had found Manuel Vega badlywounded, caught up in a tree. He was

cut down and taken immediately tothe hospital but his injuries were toosevere and nothing could be done tosave him.

We all then went to the Town Hallfor refreshments and to renew oldfriendships. Antoni Vilella, a formerairplane mechanic, spoke with emo-tion about the International Brigadersand asked me to send his greetings toMilton Wolff. Antoni had sent him a

reproduction of a medal that was oriinally designed to be given to allBrigaders as they left Spain. (See TheVolunteer, June 2004, p. 10).

The local historical organizationNo Jubilem la Memria will be carrying out more research about thehospital and cemetery in El Molar intheir ongoing project to recover andpreserve the history of the civil war ithe Priorat region of Catalonia.

Angela Jackson, author ofBritish Wome& the Spanish Civil War, is active in localresearch projects in Catalonia.

Catalonia Honors Aviators

Sim Fiestas looks at the memorial.

Conrado Escoda Salvador from ElMolar with former pilot of Moscas,ngel Sanz Vallecas (right).

Aviators, from left to right: ngel Sanz Vallecas, Francisco Lpez Granje, the Mayor of El Molar, Josep Grau, FrancescVials, Sim Fiestas, Jos Soler, Francisco Garca, Antoni Vilella, Pedro Carrasco, Francesc Pararols, and Antonio Ramrez.Photos by Angela Jackson.

Catalonia Honors Aviators

T


7/24


By Shirley Mangini

In the tiny mountain village ofMar (Tarragona) in the Priorat

region of Spain, today known for itsexquisite wines, British historianAngela Jackson is making an impres-sion. Jackson is the author of BritishWomen and the Spanish Civil War(2002). She is also the author ofMsall del camp de batalla (Beyond theBattlefield) (Valls: Cossetnia Edicions,2004), about the cave hospital that wasset up in nearby Bisbal De Falset dur-ing the battle at the Ebro River. It wasin July l938, at the start of the defini-

tive battle that raged at the

Ebrowhen the Republic wasattempting to unite the two Loyalistzones that had been cut in half by theFranco forcesthat Dr. Reginald

Saxton took his mobile transfusionunit to an emergency hospital to carefor the wounded in a hillside cave,Santa Luca, near La Bisbal de Falset.

After doing extensive research inthe area, inspired by the beauty of thePriorat and the vast possibilities forfurther research on the war in theregion, Jackson decided to settle therewith her husband, Roger, in 2002.Shortly thereafter, almost single hand-

edly, Jackson began to stoke the firesof the memory of the civil war, found-ing the association No Jubilem la

Memria (Dont Retire theMemory) in January 2003. The orga-nization now has some 250 registeredsupporters. Like other regional orga-nizations that have been established torecover their history of the war, thegroups goals are to research andrecord interviews with people in thePriorat and with InternationalBrigaders who can contribute toknowledge of the war, to have exhibi-tions of photographs and other

materials that can shed light on the

history of the war in the Priorat, andto bring speakers to the area.

Not only has Dr. Jackson gainedthe enthusiasm of her neighbors, but

she has reached out to hundreds innearby towns and villages to encouragethem to attend various conferencesand lectures she has organized in thepast two years. What is astounding isthat Jackson has been able to bringmajor scholars, such as Paul Preston,and protagonists from the civil war, likeAL Brigader Milt Wolff, to give lecturesin the village. Attendance at theseevents has sometimes reached 500.

Jacksons latest feat was a bilin-gual conference (Spanish andCatalonian) entitled Children, Warand Exile, held on November 6.Participating in the mini-conference

were the author of several books onthe civil war, Professor Joan MariaThoms, Albert Sabat Rull, Jackson,and myself. Also, Fernando de laTorre and Josep Sangenis spoke oftheir lives since childhood in exile inrespectively, Great Britain and FrancThe Buddhist monk, VenerableThubten Wangchen, the director of thCasa del Tibet Foundation inBarcelona, was an invited guest. Hespoke of Tibetan children in exile anthe oppression of the Chinese, and th

conference proceeds were designatedto help the Tibetan children now liv-ing in India.

In addition to the conference anda photographic exhibition on thetheme of exile, a moving documentaentitled The Lost Children of the FrancoPeriod was screened. The film consistof a series of emotionally chargedinterviews with women who wereimprisoned during and after the warwho told of the children who were in

prison with them. At the end of theevening, there was a celebration ofmusic, regional food and wine. Civilwar songs were interpreted by theenergetic and entertaining group LaTrinxera.

Shirley Mangini, an ALBA board membeis author ofMemories of Resistance:Womens Voices From the Spanish Civil Wa

Keeping History AliveA Report from Catalonia

Volunteers from Mar prepare the supper in the village school.

The Venerable Thubten Wangchen(left) and Fernando de La Torre dis-cussing the experience of exile.


8/24


By Miguel ngel NietoTranslated by Tony Geist

The Historical Archive of

Salamanca is being dispersed.This is how the year 2005 began

in Spain. Hundreds of thousands oforiginal documents that have beenheld for decades in the most completeinternal history of the Spanish CivilWar will be moved to Catalonia,where they were stolen in their day byFrancos troops. One of the few cen-tralized archives in Spain will be splitin two; in three, really, because theBasque Country is also demanding the

transfer of documents from Salamancathat in their day were stolen fromBilbao.

It is a sad metaphor for the stillopen wounds of the war. Researchersfrom throughout the world who havestrained their eyes working throughthis archive will regret its sundering.Although it is also true that today allor almost all the facsimiles in theworld can be consulted in that magnif-icent and enormous virtual libraryknow as the internet.

The dispersal of the SalamancaMuseum of the Civil War, the result ofthe nationalist persistence of a handfulof Catalan politicians, is nothing morethan a symbol of what is taking placein Spanish politics today. The surgetoward separatism of the nationalistpolitical parties, calling with greaterurgency than ever for political inde-pendence from Spain, once againhovers over a country that is constitu-tionally bound to remain united.

Even more important, and lesssymbolic, than what has happenedwith the Salamanca archive is what isgoing on in the Basque Country andCatalonia. Local cortes (parliaments)in the Basque Country have justpassed, by majority, a separatistscheme known as the Plan Ibarretxe,named after the Basque political lead-er who proposed it. It calls forestablishment of a calendar of political

measures aimed at turning the BasqueCountry into an independent nation inthe not distant future.

The Socialist Party in power inMadrid has so far been unable to doanything to head off the passing of theplan, nor apparently will it be able to.The evaluation of the Basque situation

by Catalan separatists of Esquerra

Republicana de Catalunya has been

drastic: This is just a tiny taste of whatwill happen in Catalonia, they say.

What is really in question, when itcomes down to it, is the future legalstatus of Spain: Will it continue to be astate composed of autonomous territo-ries? Will it become a federal state? Orwill it fragment, break up into inde-pendent countries, integrated andunited under the overarching umbrel-la that is membership in the EuropeanUnion?

The Spanish Constitution needs afacelift, that is for sure, after 25 yearsservice. But the authors of our magnacarta refuse to let Spain, like theSalamanca archive, dissolve. The most

disturbing voice in this delicate anddecisive debate is raised by none oththan Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a politic

animal who held several ministriesunder Franco, who survived theTransition, who survived democracyand who today is the President of thCortes of Galicia. Without a momenthesitation he announced that the solu

tion to the Plan Ibarretxe is to suspen

Basque autonomy. To back up hisargument, he turned to history:During the Second Republic, hesaid, Alejandro Lerroux, who was nauthoritarian, in fact he was an old-time radical, undid Catalan autonomwith the stroke of a pen.

It is as though time does not pasfor Fraga. Before the perplexed eyes hundreds of journalists, he continuedHe undid Catalan autonomy andnothing happened. He only omitted

one minor detail: in fact, nothing happened that day.

Miguel ngel Nieto is a distinguishedMadrid journalist.

Dispatch from MadridSeparatism in Todays Spain

What is really in question, when it comes down to i

is the future legal status of Spain: Will it continue to

be a state composed of autonomous territories?Will it become a federal state? Or will it fragment,

break up into independent countries, integrated

and united under the overarching umbrella that is

membership in the European Union?

www.alba-valb.org


9/24


By Paul Preston

In mid-July 1939, Count GaleazzoCiano, Mussolinis son-in-law andthe Foreign Minister of Fascist Italy,

arrived in Barcelona. He was return-ing the official visit made to Italy one

month earlier by Ramn SerranoSuer, Francos brother-in-law.Having been an enthusiastic advocateof Francos cause during the CivilWar, he was assured of a warm wel-come. However, he was notimpressed. Among the entertainmentsprovided for such an illustrious guestwas a tour of battle grounds. Near oneof them, he was shown a group ofRepublican prisoners working. Theircondition provoked the bitter com-

mentary, They are not prisoners ofwar, they are slaves of war. Later, hewas received by Franco in the Palaceof Ayete in San Sebastin. On hisreturn to Rome, he described Francoto one of his cronies: That queer fishof a Caudillo, there in his Ayetepalace, in the midst of his MoorishGuard, surrounded by mountains offiles of prisoners condemned to death.With his work timetable, he will seeabout three a day, because that fellowenjoys his siestas.

It certainly seems to be the casethat Francos sleep was never inter-rupted by any concern for hisprisoners, nor by any sense of guilt ashe signed death sentences. In thisregard, he was happy to believe hisown propaganda. Following theexample of Josef Goebbels, Francospropagandists presented the repres-sion, the executions, the overflowingprisons, the concentration camps, theslave labor battalions, as the scrupu-

lous yet compassionate justiceadministered by a wise and benevo-lent Caudillo. One after another, theylined up to sing the praises of theCaudillos lofty and noble impartiali-

ty. Typical of them was the repentantleftist Joaqun Prez Madrigal, whointoned: Franco, Franco, Franco, isthe liberator of the Fatherland, therestorer of Law, the distributor of

Justice, he who weighs out wealth,

love and all things good. Franco,Franco, Franco, has reconqueredSpain, he is the saviour of allSpaniards. Of all Spaniards! Franco isthe Victor, the Founder, the bringer of

Justice and the Magnanimous one.Franco, who harvests, who weighsand measures, is the State, the Law,Moderation.

Altogether more specific was thegreatest sycophant of them all,Francos one-time commander and, by

the time of the Civil War, propagandachief, General Milln Astray. Underthe title To Bring Justice is the mostaugust mission of the Head of State(Franco, the Bringer of Justice)[Ejercer la justicia es la ms augustamisin del Jefe del Estado (Franco, el

Justiciero)], Milln Astray wrote rev-erently, Bursting with emotion, Iwrite these lines, proud to be Spanishand proud to be a soldier at the ordersof Franco. I have had the high honorof being present during the solemn act

in which the Head of State dispensedjustice. The legal counsellor gave adetailed account of each case present-ed for the supreme sentence. Thatworthy man (Lieutenant ColonelLorenzo Martnez Fuset of the

Juridical Corps) gave no hint, in hisgesture, his voice or his facial expres-sion, of his own opinion, leaving tothe Chief alone the august mission of

judgment. The General, despite theimmense complexity of the problems

of the war and of the state with whichhe constantly has to deal, listenedattentively and immobile. After briefmeditation, he pronounced his judg-ment. I held my breath and, afterhearing the Chiefs decision, our eyesmet and not once did I see a sign ofdoubt. What my conscience had indi-cated was what the Chief ruled. Twicewhen our eyes met, they were dampwith tears, not because the sentence

had been death, but because the magnanimity of Francos heart hadimposed itself and, in the interests of

justice free of hatred, he had blockedout anything that might stand in theway of serene justice and had com-

muted the sentence. In all the manycases that the courts had suggestedcommutation of the death sentence, hagreed. In those cases where heapproved the death sentences, the evdence of horrendous crimes againstthe Fatherland and against fellow mahad been so overwhelming that hisduty of defending the very existenceof the Fatherland and the safety ofpeaceful citizens meant that there wano possibility of clemency. In all othe

cases, generosity was the order of thday. No one, other than those whohad committed murder and theircrime had been fully proven, had beecondemned to death. If there was theslightest doubt, the sentence was commuted or had been sent for furtherconsultation by the High MilitaryCourt. After the two most intensehours of my life, I allowed myself,with all the respect that I have for theHead of State, to say: General, forgivmy daring, but as a Spaniard and as

soldier, I must express my admiratioon contemplating how you administ

justice and how it reveals such a generous, such a Christian and such aSpanish heart.

For his biographer, the newspapeditor Luis de Galinsoga, Franco, aswell as being the Generalsimo of theforces, Head of State, and, for everygrief-stricken Spaniard, the distributof help, the guardian and the shouldto cry on, is also the supreme admini

trator of justice. And how muchjustice had to be distributed at thattime! He took advantage of the fewhours left him by his many importantasks of all kinds and, even in his carwith his legal counsellor, MajorMartnez Fuset, he would look intothe cases of those sentenced to deathHe never dealt with one of these case

Paul Preston, author ofFranco andJuanCarlos, is a professor of internationalhistory at the London School ofEconomics.

Tales of Franco

Continued on page


10/24


lightly, fully informing himself,demanding that such a defense orsuch an accusation be read out to himagain, finally pronouncing the sacra-mental words sentence commuted orsentence approved.

The administration of justice towhich the awe-struck Milln Astrayand Galinsoga referred was based onFrancos examination of the files onthose Republican prisoners not sum-marily executed as they were capturedor murdered behind the lines byFalangist terror squads but subjectedto cursory courts martial. Usually,large numbers of defendants wouldhave been tried in large batches,accused of generalised crimesmost

often military rebellion, that is tosay, having failed to support theuprising of July 1936and given littleor no opportunity to defend them-selves. The death sentences passedmerely needed the signature underthe word enterado (acknowledged) ofthe general commanding the province.As a result of the Italian protests, fromMarch 1937 death sentences had to besent to the Generalsimos headquar-ters for confirmation or pardon. Thelast word on death sentences lay with

Franco, not as Head of State, but ascommander-in-chief of the ArmedForces. The fact that pleas for clemen-cy were usually examined by Francoafter the condemned had already beenexecuted led to the joke by Francoschaplain that the Generalsimo wroteenterrado (buried).

In this area, his close confidantwas Major, later Lieutenant Colonel,Lorenzo Martnez Fuset of the military

juridical corps, who was auditor del

Cuartel General del Generalsimo(legal adviser to headquarters). Thetiny, balding Martnez Fuset was anamiable individual with a child-likesmile, much liked by his fellow-offi-cers. He was utterly devoted toFranco, to the point of adulation.

Contrary to the sycophantic mythof a tireless and merciful Caudillo ago-nizing late into the night over deathsentences, the reality was more pro-

saically brutal. In Salamanca or inBurgos, after lunch or over coffee, oreven in a car speeding to the battlefront, the Caudillo would flick throughand then sign sheaves of them, oftenwithout reading the details but

nonetheless specifying the most savageform of execution, strangulation by gar-rote. Occasionally, he would make apoint of decreeing garrote y prensa(garrote reported in the press).

Franco did insist on seeing thedeath sentences personally, althoughhe reached his decisions in the mostcursory manner. On various occasionsthat Ramn Serrano Suer was pre-sent when Martnez Fuset arrivedwith folders of death sentences, he

would offer to leave. Franco usuallytold him to stay, saying, Its just rou-tine stuff, Ramn. While the Caudilloand his brother-in-law continued towork, Martnez Fuset would read outthe name, age and profession of thecondemned. Occasionally, withoutraising his head from the papers thathe was examining with Serrano Suer,Franco would ask, Political party?and then state the manner in whichthe death sentence was to be imple-mented, garrote or firing squad.

Another witness claimed thatMartnez Fuset derived a macabrepleasure from blackening the case ofvarious individuals. In contrast,Francos faithful cousin Pacn oftenaccompanied Franco and MartnezFuset in the car as they went throughthe files. He remembered Franco ask-ing for details to be repeated and alsoclaimed that Martnez Fuset, if asked,would recommend benevolence.

Specifying press coverage was not

just a way of intensifying the pain ofthe families of the condemned menbut also had the wider objective ofdemoralizing the enemy with evi-dence of inexorable might andimplacable terror. That was one of thelessons of war learnt by Franco inMorocco. At one lunch in the winter of1936-37, the case of four capturedRepublican militiawomen was dis-cussed. Johannes Bernhardt, who was

present, was taken aback by the casuway Franco passed judgment, in thesame tone that he would use to dis-cuss the weather: There is nothingelse to be done. Shoot them.

On visiting him in Salamanca,

Pedro Sainz Rodrguez, a friend ofFrancos from his days in Oviedo in1917 and later his first Minister ofEducation, was astonished by the colindifference with which Franco dealtwith the death sentences. Franco was

breakfasting on hot chocolate and fingers of fried bread (picatostes). Hehad a pile of expedientes on the tableand a chair on either side. While calmly continuing to dip his bread in thechocolate, and thoroughly enjoying

his breakfast, he flicked through thefiles, placing them on one chair or thother. Those on the right were to beexecuted, those on the left to havetheir sentences commuted.

It does not seem that Carmen Poever used her influence with Franco limit the scale or the intensity of thewider repression. It is impossible forher not to have known about whatwas happening. On most days, afterlunch and often in her presence,Lorenzo Martnez Fuset, now head o

Francos juridical office, would bringsheaves of death sentences for him tosign. It was common for the wives, sters and mothers of condemned mento appeal to Doa Carmen in the hopthat she would intercede with her hu

band. However, her already stonyheart had been hardened by the deatof her beloved aunt, Isabel Polo Flrede Vereterra. She had died in the vil-lage of Infanzn in the province ofGijn in the early days of the war,

after being brusquely interrogated byanarchist militiamen. Isabel had beento a large extent a mother substitute Carmen. Her death, perceived to be athe hands of the Reds, intensifiedCarmens hatred of the Republic.Ramn Serrano Suer claimed thatDoa Carmen rarely if ever intercedeon behalf of anyone.

One appalling case that revealedDoa Carmens reluctance to inter-

Tales

Continued from page 9


11/24


cede was that taken to her by a cousinfrom Astorga in Len, Doa MximaTorbado de Panero, whose sonLeopoldo was a minor poet. LeopoldoPanero and a friend, ngel Gimnez,who was shortly to be married to

Leopoldos sister Asuncin, had beenarrested. According to sources close tothe Panero family, Doa Mxima wentwith Asuncin to the prison of SanMarcos in Len to visit the two boys.When they reached San Marcos andasked to see them, a prison guard toldthem that ngel was no longer there.They assumed at first that he had beentransferred to another prison.However, the guards brought out awild-eyed and deranged Leopoldo

who managed to stammer out that, onthe previous day, ngel had been shotand, before facing the firing squad,had entrusted him with his watch togive to Asuncin. Mxima immediate-ly bundled Asuncin into her car andset off for Salamanca. On reaching thePalacio Episcopal, she was received byDoa Carmen. She begged DoaCarmen to get a letter from Franco tosave her son. Carmen Polo calmlyreplied that her husband was in ameeting and could not be disturbed.

After waiting for several hours in amood of mounting anxiety, thinkingonly that her son might be shot at anymoment, Doa Mxima finally lost hercomposure. She began to scream andshout to such an extent that theCaudillos wife reluctantly went intoFrancos office and asked him for theletter. Without hesitation, Francoacceded to his wifes request. Armedwith the letter, Doa Mxima returnedto Len, where the document secured

the immediate release of LeopoldoPanero.It is an interesting comment on

the popular view of Carmen Polo thatthe following version of events waswidely accepted in Astorga. In localmyth, on her knees, Doa Mxima

begged Carmen Polo, as a cousin, tointercede with the Generalsimo.Carmen replied haughtily, I cant be

bothering Paco all the time. He has far

weightier things on his plate. BeforeDoa Mximas ever more franticpleas, she relented and said, Verywell, but I cant bother him about twoof them. You choose one. In this oft-related version, Doa Mxima chose

her son, and her daughters fianc wasshot. In fact, the real story is, at onelevel, even more spine-chilling since itsuggests that Franco was open topleas for clemency emanating from hiswife and that she chose not to exerciseher power in this regard.

It is possible that Doa Carmenused this power on other occasions,

but there is no evidence that she didso. In another case, that of her closefriend Dolores Roda, Carmens failure

to act was striking. Dolores Rodashusband, General Campins, a closefriend of Franco, had been shot inAugust for failing to join the uprising.Dolores wrote a heart-rending letter toFranco begging to be told whyCampins had been shot. It wasanswered by his cousin, Pacn. At thetime of this correspondence, Carmenwas still in France. However, it has

been alleged by Carmens brother-in-law, Ramn Serrano Suer, thatDolores Roda later wrote her an even

more harrowing letter repeating thequestion. Carmen, he said, simply didnot deign to reply.

On May 19, 1939, the day onwhich he had presided over the spec-tacular Victory Parade, Franco wasanything but magnanimous in victory.Let us not deceive ourselves: the

Jewish spirit, which permitted thealliance of big capital with Marxismand which was behind so many pactswith the anti-Spanish revolution, can-

not be extirpated in a day and stillbeats in the hearts of many. Too muchblood has been spilt and our HolyCrusade has cost Spanish mothers toohigh a price for our victory to besquandered by foreign agents infiltrat-ed into Spain.

In his end of year message onDecember 31, 1939, Franco used hisadmiration for the 15th CenturyCatholic kings to express his approval

of German anti-semitic legislation,declaring that the policy of Ferdinanand Isabel towards the Jews hadshown the Nazis the way: Now youwill understand the reasons whichhave led other countries to persecute

and isolate those races marked by thstigma of their greed and self-interesThe domination of such races withinsociety is disturbing and dangerousfor the destiny of the nation. We, whwere freed of this heavy burden cen-turies ago by the grace of God and thclear vision of Ferdinand and Isabel,cannot remain indifferent before themodern flourishing of avaricious andselfish spirits who are so attached totheir own earthly goods that they

would sacrifice the lives of their chil-dren more readily than their own bainterests.

In the same speech, he made itclear that he rejected any thought ofamnesty or reconciliation with thedefeated. We need a united Spain, aaware Spain. It is necessary to put anend to the hatreds and passions of ourecent war but not in the manner ofliberals, with their monstrous and sucidal amnesties, which are more of afraud than a pardon, but rather with

the redemption of sentences throughlabor, with repentance and penance.Anyone who thinks otherwise isguilty of irresponsibility or treason. Smuch damage has been done to thePatria and so much havoc wreaked ofamilies and on morality, so many vitims crying out for justice that nohonorable Spaniard, no conscious

being even, could stand aside from thpainful duty of punishment.

Francos speeches revealed more

of the truth about his vengeful inten-tions then the fanciful inventions ofhis propagandists. On October 1, 197the 39th anniversary of his elevationto the Headship of State, Franco madhis last major public appearance onthe balcony of Madrids Palacio deOriente. Before a huge crowd, hedenounced a masonic left-wing con

TalesContinued from page 10

Continued on page


12/24


The Front Lines of Social Changa book and exhibit by Richard Bermack

S

taring out into the darkness as the boatmade its way across the ocean to Spain in

1936, nurse Hilda Bell Roberts, barelytwenty at the time, reflected on her life. Myplans were simple," she later said. Get marriedhave kids, lead an organized life. Then I realizedI was giving it all up, and my life would never bthe same. It felt good. .... Nearly seventy yearslater, marching with a crowd of demonstratorsprotesting U.S. military intervention inAfghanistan and Iraq, she smiles and states with

pride, Going to Spain was the best decision Iever made, next to becoming a nurse.

From the introduction to The Front Lines of SociChange: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigad

Abe Smorodin and Lou Gordon

Milt Wolff, Clifton Amsbury (in back), Al Tanz, Ted Veltfort, and Lenore Veltfort march against the first Gulf War.

The Front Lines of Social Change


13/24


eterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Harry Fisher

Clarence Kailin Marion Merriman Wachtel

Life-long activist Hilda Roberts isone of many vets featured in The FrontLines of Social Change:Veterans of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a recentlyreleased book of photography andtext by Richard Bermack. Bermack isthe art director and photographer forThe Volunteer.

Front Lines contains contemporaryportraits of nearly 80 vets, taken atannual VALB reunions and otherevents and demonstrations, with his-torical photos from the ALBA archivesand text chronicling the vets continu-ing struggle to fight for justice. The

book includes an introduction by PeterCarroll and essays and poems by ArielDorfman, Edwin Rolfe, Martn Espada.

Signed copies of the book will beavailable at this years reunion event inNew York, May 1. Photos from the

book will be displayed at the JuanCarlos Center, April 28-May 31, with areception April 30 at 6 p.m. See backpage for details.

Hilda Roberts demonstrates against the second Gulf War.


14/24


In BriefInterviewers Flock to Vets

November and December werebusy months of interviews. In just afew weeks, I was interviewed by 4high school students and 2 Ph.D. can-didates doing theses on Spain (one

from Oxford University and the otherfrom a Canadian university), as wellas two filmmakers, one from Spainand the other living in Germany. Thelatter are gathering information aboutthe vets and the Spanish Civil War. I

hope they complete their projects. Onefilmmaker sent the following: Thematerial I shot with my video camerais just what I needed for the continua-tion of my research.

During the holiday week, a highschool junior, Teresa, and her father

arrived at my apartment for an inter-view about my activities during theSpanish Civil War. I was surprisedwhen they entered carrying a basketof cookies, cakes, apple cider and a

bottle of French champagne. As anintroduction to Spain I played a 14-minute excerpt from TV journalist EricSevereids one-hour special aboutSpain and the VALB. We then spent

two hours conversing and taping. Ifound it unusual for a parent to comealong, but her father was quite inter-ested in this part of Spains history.Teresa will write her paper in Spanish.She is a student of Victoria Parraga, alocal teacher and member of our BayArea Post, whose mother, as a 16-yearold, fought in Madrid. (She was and isa Spanish citizen.)

I was also intrigued with a homeschooled San Francisco student who

later wrote, .it was really fun talk-ing to a real veteran of the SpanishCivil War and it really helped me get a

better idea of just what was going on.Also, he sent a copy of a full page arti-cle about the Spanish Civil Warwritten for the student newspaperTomorrows Birdcage Liner: News andReviews for Progressive Youth.

David Smith

Luxembourg Honors IBsThe Friends of the International

Brigades in Luxembourg (Les Amisdes Brigades InternationalesLuxembourg) held a commemorativemeeting last October in front of theNo Pasaran monument to honor thenations volunteers in the SpanishCivil War.

They departed when others werestill asleep, said Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, one of the speakers.They acted instead of waiting.

The group also hosted a commem-

orative lecture by Professor M.Antonio Ventura of the University ofLisbon titled Portugal on Both Sidesof the Spanish War.

For more information about theFriends group, [email protected].

Ebro Memorial To BritsThe idea for a memorial to British

Battalion volunteers who died at the

Battle of the Ebro was first suggestedby Cornwall-based poet and writerMartin Green. His father, the classicamusician George Green, was killednear Corbera.

Using the original BritishBattalion Roll of Honour, togetherwith material from the MoscowArchives, researcher Jim Carmodydrew up a list of some 90 men from

Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada,and the Netherlands who are knownto have died at the Ebro from July toSeptember 1938, or as a consequenceof wounds or sickness in the monthsthat followed.

Bob Lambourne, a graphic desiger in London, has created an initialdesign for a steel memorial plaquethat will bear the names of the fallenvolunteers, their places of origin, andthe following inscription:

British Battalion VolunteersThey Died Fighting for SpainBattle of the Ebro

July-September 1938The International Brigade Memori

Trust of Britain and Ireland applied forpermission to install the plaque on arepublican memorial wall near the exising Quinta Biberon memorial on Hill 7in the Sierra Pandols.

The Town Hall of Pinell el Brairecently confirmed that the IBMT canunveil the plaque on Saturday, May

2005. It is hoped that British veteranJack Jones and Irish veteran MichaelORiordan will attend.

David Leach

spiracy within the political class in

indecent concubinage withCommunist-terrorist subversion insociety. In those 39 years, in the tertories under his control, his serene

justice had been manifested in con-centration camps, forced labor

battalions, overcrowded prisons, torture and judicial executions by thetens of thousands.

Tales

Continued from page 11

Members of the City College-23rd St.

delegation to the FoundingConvention of the American StudentUnion (ASU), held at Vassar Collegein Poughkeepsie, New York, inDecember 1937. The delegates arestanding in front of a prototype ofthe ambulance they had just sent toLoyalist Spain with money raisedfrom their student body. Standing atthe right is Henry Foner, who haschaired the annual New Yorkreunions of the Veterans of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade since1975.


15/24


By Robert Coale

T

he last few months have seenmuch debate in and around thecemetery of Benicassim on the

Mediterranean coast of Spain.According to Guillermo Casa, whohas studied the International Brigadehospital of Benicassim in depth,

between 1936 and 1938 over 30brigadistas were laid to rest there,including one American. At the time,above ground vaults were consideredmore prestigious and all IBers wereso buried. Some time after the war,however, the remains were removedto an ossuary.

This past July the town councilaccepted the petition of a local groupdedicated to honoring the historicmemory of republican Spain, theAssociation Gonzlez Cherm. Theirwish was to install a commemorativeplaque next to the entrance to thecemetery in honor of the InternationalBrigaders who died while hospitalizedin the town. Shortly after the inaugu-ration, a motion of censure forced outthe socialist-led council and a conserva-tive one took its place. A small group of

active protestors pressured the newmayor, and the plaque was dismantledwithout discussion on the eve of AllSaints Day, November 1, the busiestday for cemetery visitation in Spain.

The conservative mayor ManuelLlorca most likely did not foresee thewave of protest that his actions wouldcause. Many associations and individ-uals wrote letters to defend theplaque, both to the authorities and tolocal and national newspapers. The

three letters that follow are indicativeof the intensity with which manyuphold the idea of honoring the mem-ory of the International Brigades sincethe removal of the plaque. The first,written by Susana Fortes, a local highschool history teacher, is one of themore emotional.

The latest news from Benicassimis that the town is planning to partial-ly backtrack and return the plaque tothe cemetery wall, but not before eras-

ing the mention of the town council asone of the sponsors. At first hesitant toaccept this decision, the AssociationGonzlez Cherm has acquiesced,thinking it is better to have the disfig-ured plaque than none at all. Anotherresult of this debate could be the inau-guration of another plaque in honor ofall the victims of the civil war inBenicassim. This is a tactic promoted

by the political right in many townsand cities and used to counter initia-

tives to honor only republican victims.By honoring all victims, both sides ofthe conflict are put on an equal footingand the difference between defense ofdemocracy or support of fascism andrevolt against the legal government islost in the haze. Consensus is made onthe basis that war is evil: no winnersand losers, no right or wrong.

It is interesting to note that in1996, during the homage to the IBwhich took place across the country, aplaque was unveiled in Benicassim in

memory of the International Brigadehospital. The town was governed bythe same conservative party that isnow in power, but little protest washeard then. Unfortunately, over theintervening years several books withrevisionist historical tendencies have

been published in Spain. Some ofthem unabashedly circulate Francoistinterpretations of the origins and out-come of the struggle and have soldhundreds of thousands of copies,

much to the amazement of establishedhistorians. It is too early to conclude ifthe local uproar over a plaque is anoffshoot of these dubious interpreta-tions, but it does illustrate that thework of ALBA and similar organiza-tions is far from superfluous.

Benicassim, by Susana Fortes.El Pas, 13 November 2004

In the center of the esplanade

where the Hotel Voramar is nowlocated, there was a pearl gray andgold enameled grand piano whichundoubtedly belonged to some rich

vacationer scared off by the war. Atense audience crowded in the dark-ness immobilized in white dressingsand stretchers of a field hospital.Hundreds of faces were fixed on thestage. Then, Paul Robeson, the blackgiant seated at the piano, stood up,revealing his colossal size, and sud-denly his deep voice filled theauditorium of wounded with thepurest note that hope can offer. Atthat moment the revolutionary song,

the hymn of the worlds forgotten,was echoed in unison in all languageThis occurred in Benicassim, one dayin November of 1936.

At that time borders mattered noWe were alone. While the Europeandemocracies turned their backs on thlegitimate government of theRepublic, thousands of young menfrom all countries came here on theirown because they understood that th

best way to stop fascism was to fightfor democracy in Spain. The

Englishwoman Pati Edney arrived inour country at 18. She worked as anurse on the Aragon front. She fell inlove with this unclaimed land andcrisscrossed it in an ambulance wearing her blue militia uniform. She facethe death of friends and defeat, butshe managed to survive the tragedy.Years later, she decided to return inorder to see for one last time the landthat had been her chosen country.Then she died. A few days earlier

Frida Knight had died in London atthe age of 85. Her ashes were spreadper her last wishes, from theFrenchmens Bridge where her com-panion had fallen in the terriblewinter of 1937. For them Spain wasthe symbol of all countries because itrepresented the very idea of aridiculed universe, in the words of

Benicassim:A Tempest Over Historical Plaques

Robert Coale teaches Spanish historyand literature at the Sorbonne.

Continued on page


16/24


Simone Weil, the anarquist militia-woman who bewilderedly watchedthe cruelty of the war through theglasses of an intellectual. There weremetal workers, students, Thamesdockworkers and dreamers from all

parts. In their peculiar geographyValencia was the capital of the loyal-ists. Over 15,000 volunteers of theInternational Brigades died in combat.Those who survived were promisedwe would never forget them.

Because of all this, the decision ofthe mayor of Benicassim, ManuelLlorca, to remove from the cemetery

by decree a plaque in their honorshows a deeply shameful stinginess ofsoul. One has to be really miserly to

refuse them remembrance.They were the last romantics.They gave their all in the last war to

be lost, painfully, desperately andwith an unquestionable elegance ofheart, like John Cornford, a youngsterwith a pilots jacket and a childs smilewho smoked filterless cigarettes andwas an excellent poet. He was only 21when a bullet burst his lungs to piecesin the hills of Cordoba at Christmas of1936. Shortly before dying he wrote tohis friend Margot Heinemann these

verses of love, which seem directed tothe heart of our country: If luck endsmy life in a poorly dug grave, remem-

ber our happiness... and dont forgetthat I loved you.

Brigadistas in Benicassim - Letter toeditor of El Pas from FrancescColomer, former mayor ofBenicassim, spokesperson for theSocialist Party of Valencia and mem-ber of the regional parliament, 14

November 2004.The article by Susana Fortes onthe International Brigades andBenicassim in the Saturday, 13November issue of El Pas has moti-vated me to write the present letter.Simply put, the article is an exampleof beauty and justice. The touchingdescription of the enormous gesture ofsolidarity which were the InternationalBrigades is inspired with what is best

in the human race. I doubt that in thehistory of nations there is anotherexample of greater altruism and

brotherhood. Benicassim, my town,was one of the defining scenes of thepresence of these volunteers from

around the world. We were a hospitalfor the wounded, a rearguard ofhealth. We could not have been any-thing else as our ancestral vocation is

just that: to protect, to offer refugeand hospitality. The emblematicVoramar Hotel, the villas of todayspromenade, the very cemetery, an

inescapable final resting place forsome. All of this represents a sceneryunquestionably linked to the

brigadistas.This fact is recognized in numer-

ous theses, publications and evennovels by universal authors.Benicassim treasures this legacy. Weare entitled to this honor. Last sum-mer, I was fortunate to be the mayor

who offered the plaque in homage tothe brigadistas. Petitioned by the hon-orable association Gonzlez Cherm,our government accepted to dignifythe memory of those who were con-demned to the worst that can be doneto a human being. They were erasedfrom history. Following the war, fas-cism desecrated their graves anddeposited their remains in an unregis-tered and anonymous ossuary.

This summer, we only hung a

plaque to remember that there restnameless human beings. People whocame to die for our freedoms and forthe constitutional legality of themoment. After the motion of censureof July 29, another memoricidal gov-ernment withdrew the plaque whilewielding spurious arguments aboutthe two sides, the offended sensibili-ties, etc. They have understoodnothing. We spoke of feelings and

peace, but the present governmentonly saw ghosts and struck outunmercifully against the truth. Theymust return the dignity of the

brigadistas. It continues to be our dignity of today.

Letter to editor of El Pas from AnaPerez, chair of the Association ofFriends of the International BrigadeMadrid, December 12, 2004

The mayor of Benicassim, ManuLlorca, has withdrawn a plaque inmemory of the international brigade

members whose remains are buriedthere. Once again, there have beenappeals to the often mentionedoffended sensibilities in order torepeat the habitual practices ofFrancoism: the insensitive eliminatioof any sign of freedom and defense odemocracy. It seems superfluous topoint out that a democratic city gov-ernment, of whatever political color,

would seek its historical antecedentsprecisely in those who fought in favoof a constitutional mandate.

The volunteers for liberty wereguided by an ideal: to defend freedoand the democratic legality of theSpanish people and to fight the fas-cism which threatened to spread oveEurope and provoke a new worldwar. They risked their lives in thisundertaking and many were lost.Through altruism and generosity the

constituted a singular example ofinternational solidarity in defense ofthe best values of humanity.

There are few brigadistas alivetoday. For each and every one ofthem, as for their comrades, Spain issecond homeland which they carry intheir hearts. In turn, the memory ofSpanish democracy, the grateful and

BenicassimContinued from page 15

Continued on page 1

They were the last romantics. They gave their all in the last wa

to be lost, painfully, desperately and with an unquestionable

elegance of heart . . .


17/24


By Katie Halper

Ifirst heard about the Valley of theFallen (El Valle de los Caidos),Francos monument to the Spanish

Civil War, when I was in high school.A college friend, studying abroad in

Madrid, sent me an e-mail describinga country house he had visited in themountains, with a view of somethingcalled the Valley of the Fallen, which,my friend said, was a monumentFranco had built using the labor ofRepublican prisoners after the CivilWar. Three years later, a sophomorein college, I came to Madrid to study.A class in Comparative EuropeanFascism taught by Professor JustinByrne caught my attention; it included

a class trip to the Valley.We traveled like most visitors do,by busfirst an hour-long trip fromMadrid to the Escorial, the 16th centu-ry palace monastery built by Felipe II,then a short ride through the countlesscypress trees that flank theGuadarrama mountains. Then sud-denly it appeared on top of amountainthe cross of the Valley ofthe Fallen, towering 1,000 feet into theskyand a few minutes later we werethere. The funicular up to the base of

the cross had been broken for years, sowe skipped the trek to the cross andfollowed the many visitors up a smallhill to the basilica. Spanning 100 feet,it is the longest basilica in the world.And it is the only basilica of its kind, anunderground church in the bowels ofthe mountain. The guidebook said ithad taken 18 years for the Valley to be

built. It said nothing about prisoners orFranco, whose tomb we saw inside,across from that of the Falange founder,

Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera.Back in Madrid, when I told peo-ple where I had gone, I was shocked

by their different responses. My localhost said she was happy that I wasable to see this grand symbol of recon-ciliation and peace, which she herselfhad visited many times. More politicalSpanish friends were upset that I hadeven gone to the ugly facha (fascist)monument, which they had boy-

cotted. I was intrigued and decided towrite my senior thesis for WesleyanUniversity about the monument.

Back in the United States, Isearched for anything I could find onthe Valley, but the scholarship was

nearly non-existent. Spanish interestin the Francoist past and in historicalmemory had grown in the last decade,and there was an emerging body ofsociological, historical, and journalisticwork on the politics of memory, prisonlabor under Franco, and concentrationcamps in Spain. Several of these men-tioned the Valley, but only DanielSueiros El Valle de los Caidos: los secretosde la cripta franquitsa, published in 1976,one year after Francos death, focused

on it exclusively.I wanted to understand why, atthe start of the 21st century, the Valleywas still so shrouded in confusion. Ihad to go back to Spain. I wanted tosee official documents and statistics,

but more importantly I wanted to talkto the people involved in the Valleysconstruction. The ALBA list-serveproved invaluable. Through it, I madecontact with many knowledgeablepeople and learned about formerpolitical prisoners Nicolas Sanchez

Albornoz and Manuel Lamana, who,with the help of Paco Benet, BarbaraMailer, and Barbara Probst Solomon,successfully escaped from the Valley.Solomon led me to Marisol Benet,Pacos sister, who lives in Madrid, andhistorian Paul Preston, whose Madridlecture series on Spain in the 1940sprovided essential background. Fromthe ALBA list I found the address ofLorenzo Alberca, another formerpolitical prisoner who labored at the

Valley. Once I arrived in Spain, I con-tacted the Madrid office of TheAssociation of Political Prisoners, whoconnected me to three other politicalprisoners who had worked on theValleyTario Rubio, Francisco Vera,and Nicolas Sanchez Albornoz, whomId heard so much about.

The archival materials I was get-ting to see, with the help of ProfessorsByrne and Paloma Aguilar, confirmed

the interpretation of the Valley as aproject designed to celebrate the warvictors and to punish the losers. Morvisits to the Valley showed me the

brutal military imagery on the wallsand ceiling, with a mosaic depicting

not only Jesus and Mary, but also unformed Falangistas, Carlistas, andmilitiamen in a trench.

How could anyone view theValley as a symbol of peace and recociliation? To answer this, Iinterviewed those who held a gentleview of the monument: Juan deAvalos, a sculptor who built the crosand the pieta on top of the basilica;two falangistas/ franquistas, and aformer Franco minister. I also inter-

viewed a group of Spanish visitors tothe monument in order to see whatthey believed about the Valley and ithistory and how they got their views

Some answers began to emerge.The notoriously pragmatic and flexi-

ble Franco presented different faces tdifferent people at different times. Hdepicted prison labor in general, andat the Valley in particular, as punitivor charitable, depending on his audi-ence. The founding edicts clearlyplanned the Valley to glorify the

Nationalist victory, but a language oreconciliation and peace increasedover time as the population who hadnot lived through the war grew and the Western bloc became increasinglaccepting of Francos regime. ButFranco never abandoned the belligerent tone of his earlier rhetoric, so thathe opposing messages were oftensimultaneous. And until now, the goernments since Francos death haveentered into a pact of silence, a tac

agreement to leave the past alone forthe sake of a stable democracy, de-politicizing and sanitizing themonument as much as possible.

Today is an especially importanttime to consider this monuments paspresent, and future. Organizations sucas the Association for the Recuperatioof Historical Memory have been

Memory is Lazy: The Making of a Film

Continued on page 2


18/24

Comissi de la Dignitat. The archivesFranco stole from Catalonia: The cam-paign for their return. Lleida: EditorialMilenio, 2004.

By Andrew Lee

This book is the story of thegroup of heroic Catalans who,in 2002, formed the DignityCommission to work for the return ofthe materials taken from Catalonia by

Francos troops during the Civil Waras they captured territory, people, andproperty. It provides the historical

background of the Salamanca Archive,the history of the demands for thereturn of materials beginning in thelate 1970s, the contemporary work ofthe Dignity Commission, and theinternational support their campaignhas gotten from such luminaries asRigoberta Menchu, Noam Chomsky,and Peter Gabriel, as well as distin-guished historians of Spain such as

Paul Preston.It isnt uncommon for a national

archive to house portions of its collec-tions in storage or in some locationperhaps distant from the capital, suchas the parts of the French NationalArchives in Roubaix near Lille. Sucharchives contain all manner of materi-al, which is a part of what contributesto their being such fascinating institu-tions. Readers of this publication havealready seen numerous articles about

the formerly secret archives held inMoscow. Many of you also knowsomething about the controversy overthe records of the CPUSA held by theLibrary of Congress. But none of thisholds a candle to the issues surround-

ing Archivo General de la GuerraCivil de Espaa housed in Salamanca,the Salamanca Archive for short.

In 1938 Serrano Suer created theNational Department for the Recoveryof Documents (DERD), institutionaliz-ing in this arena activities begun ayear earlier. This was the capture andanalysis of information that wouldlead to the identification and prosecu-tion of those who were contrary tothe National Movement. This infor-

mation was then passed to the policeand military. The obvious targets ofsuch research were members ofRepublican and leftist parties, unions,and their associated cultural and otherorganizations. Masons, theosophists,and spiritualists were other targets. AsFranco captured an area, the DERDwould sweep up materials and beginto process them. Entire libraries,

artists studios, any place with recordor items of possible interest, would bseized. Items belonging to those sup-porting Franco were returned, but al

records of any suspect person or orgnization were retainedincludingthose dating back to the previous century. The documents the DERDacquired became the archive housedin Salamanca, with an estimated 200tons of documents seized fromCatalonia alone.

One needs to remember that thisis not an archive of both sides in theCivil War; it is really a collection creaed for the purposes of punishment

and elimination, and hence was creaed by violence, seizure anddestruction. Multiple copies of publications were destroyed, items werenot kept in any apparent systematicorder, and it is not quite like any otharchive I have ever worked in, eitherin Europe or in the United States.

The Commission is asking that


The Spanish Civil War: Ideologies,Experiences and Historical RecoveryHomage to Robert G. Colodny,Science & Society, Volume 68, No. 3 (Fall2004).

This special issue of the interdis-ciplinary Marxist quarterly,guest edited by MarvinGettleman and Renate Bridenthal,

begins with a lovely remembrance ofLincoln vet Robert Colodny (1915-1997), a scholar of the Spanish CivilWar and an editorial board member ofScience and Society. With a range ofarticles, essays, and reviews, the edi-tors endeavor to follow in Colodnysfootsteps, emphasizing the impor-tance of the Spanish conflict not onlyfor its contemporaries, but also for itsimpact on later generations.

The scholars who contributed tothis anthology include Gabriel Jackso(an abridged version of the 1999ALBA/Bill Susman lecture), PaulPreston (The Answer Lies in theSewers: Captain Aguilera and theMentality of the Francoist OfficerCorps), Helen Graham (writing onthe return of Republican memory),and many U.S.-based writers whosework previously appeared in the

pages of The Volunteer.The variety of articlesAsianVolunteers in the Spanish Civil WarWoody Guthries Lost Song toLincoln Vet Steve Nelson; TheBritish Contribution to the Anti-Fascist Struggle in Spainspeaks tothe spreading interest in the waramong diverse scholarly groups.

Book Reviews

The Case of the Stolen Archives

Spains Legacy EvaluatedContinued on page

Andrew Lee, a librarian at New YorkUniversity, has worked in the SalamancaArchive.


19/24

Vedette or Conversations with theFlamenco Shadows. By StephenSiciliano. iUniverse, 360 pp. $21.95.

By Charles Oberndorf

Vedette or Conversations with theFlamenco Shadows is set inAndaluca, around Sevilla,during the days of the SecondRepublic and the Spanish Civil War.This self-published novel starts outstrongly. The first man I ever haunt-

ed was my father, which I supposemakes perfect sense. Gloriella, ayoung girl born in a small town, hasunfortunately attracted the lustfulattentions of her father, who is haunted

by her beauty. He calls her Vedette, aFrench word for star or accomplishedperformer, though when father says itto daughter, it has other implications.Both mother and a hypocritical priesttry to wrest the girl away from thefathers possession. After a gypsywoman reads Vedettes future,

Vedettes mother tries to save her bygiving her into the care of people whomight watch over her: revolutionaries.

Thus begins Vedettes travels in a

Bildungsroman with a touch of thepicaresque. Vedette learns of thewider world and the limits of menwhile with revolutionaries. She livesnear the Parque de Mara Luisa andlearns to sing in Sevilla. Just after thefascist uprising in 1936, she helps starta utopian town, one that attempts to

bring the benefits of free love and ani-mal liberation (some of these utopianscenes are insufferableimagine, forinstance, rural Andalusian men giving

up the hunting of rabbits). At the endof the war she copes with the terriblechanges brought about by the newgovernment.

According to the novels bibliog-raphy, Siciliano lived fours years inAndaluca, and he clearly loves theregion, the people, the culture. Thenovel is peppered with Spanishproverbs and flavored with descrip-tions that can only be written by awriter who has lived in the south ofSpain. Especially in the first section,

there is a pleasant charm in the writing.Sicilianos love of Andaluca and

of his main character is both a blessingand a curse. As a writer, hes eager tointroduce us to culture and history.Apprentice writers are often advisedto write of characters who are at theheart of things; there are great chal-lenges to writing of a protagonist whois more witness than participant.Vedette often hears of major events orshe is on the sidelines as a witness.

Even when Vedette stands at the cen-ter of an event, the first-personnarrator will explain more than shedramatizes. I found myself yearningfor more shape to the story, for thewriter to have a greater sense of howstory is often built around how thingsgo wrong, not about how things justhappen.

If you go to www.iUniverse.com,you can read the opening of Vedette. If

the writing charms you, if you enjoynovel with a leisurely pace, if youyearn for a trip to southern Spain bucant afford the ticket (or dont want

to deal with all the tourists), thenVedette, which you can order at yourlocal bookstore or on the internet,might be the remedy.

Charles Oberndorf is a novelist andEnglish teacher who lives in ClevelandHeights, Ohio.


Book Reviews

these records be returned to theirrightful owners. This books accountof their many activities in their brief

but eventful two years of existence is

engaging, and at present in the news.We can all either wish them success orhope that their demands lead toimprovements in the arrangementand functioning of the Archive inSalamanca.

(As The Volunteer prepares forpublication, the Spanish governmenthas approved the return of theCatalonia archives to the Catalan gov-ernment. See page 8.)

Stolen ArchivesContinued from page 18

A Novel of Wartime Andalucia

emotional memory of the internationals has remained alive through thedifficult years of dictatorship. Thiswas manifest when in 1995 theParliament unanimously conferredSpanish nationality on the interna-tional brigade veterans and alsoduring the impressive homage whicwas held in all of Spain in 1996 at the60th anniversary of their arrival in ocountry. The city government ofBenicassim joined in this celebration

Since then, brigadistas have continueto return to Spain as often as possiblfor other anniversaries or simply drien by a desire to revisit this landwhich they love and which is theirs.

The withdrawal of the plaquefrom the cemetery of Benicassim is aact which produces dishonor andshame because in the memory of the

brigadistas, Benicassim, and its hosptal, is a place of recovery, of healthand of refuge in the midst of the hor

ror of war. Now, some want toeliminate the plaque, an external sigof their presence.

We wish to manifest our rejectioof this miserly act, but also our pro-found conviction that the InternationBrigades will continue to be an indel

ble part of the democratic memory othe Spanish people. Our associationwill continue to labor for that goal.

BenicassimContinued from page 16


20/24


Bob Reed(1915-2005)

On January 29, Bob Reed lost hislast battle. Generally quiet, painfullymodest, he was known and respectedfor years of devoted work on behalf ofthe poor and voiceless of Seattle. Hewon an official recognition from themayor of Seattle on Bob Reed Day.Among his many achievements onestood out, his key role in organizing

solidarity work for beleagueredNicaragua. Tens of thousands of peo-ple were touched and drawn in, andtwo fully equipped ambulances madetheir highly publicized way fromSeattle to Managua.

No doubt, Bob became an icon inthe Seattle Movement. His loss affectsme personally. We first met on the Cityof Barcelona and were baptized in theMediterranean by a fascist torpedo.

Farewell, beloved comrade.

Abe Osheroff

Charles A. Hall(1914 - 2005)

Chuck Hall, Lincoln Brigade vet-eran and longtime progressiveactivist, died in Forest Park, Illinois,on January 6, of pneumonia, followinga fall that broke his pelvis. He was 90.

After a boyhood in South Dakota, Hallmoved with his parents to Chicagosnorth side. He attended the Universityof Chicago, but the pressures of theDepression pushed him out of school

and toward radicalism. He joined theBrigades in late 1937, sailed from NewYork to France, hiked across thePyrenees into Spain, and trained atTarazona de la Mancha. He saw hisfirst action near Belchite in early 1938,

but was captured soon after. For 13months he was held as a P.O.W. in aconverted monastery at San Pedro deCardenas.

He returned to the U.S. followinga prisoner exchange in April 1939. He

met Yolanda (Bobby) Farkas at CampLincoln, a progressive labor resort;they married in 1940. After PearlHarbor, Hall volunteered for the U.S.Army to finish the job against thespread of fascism. He fought for fouryears in the Pacific Theater, attainingthe rank of captain. After World WarII, Hall worked for InternationalHarvester, in Chicago, where he was aleader of his union. Attending theIllinois Institute of Technology bynightfor seven yearshe earned a

degree and subsequently worked asan engineer for several Chicago com-panies. He remained very activepolitically during this period, in behalfof civil rights and peace, as well aslabor.

Upon retiring in 1986, Hall devot-ed himself more fully to causes ofsocial justice. He founded and chairedthe Chicago Friends of the LincolnBrigade and spoke frequently atschools and community events. Last

year he worked with Curie HighSchool students who wrote and stageda dramatic presentation about theSpanish Civil War that won first placeat the Illinois History Fair. (See TheVolunteer, December 2004.)

In a 1997 interview with ALBAboard member Peter Glazer, Halladdressed the question of whether hewas always sure he was doing theright thing while in Spain. He

answered, Oh always yes, I had nosecond thoughts ever, not even whenwas in prison.It takes a tremendousamount of failure and torture and soon to make anybody change theirminds, anybody whos really con-vinced that what theyre doing isright. You have contempt for yourenemy, total contempt. I never felt ankind of compassion...because I felt

that they had to know what they werdoing. To those who knew him, itwas a striking comment from a hum

ble, gentle man.Chuck Hall was part of an

important era, said noted Chicagoauthor Studs Terkel. Now when weare suffering from a national loboto-my, he remains an example to a newgeneration about a commitment todemocracy.

Hall leaves his wife, three chil-

dren, four grandchildren, and agreat-grandchild.A celebration of the life of Charle

A. Hall will be held on Sunday, Apri3 at 2 p.m. in the Veterans Room, 2ndfloor of the Oak Park Public Library,834 Lake St., Oak Park, Illinois.

Jeff Balch, Peter Glazer, and thHall family

Added to Memorys Roster


21/24

was kidnapped from a Barcelona jail,and later tortured and killed by orderof Stalin, neither he nor Trotsky con-sidered him a Trotskyite. But hewas the main theoretician of the anti-Stalinist POUM and he had been,until December 1936, the JusticeMinister in the autonomous PopularFront Catalan government.

After his death, and the falseclaims that he had been a fascist, col-laborated with the Nazis, etc., theBritish Labor Party, the FrenchSocialists, and numerous left labororganizations in Europe sent delega-tions to Barcelona to ask the Negrngovernment what had happened toNin. The persons they met with wereforced to admit that they could notshow the delegations the privatelycontrolled communist prisons. Simeon

Vidarte, moderate socialist and a fre-quent Spanish delegate tointernational labor conferences, tells inhis memoirs how, after the Nin affairand the similar disappearance of ayoung journalist, Marc Rein, whosefather had been a prominentMenshevik, he quietly advisedEuropean friends not to send to Spainpersons who might be thought of asenemies of Stalin. Somehow I thought

that the combination of parliamentaryand trade union delegations, theashamed embarrassment of theRepublican government, and theintense press controversy (later ana-lyzed by George Orwell in the mostwidely-read single work concerningthe Civil War) deserved the terminternational scandal.

Gabriel JacksonBarcelona, Spain

Dear Editor:

I would appreciate hearing fromanyone who has memories or infor-mation of any sort about Lisa Gavric(born Elisabeth Bechmann), who wasa nurse at Hospital Casa Roja, Murcia.She was a very good friend of myfather, Dr. Sidney Vogel, who workedat the same hospital.I have learned theoutline of Lisa Gavrics life (Austrian,1907-1974; Spain, 1936-39; active inFrance after Spain; in theRavensbruck concentration camp; in

Yugoslavia after the war). But Iwould very much appreciate moredetailed information and especiallyany personal recollections.

Thank you.Lise Vogel355 14th StreetBrooklyn, NY [email protected]


Clarence Forester(1915-2004)

Clarence Forester, a FinnishAmerican who went to Spain with his

brother Kenneth to defend theRepublic in 1937, died in Minneapolison December 1, 2004. He was 89.

Born in Alfred, Nebraska, Foresterserved with the Regiment de Tren(transportation) and at the AlbaceteAuto Parc unit. He later joined theU.S. Army and saw action with anartillery group from Normandy toGermany.

After World War II, Forester

worked in the machine industry. Healso experienced the perils of the anti-communist Red Scare. This is still theonly country that hasnt acknowl-edged that it was the correct thing todo to fight fascism in Spain, he said

just a few years ago.Forester shared the pleasure of

visiting Spain in 1996, when theSpanish government offered citizenshipto the veterans of the InternationalBrigades.

He donated his war mementos tothe Minnesota Historical SocietysRadicalism Project.

He was buried at the FinnishCemetery in Cokato, Minnesota.

Memorys Roster

LettersContinued from page 2

videotaping interviews with peoplewho suffered under Franco. Theyhave recovered from mass graves 30of the estimated 30,000 disap-peared. The Spanish Socialist Party(PSOE), in a sharp departure from th

conservative Partido Popular itreplaced, has decided to take an actirole in confronting the symbols andlegacy of the Franco regime. ThePSOE, led by Jose Luis RodriguezZapatero, has created a commission determine how to compensate the vitims of Franco. Zapatero hasapproved plans to remove from public places all remaining symbols ofFranco and his regime. The present

government has also agreed to con-sider proposals to turn the Valley ofthe Fallen into a place that serves todenounce Francoism rather than

praise it.My senior thesis allowed me to

formulate a perspective on the monument, and ALBAs generous award othe George Watt Prize for the thesishelped me to make a documentaryfilm on the Valley. With additionalsupport from Wesleyan UniversitysDavenport Study Grant and theWilliam Lankford Memorial Fund, L

Memoria es Vaga (Memory is Lazy) isnow completed and screening at fest

vals. In my film, the builders of themonument tell the story that fewknowof political prisoners from thlosing side forced to build a monu-ment celebrating their defeatas the

break a silence that has hidden thetruth for too long. For more information on La Memoria es Vaga, contactKatie Halper at [email protected].

Lazy memoryContinued from page 17

La Memoria Vaga (Memory isLazy) will be screened April19 at NYU's King Juan Carlos ICenter, 53 WashingtonSquare South.


22/24


In Memory of a Veteran

David E. Cane in memory of Larry Cane$200

Ceil & Lester Fein in memory of Dick & Gene

Fein$500Irv Rappaport in memory of Yale Stuart & JohnTisa $94

Raymond Hoffin memory of Harold Hoff$100

Freda Tanz in memory of Al Tanz$100

Michael Sennett in memory of Bill Sennett$250

Marion T. Kroon in memory of Freddie Martin$25

Rhea Kish in memory of Leslie Kish$100

Anne Trojan in memory of Frank Chirko$100

David H. & Carolyn G. Spodick in memory ofAl Amery$150

Mae K. Millstone in memory of GeorgeMillstone & Brother Harry$100

Herb Freeman in memory of Jack Freeman &Saul Wellman$200

Bernice & William Schrank in memory of GusSperber$200

Steven & Barbara Sperber in memory of GusSperber$200

Paul Blanc in memory of Irene Spiegal$1,000

Alan & Suzanne Jay Rom in memory of SamSchiff$50

Samuel Lendor in memory of Lenny Lamb &George Chaikin$50

Nancy L. Singham in memory of Saul Wellman$30

P. Morrison in memory of David Doran$50Constancia Warren in memory of Alvin Warren,Maury Colow, Arthur Munday$100

Larry Carsman in memory of Sam Carsman$100

Benedict Tisa in memory of Jack Tisa $50

Evelyn Persoffin memory of Jack Persoff$50

Martin Fishgold in memory of Irving Fishgold$25

Susan D. Susman in memory of Bill Susman$50

The Lindfors Family in memory of Veikko (Vic)Lindfors & Kenneth Forester$50

Beth & Henry Sommer in memory of HarryNobel $50

Miriam B. Gittleson in memory of LesterGittleson$100

Susan Linn & Clifford Craine in memory of SidLinn$100

George & Arky Markham in memory of MarkAlper$50Herman Warsh & Mary Anne Mott in memoryof Ralph Fasanella $150

Carmeline Esposito in memory of Charles(Chuck) Hall$25

Yana Nedvetsky in memory of Charles Hall$100

Lon M. Berkeley in memory of Charles Hall$5

Jeff Balch in memory of Charles Hall$50

Van & Lita Diaz in memory of Charles Hall$100

Donor in Memory of

Nora Chase in memory of Dorothy Wiener$20

S. Leonard DiDonato in memory of ClarenceDiDonato$50

Karel Kilimnik in memory of Peg Schirmer$50

Larry Bendoski in memory of Mary Fox Jackma

$50Pauline Russo in memory of Mike Russo$60

Andrea Lyman & the Lyman Family in memoryof John Kaye$50

Contributions

John Aubuchon $10

Contributions


23/24


ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS

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

ALBA members receive a discount!

WWWWWW.ALBA-V.ALBA-VALB.ORGALB.ORGBOOKS ABOUT THE LINCOLN BRIGADEThe Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigadeby Richard BermackSoldiers of Salamasby Javier CercasJuan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to

Democracyby Paul Preston

British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil Warby Richard BaxellThe Selected Poems of Miguel Hernndezedited by Ted GenowaysThe Wound and the Dream: Sixty Years of AmericanPoems about the Spanish Civil Warby Cary NelsonPassing the Torch: The AbrahamLincoln Brigade and its Legacy of Hope

by Anthony Geist and Jose MorenoAnother Hillby Milton WolffOur FightWritings by Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade: Spain 1936-1939edited by Alvah Bessie & Albert PragoSpains Cause Was Mineby Hank RubinComradesby Harry FisherThe Odyssey of the Abraham

Lincoln Brigadeby Peter CarrollThe 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 CivilWar

Julia NewmanArt in the Struggle for FreedomAbe OsheroffDreams and Nightmares

Abe OsheroffThe Good FightSills/Dore/Bruckner

Forever ActivistsJudith MontellYou Are History, You Are Legend

Judith MontellProfessional Revolutionary: Life of Saul Wellman

Judith Montell

Yes, I wish to become an ALBAAssociate, and I enclose a check for $30made out to ALBA. Please send me TheVolunteer.

Name ____________________________________

Address ___________________________________

City________________ State ___Zip_________

Ive enclosed an additional donation of____________. I wish do not wish to havethis donation acknowledged in The Volunteer.

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


24/24

The Volunteerc/o Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives799 Broadway, Rm. 227New York, NY 10003

NON PROFIT ORGUS POSTAGE

PAIDSAN FRANCISCO, CA

PERMIT NO. 1577

LincLincolns tolns to Ho HonoronorPPetete Se S eeger!eeger!Sunday, May 1, 1:30 P.M.Join us for the Annual Reunion

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts60 Washington Square SouthTickets: 212-674-5398order by credit card www.alba-valb.org/may1sttix.html

The 7th Annual ALBA-Susman Lecture*

SSpanish Npanish Noovvelist Aelist Annttonio Monio Munounoz Mz MolinaolinaFriday, April 29, 6 P.M.King Juan Carlos Center53 Washington Square South

Documenting the VALB*PPrrofofessional Reessional Revvolutionarolutionaryy ::LifLife of Se of S aul Waul Wellmanellmana film about the life of an Abraham Lincoln Brigade

veteran by Judy Montell

and

TThe Fhe Frronon t Lines of St Lines of S oo cial Ccial Change:hange:VVetetererans of the Aans of the Abrbraham Lincaham Lincoln Brigadeoln Brigadea photographic exhibit and bookby Richard Bermack

book party and exhibit openingSaturday, April 30, 6 P.M.King Juan Carlos Center53 Washington Square South*These events are free, open to the public.

Pete Seeger. Photo by Richard Bermack.

NNeew Yw Yorork Reunion Ek Reunion Evvenentsts