The Volunteer, June 2006

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

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

TheVolunteerJOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

TheVolunteerVol. XXVIII, No. 2 June 2006

NYU ALBA Archives Open for Business, page 2

Middle School Poster Project, page 4

Three Wars Couldn't Stop Fred Stix, page 7

The Shame of Spain, a conversation with Francesc

Torres, page 10

VALB Reunions from Coast to Coast , page 12

Spanish Culture Behind Barbed Wire: 1939-1945 by

Francie Cate-Arries, book review, page 16

Vet John Penrod, with his wife Carol Giardina, carries on the spirit of the Lincoln Brigade at the New York reunion. Page 13.

Photo by Richard Bermack.


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Letter From the EditorThis has been a season o many events.On April 1, Tamiment Library director Michael Nash

announced the completion o the organization o the ALBAcollection. The ull archive is now open to researchers, withguides to the collection online (see page 2).

This spring, the Lincoln vets in the San Francisco Bay

Area and in New York City acknowledged the work oVeterans or Peace in continuing the dissenting traditionso the Lincoln Brigade (see pages 12 and 13). In 2002, whenthe current war was warming up in the corridors oWashington, Veterans or Peace voted to accept the mem-

bers o the Abraham Lincoln Brigade into theirorganization, something the ederal governments VeteransAdministration never got around to doing. In both venues,speakers lled in that missing link by placing the volun-teers o the Spanish Civil War within the narrative oantiwar soldiers. Both programs eatured the musical pre-

sentation, Songs Against War: Music o the Anti-Warriors,perormed by Barbara Dane, Bruce Barthol, and musicianso the San Francisco Mime Troupe. The tunes ranged romJohnny I Hardly Knew Ye to Si Me Quieres Escribir,Fixin to Die Rag, Cakewalk to Baghdad, and Bringem Homea grand tradition o soldiers songs that ex-press what war survivors know better than anyone.

ALBAs educational programs also advance. Weve seena sudden rise in the number o submissions to the annualGeorge Watt essay contest rom graduates and undergradu-ates. The winners will be announced during the summer.

On the high school level, this years National History Daysaw two classesone in Minneapolis, the other inReading, Massachusettsdevelop projects about theLincoln Brigade, thanks to the content on our educationalwebsite. The Massachusetts group won the state nals, ad-vancing to the national competition in Washington, D.C.This is the second time in the past ew years studentsstudying the Lincoln Brigade have made it to the nationalcompetition. Another students history day essay reachedthe nals in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, ALBA has introduced an arts program or

younger students in a middle school in the Bronx (see page4). To help them along, we are continuing to develop curri-cula on our websitewww.alba-valb.organd plan tounveil new programs in time or the next school year.

In September, ALBAs newest book will be in print: TheGood Fight Continues: World War II Letters rom the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade, published by New York University Press.We oer a sample in this issue (see page 19).

We are also working hard to produce our new exhibi-

tion, The Ultimate Volunteers: New York City and theSpanish Civil War. Thanks to a generous grant rom thePun Foundation and cooperative sponsorship rom theCervantes Institute o New York, the show will open inMarch 2007 at the Museum o the City o New York. We

hope to see it travel to Spain as well.Without your support none o this would be possible

Please participate and contribute whenever you can.Peter N. Carr

TheVolunteerJournal of the

Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade

an ALBA publication799 Broadway, Rm. 227

New York, NY 10003(212) 674-5398

Editorial BoardPeter N. Carroll Gina HerrmannFraser Ottanelli Abe Smorodin

Book Review EditorShirley Mangini

Art Director-Graphic DesignerRichard Bermack

Editorial Assistance

Nancy Van ZwalenburgSubmission of Manuscripts

Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk.

E-mail: [email protected]

Dear Sirs,I am currently working on a book on the subject

Norway and the Spanish civil war and am seeking ino

mation regarding Norwegians or Norwegian-Americansand the civil war. People who have any inormation, pic-tures or whatever, can contact me.

Jo Stein Moen, Oslo, [email protected].

Letterscontinued on page

Letters to the Editor


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THE VOLUNTEER June 2006

By Joe Butwin

I

n January 2003, while Bush andBlair were strapping on their hol-

sters, Sam Hamill, a peaceul poetin Port Townsend, Washington, letsome poets know that their responseto the mounting war talk would bewelcome. Right away, quicker onthe draw than Bush and his side-kick, 11,000 poems shot through theinternet. The Nation, in conjunctionwith Thunders Mouth Press, quicklypublished a sampling263 pageso poems. Since then the original

submission has doubled to 20,000.Ill leave you to check in at http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/. Feelree to submit your own poems.

On March 3, 2006, just about threeyears ater Bush declared his missionaccomplished, Sam Hamill, the ge-nius behind Poets Against the War,was invited to deliver the rst annualBob Reed-Abe Oshero-ALBA lectureat the University o Washington in

Seattle. Sam Hamill, a Zen Buddhistand a pacist, explained that whatthe Lincoln Brigade stood or we muststand or. There is no contradiction

between the willingness o men likeBob Reed (who died in Seattle a yearago) and Abe Oshero (who was verymuch alive at the speakers right handthat night) to go to Spain together in1937 and vigorously oppose Bushswar 70 years later.

The selection o Hamill by the or-ganizers o the lecture, including AbeOshero, Tony Geist, and Peter Carrollo ALBA, was entirely appropriate.Sam Hamill ascribes his lineage as anengaged poet to Euripides in ancientGreece, John Milton in 17th centuryEngland, his riend Tom McGrath in

North Dakota, and the poets o Spainand Latin America in the 30s, PabloNeruda, Federico Garcia Lorca, and

Antonio Machado.Hamill had lived quietly on theOlympic Peninsula beside PortTownsend or 30 years without anyprevious invitation to read at theUniversity o Washington. It wasabout time. The invitation coincideswith his charming sel-description:thrust on an international stage withPoets Against the War ater living 30years in the woods with my nose in a

Chinese dictionary.Not exactly. Poetry has its activistsas surely as politics do. From his poston the Olympic PeninsulaChinesedictionary notwithstandingHamillhas been as active in his domain asReed and Oshero have been in theirs.He is a translator and an editor, oryears he was the publisher at theCopper Canyon Press, and he is con-stantly a working poet. Thats activism.

Above all, it is the poetry itselthat gives denition to his activism.What you read, says Hamill, iswhat you eed your soul. His audi-ence was particularly well-ed at theUniversity o Washington on March 3.

In State o the Union, 2003Hamill is bitter:

Soon, the President will speak.He will have something to sayabout bombs

and freedom and our way of life.I will turn the tv off. I always do.Because I cant bear to lookat the monuments in his eyes.

In a poem called Eyes WideOpen he is tender as he regards aphotograph o a small girl, probablyMiddle Eastern:

With her eyes wide open,Deep brown beautiful eyes

That bore silent witnessTo a grief as old as the ages.

Alwaysin the eyes o the un-

bearable Bush or with this smallchildit is the eyes. Many o HamillheroesHomer, Milton, Borgesha

been blind. What he sees is what hehears. At the end o Eyes WideOpen, we are told to listen.

ButListen. And you will hear hersmall, soft, plaintive voiceits already there within youa heartbeat, a whisper,a promise broken

if only you listenwith your eyes wide open.

The sot-spoken poet insists on bing heard, and as Abe Osheropointed out in remarks that ollowedSam Hamills reading, poetry, thekind you hear and sing, has alwaysgured in popular movements. InSpain in 1937 and in Nicaragua in1985, literacy rates were low and reveence or the poets was high. In both

cases, poetry was more requentlyheard than seen, more requently suthan read. This has been a constanttheme or Oshero. In an exhibition Spanish Civil War posters calledShouts From the Wall and in his recent documentary lm,Art in theStruggle or Freedom, poetry and pictorial images speak to the hearts andminds o a people engaged in strugg

There is no question: Sam Hamil

his 20,000 riends, along with the students, aculty and citizen-activists oSeattle, are ne companions or BobReed and Abe Oshero at the begin-ning o this new series o lectures.

Joe Butwin teaches English at the

University of Washington.


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2 THE VOLUNTEER June 2006

By Michael Nash

The three-year project to preserveand catalog the entire AbrahamLincoln Brigade archive at New

York Universitys Tamiment Libraryhas been successully completed.The collection is now ully open orresearch. This extensive work wasunded by the ederal governmentsNational Endowment or Humanities.

The ALBA collection is the largestand most important group o histori-cal materials documenting Americanparticipation in the Spanish Civil War.It contains more than 400 boxes o cor-

respondence, papers, andmemorabilia; 100 reels o microlm;nearly 200 oral histories; 5,000 photo-graphs; more than 250 posters; andseveral dozen artiacts documentingthe lie stories o the veterans and thehistory o the Lincoln Brigade romthe 1930s to the present.

The most valuable and uniqueportion o the archive consists o morethan 240 collections o papers acquired

rom the veterans and their amilies.These materials are extraordinarily di-verse in content. A large number ocuson the experiences o individual vol-unteers in Spain, while others describeadministrative issues, recruitment othe volunteers, organization o themedical corps, and battleeld strate-gies and tactics. These les containrich descriptions o the volunteers re-lationships with the Spanish people,

their impressions o the political situa-tion in Spain, and the ways in whichthey connected the Spanish Civil Warto the larger antiascist struggle. Manyo these collections document the vol-

unteers experiences ater they camehome, their activities during WorldWar II, the McCarthy period witchhunts, and political activism in the1950s, 60s, and 70s.

The other major portion o the ar-chive is the so-called Moscowmicrolm. At the end o the Spanish

Civil War, the ocial archives o theinternational brigades were taken toMoscow or saekeeping. In the 1990s,ALBA microlmed the portion relat-ing to the Lincoln Brigade. This lmcontains the records o the MilitaryCommission and Communist Partyorganizations, correspondence withthe Comintern, personnel les, andles relating to command, transport,nance, training, prisoners, and mili-

tary medicine. It also contains aphotographic collection and records othe concentration camps established inSpain at the end o the Spanish CivilWar, where many InternationalBrigaders and Spanish soldiers wereincarcerated.

The Tamiment Library continues

to try to locate and identiy collectiono Lincoln Brigade materials that re-main with the amilies o the veteranWe recently acquired the photographthat Benjamin Katine took in Spainwhen he was working as a photogra-pher or the Lincoln Brigade. I youknow about additional Lincoln

Brigade collections that are still in prvate hands, please contact ALBAsexecutive director, Julia Newman: [email protected]; (212) 674-5398

For urther inormation about thLincoln Brigade archive and access tthe collections nding aids, visit theTamiment Librarys website at http:/www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/re-search/tam/collections.html#alba.

More than 1,500 photographs tak

en by Harry Randall during theSpanish Civil War are now availableon-line through the librarys website

The Tamiment Library is locatedat 70 Washington Square South on th10th foor o NYUs Bobst Library inGreenwich Village.

NYU Archive Open and Accessible

Michael Nash, an ALBA board member, is

head of the Tamiment Library.


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By Keija Parssinen

This spring, students at Middle

School 331 in the South Bronxgot a taste o history that isnot typically covered in their 7thgrade textbooks. Thanks to a grantrom the Pun Foundation, ALBAarranged with the arts-in-educa-tion non-prot Marquis Studios toprovide a poster design residencythat centered on studying propa-ganda posters created by SpanishRepublicans during the Civil War.

Students ocused on the messagesand ideas that dened that turbulentperiod in Spanish history. They thenused their observations to create post-ers dealing with pressingcontemporary issues. Mixing basics odesign and visual arts with historyand politics, teaching artist ClaytonHudnall led an unconventional butenriching series o history lessons.

Over the course o 13 weeks, stu-

dents worked on crating targetedmessages and paired them withgraphic designs inspired by elementsseen in the Spanish Civil War postersthey viewed rom the ALBA websitearchives {www.alba-valb.org}. Therst ve classes centered on the histo-

ry o the war and an introduction tothe basics o graphic design and thepurpose o propaganda. Ater the in-troductory lessons, Mr. Hudnall spentour lessons working with the schoolsarts specialist, Ms. Jaar, teaching stu-dents about artistic choices such as

hue, value, chroma, scaling, line quali-

ty and roughing out. For the last ourclasses, the class worked on producingthe posters while reviewing the causesand ramications o the Civil War.

By studying the persuasive tech-niques employed in the governmentpropaganda posters, participants were

better able to understand the power art in times o war. Throughout thecreative process, students repeatedlyrevisited the posters introduced byMr. Hudnall so they could create au-thentic, convincing drawings anddesigns. Using pastels, the class

brought its own posters to lie. The

nished products warned againstdrug use and promoted cancer re-search and clean air policies, all topicthat resonate with urban youth today

Marquis Studios chose MS 331 treceive the ALBA unding becausethe students were o an age at whichthey could grasp the complexities behind both the Spanish Civil War anthe very idea o propaganda and itspurposes. This understanding was

vital to the success o the residency,as much o the class centered on discussion o historical events, motivesand outcomes.

By studying the persuasive techniques employed

in the government propaganda posters,

participants were better able to understand the

power of art in times of war.

Keija Parssinen has worked with the

Marquis Studio team since 2004.

Middle School


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Program Goals

Understand and engage in theuse o graphic arts as a mediumto motivate and inorm.

Appreciate the power o protestin the context o social change.

Teach middle school childrenabout the Spanish Civil War.

Program Outline

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade und-ed a Marquis Studios-designed

graphic arts program targeted toSouth Bronx middle school students. 4 classes/90 plus students 13-session workshop supported

by 2 pre-planning meetings heldwith teaching artist and MS 331sta

2 internal Marquis curriculumplanning meetings

Innovative Curriculum Designed to

Meet ALBA Goals

Inspired by Shouts rom theWall exhibition.

Focused on three works to under-

stand the war and the ideas thatshaped the confict: To the Front The Internationals Industry Agriculture, All or theFront

Students developed posters thatexamined a social issue, usingprinciples o design to maximizeimpact.

The ChallengeInspire and motivate the studentsto think beyond what they currentlyknow. Ideas about change that are im-

portant to them. Ways to communicate that are

original and personal.

Program Objectives

Students

Create artwork infuenced bySpanish Civil War propagandaposters.

Utilize the techniques o graphicdesign to emphasize the messageo their posters.

Learn how artists convey inor-mation through pictorial choices

and arrangement. Analyze the Spanish Civil War

and the art and design that aroserom it.

Assimilate new vocabulary anduse visual arts language.

Results Students learned about the

Spanish Civil War within the context o 20th century world history

Students analyzed the combat-ants, causes and ideologies atplay during the confict.

Students studied propagandaposters o Spanish Republicans,ocusing on messages/ideas thatdene the turbulent period in

Spanish history. Students created posters based on

topical issues o our time. Students worked on rening thei

posters through a considerationo message, text and image.

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Art

Project: MS 331 NYC

oster Project


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Kudos for Clarence Kailin

When Madison, Wisconsin,voted by a better than2-1 margin April 4

to call or the immediate with-drawal o U.S. troops rom Iraq,it was another reminder o thewisdom o Clarence Kailin.

Now well into his ninth decade,this native Madisonian has alwayshad aith in Madisons progressivepotential. So it came as no surprisethat he gathered more signatures than

just about anyone else to get the anti-war reerendum to the ballot. As has

been the case in every progressivestruggle o the past 70 yearsrom theght against Francos ascism in 1936Spain to the ght against George W.Bushs high crimes and misdemean-ors in 2006 AmericaClarence Kailinhas been in the lead.

Tonight, his lie and legacy willbe recognized at the Socialist Potluckdinner at the Wil-Mar Center on

Jenier Street, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The event is open to all who bring adish to pass and who want to cele-

brate a lie that has, or the majorityo Madisons 150 years, enriched andemboldened this city.

From The Capital Times,Madison, Wisconsin, April 8, 2006.

Moe Fishman greets peace marchers outside the VALB office on Broadway. Matti

Mattson and George Sossenko hold banner, below. Photos by George Cohen.

New York

Vets CheerPeace andJusticeParade

In Brief


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By Dan Clare

Ater a lietime o driting

rom place to place, Fred Stixdoesnt have a lot o personalpossessions. As a matter o act, hedoesnt have much more than he lethome with more than 70 years ago.He doesnt ask or much. A sel de-scribed hobo (dont call him a bum,a hobo is willing to work or his keep),Stix says hes living the good lie. Hehas three meals a day--a luxury hecouldnt always count on--and hes

pleased to have a war bed to sleep on.In a weathered antique ootlocker,Stix keeps three wars worth o memo-ries. The locker holds two Bronze Starsand a Purple Heart--the only one hereceived out o the many that he couldhave earned. It holds prisoner o wardog tags stamped Stalag 11. There islead that was taken out o his handand shrapnel rom a Chinese grenadethat was removed rom his hip. There

are telegrams written to his motherdeclaring him missing in action.

The only gold in the case is romStixs time as a 59er. Hed traveled toAlaska the year it was granted state-hood and collected a ew smallchunks as a prospector. To Stix, theitems in the locker remind him that heis ortunate to have survived.

Stix has returned to his hometowno Suring, Wisconsin, or his nal bat-

tle. This time, its with cancer. Imamazed Ive lasted this long, he sayswith a chuckle. And these people[sta at the nursing home] take care ome real good.

Stixs early decisions were not un-common among his generation. Bornin 1914, he dropped out o school at an

early age to work on his amilysarm. By the time he was 17, he ran o

to join the circus in search o a moreadventurous lie. I liked that lie-style. I was making 50 cents a dayand I only had to work 18-hour days,he jokes. Im a driter by nature andso it suited me.

While working in New York, aneven more exciting opportunity en-ticed Stix. Recruiters were looking orvolunteers or the Spanish Army. Heenlisted in 1937 at the age o 23. It

was a chance to get out and see theworld, you know, see Europe and allo that. I guess it was oolish at thetime. We were radical. We neverthought o the danger part. And be-sides, I was always a believer indemocracy, he says.

During combat in the SpanishCivil War, Stix sustained injuries tohis chest and thumb, where he stillhas copper rom a bullet. He was

eventually captured and held as aprisoner o war or two years. For her-oism and service, he was awarded a

box o chocolates. We were supposedto be ghting or an ideal, not awards.I liked the chocolates. You know, youget them and hand them around andtheyre gone, Stix says, laughing.

He returned to the United Statesand continued the lie o a driter untilWorld War II broke out. Impatient or

the United States to join the war, hevolunteered in the Canadian inantryin 1939 and was sent to Europe to ghton the ront lines.

In 1942, Britain agreed to transerU.S.-born soldiers back to their coun-trys military. It was the rst time inhis ghting career that Stix wore a

U.S. Army uniorm. He was sent to abase near London and was thrilled tospend his liberty in the capital city, dspite occasional air raids.

I had a pretty enjoyable lie, h

says. But then we ound out we wegoing to be part o an invasion inNorth Arica. The pleasant timeswere over. Stix was part o an ill-equipped, out-numbered Allied orcnear Tunis. His unit was attacked byErwin Rommels German Panzers.He hit us very hard at night withtanks. We had nothing but rifes.They chopped us up. There was noting we could do. You could shoot at

them i they were at their turrets--and I did. But you cant do anythingagainst a tank, Stix says.

With no commander and no othealternatives, Stix fed into the desertand hid in a cave or two or threedays. Scavenging Arabs nally ound

Three Wars Couldn't StopFred Stix

Continued on page


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him. They wanted my clothing andequipment. I I didnt have a rife, theywould have killed me, he says. Theywent and told the Germans about me.

Ater our enemy troops took him cap-tive, Stix and 60 others were loadedinto a boxcar under horriying condi-tions or three days. Eventually theywere fown to Sicily.

His rst night at the harbor nearSicily, Stix managed to survive anAllied bombing raid. Though prisoncamp commanders were told, basedon the treatment o German prisonersin America, to treat U.S. prisoners hu-

manely, conditions in the prison werehorrendous. He and the other captivesoldiers were ed rutabaga soup thatwas oten rancid or inested with mag-gots. Stix credits Red Cross parcels orsaving his lie.

Stix and his ellow prisoners wereassigned to labor at a rail plant.However, ater the Germans discov-ered their near-constant sabotageattempts, the men were sent to arm

the elds o Prussia. There they hadbetter living conditions and moreood. Stix says he and his ellow pris-oners would attempt to escaperequently, even though the punish-ment--15 days o solitaryconnement--was harsh. [Escape]creates problems or [the Germans],he says. We knew there was nochance we would make it in theGerman countryside, but we knew it

created problems.Once he and his ellow prisoners

settled in the new camp, they devel-oped a communications network.Theyd get transmissions rom theBBC and chat with civilians. It wasthen that Stix heard rumors about theHolocaust. I was in a eld all alone

with this civilian, and I asked him inbroken German i hed seen any Jewsin the town, said Stix. He lookedaround, scared, and then back at meand almost whispered, Disappeared.And there was no one around to hearhim.

"A guard even told me that he was

talking down about Hitler one dayand his daughter threatened to reporthim. I have taken you into the world,and I will take you out! the Germansaid. It was unny, but it shows howar things had gotten out o control.

Over time, the men would look upin the elds and see Allied bombersen route to Berlin. Wed cheer and theguards would show their ear. Youcould see it in their aces. They knew

their time was coming, says Stix.With the Russians approaching on theeastern ront, the prisoners weremarched west, where Stix made his -nal escape rom the Germans. He hidat a arm with other escapees andwaited or the advancing Allies.

His ellow prisoners were liberat-

ed by the Russians, who proceeded trob them o their watches. He walke200 miles to Warsaw and took areight train to the Black Sea. Towardthe end o the war, Stix says, theRussians raped and enslaved Germacivilians, just as Germans had rapedand enslaved their people during the

oensive. It was a terrible war orthat. Both sides had terrible peopletrained to torture civilians, says StixThe governments on both sides werso cruel. People in the government dserved what they got, but not thecivilians.

Stix was sent back to the States inApril 1945. He says he wanted to stayin the military and go ght in thePacic. However, he suered rom

multiple injuries that prevented himrom staying on active duty. He wasdischarged and transerred to the reserves. I youre not in the Army, yohave to work or a living. When I got

back, I didnt have any skills. I couldonly be a pick and shovel man, he

Continued on page

StixContinued from page 7


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says. And besides, I liked that lie.Unable to work on a arm, Stix

went to Florida where he could stillperorm labor on yachts. But when the

Korean War began, Stix volunteeredor our years o active duty, servingthree nine-month combat tours on thepeninsula. I elt guilty about soldiersghting and me not being there, and Ialways got bored in the barracks. Hesays. And to be honest, I liked [theadrenaline elt in combat]. I liked to bearound it.

Stix saw a lot o action in Korea,where there were many tough battles.

He was wounded by a grenade. Theyears o abuse and war had started totake their toll, as he headed toward his40th year. But his experience paid oin the end.

Stix was promoted to sergeant orhis service in Korea. He was then sentto Tokyo, Japan, to x weapons.When I got home, I wanted to have agood lie, Stix says. Too old to earnhis retirement rom the military, he

continued his lie as a driter. He madea shrewd decision to purchase stockrom Disney shortly ater it opened in1957. He quit work at 50 and lived ohis stock returns. He never asked orcompensation rom the government.

Stixs nephew Tom Wozniak andAdjutant Tom Rymer o Chapter 45,Oconto County, Wisconsin, teamed upto give Stix a ree lietime membershipin the DAV. They also made sure he

was getting needed care and lodgingwhen he returned to Suring. Hismind is excellent and hes an excellentman. Im very proud o him, saidWozniak.

Though his Uncle Fred would al-ways buy gits or Wozniak when he

Continued on page 24

By Chris Brooks

Stixs journey to join theRepublican orces beganDecember 11, 1937, when he setsail or Europe aboard theVollendam. In Spain, Stix joined theLincoln-Washington Battalion othe XVth International Brigades.In March 1938 the Nationalist orc-es launched an oensive that

divided Republican Spain. The o-ensive shattered the XVthBrigade. Stix was wounded in ac-tion near Belchite during theopening phase o the campaign re-erred to by the Republican side asThe Retreats.

Ater being assisted to his eetby two Nationalist stretcher bear-ers, Stix managed to walk severalhundred yards to a rst-aid sta-

tion and request treatment or hiswounds. There were noNationalist ocers present andthe Nationalist troops crowdedaround him, curious to see anInternational Brigadier. Excited bythe revelation, one Nationalist ex-claimed Artista when a circusunion membership card wasound during a search o Stix andhis belongings. Fascination

around Stix grew. The Nationalistswere so interested in talkingwith him that they ignored repeat-ed requests to retrieve and assistanother wounded American.

When an ocer returned andattempted an interrogation, Stix

reused to answer anyquestions. In a ury, the ocer or-dered Stixs execution, thestandard ate or capturedinternationals. Stix was standingagainst a nearby wall waiting orthe ring squad when twoGerman ocers drove up andqueried the Spanish ocer abouthis actions. Reminding the

Spanish ocer that orders hadbeen given to hold, not execute, in-ternational prisoners, theGermans berated their Spanishcounterpart and insisted that theprisoner be escorted to therear. Stix was escorted back be-hind the lines and sent to ahospital in Bilbao.

When he recovered, Stix wastranserred to the international

POW camp, San Pedro de Cardeanear Zaragoza. The camp was amonastery converted to hold pris-oners o war. Conditions in SanPedro were harsh, with indiscrim-inate beatings, poor ood andinsucient acilities to house thePOWs.

Stix was among the rst pris-oners exchanged on October 8,1938. He arrived back in the

United States on October 18, 1938,aboard the Queen Mary.

Chris Brooks is an ALBA board

member and the producer of the

ALBA biographical dictionary

project. He has recently been

activated for military service.

Stix in Spainfrom the ALBA Biographical Dictionary



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A photographic mosaic taken during the excavation of a Spanish Civil War common grave, July 2004. The grave contained the

remains of 47 male civilians killed by a paramilitary fascist group in September 1936. The photo on the next page shows a hand

holding an empty rifle bullet casing.

By Richard Bermack

Conceptual artist Francesc Torres

began a project to excavate theremains o Spanish Civil War

dead as a citizen activist. I wanted toreduce to zero the distance betweenartist and activist. I was outraged.Thirty-thousand people are buriedlike dogs on the side o roads or un-der shopping malls in unmarkedgraves I you know where to look,you can nd artillery shells mixed inwith bones right on the earths sur-ace, just let there to rot. And notonly the bodies have rotted, according

to Torres, but with them the histori-cal psyche o Spain, with wounds thatmay never heal. Time is runningout, he warns. There is a narrowwindow beore the people who lived

through it will all be gone. Those whoought in the war or witnessed it arevery old. The worst part is that theymay be condemned to not seeing the

process come ull circle. They may diewithout seeing some closure. Torresworries that i they get no closure, thenation may never have legitimate clo-sure, and the ancestors o those whoexperienced the war will live oreverwith corpses in their cupboards.

Torres was born in 1948. Hisgrandather, a ormer politician, wasarrested during the war and put on tri-al with 60 other deendants. In a trial

lasting 20 minutes, he was sentenced todie. Later, he was retried and the deathsentence changed to lie in prison. Thegrandather was eventually releasedater spending 10 years in prison.

Torres got a Fulbright grant to excavate the mass graves and remains the unburied victims, but his projectwas blocked, rst by a conservative

nationalist government and then by letist government. Both sides earthe political upheaval that might resurom bringing out the past, he stateTo carry the project orward, he joinedup with the Association or theRecuperation o Historical Memory.They had a team and no money, and had money but no team. TheAssociation is a grassroots organizatioo relatives trying to nd the remains

their ancestors. Torres had intended aproject based on historical context andexhuming military sites, but he endedup working with the relatives.

Why did the progressive govern

E x h u m i n g t h e S h a m e o f S p a i nA conversation with Francesc Torres


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ment block his project, and why doesit continue to put up obstacles? The

one thing that unies the let and theright is their shame and their mutualdesire not to upset a delicate balance,Torres explains. The right was moral-ly and ethically bankrupt whenFranco died, and the let had to watchan enemy die [without ever being ableto hold him acountable]. When the na-tion transitioned rom dictatorship todemocracy and held its rst electionater the death o Franco, there was an

unwritten pact between politicians oboth sides that neither would remindthe other o what was done. Everyonecould now be a good democrat, nomatter what their history. They arewaiting or generations that ought thewar to be gone, and then the civil warwill be just like the Spanish AmericanWar.

But beore the war passes into an-cient history, Torres continues, We

need to surgically open the wounds orthe patient will never heal. The righthad 40 years to take care o their vic-tims and to preserve their history, but

the people who ought and died to dend the legitimate government have

been removed rom the historical conscience. The let has to pay the priceo living with a sequestered history,and i you dont own your own histothen you cant deal with it properly.And without reconciliation, the

Spanish people may never have a unying historical narrative. They willlive like two nations, tranquil on thesurace but ready to explode emotionally at the drop o a word.

We need to dig, Torres states. Bthat he means uncovering the historyo the war through documentaries an

Francesc Torres, one o Spainsmost important conceptual artistsand the current holder o the King

Juan Carlos I o Spain Chair at NewYork University, presented theeighth annual ALBA-Bill Susmanlecture, The Retrieval o Memory inContemporary Spain, at the

Cervantes Institute in New York onMay 16.

Torres, a pioneering gure inthe eld o installation art, has along-standing interest in theSpanish Civil War. One o his bestknown works, currently part o thepermanent collection o the ReinaSoa Museum in Madrid, Spain, is avast installation titled Belchite/South Bronx. The installation juxta-

poses images o a Spanish citydevastated during the Civil Warwith images o urban blight in theSouth Bronx. Like much o Torresswork, it is a proound meditation onhistory, violence, and modern ruins.

While at NYU, Torres has beendeveloping a proposal or a new ex-

hibition based on the holdings oALBA, ocusing on the participationo Arican Americans in the SpanishCivil War.

Torres has recently been involvedin several o the projects in Spain thataim to recover the countrys histori-cal memory by exhuming the

unmarked mass graves rom thetime o the Spanish Civil War. Histalk ocused on one such project.

The lecture was introduced byJames D. Fernndez, Director oNYUs King Juan Carlos I o SpainCenter, and Antonio Muoz Molina,Director o the Instituto Cervantesin New York.

Previous lecturers in the serieshave included Bernard Knox,

Gabriel Jackson, Baltasar Garzn, E.L. Doctorow, Philip Levine, GracePaley, and Antonio Muoz Molina.

The lecture is co-sponsored byALBA, Tamiment Library, theCervantes Institute, and the King

Juan Carlos I o Spain Center.

Barcelona Artist Francesc TorresPresents ALBA-Susman Lecture

Continued on page 1

Richard Bermack is the art director ofThe

Volunteerand the author ofThe Frontlines

of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade.


14/28


Bay AreaBy Martha Olson Jarocki

Bruce Barthols song Cakewalkto Baghdad delivered a loado irony, while other songs

carried more truths about war, in aremarkable musical perormance,

Songs Against War: Voices o the Anti-

Warriors, at the West Coast reuniono the Abraham Lincoln Brigade onMarch 12. The program paid tributeto Veterans or Peace or their work onthe ront lines against the U.S. inva-

Bay Area vets (l-r) Coleman Persily, Clifton Amsbury, Ted Veltfort, Milt Wolff, Hilda Roberts, Virginia Malbin, Nate

Thornton, and Dave Smith at the podium. Associate Heather Bridger holds the mike.

I remember back, beore we

whacked Iraq,

I was watching the news.

Were we gonna attack?

A man named Richard Pear

came on and talked.

He said going to Baghdad

would be a cakewalk.

rom Cakewalk to Baghdad,written and peromed byBruce Barthol

Lincoln Vets andDeliver Ant

from Co


Veteran anti-war folk singer Barbara Dane with Bruce Barthol.

Photos by Richard Bermack.


15/28


New YorkBy Anne Taibleson

On the gloriously brightSunday aternoon o April30, one day ater hundreds

o thousands o peace demonstra-tors marched through the streetso Manhattan, the Veterans o theAbraham Lincoln Brigade gathered

or their 70th annual reunion tohonor Veterans or Peace and otherantiwar activists. To thunderous ap-plause, our Lincolns were honoredand praised by riends, amily andloyal supporters at this celebration,held at the Cooper Union audito-rium in downtown New York City.

The venue o the event was quite

meaningul. On that same stage, be-hind the same podium, AbrahamLincoln delivered a masterul rebuttalto the claims o his opponents, insist-ing that slavery was unconstitutional.This historic speech made Lincoln hispartys candidate and then, o course,

president o the United States.The eight heroic veterans pres-

entMoe Fishman, Al Koslow, JackSharan, Matti Mattson, John PenrodAbe Smorodin, George Sossenko, anHy Tabbremind us o the great sacrices over 3,000 young men andwomen made to ght ascism. MoeFishman and Henry Foner, as always

energized the 800-plus members othe audience. The guest speakers, allmajor voices or peace and democracin the 21st century, paid their respecto the Lincoln veterans, each addinghis or her personal touch. SpanishMagistrate Baltasar Garzn, Veteransor Peace President David Cline, andanti-war activist Cindy Sheehan keptthe audience ocused on the issues opeace today. Songs Against War: Voices

Anti-Warriors, a musical perormancepassionately presented by BarbaraDane and Bruce Barthol, completed aother successul celebration payingtribute to the American ghters whoslegacy will protect reedom and de-mocracy until the end o time.New York vets (l-r) George Sossenko, Abe Smorodin, Jack Shafran, John Penrod, Al

Koslow, Matti Mattson, Hy Tabb, and Moe Fishman (on stage).

eterans for Peacear Message

to Coast

Veterans for Peace president David Cline speaks at the New York event.


16/28


sion and occupation o Iraq. Many othe Lincoln Brigade vets who took tothe stage connected the ght againstascism in Spain 70 years ago to thecurrent opposition to the war in Iraq.

This years event was held at theFlorence Schwimley Little Theater atBerkeley High School in Berkeley,Caliornia, drawing an audience o ap-

proximately 500. As in recent years,the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeArchives (ALBA) co-sponsored theevent with the Bay Area Veterans andFriends o the Abraham Lincoln

Brigade. Bay Area Post CommanderDave Smith introduced the vets in at-tendance, including Cliton Amsbury,Virginia Malbin, Coleman Persily,Hilda Roberts, David Smith, NateThornton, Ted Veltort, and Milt Wol.ALBAs Peter Carrol served as mastero ceremonies.

Three representatives o Veterans

or Peace spoke: Paul Cox, a Marinewho returned rom the war inVietnam to organize active-duty GIsagainst the war at Camp Lejeune;Mike Wong, who twice reused armyorders or Vietnam, landing rst inthe stockade and later in Canada; andSteve Morse, an army veteran oVietnam who was inspired to speakout against war when he heard aboutthe ambulances that Veterans o the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade were send-ing to Nicaragua.

The musical program, written byBruce Barthol and directed by PeterGlazer, linked the anti-war sentimento earlier wars, rom the French andIndian War (Johnnie I Hardly KnewYe) to Vietnam (Fixin To Die Rag) and

beyond. Singer Barbara Dane, whoworked with the GI resistance move-ment during the Vietnam war years,delivered a perormance that careenerom laughter to grie. She was accompanied by Barthol and musicians rothe San Francisco Mime Troupe in aspirited perormance that had the audience on its eet.

Funds raised at the event will su

port ALBA, Veterans or Peace, and tmonument to the Lincoln veterans onthe Embarcadero in San Francisco, aswell as the Pablo Solare PediatricHospital in Havana, the Center orConstitutional Law, Global Exchangeand the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Veterans for Peace spokesperson Paul Cox with Lenore Veltfort,

wife of vet Ted Veltfort, and Steve Lustig, son-in-law of vet Dave

Smith.

Filmmaker C.M. Hardt discusses her film Death in El Valle with

Spanish Justice Baltasar Garzn.

Liberty Ellman, one of the musicians in

Songs Against War: Voices of Anti-Warriors,

with his grandmother, the sister of

Lincoln vet Wilfred Mendelson.

Vet Milt Wolff with Wanda Henig.

Reunion from Coast to CoastContinued from page 12


17/28


debates. Spanish history books need to be rewrit-ten and school children taught a balanced view ohistory, including the noble and ignoble acts o

both sides during the war.

There needs to be a process o reconciliation.According to Torres, Spain needs a truth andreconciliation commission similar to that in SouthArica, eastern Europe, and South America. Inthose countries, those responsible just need to ac-knowledge publicly what they did to their victimsand that is enough or them to be given amnestyand to return their dignity. The process is notabout vengeance; it is about catharsis, and that

benets both sides. I they can do it in Bosnia,we can do it, he states.

The International Center or Photography isconsidering including Torress photos o the civilwar remains and excavation in an exhibit oRobert Capas photos. Capa photographed thewar and I photographed the atermath, 70 yearslater, Torres states.

Madrileoby Sharon Olson

The man who had walked the streets

held a sign high in the Plaza Mayor:

Paz en Irak, bring our soldiers home.

This man would do anything for a change to come,

puts in an extra packet of cheese, some bread, in his bag,

something to share with the strangers he will meet

along the way, in the s ame compartment,

walks with a spring in his step past the Prado Museum

on his way to Atocha,

takes out the ticket he has purchased to validate it,

a sharp, stabbing motion into the orange machine,

looks up at the boar d to read the track number,

smiles at t he newspaper vendor. Could there be

a socialist vic tory? Not a cha nce, he thinks, only a dream.

Another man with a backpack passes him

on the way to the platform,

a man who doesnt smile, even as they almost collide.

He makes a mental note to find a more likely partner

for the slight meal he had planned to share.

The train arrives, one that will offer a comfortable seat

for him to dream i n, arms to hold him,

peace in this world and the next.

from The Long Night of Flying,

Sixteen Rivers Press, 2006

TorresContinued from page 11

One of the excavation project's volunteers wears aT-shirt that says "Anti-fascist Always."


18/28


Spanish Culture Behind Barbed Wire:

Memory and Representation of the

French Concentration Camps, 1939-

1945 by Francie Cate-Arries. Bucknell

University Press, 2004.

By Gina Herrmann

A

t the close o Spains Civil War,when the embattled Republic

nally ell to Francoist orces,nearly 500,000 Republican reugeesfooded across Spains borders intoexile. More than hal o these exilesound themselves rounded up intoimprovised French reugee camps,where they aced horric condi-tions including insucient or absentshelter, starvation, orced labor, andphysical and psychological abuse atthe hands o the French gendarme.

Francie Cate-Arriess book aboutthe cultural artiacts produced bySpanish exiles in response to theFrench concentration camp experiencespeaks to and arouses a sense o out-rage at how the French state treatedthe men and women who had resistedthe ascist onslaught that would onlytoo soon swoop murderously down onthe French themselves. Instead o hon-oring those Republicans who had

valiantly ought against Franco, theFrench state ashioned the exiles asred hordes, "vermin, and social un-desirables, thus constructing theRepublicans as criminal prisoners in-

stead o political reugees. The bookalso poignantly reminds its readers othe dimensions o the tragedy suered

by Spanish exiles in concentrationcamps in the years prior to the horrorso Mauthausen and Buchenwald.

Cate-Arriess marvelous book ex-amines the literature and art producedthrough the mid 1940s by ormer

camp inmates who eventually immi-grated to Mexico. Focusing on works

published in Mexico, this volume com-plements Sebastiaan Fabers Exile andCultural Hegemony: Spanish Intellectuals

in Mexico, 1939-1975. Spanish CultureBehind Barbed Wire is a prelude to theFaber book in that it sets out to explorethe complex, constitutive unction othe camps in exile literature as either akey commemorative place o remem-

brance; as grounds or moral authorityand political legitimacy as the site o

creative resistance and cultural renew-al; or as an arena or a polarized,embattled struggle or emigration toAmerica.

The close readings o a wide rangeo artistic and literary genres are oneo the major strengths o this work.Positing that the exile community in

Mexico sites its oundational myth ancollective identity in the shared experience o the camps, Cate-Arries

broadly engages seven types o cre-ative texts: the autobiographical woro Eulalio Ferrer, Luis Surez, ManueAndjar, Antonio Ros, Manuel GarcGerpe, and Eulalio Ferrer; a play byMax Aub; the autobiographical noveor novelized memoirs o AgustCabruja, Victoria Kent, Jos HerreraPetrete, Manuel Benavides, and AguBartra; essays by Joaqun Xirau; the vsual arts o Josep Bartol and

Remedios Varo; oral histories collectby Margarita Nelken; and the poetry

o Celso Amieva, particularly hisbeautiul and unjustly overlooked Laalmohada de arena (1960).

One senses that Cate-Arries mushave elt an ethical injunction to in-clude every piece o Frenchconcentration camp literature pro-duced in the 1940s. The extent o theproduction, and indeed Cate-Arriesscollection o it, invites our admiratiowhile simultaneously proving a bit

overwhelming at moments.The book opens with a consider-

ation o how many Spanish exilesoriented their own narratives o memory and loss through recollections(many o them historically inaccurato the highly charged symbolic death

Book Reviews

Spanish Culture in French

Concentration Camps

Instead of honoring those Republicans who had valiantly

fought against Franco, the French state fashioned the exiles

as red hordes, "vermin, and social undesirables, thus

constructing the Republicans as criminal prisoners instead of

political refugees.

Gina Herrmann teaches Spanish

literature at the University of Oregon.Continued on page


19/28


in Collioure o the great canonical poetAntonio Machado. All the remainingsections o the work recuperate ar less-er known works o the Spanish and

Catalan literary exiles.The central thesis operative inSpanish Culture Behind Barbed Wire isthe notion that the camps were notmerely lie-sapping, barren, prisonlandscapes, but also communal me-morial sites that served to helpinmates reconstitute sel and nation.This constructive, as opposed to de-structive, valence permeates the study:the camps are read as lived spaces o

subversion, resistance, and agencythat become memorial sites and there-ore discursive vehicles or creativeexpression.

Dividing her research into ourmajor sections, Cate-Arries exploresthe camps as lieux de memoir, spac-es o Spanish moral authority in aEurope (particularly France) still indenial about the threat o Fascism,universes o cultural resistance, and

sites that maniest the ractured rela-tionships among the many Republicangroups in exile.

Cate-Arries is a superb readerclearly invested in the aective qualityo the texts she closely analyzes.Evidence o this is ound in her re-markable discussion o sand in thechapter on the poems o CelsoAmieva.

Many o the concentration camps

were located on the French shoreline,where the inmates aced the devastat-ing eects o blowing sand. Hertreatment o the various ways thecamp inmates narrate both their strug-gles and their inventive, creative useso sand echoes the very lyricism onwhich she comments. Describing both

the deleterious and the strength-giv-ing eects o what Amieva and otherprisoners wittily called arenosis,Cate-Arries remarks: Amievas lyrical

imagery o the sand as weapon, thesand as subteruge, is not just anothermetaphor. . . .Inmate-memoirists havedescribed their internment as being

buried alive [. . . but] the reugees usethis same sand to transgress the limi-tations o their captivity. . . .Perhaps

even more signicant than the sandscapacity to externalize orms o artis-tic expression is its power to aid andabet the inmates eorts to cover uporms o political or cultural resis-tance. Through her complex reading

o sand, a single trope prevalent inmuch o the exile literature, Cate-Arries manages to connect her closereadings back to her overarchingagenda to reveal the concentrationcamps as repositories o suering anddeath, but also as spaces o politicalcontinuity, ethical and artistic renew-al, and as demarcated locales oraternity and resistance.

In addition to the chapter on

Amieva, perhaps the most remarkablesection o the book is the chapter de-voted to the stunning sui generismemory album Campos de concen-tracin, composed o 65 drawings by

Josep Bartol accompanied by the texto Narcs Molins i Fbrega. Bartolsgrotesque and oten humorous depic-

tions o lie in the camps and inpre-World War II France make graph

both the depravity o the French in thace o the Spanish tragedy and the a

solute terror experienced by thereugees as they conronted the dan-gers o camp lie and the threat orepatriation to Francos Spain.

There is little to criticize in thisbook. I elt the lack o a historical summary o the particulars o the

concentrationary universe estab-lished in France between 1939 and thend o World War II. The introductiocould have been strengthened by theinclusion o a list o the camps, theirgeographical locations, descriptions

the conditions in each camp, and sta-tistics on numbers o inmates releasethroughout the camps duration, in-mate deaths, and their causes.

Given the obvious dominance oCatalan cultural production in thisparticular body o exile texts, I woulhave expected the author to give morattention to the distinctions o Catalaexperience and expression. This is aminor point given the ambitious scop

o Cate-Arriess project. She has donePeninsular Studies an important ser-vice by inserting more than 50 worko exile literature and historymanyo them little known, i not utterly neglected by the criticisminto therame o our discipline.

Culture in the CampsContinued from page 16

The central thesis operative in Spanish Culture Behind Barbe

Wire is the notion that the camps were not merely life-sapping

barren, prison landscapes, but also communal memorial sitesthat served to help inmates reconstitute self and nation.


20/28


Max Shufer(1914-2006)

Lincoln vet Max Shuer, 91, a resi-dent o Pawling, N.Y., died at home on

Friday, March 31. He was the husbando Shirley (Aldor) Shuer.

Max sailed or Spain in June 1937.He was captured by the Franco armyin March 1938 and spent over a year asa prisoner o war until he was ex-changed in April 1939.

Max was a physicist and electronicengineer at Memorial Sloan-KetteringInstitute in New York City or over 30years. Beore that, his service in Spain

earned him a place on the governmentblacklist (see The Volunteer, Winter2001).

Born in Manhattan on September7, 1914, he was the son o the lateSolomon Shuer and Anna KatzShuer. He attended the Morris Schoolin New York City and later attended

City College in New York, receivinghis bachelors o science degree (PhiBeta Kappa). Mr. Shuer was an avidcyclist and loved the opera. He also

danced at Charles Weidman ModernDance in New York City.In addition to his wie, he is sur-

vived by our children, Jane Shuer oNew York City, Alicia Sundheimer oFarmingville, Long Island, LorraineSmall o New York City, and LeslieShuer o New York City; a sister,Bernice Lewis o New York City; andour grandchildren. A memorial ser-vice will be held at a later date.

Louis H. Gordon(1915-2006)

Louis H. Gordon, the popularNew York brigadista, passed away athis home on March 25.

Lou was born in Brooklyn, gradu-ated rom Boys High School, thenwent to work as a union organizer orthe Pulp, Sulphite & Paper Mill

Workers (today, part o the UnitedSteelworkers o America). It was whileattending the Labor Relations Schoolo Cornell University in 1937 that helearned o the plight o the Spanishpeople and decided to go to Spain. Heserved on the Cordoba and Aragonronts and was wounded during theEbro battle.

Lou was a regular attendee at re-unions o the Lincoln and

International Brigades. During theHomenaje in 1996, he surprised theAmigos who had organized the eventin Madrid. At one point a group oyoung madrileos accompanied Irishand American brigadistas on a nightout. Little did they suspect that theirLincoln veteran was a noted harmoni-

ca player who had rubbed elbows withe likes o Patrick Clancy. In a pub,the young Spaniards were regaled asthe veterans sang to Lous accompan

ment well into the night, to theenjoyment o all present and the lasting ame o Lou.

Five years later, it was Lous turnto be surprised. In 2001, during the65th anniversary o the battle orMadrid, he made an unexpectedriendship. Over lunch, veterans odierent nationalities were sharingtheir stories. Members o the Austria

delegation were amazed to learn thaLou had participated in the liberation

o the Dachau concentration camp inApril 1945 as a sergeant in the CombEngineers o the Seventh US Army. Athe table was the daughter o anAustrian IB veteran who had surviveyears in the camp and had been liberated by Lous unit. The daughter

Continued on page

Added to Memorys Roster


21/28


enthusiastically told everyone thatwere it not or Lou, she would neverhave been born nor be there to tell herathers tale. Moved and very pleased

by the encounter, Lou spent the rest othe weekend with his new Austrianriends. It was truly rewarding or himto have such tangible proo o his long-time antiascist commitments.

Ater service in World War II, Loureturned to his union work, where heremained until his retirement in 1985.He served as an international repre-sentative, local union president,instructor in contract and parliamen-

tary law, director o politicaleducation, and lobbyist. He wrote acolumn in the union newspaper or 33years. Upon his retirement, he was ap-pointed director o the retireeprogram until 1998, when he became aconsultant to the union health andwelare und.

During the last 8 years, Lou was aconsumer advocate or the UlsterCounty Consumer Fraud Bureau and

received a Pride o Ulster Countyaward or community service.

Lou Gordon is survived by Anne,his wie o 50 years, three children,ve grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

Robert Coale

Michael ORiordan(1917-2006)

Michael ORiordan, one o the lastsurviving Irish veterans o theSpanish Civil War, has died in Dublin.ORiordan had attended many re-unions o the International Brigades inSpain in recent years.

As a 15-year-old, O'Riordan be-came a member o Fianna ireann, the

scouting movement associated withthe Irish Republican Army (o whichFrank Ryan was at that time chiescout). He subsequently joined the

IRA. When the Spanish ascist revoltbroke out, Michael, then 19, used theidentity o an older man to volunteeror the International Brigades.

O'Riordan was cited or bravery orhis eorts around Hill 481 in theChabola valley, where he was wounded

by shrapnel: He carried his light ma-chine-gun into every action, and whenhe was ordered to withdraw he waiteduntil the whole company had done so.

He said that his weapon was worth adozen men. When he was wounded, hereused to leave his position until oth-ers had to leave it. Even then he did notleave until he was ordered.

Returning to Cork, ORiordan remained active in the IRA. In 1940 hetook part in the attempted rescue oToms MacCurtain rom Cork court-

house. That same year he was arresteand interned in the Curragh camp. Hsubsequently became a leader o theIrish Communist party, serving as geeral secretary and national chairman

In 1998 (at the age o 80) he trav-eled to Cuba as part o the Pastors orPeace caravan in their eorts to breakthe blockade and isolation o Cuba imposed by the United States. In 2005 thCuban government presented him

with its highest award or riendshipamong the people. He spent the lastyears o his lie speaking to youngpeople about the Spanish Civil War.

In September 2006, ALBA will re-

lease a new book based on previouslyunpublished archival holdings about the

role o the Lincoln Brigade during World

War II. The Good Fight Continues:World War II Letters rom theAbraham Lincoln Brigade was editedby Peter N. Carroll, Michael Nash, and

Melvin Small (all ALBA Board mem-

bers) and published by New York

University Press. The book contains a

signifcant portion o the 3,000 letters in

the ALBA collection at the Tamiment

Library in New York.

Here we oer a small excerpt rom

the book, a letter written by the late Lou

Gordon the day ater Japanese aircrat

attacked Pearl Harbor.

Lou Gordon's Letter to Moe Fishman in

ALBA's WWII Collected Letters Book

Added to Memorys Roster



22/28


Fort Eustis, VirginiaDec. 8, 1941Dear Moe [Fishman]

Possibly recent events and the

Declaration o War against Japan canbest answer the question o my atten-dance at the Xmas dance. Ill try tohave my wie attend or me.

Things are happening very astin these parts, as you might wellimagine. I believe the Army andNavy are geared high enough tocope with this and any uture situa-tion. Most o us here believe warwith Germany and Italy will ol-

lowalso war between the SovietUnion and Japan.There is a eeling o calm, quiet

condence in the air. No excitement,no running around, no jokingjust aserious business which must be n-ished in the quickest possiblemanner.

Everyone eels that we are doingthe right and only thingand sincethe camp sent an enormous amount

o men to Pearl Harbor, SchoeldBarracks and other Near Eastern bas-es it strikes close to home, its morepersonalized.

I guess most o our guys will bein the service pretty soonthosethat can possibly make it. Youllprobably have to hold up jobs or tenmen yoursel. You can do it, Im sure.

I appreciate greatly your letters

and I hope youll nd time to contin-ue them.

Should I be transerred to anynew place I will notiy you o my

new address. Also, remember howimportant packages are away romhome. Ater all someone has to eedthe censors!

Being in Anti-aircrat will proba-bly mean plenty o actiono a newtype to me, but Im used to loud nois-esi thats possible.

Manila is getting a taste o avion

now. Ill closeregards to all aroundTake care o yoursel. I you want toknow anything about anything to dowith me, my wie is secretary and

treasurer o the Paper Union Local107-54 E. 13th Street - Gr. 3- 1469. Payher a visitshes a good lookin

blonde. (That should do it.)Salud y VictoriaLouBtry B-6th Bn.Fort Eustis, Va. (spell it right now)

Gordon Lettercontinued from page 19

Advertise in The VolunteerThe Volunteerwelcomes paid advertising consistent with ALBAs broad educational

and cultural mission. For more information, contact [email protected].

An int imate view of the lives of George Watt , aLincoln Brigade volunteer, and his br ide, Ruth

Rosenthal Watt, a peace and social justice activist

support ing the anti- fascist struggle from New York

City, brings the 1930s to life. This dramatic reading

of l etters exchanged between George and Ruth is

interwoven with r ousing songs of t he era that pro-

vide a political and historical context to t he anti- fascist struggle.Music is per formed by Tony Saletan, accompanied b y Sylvia

Miskoe. Letters are read by Dan and Molly Lynn. Watt.

George & RuthSongs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War

To order t he 2- CD set, go t o:ww w.cdbaby.com/ cd/ georgeandru-th.

Or contact Dan Lynn Watt directl y toorder CDs or to book a performance.617- 354- 8242 or [email protected]


23/28


Dear VALB/ALBA,I'm writing to encourage you to

analyze and report on the US role onthe side o the ascists during theSpanish Civil War. At the VALB con-

erence on April 30, 2006, at CooperUnion, I was told by several memberso ALBA that this important acet ohistory wasn't being investigated. Ithink the story is important or severalreasons. The rst is to underline theact that ascism was a worldwidemovement with rich and powerulsupporters, not a movement limited toa couple o countries with crazy lead-ers. The second is that US military and

general material support was exten-sive despite the ocial policy oneutrality. The third, and probably themost important or our movement to-day, is to show that the Bushadministration's policies are notanomalies but merely tactically dier-ent approaches to expanding andmaintaining the American empire that

began years ago.I've outlined some important

points that I think should be investi-gated and expanded.

President Roosevelt's Secretary oState Cordell Hull allowed GeneralMotors (GM), Ford and Texas OilCompany (Texaco) to send war materi-el to the Spanish ascists.

GM's wholly owned German sub-sidiary, Opel, produced thousands oits 3-ton "Blitz" trucks or the Naziarmy. Many were sent to the Spanish

ascists.GM produced airplane engine

parts or the German companyDaimler-Benz.

GM produced airplane parts orthe German Junker ghter planes, in-cluding the JU-88.

GM, Standard Oil o New Jerseyand the German company IG Farbenproduced tetra-ethyl lead (TEL). TELwas used to boost the octane o low-grade German gasoline made romcoal into high-grade aviation uel. TheNazi planes that bombed Guernicamay have been powered by US corpo-

rate gasoline burning in engines madewith US corporate parts.Ford's wholly owned German sub-

sidiary, Ford AG, had a similar historyto GM's.

Henry Ford accepted the highestNazi civilian medal rom Hitler or hissupport dating back to the early 1920son July 30, 1938, Ford's 75th birthday.Other US ascist supporters who re-ceived medals rom Hitler were James

Mooney, Charles Lindbergh, ThomasWatson, and Heinrich von Moltke.James Mooney, president o GM'sOverseas Divisions, was a registeredDemocrat and close condant o FDReven ater he received the Nazi medal.He personally approved Opel's warmateriel production. CharlesLindbergh was an outspoken ascistwhose ather was a US Congressman.Thomas Watson was president o IBM,

and Heinrich von Moltke was a pro-essor at Wayne State University. Thislist is not complete. All these medalswere awarded during the SpanishCivil War when the Nazi war machinewas using Spain as a testing groundor its latest military hardware.

On April 3, 1939, beore the gunbarrels cooled that killed so many in-ternationalists, FDR recognized theascist Franco regime.

I hope you will begin investigat-ing and reporting on US involvementand I look orward to hearing romyou.

Sincerely,Edwin Krales,[email protected]

Dear Sir,Some months ago I read with dis

may an article written by MiguelAngel Nieto criticizing Catalans andBasques or their separatism in to-days Spain.

To look ater our damaged lan-guages, Basque and Catalan, is

separatism? To ask or stopping toreduce the large amounts o moneyrom Catalonia to the rest o Spain,that have been used in large amountor Castile and Andalusia, isInsolidarity?. . .

Mr Nieto ignores that more thanone third o Spanish exports comerom Catalonia and Basque country.

Mr Nieto has been brought up inthe mentality that Spain can only go

ahead with the Castilian mentalityand that the Great Madrid is the onlypower that must be submitted or ev-erybody. (Great Madrid has been buior political reasons and as city o susidiaries o multinationals.)Madrid-Castile has never had a busi-ness mentality except the buildingspeculation.

Mr Nieto ignores or is not able toaccept that Catalonia and Basque

country, with their own culture andlanguage, have never accepted theCastilian way based on a passive be-havior, laziness and narrow mindedmentality. I see now that this manwrites again in your journal rom hisGreat Madrid. He did nothing againsrancoism.

We do not agree with such a el-low, so we want to unsubscribe romyour Journal.

Joseph Verdaguer, carrer PompeFabra, 15, 17410 SILS, Catalonia

Joan Verdaguer, carrer Sant Cuga20, 08302 MATARO, Catalonia

Letterscontinued from inside cover


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ALBAs planned giving pro-

gram provides an extraordinaryway to make a gift, increase in-come and slice the donors tax

bill all in one transaction!

The charitable git annu-ity program was created or ourmany riends who have expresseda desire to make a signicant git,while still retaining income romthe principal during their lie-time. A charitable git annuity

gives the donor additional retire-ment income, while aording thesatisaction o supporting ALBAscontinuing educational programsand its traditions o ghting or so-cial justice and against ascism.

HOW DOES A

CHARITABLE GIFT

ANNUITY WORK?

A charitable git annuity is asimple contract between you andthe Abraham Lincoln BrigadeArchives (ALBA). Under this ar-rangement, you make a git o cashor marketable securities, worth a

minimum o $5000, to ALBA. In re-turn, ALBA will pay you (or up totwo individuals) an annuity begin-ning on the date you speciy, on orater your sixtieth (60th) birthday.

WHAT ARE THE

ADVANTAGES OF A

CHARITABLE GIFT

ANNUITY?

A charitable git annuityhas our distinct advantages:Income for Life at attrac-tive payout rates.Tax Deduction Savings Alarge part o what you give isa deductible charitable git.Tax-Free Income A large parto your annual payments istax-ree return o principal.Capital Gains Tax Savings When

you contribute securities or agit annuity, you minimize anytaxes on your paper proit. Sogits o securities save twice!

PAYMENTSYou choose how requently pay-

ments will be madequarterly,

semi-annually or annually. Youcan also choose a one-lie or two-lie (two people dividing theincome) annuity. Cash gi ts al-low maximum tax-ree income;gits o securities allow you tominimize capital gains taxes.

DEFERRING PAYMENTS

I you are under 60 years oage, you can still set up an annu-ity and deer the payments untilany date ater your 60th birthday.This gives you an immediate tax-deduction or your git while stillguaranteeing you income pay-ments in the uture. Because youare deerring payments, your an-nuity payments will be larger thani you had waited to set up the an-

nuity until your 60th birthday.For more inormation on a cus-

tomized proposal or your CharitableGit Annuity, please contact:

Julia NewmanALBA, room 227799 BroadwayNY, NY 10003Ph. (212) 674-5398

ALBAs PlannedGiving Program

Tax Advantages for Gift Annuities


25/28


ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS

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

ALBA members receive a discount!

WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORGBOOKS ABOUT THE LINCOLN BRIGADEThe Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introductionby Helen Graham

Member of the Working Classby Milton Wolff

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

Mercy in Madrid

by Mary Bingham de UrquidiThe Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigadeby Richard Bermack

Soldiers of Salamasby Javier Cercas

Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship toDemocracyby Paul Preston

British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil Warby Richard Baxell

The Wound and the Dream: Sixty Years of AmericanPoems about the Spanish Civil Warby Cary Nelson

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

Another Hillby Milton Wolff

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

Spains Cause Was Mineby Hank Rubin

Comradesby Harry Fisher

The Odyssey of the AbrahamLincoln Brigadeby Peter Carroll

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

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

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

VIDEOSInto the Fire: American Women in the Spanish CivilWar

Julia Newman

Art in the Struggle for FreedomAbe Osheroff

Dreams and NightmaresAbe Osheroff

The Good Fight

Sills/Dore/Bruckner

Forever ActivistsJudith Montell

You Are History, You Are LegendJudith Montell

Professional Revolutionary: Life of Saul WellmanJudith Montell

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

Name _________________________________

Address ________________________________

City________________ State ___Zip_________

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

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


26/28


IN MEMORY OF A VETERAN

Fay Grad in memory of Harry Fisher $25

Susan Linn in memory of Sid Linn $50

Bella & Murray Kranz in memory of Moishe Brier$50

Felice & Saul Ehrlich in memory of Moishe Brier$200

Thelma Frye in memory of Peter Frye $100

Maria & Andres Delgato in memory of Harry Fisher$50

United Steelworkers District 4 in memory of LouGordon $100

Maisry Maccracken in memory of Lou Gordon $25

Patricia Rice in memory of Louis H. Gordon $25

Keith D. Romig, Jr., in memory of Lou Gordon $50

Ada Solodkin in memory of Leo Solodkin $25

Lauren Rickey Green in memory of RebeccaDurem $50

Charlotte Jean Jones in memory of Louis Gordon$25

Marcia P. Thompson in memory of Louis H.Gordon $100

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

Ruth Ost in memory of Steve Nelson & Doc JohnSimon $100

Charles Bayor in memory of Lou Gordon & MaxShufer $25

Myrtle & Helen Simon in memory of John Simon,M.D. and in honor of Moe Fishman $500

Nora Guthrie on behalf of Arlo, Joady, Nora,Marjorie & Woody Guthrie in memory of LouGordon (What a beautiful man!) $500

Gail Rosenbloom & Family in memory of MorrisTobman $100

IN MEMORY OF

Estelle Holt in memory of Federico Garcia Lorca,executed by the fascists $55

Richard Lerner & Anna M. Taylor in memory ofJames Lerner $50

IN HONOR OF

Anne & Sidney Emerman in honor of Dr. MauryKlein & Sadie Klein (age 97) $20

Contributions

was a child, never did he marry or consider settling downto a amily. I didnt want that lie ever, he is quick to sayI had a desire to be around danger. I didnt mind it. I onl

thought o death when I was under a bombardment--mortars, artillery, planes. The rest o the time, you have otherthings to do. You soon orget about it.

Its harder now, as he ghts cancer, to see soldiers andMarines in such a challenging battle as Iraq, he says. Thedont know who the enemy is. I I were young, I would vounteer right now [to go to Iraq]. I would go back in asecond. Its a gamble, but its what Id do, Stix says, true torm.

And though he knows he wont live orever, lookingback, he has no regrets. Ive lived a lot these past 90 year

Thereve been a lot o wars and a lot o living. And I eelpretty good about how things turned out.

Abridged and reprinted with the authors permis-sion rom Disabled American Veterans, March/April 200pp 16-17, 35.



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Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives


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Using art to teach the history of the Spanish Civil War, page 4.

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

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Documents

The Volunteer, June 2006