vww

FOUNDED BY THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

Vol. XXV, No. 3 September 2008

Members of the American Medical Bureau in Spain, 1937. James Neugass, author of War Is Beautiful, second row, right. See p. 8.

ALBA Launches Summer Institute, p. 1 Paul Robeson in Spain, p. 11 ALBITA, a Teachers Tool, p. 4 Green Shirt of Fascism, p. 14 George Watt Awards, p. 6 Reviews, p. 17 In this issue, we’re pleased to announce the winners of From the Editor the 2008 ALBA/George Watt student essay contests. We also bring you the fourth installment of “Paul Robeson in This has been a prolific year—we’ve unveiled the San Spain” and reviews of DVDs and books. And we offer Francisco monument, organized museum exhibitions in sincere thanks for your continuing support. Spain and the U.S., produced an exciting book that will soon be in your local bookstore, and begun what is probably ALBA’s most important undertaking, a new ALBA Goes Electronic educational program in collaboration with high school The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives has launched a teachers. new monthly e-newsletter highlighting local and interna- For many years, we’ve lamented the fact that young tional events, top stories, and research related to the people seldom know about the Spanish Civil War and the Spanish Civil War. Written for our members, students, and Lincoln Brigade. “It’s not their fault,” someone would reply. others interested in our mission, the free newsletter is pro- “Nobody teaches them. Even their teachers are often duced by the ALBA staff and board. unfamiliar with those subjects.” To subscribe, visit www.alba-valb.org. Have questions? So we’ve decided to see if we could remedy the Call (212) 674-5398 or email [email protected]. knowledge gap. Thanks to support from Perry Rosenstein and the Puffin Foundation Ltd, last June we organized ALBA’s first summer institute for teachers in collaboration with NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human www.alba-valb.org Development, the Tamiment Library, and the King Juan Carlos I Center. The program introduces high school teachers of social studies and Spanish to the wealth of our archival sources and draws upon their professional The Volunteer expertise to guide the development of teaching programs founded by the based on those unique archives that can and will be used Veterans of the in classrooms. Abraham Lincoln Brigade James Fernández coordinated the project, and his letter an ALBA publication on page 1 reveals our optimism about the results. We hope 799 Broadway, Suite 341 to reach many more teachers in the years to come as these New York, NY 10003 teaching programs are made available through the internet. (212) 674-5398 To handle the expected traffic, we are putting a new face on Editorial Board our website and will include an e-newsletter to keep you Peter N. Carroll • Gina Herrmann posted more efficiently. Take a look and sign up at www. Fraser Ottanelli alba-valb.org. Book Review Editor Our new book, War is Beautiful: An American Ambulance Shirley Mangini Driver in the Spanish Civil War, was written by James Art Director-Graphic Designer Neugass during the war and then was lost for six decades. Richard Bermack Neugass was a well-known poet before he volunteered to drive for the American Medical Bureau to Save Spanish Editorial Assistance Nancy Van Zwalenburg Democracy in 1937. His day-by-day journal, due to be published for the first time by the New Press in October, Submission of Manuscripts reveals his extraordinary eye for detail and a spare but Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk. E-mail: [email protected] splendid literary style. It will be a featured title in the September issue of Library Journal. New Press will launch the book around the country in the fall. ALBA Launches Summer Institute for Teachers

his summer, ALBA initiated its latest and most ambitious educational out- reach program to date: the ALBA Summer Institute for High School TTeachers. Thanks to the generous support of the Puffin Foundation, ALBA was able to bring together a group of 17 high school teachers from the New York area for a week of professional and curricular development that focused on teaching the Spanish Civil War. ALBA partnered with the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, Tamiment Library, and NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development to maximize our impact. There were three objectives: (1) to identify and cultivate a group of talented and dedicated public school teachers by introducing them to the extraordinary documentary resources available in our archive; (2) to take advantage of the col- lective experience of these teachers in order to learn what materials in and around the archive might be of most interest to high school students and teach- ers; and (3) to work with the teachers to develop lesson plans and supporting materials that will make the primary source materials in the archives easy to access and to use. Report to the Puffin Foundation

The following brief, preliminary report incorporated into the lessons of the Theodore Cogswell ordered from a written by James D. Fernández, the coor- History and Spanish teachers that tailor in Barcelona in 1937. dinator of the institute, and addressed to were participating in the seminar. We We were all contemplating this Perry and Gladys Rosenstein of the Puffin were preparing the teachers for their lovely and insignificant object when Foundation, describes the first edition of first outing to the actual archives later one of the participants, a history ALBA’s educational initiative, a resound- that day. Toward the end of this pre- teacher, remarked: “But there is a way ing success. Our plan is to repeat the liminary exercise, I introduced an that the big picture gets captured even institute next year in New York and to example of my favorite kind of ALBA in this scrap of paper.” He went on: offer it in at least one additional site. archival material: the often mysterious “Notice how the printed form of During the next few months, the results of and seemingly random souvenirs or address ‘Sr. D’ [Mister Sir ______] the program—in the form of lesson plans pieces of memorabilia that Lincoln and curricula proposals—will be posted vets brought back with them from on ALBA’s expanded website (another Spain, and against all kinds of odds, work in progress). safeguarded for many years, until they wound up in the ALBA collec- Dear Perry and Gladys, tion. I told the seminar participants Toward the beginning of the first that these ephemeral objects that have full session of the ALBA Summer been safeguarded from the ravages of Institute for High School Teachers, I time can be particularly difficult to was leading a discussion of the kinds interpret, difficult to insert into any of materials that are available in the kind of overarching historical narra- ALBA collection. Using high-quality tive or ideological project, but there scans, we were talking about ALBA’s they were, relics of an individual and collections of posters and postcards, of a historical moment, stubbornly photographs and letters, artifacts and demanding and resisting interpreta- memorabilia, and about how these tion. As an example I showed a receipt kinds of materials might be for an overcoat that Lincoln volunteer Continued on page 2 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 1 Institute Continued from page 1 has been crossed out, and in its place the tailor has written ‘El camarada Teodoro Cogswell.’ This speaks to the redefinition of social roles ushered in by the Spanish Republic and the onset of the war: the tailor addresses the col- lege-educated American volunteer as an equal, a comrade, a peer in the struggle against fascism.” Then one of the Spanish teachers chimed in: “There are also a couple of minor spelling mistakes in the tailor’s writ- ing—a couple of missing silent find innovative ways of incorporating Rossi (PhD candidate, Steinhardt h’s”—and her comment led to the different aspects of that history into School of Education). My diligent and speculation that the tailor may have our teaching of history, literature, lan- trustworthy research assistant, only recently become literate, which guage and culture. He later came back Mikaela Frissell, was also an impor- took us to a discussion of the to participate in another seminar ses- tant member of the team, as was Jill Republic’s ambitious project to banish sion and to offer his counsel to our Annitto, Director of Operations of illiteracy as a central part of their citi- high school teachers. Robby Cohen’s ALBA’s New York office. zen-building and educational engagement and generosity was in fact But it was the bright and enthusi- initiatives. At that point, with these typical of all of the seminar’s guests: astic participants—high school kinds of sharp perceptions and lucid Michael Nash gave us a wonderful teachers who had just completed an comments, I knew that the Institute private tour of the archives; Gail exhausting academic year—that made would be successful and rewarding. I Malmgreen opened up the ALBA this institute one of the most reward- was not disappointed. archives just for us on Saturday morn- ing teaching experiences I’ve ever had. Our friends at the Steinhardt ing, and the seminar participants were They came from a wide range of School helped us shape an extraordi- able to consult with her while they schools in four of the five boroughs; nary group of seventeen public high spent several hours handling individ- we had teachers of US history and school teachers from the New York ual collections from the archive. Peter Global History; teachers of elementary area, as the inaugural class of the Carroll was on hand at that Saturday Spanish language courses and of ALBA Summer Institute. Lee Frissell, archival session and on Monday led advanced courses on Spanish litera- Director of Field Projects at Steinhardt, our discussion on the place of the ture and culture; there were some helped us get the word out in the pub- Spanish Civil War in US high school teachers from elite public schools and lic schools, and we quickly fielded curricula. Jordana Mendelson, a lead- others from underperforming schools. almost two hundred applications. ing expert on art and visual culture in They all came eager to learn and Professor Robby Cohen, Chair of the Spanish Civil War, spent the better share, and throughout the six intense Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching part of Tuesday with us, lecturing on days, participated in vibrant and and Learning, helped us shape the that topic and leading a visit to ALBA’s wide-ranging collegial dialogue. Our curriculum of the institute and gave poster collection. discussions ran the gamut from how us invaluable advice on how to con- The King Juan Carlos I of Spain to use a “carnet militar” in order to nect with these educators. Center opened its lovely facilities to us structure a basic Spanish vocabulary Professor Cohen also spoke at the for the duration of the seminar. I was lesson, to how to use ALBA materials inauguration of the seminar, remind- able to count on the able support of to set up a discussion about isolation- ing the participants of the importance two outstanding graduate student ism and interventionism in US foreign of the Spanish Civil War in the history assistants: Juan Salas (PhD candidate, policy; from how the archive can be of the American Left, and urging us to Tisch School of the Arts) and Régine mined by the history teacher

2 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Institute Continued from page 1 Kudos from Teachers interested in American radicalism, to Dear Dr. Fernandez, access to at the Tamiment Library. how ALBA materials can be used to Thank you very much for leading Special thanks to Lee Frissell, Jim devise a curricular unit on the impor- and organizing the ALBA Summer Fernandez, Juan Salas, Peter Carroll, tance of the Spanish Civil War in Institute. Not only did I gain a substan- and everyone else that organized and American and Latin American poetry tial amount of information about the contributed so much to making the of the twentieth century. Spanish Civil War that I can now teach program such a wonderful learning A sample of some of the com- to my students, but I also gained a experience. I also want to thank all of ments they wrote on our exit sense of passion for this moment of the faculty members that participated questionnaire will give you a sense of history. for their interesting contributions. the kind of participants we had, and of I have spent the last several days . . . I would like to create a the types of outcomes we can expect asking friends and family in New Wednesday project based on what we from them: York and Columbus, Ohio, where learned at the ALBA summer workshop “I’m hoping to teach a class on the I am currently visiting, how much on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and role of the individual in history (this they know about the Spanish Civil the Spanish Civil War. The project year’s National History Day theme) War. Unbelievably, they know almost would be interdisciplinary (History and and use the Spanish Civil War as the nothing about it, despite how much Spanish), bringing in American and historical context and setting.” they know about World War II. When World History, Spanish language and “I also think that a 12th grade I tell them about the Lincoln Brigade culture as well as art. But the center elective class on the history of New and the other Internationals who piece of the project that we are pro- York City could be fun to teach and came to help the Spanish people posing would be for our students to ALBA seems like it has the resources fight fascism, they are amazed. gain access to the archives and do to cover the whole 20th century! These I am excited to continue to edu- archival research, with the culminating men and women were everywhere!” cate people about the war and to work assignment being a written report and “My school is currently in a tail- it into my lesson plans for next year. presentation based on the student’s spin. If we come out and start You can expect to hear from me later archival research. The highlight of the attracting stronger students, I’d like to this summer, at the very least to workshop was the Saturday when we plan a year’s investigation of the request copies of the “carnet militar”! were given the day to read the files of Spanish Civil War in my history club. Have a pleasant summer and members of the ALB. We imagined If I transfer to a stronger school, I’ll thank you once again for all your hard ourselves back in 1936-1939 deciding if certainly propose a new course.” work in putting the Institute together. and when to leave for Spain; how “I really want to thank you for What a fascinating and meaningful would we explain the decision to fight this opportunity. Both being for the experience you have given us. in Spain, and our experiences fighting first time at this college (out of my Sincerely, in a foreign land. This type of archival budget) and working with material of Laurie Adelman research would bring a whole new such quality opened my mind and experience of research to our students, gave me a lot of ideas. I plan to offer a . . .Thank you for your help in get- one that usually begins, if at all, on the project-based course on the Spanish ting us into the ALBA summer graduate level. We want to give our Civil War, maybe an interdisciplinary workshop. Personally, it was the best students a head start on this wonder- course with the History teachers.” workshop that I have ever participated ful opportunity of investigative “I will create a course in which we in in the United States. Not only did I history… We would love to pass on the will visit the archives a few times learn a great deal about the Spanish wonderful experience we had at the because of its richness...” Civil War and the Abraham Lincoln ALBA summer workshop to our stu- “If I could trick you into believing Brigade from the historical, cultural, dents in the form of an informative and I was a different person, I would reap- and artistic perspectives, I was able to hands-on BCA project. ply next year for a second round. get a sense of the very human side of Sincerely, war from the archives we were given Sergei Alschen Continued on page 5 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 3 “ALBITA”: A Teachers’ Tool in Progress By James D. Fernández ne of the major outcomes of the first ALBA Summer OInstitute for High School Teachers will be the creation of a mini- Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive (ALBITA). During the course of the institute, the teachers helped us iden- tify an array of archive-based topics that would lend themselves to individ- ual lessons or curricular units in their high school courses. Since then, our team of graduate students and assis- tants—Mikaela Frissell, Régine Rossi, and Juan Salas—has been identifying and scanning documents that are most relevant to those lines of inquiry. The result will be a body of some 400- 500 documents, which will be pressing desires and needs. While On the basis of this feedback, we available to everyone on-line via the they were certainly excited about the hit on the idea of ALBITA: a flexible, ALBA website, and in print for use in prospect of having access to ready- open-ended format that gives students ALBA’s hands-on curriculum develop- made lesson plans, they also reminded and teachers access to original archi- ment programs. us of the dangers of what they jok- val sources and to an array of lessons We are also in the process of ingly referred to as “teacher-proof and ideas for lessons, while at the developing sample lesson plans that curricula,” lesson plans and curricular same time allowing them to incorpo- use the documents in ALBITA, based units that are packaged so tightly that rate new materials into lessons they on the discussions that were generated teachers can find them difficult to already give or to develop new lessons at the institute. The teachers gave us open up, hard to appropriate and based on ALBITA. The ALBITA collec- valuable insight into their most make their own. tion will grow with each offering of the Summer Institute, as will the rep- ertory of lesson plans and ideas. Ideas for new lesson plans will spur the inclusion of new documents; the addi- tion to ALBITA of new documents will make possible the generation of new lessons. This format will also allow stu- dents and teachers to experience–in a small, controlled environment—the sense of “wallowing” in an archive, browsing through apparently unre- lated documents, making their own observations, their own connections, and, hopefully, being spurred to con- duct additional research in order better to contextualize or understand

4 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Institute Kailin Speaks at Peace Rally Continued from page 3 (Don’t count me out, though, I’m a The Madison, Wisconsin chapter of Veterans for Peace has named itself after master of disguises!)” Lincoln vet Clarence Kailin. So it was fitting that Clarence opened this year’s “This was the most informative Peace Rally on Memorial Day. and professional professional develop- Peace will not come easily, said Clarence. “We have to fight for it. We ment I’ve ever taken part in. Great have to build it. We have to create it.” facilitation, rich discussion, excellent According to Madison’s Capital Times, Clarence urged personal action materials. Bravo!” from people attending the rally at James Madison Park. The event included a Perry and Gladys: I realize I might memorial reading of the names of 94 Wisconsin soldiers who have died in very well be the first project coordina- Afghanistan and Iraq, with bagpipe accompaniment, and a red carnation cer- tor ever to submit to his sponsors a emony. “I hope all of you become active activists, because it won’t happen seventy year old receipt! But seriously, itself,” Clarence concluded. I thought you’d appreciate the anec- dote. I know I’ll always remember the rich dialogue that flowed from our contemplation of Camarada Teodoro a document that may have caught (opposition to); reasons for enlisting; Cogswell’s receipt, just as we’ll all their fancy. The teachers were particu- Sheean, Vincent (Jim). always be grateful to you for your larly enthusiastic about this possibility The lessons and units we are cur- extraordinary generosity, which has of using some of ALBA’s most compel- rently working on include the allowed us—and will continue to ling and mysterious documents, with following: Guernica Before allow us—to bring these objects and the hope of recreating this sense of “Guernica”: Aerial Bombardment in this history to high school teachers in “archive fever” in their students. the Spanish Civil War; The Great New York and beyond. Gracias, y The documents chosen for inclu- Depression and the Rise of Radical ¡Salud! sion in ALBITA will be carefully Ideologies; The Spanish Civil War and cataloged and tagged with key words. the Refashioning of Racial Identities; The lesson plans we post will, of The Spanish Civil War and course, specify which of the ALBITA the Refashioning of Gender documents are required for that par- Identities; Pre-Mature ticular lesson, but students and Antifascists: The Lincoln October in Barcelona teachers will also be able to use the Brigade, the Red Scare and keywords to “pull” related McCarthyism; and James To commemorate the 70th anniversary of documents. Lardner: The Last the departure of the International Brigades For example, the letter that James Volunteer. from Spain in 1938, the Catalan government is Lardner wrote to his mother from We’ll keep you posted organizing a series of events in and around Barcelona on May 3, 1938, in which he as things move forward. In Barcelona from October 23-26. explains his reasons for resigning the meantime, we would The itinerary includes a visit to the from his job as correspondent for the appreciate all feedback. International Brigades monument, a floral offer- International Herald Tribune in order to Please send comments to ing at the Fossar de la Pedrera, a formal join the International Brigades, might [email protected]. reception at the Palace of the Generalitat, and carry the following keyword tags: James Fernández is Chair of the inauguration of ALBA’s exhibition “New York Badalona; Barcelona; Catalonia; com- the Department of Spanish and the Spanish Civil War” in Sitges. munism; fascism; Hemingway, Ernest; and Portuguese at New York For more information, contact Jill Annitto at International Herald Tribune; journal- University and Vice Chair of [email protected]. ism; Lardner, James; Lardner family; ALBA. letters home; letters to mothers; liberal democracy; May 1938; Neutrality Act

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 5 George Watt Awards 2008

By Sebastiann Faber am pleased to announce the results event in New York, as well as a year’s Guernica, and what each says about of this year’s George Watt Memorial subscription to The Volunteer. the events that took place. IContest. We received some 20 sub- Nearly 70 years after the end of missions for both the undergraduate How Spain Sees Its Past: The the Spanish Civil War it may finally be and graduate student categories com- Monumentalization of the possible to sort factual information bined, ranging in length from 8 to 480 Spanish Civil War from mythology. This work is an pages. Seven essays were in Spanish, attempt to do just that: separate the By Lynn Cartwright-Punnett 13 in English. The jury—Rob Snyder, historical record from the partisan his- Gina Herrmann, and myself—found ow Spain Sees Its Past: The tory that has been enshrined at these this year’s group particularly strong, Monumentalization of the Spanish sites. Given that in many cases the his- and we had a difficult time deciding HCivil War is, to borrow a phrase torical record differs from the on only one winner in each category. from Pierre Nora, a history of the sec- mythical record, the work examines Given the strength of the runners-up, ond degree. It examines the events of the reasons that history and historical we also granted one Honorable the Spanish Civil War and how they memory have differed. The result is an Mention in each category. have been remembered throughout examination of what version of history The winner for the undergraduate the years since 1936. Each of the four is presented at each of these sites and category is Lynn Cartwright-Punnett, chapters focuses on a distinct physical what this says about historical mem- at Wesleyan University, with a 229- location and then examines the writ- ory in Spain. page honors thesis on “How Spain ings, monuments, and other sources of Sees Its Past: The Monumentalization historical memory associated with Spain Is the US: The Spanish of the Spanish Civil War.” that site. Civil War in the Cinema of the The winner for the graduate The four sites examined are the Popular Front, 1936-1939 category is Sonia García-López, at the Alcázar of Toledo, el Valle de los By Sonia García-López Universitat de València, with her Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the Ruta dissertation entitled “Spain Is the US: lorquiana (Lorca Route), and the town y dissertation deals with the La guerra civil española en el cine del of Gernika. The first chapter examines impact of the Spanish civil Popular Front: 1936-1939.” the Alcázar of Toledo and examines Mwar on the social and cul- Allen Kim, from Tulane how the myth of heroic struggle was tural life of the United States and the University, receives an Honorable codified into historical memory using response this conflict generated in the Mention in the undergraduate the Alcázar’s museum. The section on Cultural Front. More specifically, it category for his essay entitled “Eoin the Valley of the Fallen studies how studies how during this time period O’Duffy: Self-fashioned Irish Crusader the monument emblemizes the U.S. cinema reflected the charged in Spain (August 1936-June 1937).” shifting dynamic between Jose political climate created by the James Matthews, from Oxford Antonio Primo de Rivera and Franco. Popular Front. University, receives an Honorable The third chapter investigates three of In the United States, the civilian Mention in the graduate category for the sites on the Ruta lorquiana in and movement of solidarity with the his MA thesis entitled “Reluctant around Granada—the Huerta de San Spanish Loyalists (despite the non- Warriors: Republican Popular Army Vicente, the town of Fuente Vaqueros, intervention official policy) functioned Conscripts In The Spanish Civil War.” and the Parque García Lorca in as a point of reference that bound a The winning essays will be Alfacar. This chapter considers what series of emergent political movements published in their entirety on the each site says about Lorca and how the that had come to existence in the early ALBA website. Abstracts appear different interpretations of Lorca are 1930s. below. Both the winners and the related to local politics. Finally, the Multiple stories that mythologized honorable mentions will receive a fourth chapter looks at the Museo de and legitimized political practices complimentary ticket to next year’s la Paz in Gernika, the painting around the significance of the SCW

6 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 George Watt Awards 2008 The Same Path

and international solidarity in relation of European émigrés fleeing fascism Were they watching you? to the República have become an and Nazism, and the partial migration Tiny blue flowers essential part of the Spanish civil war of the New York intellectual class— Crouching beside our path, as a discursive construct within the Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Were their eyes watching you? United States. More than the struggle Dashiell Hammett or Hermann to support a social and political cause, Shumlin—to work in Hollywood. So long ago and in the dark, what was at stake was the need to Through the study of The Spanish How could you see? define a series of U.S. symbols and Earth and Blockade, I identify a series of How could you know? national values. elements that allowed the discursive So long ago... The work is divided into two construction of Spain and the Spanish parts, one dealing with New York- people in the United States during the Were they warning you? produced films and the other with New Deal. Secondly, I trace the nature The leaves on these trees Hollywood. The first part deals with of the discursive practices that exist So thick and tall, the study of images of the Spanish between a country in war that has Were they warning you civil war in New York-based been constructed as a secular space for filmmaking. Here, I pay close myth-making and legend for U.S. Of a careless fall? attention to films such as Spain in intellectuals and travellers, and a So long ago and in the dark, Flames (Helen Van Dongen, 1937), nation living a historical time in crisis, How could you hear? Heart of Spain (Herbert Kline, 1937), such as the United States in the era of How could you know? and Return to Life (Henri-Cartier the Great Depression, which was in So long ago... Bresson, 1938) as well as to other the midst of re-negotiating its own independent documentaries. identity as a country. Were they scenting you? In this part I examine the political Ultimately, this project attempts to Those quiet cattle debate regarding the U.S. non- demonstrate the ways in which the Shadowing below... intervention policy and emphasize the Spanish civil war functioned for the Were they lifting their heads role of artists and intellectuals who U.S. citizens as a mirror that reflected And sniffing the air? took part in the Spanish war as a way many of the problems they themselves Could they scent courage to trace their influence in the creation encountered during the Depression, a As well as fear of a political forum. Through a close historical era in which the rise of As you climbed this path, analysis of The Spanish Earth (Joris Fascism was something possible to Ivens, 1937), I demonstrate the issues avoid and worth to fight against. In the dark, to war? outlined in this first section. The chapter devoted to this film studies its Now today in daylight, production history and its circulation We go in peace, as well as the different mechanisms of No guards on the border symbolization at work in the film. To shoot at us, The second part analyzes the only Yet we follow your footsteps film that the Left made in Hollywood And feel you near, about the war in Spain during the Always, dear comrades, 1930s, Blockade (William Dieterle, We feel you near, 1938). My study of this film allows us ... As we climb together.... to address the politicization of the film Support ALBA world in the beginning of the 1930s as www.alba-valb.org Con Fraser a direct consequence of the Great Depression, the arrival in Hollywood

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 7 Lost Wartime Journal Set for Publication

American Poetry Journal called his tal- his brother Jim was 18 months old. It ent “forceful, dramatic, and modern.” wasn’t until James Neugass’s journal By the time Neugass left for Spain, his of his five months in Spain came to work had appeared in the Atlantic, the light over 60 years after it was written Dial, the Nation, and other that his sons, Paul and Jim, learned publications. the real story behind that scar, and At the age of 20, Neugass was discovered, in his memoir, a father working for a newspaper in Paris, dur- they barely knew. ing which time he traveled extensively. “The Asaldos ask me what I’m He returned to the United States late writing,” Neugass noted in January in 1932 and sold shoes, taught fencing, 1938, feeling a certain embarrassment and worked as a cook, a social worker, about revealing his journal. “‘A letter and a janitor. He also helped organize to my novia’ I answer. They approve, a department store workers union. and admire my leather covered, zip- And he continued to write and pub- per-bound notebook.” He carried this lish poetry, short stories, and book notebook back to the U.S. when he reviews. returned from Spain in April. That In October 1937, in preparation for year, brief excerpts of his saga were his journey to Spain, Neugass applied published in Salud!, a pamphlet of for a new passport. He arrived in the writings on Spain. “The sketches by James Neugass after the war civil war-torn country in mid-Novem- Neugass are samples from a new ber and served with the American 100,000-word manuscript,” Salud! edi- n October 2008, The New Press will Medical Bureau until the following tor Alan Calmer stated. publish a lost memoir by poet, nov- April. He was Major Edward K. What happened to this manu- Ielist, and anti-fascist volunteer Barsky’s personal driver. He wrote script? We know it was never James Neugass, entitled War is almost every day he was there. published. We know that in the year Beautiful: An American Ambulance Paul Neugass, James Neugass’s 2000, over 60 years later, a 500-page Driver in the Spanish Civil War, edited older son, remembers a scene from his typescript by Neugass was found in a and with an introduction by Peter N. childhood. “When I was three or four, Vermont bookshop, likely among the Carroll and Peter Glazer. Called by he and I were relaxing,” Paul recounts. papers of Max Eastman, radical critic, The New Press “All Quiet on the “I was rubbing his large forehead, his poet, and editor of the Masses. The Western Front for the Spanish Civil eyes were closed—he’d told me I took typescript was clearly the 100,000- War,” the book will be an important his headaches away. I again saw the word document Calmer referred to in addition to the literature on the large thick scar that covered the top of 1938; it contains the passages American volunteers, the International his thigh and gently touched it; reprinted in Salud!. Brigades, and the war itself. All royal- bumpy and smooth, I had memorized When co-editor Peter Glazer was ties from this book will go directly to the look and feel of it, and asked if it seeking permission to reprint a poem ALBA. still hurt. He told me that it was from by Neugass, he spoke with Neugass’s Isidore James Newman Neugass a downhill skiing accident when he son Paul, who mentioned the type- was born to a well-to-do Jewish family chose to hit a tree instead of a child. script and asked if Glazer would like in New Orleans on January 29, 1905. Somehow I instinctively knew this to read it. He did, and shared it with He began writing as a teenager. “I was not the truth. I knew it did not co-editor Peter N. Carroll. They imme- have been writing poetry since I was come from sport. I knew he was pro- diately recognized it as a lost gem and seventeen,” he stated in 1933, “lots of it tecting me from a terrible memory of a worked with the Neugass family to and nothing but it.” At that time, edi- war.” When James Neugass died of a secure the rights on behalf of the tor Edward J. Fitzgerald of the heart attack in 1949, Paul was six and Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

8 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Now, thanks to The New Press, it is available to the general public. What follows are three separate excerpts from the book. All the people Neugass mentions are footnoted in the book itself, but we haven’t included those annotations here. “This is the most important thing that has ever happened in my life,” Jim Neugass said after reading his father’s book for the first time. “This man was a ghost to me.” The book reveals a great deal about its author, and about being on the ground in the middle of one of the most complex, tragic, and significant military con- flicts of the 20th century. Jim Neugass James Neugass, second from right, with other U.S. medical volunteers knew as little of his father as most people know about the war in which he participated. After one more trip into the ditch he Four dead cavalrymen fully consented. dressed and unspotted by blood lay Excerpts from the Journals You cannot see planes through the on stretchers in the hospital courtyard. roof of car and engine noises are too Saxton, blond tall young English doc- January 14. Tortajada. loud for them to be heard through the tor knelt beside one of them. He had Late afternoon. Classification Post windows. Keep eyes on the road look- rolled a sleeve up past the elbow of a has been moved to this town, six miles ing for men. When you can’t see gray arm. from Teruel. anyone, either planes are overhead or “What do you think you’re doing, Slept until afternoon on floor of all human beings are in ditches, cul- Saxton?” I asked, suddenly remember- curiously unwrecked house until S. verts, bomb-holes or the open fields, or ing that he was our blood-transfusion called me out to drive him to Cuevas. up the cliff. Teruel-Perales highway is expert. No work all day. Road getting too hot. so full of road-gangs and light He did not answer. They can’t quite manage to bring it wounded and men waiting for a lift Angry, I leaned over the doctor’s under shell fire. Too well protected by on a camion, or thinly strung out shoulder. The single vampire tooth of ridge. Companies waiting for orders to go up a big glass syringe was slowly draw- Took an hour to drive the six miles to the ridge, that you can be very sure, ing the blood out of the vein inside of to Cuevas although road surface was if no one is in sight, that the avions are the dead cavalryman’s forearm. The good, between egg-holes, and I was on you. More and more and more of vessel filled and Saxton stood up. carrying no wounded. Four, five times them. Flying fields at Berlin and Rome “New Soviet technique,” he said, we had to stop and get into the good must be empty as a baseball park at holding the syringe between his deep ditch which prevents me from night. Haven’t yet heard that Franco squinting eye and the late winter sun. driving car off road at such times. makes his own. Why should he? Purple lights shadowed the glistening Became disgusted and suggested Entered Cuevas cut-off with heart bar of ruby. that S. ride on my running-board. The in my throat because town had obvi- “Seldom we get the chance. Most Captain refused. He said it wasn’t dig- ously just been bombed. More houses of them are pretty well empty when nified. I said that either he would ride had gone, their viscera splayed into they go out. Those four over there on the running board or I would and I the street. Had the hospital been hit; were in one of those clay dugouts in wasn’t going to let him drive my car. and the Major? Continued on page 10 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 9 Excerpts Continued from page 9 the wall of the main street. No timbers as if he were the one who shot them, on the roof. Direct hit. Asphyxiated, February 16, Muniesa and perhaps he was. If our supplies all of them. Their comrades dug them Before I go to Bed had run so low that we had only a sin- out before they were cold and brought The fascist head-case had been gle ounce of ether or a dram of them up here. Thought we could help. giving us much trouble. He makes morphine, a foot of catgut and one ban- Their bad luck” —Saxton pointed to more noise than the rest of the patients dage roll left, and two patients to treat, the four gray young faces with clay- and incessantly demands water. Head- I think that the Republican would get stuffed mouths— “was our good luck. cases are given very little fluids to them and not the fascist. When the We’re running short on donors and drink because of the danger of pneu- operating tables are so busy that their the transfusion truck is too busy.” monia, I think. His arms catch at the doors are blocked with unconscious “You mean . . . that you’re going to air. He pulls the sheet over his head men waiting on stretchers, who should . . .” and stares at us from under it with a be taken first, our men or Theirs? Two “Well, first I’ll have to type and single terrible eye. men are heavily wounded. Both of then test it . . . why not? . . . have to A great change came over the fas- them should be operated on immedi- hurry.” cist this morning. Sana had soft-boiled ately. The militiaman’s chances of I touched the bright tube with my a quantity of eggs for the patients. As living are greater than the fascist’s, but hard black fingertips. Was the glass she worked down the ward, carefully many hours have passed since both warm with the sun or with human feeding liquid gold into the mouths of men should have been treated. Would life? each man, I wondered what she would the Major be justified in first operating Now I understand why we do when she got to the fascist. The on the Republican? must win. Men die but the blood fights sheet had come down from his face With the entire ward looking at on in other veins and their purpose and he was for once quiet. her, Sana held the fascist head-case in fills other hearts. The eyes of even the half-conscious her arms and fed him two soft-boiled were on him and on Sana. Would he be eggs. She is not Mary Magdalen and February 4. Valverde fed? It would be easy for me to say “all he is not Christ. If this is religion, then Matthews and Hemingway are wounded are as alike as corpses.” We I am religious. the only non-military non-Spanish I do not hate the fascists when they lie in Calm has come over the ward. The have seen in Spain. Once when I was our hospital, but only when they do wounded fascist no longer keeps the filling in a shell hole a small limousine not. It would not matter if the head- bed sheet over his eyes. Desperation came tearing down the road so fast I case were a German artilleryman or an has gone from his cries. Softly he calls had to put on the ditchdiving act I use Italian aviator, or William Carney or for the Virgin Mary to cure him. when the planes come near. “That’s handsome Adolf or Mussolini or blind Although he no longer believes we Hemingway,” said someone pointing old General Milan Astray or the tercios will kill him, he may still think that at the vanishing cloud of dust. yelling “down with intelligence! hurrah we want to kill God. “He’s a writer and I’m a writer,” I for death!” All wounded should be But if the fascist head-case were thought, and went back to work. given eggs when we have eggs. I am a an aviator, we should not have given Newspaper correspondents, liter- poor hater of people and a great hater him an egg. I am sometimes thankful ary men, visiting members of of ideas. If a man has cholera or small- that my job does not require me to kill Parliament, trade union leaders and pox or fascism, you hate, not the man, people, but if I ever have a chance to lady novelists in search of a story for but the germs he carries. You do not get at an aviator I will strangle him, the New Yorker run through the bow- hate Hearst or attempt to destroy him. because I have only eight shells for my els of the Front—and they are His ideas may not be killed with a revolver and know that I will never be bowels—like a dose of Epsom salts. I trench knife. able to get new ones. The aviator cannot blame them. They arrive, ask a Therefore the fascist should be should be buried in one piece, unlike few questions, look up at the sky, then given an egg although the other so many of his victims. jump back into their cars. wounded men in the ward look at him

10 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 11 12 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 13 The Green Shirt of Fascism: Environmentalist Dimensions of Fascist Ideology

By Francisco Seijo citizens’ sensibilities. Nationalist and the Franco regime, Spain attempted to nvironmentalism is arguably one environmentalist ideas were often install the Nazi model of nature pro- of the most attractive alternative mixed indistinguishably in these early paganda in the country. Plans were Eideologies for those critical of the nationalist thinkers’ reflections; made, for instance, for the creation of a political and economic system existing nature and national landscape became national plan of propaganda through in advanced capitalist nations. As a an essential component of the new which Spaniards would be taught “a post-materialist ideology, environmen- spirituality. The first important politi- love for and appreciation of nature.” talism claims to transcend traditional cian to make eco-nationalist ideas his The Nazi influence became partic- left and right political distinctions by own was Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th ularly apparent in the forest policy of postulating as a universal and non- president of the United States. Along the Franco regime. The term partisan goal the human race’s with Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt Repoblación Forestal (Reforestation)— survival in a natural environment rav- helped found the United States Forest employed by the Spanish state to aged by industrial pollution and Service, thus turning the ideology of define its plan of massive tree planta- economic development. scientific natural conservationism into tions—consciously referred to the Environmentalism, however, is official state policy. Repoblación policy carried out by the not as new a political ideology—or as The next nationalist regime to Catholic kings to re-populate con- politically neutral—as many of its fol- make environmentalist ideas central quered Moorish lands with lowers may think. Like all political to its political project was Nazi pure-blooded Christians. ideologies, environmentalism has a Germany. The main defenders of envi- Paradoxically, though the Spanish history. Its intellectual origins are ronmentalist ideas within the Nazi state’s policy of reforestation claimed bound to those of nationalism, possi- regime were Field Marshall Hermann to be favorable to peasant interests, in bly still the world’s dominant political Göring and Richard Walther Darré, fact it contributed to the Spanish peas- ideology. Some historians, in fact, Hitler’s minister of agriculture. By antry’s abandonment of the argue that environmentalism reached 1934 Göring had created a federal for- countryside and their migration to its political apex during the 20th cen- est state agency—the Reichsforstamt urban areas. Simply put, there was no tury interwar period, when many of (Reich Forest Office)—under his direct space in the countryside for trees and the ultra-nationalist Fascist regimes command. Göring’s attraction to such peasants. The perfectly aligned sol- that came to power in Europe sought ideas was, of course, only partly envi- dier-like trees of the Francoist regime to turn its until then vague ideological ronmental. A forestry based on the were forcefully planted in the commu- program into official state policy. natural regeneration of local tree spe- nally owned peasant common lands, The story of environmentalism’s cies, rather than on what until then thus depriving many peasants of their connection with Fascism begins in the had been the official forest policy in economic livelihood. 19th century, when various cultural Germany of carrying out massive The environmentalist dimension movements, such as Romanticism in reforestations with fast-growing exotic of Fascist ideology is still the object of Europe, developed powerful critiques species, attracted him not only from much controversy. Most scholars of the modern urban and industrial an ecological but also from an ideolog- debate whether this connection life that was just starting to emerge. ical point of view. A pure German emerged in a purely coincidental way These ideas inspired political thinkers Aryan race, in Göring’s mind, needed or whether it hides a deeper affinity to develop the concept of the nation as an equally pure German ecosystem in between both ideologies. There is no a spiritual basis upon which to build which to live and thrive. doubt that environmentalist and political regimes more attuned to their The Nazi variety of eco-national- nationalist sensibilities share a family ism was also tremendously influential resemblance. Even today, eco-national- Francisco Seijo is a lecturer in political science at Middlebury College School in in other Fascist regimes, particularly ist movements prosper throughout Spain. Francoist Spain. In the early years of Continued on page 19

14 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 assistants on the day shift at strike Letters to the editor headquarters. (I have photographs of him during the strike.) Dear Editor, withdraw as editor and resign his The article seems to imply that Recently, while attending a meet- VALB post if Hemingway’s piece was George started working regularly at ing sponsored by ALBA, I heard many killed. Finally a wall vote was called. the News in 1939. I don’t think that’s laudatory references to Ernest Irv and one other vet stood on one accurate. While I cannot confirm Hemingway. What came flooding side and everyone else stood on the exactly when he started there, I do back to me was a bitter controversy other side. know that George worked in several involving Hemingway some 50 years Irv was called an enemy of the shops before coming to the News. ago. It happened when I was married working class. He said that if they There are other reasons why I doubt to Irving Fajans. A labor organizer, he could say that they were never his the accuracy of that date, which would joined the Lincoln Brigade to fight friends and had never really known require a knowledge of the industry, against fascism in Spain. Then, during him. He resigned his position with and which I choose not to discuss in World War II, he served with the OSS VALB (which later published the book print. in Italy. without Hemingway’s piece and with Also, the artists, Raphael and Shortly after he came back from a preface condemning his politics). Moses, spelled their surname Soyer Italy, Irv was made Executive On the subway coming home, Irv (not Sawyer), the way their paintings Secretary of VALB. On its behalf he had his first heart attack. He died in are signed. planned a publishing project to reach 1967. Sincerely, the broadest readership with the story I write now because since that Arthur A. Wasserman of the Spanish Civil War. It would be a time the name of Irving Fajans has literary anthology of prose and poetry, almost never appeared in the VALB Dear Editor, drawn from journalists, poets, and newsletter, The Volunteer. Should his I was saddened to learn of the novelists who had first-hand experi- lifelong struggle against fascism in death of Lincoln vet Dave Smith on ence of that conflict. Working together Spain, in Italy, in Germany and at July 2, so soon after his achievement in with co-editor Alvah Bessie, also a home, be overlooked? Forgotten? driving the San Francisco Lincoln Brigade veteran, material was col- Revisionist history and turning active Brigade Memorial to its completion. It lected from Americans and Europeans leaders into non-persons will not help was indeed a privilege for me to be for a book entitled The Heart of Spain. us understand the complexities of our present at that unveiling on March 30 But before going to press, a rancor- times. History does count. and to renew my acquaintanceship ous dispute erupted when the French Mimi Fajans Rockmore with Dave himself. Communist poet Louis Aragon said I had first met Dave in Spain dur- he would withdraw his piece unless Dear Editor, ing the 1996 Homenaje a las Brigadas the editors dropped the contribution I read the article about George Internacionales. by Ernest Hemingway. This, appar- Brodsky with great interest. (“After I had also met Abe Osheroff on ently because in his novel For Whom Spain, ‘Beyond Abstract Art,’” March that occasion. It is my great regret that the Bell Tolls, he had “insulted” the 2008.) As well as working together, we I never had the opportunity to say French Communist André Marty, who were personal friends. During visits to even a few words to Abe 12 years later, commanded the International his home in Queens, he would enter- after witnessing his slow arrival in his Brigades. Marty’s leadership was criti- tain my children with his hand wheelchair at the San Francisco cized by Hemingway as brutal and puppet, Misha. I still have one of memorial ceremony and having damaging to the cause. George’s shell paintings on my been overwhelmed by the power Irv responded by saying that he bookshelf. of his subsequent address. Different would not drop Hemingway from the I was George’s proofreading part- people were hit by emotion at differ- collection. Meetings were then called ner at the Daily News, on and off, from ent stages of the event and, of course, by the vets to denounce Hemingway— 1955 through 1965. And during the there was added poignancy to Abe’s and, indirectly, Irv. Irv argued against 114-day strike, December 1962 through words re that memorial—”Thank you censorship and threatened to March 1963, George was one of my Continued on page 20

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 15 CONSIDER A BEQUEST FOR ALBA Join ALBA’s Guernica Society

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives’ Guernica Society is a charitable gift annuity program. How a gift annuity works

The concept of a gift annuity is simple. A person wishing to support ALBA makes a gift of cash or marketable securities worth a minimum of $5,000. ALBA reinvests the assets and pays you or your designated beneficiaries a fixed income for life. Upon the death of the last beneficiary, the remaining funds are deposited into ALBA’s endowment.

Currently, gifts must be made by persons over the age of 60. If you are under 60, you can still set up an annuity and defer the payments until any day after your 60th birthday. This gives you an immediate tax deduction for your gift while guaranteeing you a regular stream of payments in the future.

The transaction is partly a charitable gift and partly a purchase of the income interest. Annuity payments are determined by the age or ages of the beneficiaries.

What are the advantages of a Charitable Gift Annuity?

Income for Life You have the benefit of a lifetime income for yourself and another person, if you choose.

Tax Deduction Savings The portion of the transaction that is considered a gift qualifies as a charitable income tax deduction.

Tax-Free Income Part of the annual income is considered a tax-free return of capital, excluding it from gross income until you reach your life expectancy.

Capital Gains Tax Savings If you contribute appreciated securities, you will need to pay some capital gains taxes for the “sale” portion of the transaction, but it is payable over your life expectancy - rather than being due all at once.

Significant Support for ALBA The ability to support ALBA to a greater degree than you might have thought possible.

For more information, contact Jill Annitto, Director of Operations, at (212) 674-5398.

16 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 DVD Reviews

bombastic exhortations with obscene The Good Fight and sarcastic ditties. Fine as the movie was when it first “Classic” DVD Re-released appeared, the latest edition has valu- able special features. A 1988 interview The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln with the filmmakers fleshes out their Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Kino are all particularly effective on-screen motivations for making the film. An International Corp., 1984, 2008; 98 witnesses. Their anecdotes and obser- homage to the brigade includes photo- minutes plus special features. vations reveal not just the struggles of graphs of international tributes and the Spanish Civil War, but the vets’ footage of Pete Seeger singing “Viva By Robert W. Snyder efforts to understand the war decades La Quince Brigada” with veterans at a later. symposium on the Spanish Civil War n 1984, the documentary The Good Yet this is a film of history as well at Dartmouth College. A commemora- Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in as memory. The Good Fight provides tive list documents the names of the Ithe Spanish Civil War introduced brisk but comprehensive introductions American soldiers, nurses and doctors movie audiences to the American vol- to the Thirties, the origins of the who served in Spain and those who unteers in Spain. Kino International Spanish Civil War, the major battles died there. And a special selection of has now released a new edition of the that defined the conflict, and the con- outtakes from interviews with Bill film, with added features, that tours of the vets’ lives after Spain. It Bailey preserves the stories of a man reminds us why the original was recognizes the importance of the who was a superb raconteur. acclaimed when it first appeared. Communist Party in the formation of This edition retains the original’s Written, produced and directed the Brigade, but it points out that not strong spirit but offers new formatting by Noel Buckner, Mary Dore and all the volunteers were members of the and special features that make it well Sam Sills, The Good Fight has all Party. It acknowledges differences worth owning. the elements of the best historical among the veterans over the Hitler- documentaries of its time: historic Stalin Pact, but it illuminates their ALBA board member Robert W. Snyder is film footage, still photographs, inter- service in World War II. It also depicts an associate professor of journalism and views, music, and a strong narration the harassment and prosecution that American studies at Rutgers-Newark. (in this case, delivered skillfully by many of the veterans suffered during Studs Terkel). Yet if you view this World War II and the McCarthy years documentary in its new edition, you as “premature anti-fascists.” At the won’t feel like you’re watching an end of The Good Fight, a coda shows Purchase books aging film about distant history. the vets trooping off to demonstra- The story itself, of course, is still tions throughout the 1980s. and DVDs gripping. But what makes The Good Most importantly, this is a film Fight engrossing is the opportunity to that admires the courage of the through the ALBA see the vets when they were decades Abraham Lincoln Brigade without glo- website from younger. We glimpse them not just rifying war. Film footage of men in when they were in Spain, but as they elaborate casts, a still shot of a one- Powell's Books look back on Spain from maturity legged man, and Bailey’s memories of with the passions of youth still visible lice all take the romance out of the www.alba-valb.org on their faces. Bill Bailey, Abe war. So does Osheroff’s recounting of Osheroff, Salaria Kea, and Milt Wolff wounded soldiers who responded to

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 17 Book Reviews

supported the Republic. Good people Spies in Postwar Spain comprised the Republic. (We meet a number of those good people suffer- Winter in Madrid. By C. J. Sanson. New ing under fascism.) Sure, there were York: Viking, 2008. 530 pp. $25.95. International Brigades and disap- communists, and for the most part, peared during the Battle of Jarama. they were the bad apples of left-wing By Charles Oberndorf His girlfriend, Red Cross nurse Spain, but not the heart and soul of Barbara Clare, asked Harry to come to the Republic. Bernie Piper, for most of think it’s safe to say there are few, if Spain in 1938 to try to find out what the novel, seems to be the only com- any, completely successful novels had happened to Bernie. munist who hasn’t had his soul Iabout the Spanish Civil War. The Now, in 1940, a despondent twisted to make him capable of nature of the war is enormous, and the Barbara has left the Red Cross and is Stalinist treachery. fine novels that do exist, such as Javier Forsyth’s girlfriend. While Harry is The best scenes in the novel are Cercas’ Soldiers of Salamis, focus on one trying to uncover Forsyth’s business set in the Republican prison camp. incident or one aspect of the war. On plans, Barbara is contacted by a des- The tensions and conflicts amid gruel- the other hand, the fetid compost heap perately impoverished man. His ing conditions bring out the best and of the postwar period seems to have brother works as a guard at an iso- the worst of the characters, so we get caused the flowering of much good lated prison camp for Republican complex portraits of a young priest, a fiction, whether they be masterpieces soldiers. The brother has seen Bernie devoted Republican, and a conflicted such as Camilo José Cela’s The Hive Piper. For the right amount of money, prison guard. and Juan Marsé’s The Fallen or enter- he will help him escape. C.J. Sanson, who is known in tainments such as Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s These plot lines all converge, Britain for a series of mysteries set in The Shadow of the Wind and the though at times I found myself wish- Tudor England, has a great sense of recently released Winter in Madrid. ing for a little more John Le Carré place and an ability to dramatize key It’s 1940, and Harry Brett, shell- complexity or moral ambiguity. The moments in history. If you want to shocked by the Battle of Dunkirk, is novel’s first quarter does an expert job give someone a sense of why the recruited by MI-5. During his years at of using dramatic flashbacks to estab- Spanish Civil War was such an impor- a prestigious boarding school, Harry lish character and place, and the last tant event in its day, this novel can do had befriended Sandy Forsyth. Forsyth is now in Madrid conducting Susbscribe to The Volunteer some kind of shady dealings involving key players in the Spanish govern- www.alba-valb.org ment. British Intelligence is working to make sure that Franco doesn’t become quarter moves along at great speed. the trick. It’s not a perfect novel, politi- a full-fledged ally of the Germans, and The middle suffers a bit for several cally or aesthetically, but it works well they want Harry to contact Forsyth, reasons. First, the novel is a romance as an entertainment and as a fictional renew their friendship, and find out as well as a mystery and espionage window on the dark, sad landscape what he’s up to. thriller, and the romance scenes just that was postwar Spain. While in boarding school, Harry don’t work well. Second, the number had also befriended Forsyth’s polar of flashbacks seem to multiply. Third, Charles Oberndorf is a novelist, book opposite, Bernie Piper, a working- Sanson works too hard to make sure reviewer, and English teacher. He is at class scholarship boy and an ardent we get the point of his history lesson: work on a biographical novel about communist. Bernie had joined the the western democracies should have Abraham Lincoln vet Abe Osheroff.

18 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Music Reviews Roots of SCW Songs

Folk Songs of Spain. By Germaine de Disc award. The record was Montero, Vanguard Classics, OVC- ALBA partners with released in the U.S. on Vanguard 8081. Records in 1959 and as a CD in 1995. Powell’s Books Used copies can probably be found on ALBA is happy to announce its By Bruce Barthol the internet. collaboration with Portland-based bout 20 years ago I first stum- Germaine Montero was born in independent bookstore, Powell’s bled on Folk Songs of Spain by France. At age 18, she went to Granada Books. Our longtime partner, Cody’s Books, has closed after 52 years of Germaine Montero while to work with Garcia Lorca's theater A business. searching for inspiration for a musical company. When she returned to about the Spanish Civil War. It was a France, she acted as well as sang, in When you order any item from problematic purchase, given that the films and on television. She was Powell’s through our website, ALBA record (you remember those) had a known particularly for her acclaimed will receive a percentage of the total purchase, at no additional cost to rather insipid cover of a woman wear- performances of the works of Lorca you. The bookstore link is located at ing a mantilla. That did not bode well. and Berthold Brecht. She died in 2000. our site, www.alba-valb.org. Was it going to be Montovani Does Lorca used the word duende to Madrid? I bit the bullet and paid the describe the unique quality of fla- We are very excited about this partnership and hope that you will nine bucks. menco music (which I would also remember ALBA the next time you It was the best nine bucks I ever apply to the blues). He defined it as are shopping for books, movies, and spent. The record contains 31 songs consciousness of the presence of death. music. that open up the heart of the music of Montero brings that power and sensi- the people of Spain. Germaine tivity to this wonderful material. Thank you for your support! Montero’s voice is compelling, and the Bruce Barthol, formerly of Country Joe —Jill Annitto orchestrations are supremely tasteful and the Fish and the San Francisco Mime Director of Operations and appropriate to the various regions Troupe, performs frequently at Lincoln [email protected] of Spain and styles of the songs. From Brigade events. full orchestra to solo guitar, the musi- cal arrangements give each song character and power. It is the combina- Environment tion of the lyrics and music with Continued from page 14 Montero’s interpretation that conveys Europe, especially at the subnational a latent Fascist (and vice versa). Not the vitality of the Spanish people and level. Green and nationalist parties all nationalists have turned into fas- of the human spirit in general. have formed coalitions in the Basque cists. Yet it is a sine qua non condition Those with an interest in the music Country, Wales, Catalonia, Scotland, that all Fascists are also nationalists. of the Spanish Civil War will hear and other Eastern European countries. History warns us, however, that the the songs that became “Los Cuatro In more extreme forms, minority neo- temptation of the often abstract and Generales” (“Los Cuatro Muleros”) fascist movements have emerged in weaker environmentalist ideology to and “El Quinto Regimiento” (verse the United States mixing white ally itself with its more popular from “El Vito”; chorus from “Las supremacy ideologies with environ- cousin, nationalism, has in some cases Contrabandistas De Ronda”). mentalist ideas. led to undesirable, and unexpected, The recordings were made in This is not to say, of course, that political outcomes. Paris in 1953 and won the Grand Prix inside every environmentalist there is

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 19 Book Reviews Photos of the Struggle for a Better World

Chronicles of Humanity. Photography by includes those on the other Sydney Harris. Salved Press, 2007. side, such as William Buckley and Nelson By Richard Bermack Rockefeller. incoln vet Sydney Harris was a The book contains action prominent Chicago activist and photographs of labor Ltop labor photographer. He marches, strikes, and anti- headed the Chicago post of the war rallies. Perhaps the most Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln moving of Harris’s photo- Brigade, served as a body guard for graphs are the portraits of Paul Robeson, and was a fixture on everyday people, on picket picket lines and at demonstrations. He lines, at demonstrations, and This photo of vet Eddie Balchowski is one of Sydney Harris's many portraits of activists in Chronicles of worked as a photographer for the on the shop floor. He captures Humanity. major unions and produced and not just the mighty, but the edited several local union newsletters. simple human dignity of American Copies of the book can be obtained by Harris's family has published a workers. The book is a family album sending a check for $16 to Jerry Harris, collection of his photographs docu- of progressive struggles that captures 1250 N. Wood Street, Chicago, IL 60622. menting the political activism and the the aspirations not just of this Lincoln movements of the latter part of the vet, but of all those who aspire to cre- 20th Century. The book contains pho- ate a better world. tographs of civil rights leaders from Martin Luther King to Stokeley Letters Carmichael, from Paul Robeson and Continued from page 15 William Dubois to Jessie Jackson and Harold Washington; writers such as for making us immortal!” —when months of his life. Carl Sandburg, Studs Terkel, and we subsequently learned that both he The part of Abe Osheroff’s speech Norman Mailer; labor leaders such as and Abe Smorodin, whom I had seen that had particularly, but unexpect- César Chávez, Walter Reuther, and fall at the end of the ceremony, had edly, ambushed me with emotion was, Dolores Huerta; artists and activists passed on a week later. Like Dave, it however, the following: “What the hell such as Ron Kovic, Pete Seeger, Eddie was as if they had both willed them- are monuments all about? ... I’ll tell Balchowski, and Frank Lloyd Wright. selves to live for that memorial you what it’s all about for me. Some The book contains photographs of pol- completion, as my own Irish vet father, day in the not too distant future, some iticians such as Henry Wallace, Michael O’Riordan, had willed him- guy will be walking through here Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, self to live for the first ever annual with a couple of his adolescent kids, and John and Ted Kennedy. It also general meeting of the International and one of the kids will say, ‘Dad, Richard Bermack is the art director and Brigade Memorial Trust to be held in what’s that?’ And this Dad may know designer of The Volunteer and author of Dublin in October 2005, before falling the answer.” The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans only one month later and being per- Manus O’Riordan of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. manently hospitalised for the last six Dublin

20 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 MONUMENT MAINTENANCE FUND CONTRIBUTIONS

Friend ($500 - $999) • Raymond Hoff in memory of Harold Hoff •

Patron ($100 – $499) • Ulrick Bodek • Rory Flanagan •

Donor ($1 - $99) • Grace B. Anderson • Paul J. Baicich • Terry Bayes • Alain Bujard • Parker Coddington • Daniel and Susan Cohen • Leslie Correll • Charles and Alice Dekker • Carol Edelson • Saul and Felice Ehrlich • Brian Ferris • Leona Feyer • Richard Flacks • Noel and Catherine Folsom • Isolina Gerona • Paul Gittelson • Beatrice Goodman • Timothy Grier • Alexander Hilkevitch • Henry Horowitz • Amirah Inglis • Charles Kaufman • Thomas Kuzma • Victoria and Richard Layh • Gale Lederer • Richard and Victoria Myers • Charles and Gayle Nunley • Milton Okin • Yvette Pollack • Paul Preuss and Debra Turner • Leonard Raznick • Fred and Rosalind Scheiner • Patricia Sitkin • Gerardo Flores Tellez • Jordi Torrent • Edwin Vargas • Susan Wallis • Frederick Warren • Norman and Ruth Williams • Chic Wolk • GENERAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Supporter ($1,000 - $4,999) • Harry A. Parsons in memory of Milt Wolff and Moe Fishman •

Friend ($500 - $999) • Joseph and Nancy Pearl and Susan Linn and Clifford Craine in memory of Sidney Linn •

Patron ($100 - $499) • Lucille Banta in memory of Robert Banta, Milt Wolff and Moe Fishman • Ulrick Bodek • Peter N. Carroll in memory of Abe Osheroff, David Smith, Abe Smorodin, and Ted Veltfort • Frank X. Dell • Edward Everts • Herbert Freeman • Rochelle Gatlin • ReeAnn Halonen in memory of OIva Halonen • Earl Harju in memory of Ted Veltfort and Milt Wolff • Donald and Kate Harris • Rhea K. Kish in memory of Leslie Kish • Joanna Knobler in memory of Irv Fajans • Paul Krantz • Sidney Leitson in memory of Morton Leitson • Helen Lossowski • Steve and Linda Lustig • Robert Mattson • Dolores Martin in memory of David Smith and Federico Garcia Lorca • Patricia J. Maurer in memory of Max Shufer • Andrew McKibben • John Neis in memory of Milt Wolff • Michael Ratner and Karen Ranucci • Neal H. Rosenberg • Paul and Valerie Taylor • Chic Wolk •

Donor ($1 - $99) • Grace B. Anderson • Clinton and May Arndt in memory of David Smith • Jonathan Bank • Eugene Baron • Sidney Berkowitz • Philip Bernstein • Fred Blair • Louis H. Blumengarten • Judith Lorne Bly • Nicoholas Bryan and Jeri Wellman • Robert and Barbara Caress • Barbara Chan • Nancy Clough • Martin Comack • Thelma Correll • Jubilee and Eric Daniels • Lionel and Edith Davis • Marjorie Fasman • Morton and Libby Frank • Thelma Frye in memory of Peter Frye • Belle Ganapoler • Lola and Isaiah Gellman • Martha Glicklich • Paul Gittelson • Marvin and Rochelle Goldman in memory of David Smith • Luke Gordon • Mortimer Greenhouse • Timothy Grier • Timothy Harding and S. Dorothy Fox • Marilyn Hawes • Paula Hollowell • Richard Hudgins • Joan Intrator • Martin Jacobs • Betty Kallo • Jonathan Kaufman • Robert Kimbrough • Judith and Alfred Koral • William Knapp and Judith Bell • Cary L. Lackey • Marc Levin • Glenn Lindfors in memory of Veikko Lindfors and Clarence and Kenneth Forrester • Ian MacGregor and Vickie Wellman • Paulina K. Marks • Stephanie and Richard Martin • Joan Mathews • Frances E. Merriman and Robert White • Gerald Meyer • Ann Niederkorn • Michael O’Connor • Ira

Continued on page 24

THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 21 Added to Memory’s Roster

for lack of funds. While at Michigan, was blacklisted during the McCarthy he attended a demonstration to sup- period. As they became disillusioned port Ford Motor Company striking with its direction, both he and his wife workers and saw three workers shot. left the Communist Party in the late This experience and earlier exposure 1950’s. to the Sacco and Vanzetti case marked Dave became a high school biol- the beginnings of his political ogy teacher after completing his BA awareness. from Michigan and obtaining a Because he wanted to make a dif- Masters Degree in Education from ference for ordinary working people, Columbia University. The majority of he volunteered for the International his 18 years of teaching were spent in Brigades when Spain’s democratic New Rochelle, New York, where he government was in danger. He served was an active teachers’ union orga- in Spain from the battle of Jarama, nizer and supported integration in the David Smith February 1937. He also saw action at New Rochelle public schools. (1913-2008) Brunete, where he served as a medic Dave retired in 1977 and moved and where he gave first aid to the with Sophie to southern Vermont, David Smith, last Commander of wounded Captain Oliver Law. Later, where they lived for almost 20 years. the Bay Area Post, died in Berkeley, Dave went to officer training school There they became active in local California, on July 2, 2008, just after and returned to the Lincoln- town government and Dave served on his 95th birthday. His last public Washington battalion during the the zoning board. They enthusiasti- appearance was at the dedication of action around Teruel. After the cally supported Madeline Kunin the National Monument in San recrossing of the Ebro River in the during her three successful Francisco on March 30. summer of 1938, Dave was wounded Democratic campaigns for Vermont A lifelong activist, Dave’s philoso- in the final actions in the Sierra Governor and Bernie Sanders’ inde- phy is best summed up in this quote: Pandols. He returned home December pendent campaign to represent “Spain changed my whole life. I saw a 1938 after the International Brigades Vermont in Congress. They were also country struggling—ordinary people, were dissolved and all volunteers left active in the local peace movement peasants, poor people. They couldn’t Spain. His wound left him with a dis- with the Bennington Peace Resource even read or write, but when these abled left shoulder, unable to fight in Center and the Somatillo-Bennington young people came up to the front, we WWII. County sister city project (Nicaragua). became an integrated army, the people Dave settled in the New York City Dave was heavily involved with the struggling against the oppressing area, marrying Sophie Kaplan in 1940. Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln group of fascists. It left an indelible They remained married for 59 years— Brigade as they raised funds to send impression on my mind. So when I got until her death in 1999. Before they ambulances to Nicaragua. He and back, I decided that I was going to be met, both Dave and Sophie had Sophie joined many vets as they committed to furthering the cause of already joined the Communist Party, accompanied the delivery of the the people, whatever I did.” in which they were active for about 20 ambulances. The oldest of four children, Dave years. Dave had become a machinist, While in Vermont, Dave became was born June 30, 1913, in Malden, working in several plants as a labor an avid organic vegetable gardener Massachusetts, of Russian immigrant organizer. At Sperry Gyroscope he and made wonderful maple syrup! He parents. He grew up in nearby was involved as a UE organizer of sev- participated in the Green Mountain Chelsea and then attended the eral successful strikes for better wages Club and took grandchildren on many University of Michigan from 1931 to and working conditions. In the late hikes and backpacking trips. He also 1935, dropping out in his senior year 1940’s he lost his job at Sperry’s and he enjoyed cross country skiing.

22 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Added to Memory’s Roster

In 1995 Dave and Sophie moved to In 1936, Martin went to Spain to the San Francisco Bay Area to be join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. closer to family. In the Bay Area, Dave Although a pacifist, he felt a moral continued his love of the outdoors, imperative to contribute to the cause. working in community gardens and He served for two and a half years as hiking, both with family and with a lab technician and field medic. Sierra Club elders. Volunteering again to serve in Dave remained politically active World War II, Martin spent four years and attended many Bay Area anti-war in the army, stationed in Georgia and demonstrations. He also reconnected Okinawa, again in a non-combat with the West Coast veterans of the capacity. After serving his country Abraham Lincoln Brigade, working selflessly, he was compelled to change with them to support the School of the his name legally from Morris Americas Watch and Veterans for Martin Balter Kornblum to Martin Balter (taking his Peace, among other social justice wife’s maiden name) during the causes. (1913-2008) McCarthy era to avoid hounding by Dave became head of the Bay Area Martin Balter (born Morris the FBI for his participation in the Post of the Veterans and Friends of the Kornblum), a chemical engineer and Spanish Civil War. Abraham Lincoln Brigade and spent social activist, died on April 27 at his Martin was not a man of great several years working on a monument assisted living residence in Commack, financial means, but a man of great to honor the Lincoln Vets. He believed New York, at the age of 95. The day of principles. Although he owned only that such a monument was needed to his death, his wife Clara was repre- 100 shares of Eastman Kodak, when inspire young people to consider ways senting him at the annual reunion nobody else would volunteer, he in which they can make a difference in event in New York. allowed his name to be listed as the building a more just society. On Martin was the fifth of nine chil- lead plaintiff in a suit supported by March 30 he was able to speak at the dren born to Ethel and Isadore the American Jewish Congress in 1974 dedication of the monument designed Kornblum, illiterate Romanian immi- to force Eastman Kodak to permit the by Ann Chamberlain and Walter grants, who saw to it that their son’s stockholders to vote on a proposal Hood, which is located on the San intellect was nurtured. He graduated dealing with Kodak’s complicity with Francisco waterfront near the first in his class, with a master’s the Arab boycott of Israel. He sup- Vaillancourt Fountain. degree in chemical engineering from ported the Holocaust Resource Center Shortly after the monument dedi- the College of the City of New York at Manhattan College, helping to pro- cation, Dave’s health declined. He died (now City College of CUNY). He was mote better understanding between on July 2, retaining his sense of humor passed over for good jobs because of Christians and Jews, personally until the end. He is survived by two his Jewish roots and humble back- underwriting model Passover seders daughters, Joanne Smith and Linda ground, but eventually he found a and annual bus trips to the Holocaust Lustig; a son-in-law, Steve Lustig; his position as chief chemical engineer at Museum in Washington, DC. He also partner of nine years, June Spero; Miranol Chemical Company, a whole- was a supporter of the Foundation for three grandchildren and their sale manufacturer of detergents, in Righteous Christians, an organization spouses; and five great grandchildren. Irvington, New Jersey. His company that offers financial assistance to non- If anyone wishes to donate in his was the supplier of the main ingredi- Jews who, at great personal risk, gave memory, the family requests that ents of Johnson and Johnson’s baby shelter and hiding places to thousands ALBA be the recipient. shampoo, a product he was instru- of Jews who otherwise would not have mental in developing. survived. Growing up in a household

Continued on page 24 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 23 Added to Memory’s Roster where only Yiddish was spoken, Rosario Sánchez “Rosario la dinamitera” for her Martin was a charter member and bravery. donor to the National Yiddish Book Mora, “Rosie Rosario was condemned to death Center, an organization that has so far the Dynamiter” in 1939 along with her father, who was rescued one and a half million summarily shot. Rosario served three Yiddish books that would have been (1919-2008) years in prison. When she left prison, destroyed or lost forever. Eternally One of the last surviving milici- she managed to set up a kiosk in grateful for the free education pro- anas—the female foot soldiers who Madrid where she sold tobacco and vided to him, he participated in the took up arms against the insurgent earned her livelihood. renovation of the Great Hall at City military forces in the early days of the Like all dissidents, Rosario had to College, where he had spent many war—and the most famous, died in maintain silence during the Regime. hours studying. A passionate lover of Madrid on April 19, nearly 89 years However, when Franco died, she classical music who never had the old. Rosario had left her village near began to clamor for vindication of opportunity as a child to study the Madrid to study sewing in the capital those who had fought against him. violin, he was a major donor of the at age 15. She was quickly recruited She was vociferous about the way his- Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, into the Socialist Youth Group. Two tory had treated the milicianas—as California, where his daughter Joan is years later the war broke out, and women who went to the frontlines as on the Board of Directors. when the call to arms went out to the prostitutes, not as soldiers. Martin leaves his wife of 59 years, youth in Madrid, Rosario—full of Until recently, Rosario was an Clara Balter of the Bronx; two daugh- political fervor for the Republic— active communist. She often spoke at ters, Lucy Weinstein, a pediatrician asked if they were recruiting women. conferences celebrating historical and public health physician of She was assigned to an explosives memory. Huntington, New York, and Joan unit, and while working with crude, Years ago Rosario took up paint- Balter, a luthier (violin maker) in hand-made bombs, she lost her right ing. Several of her canvases hung in Berkeley, California; and two hand. The poet-soldier Miguel her home. She was most proud of her grandchildren. Hernández—who would die in prison portrait of Miguel Hernández. in 1942—wrote a poem honoring the —Shirley Mangini young woman, thus immortalizing

GENERAL CONTRIBUTIONS Continued from page 21 Oser • Joseph and Mary Palen • Walter J. Philips • Irene Piccone • Maxwell O. Reade • Alice Richards in mem- ory of Ted Veltfort • Mark S. Robbins • Muriel Rockmore • Dagny and Ramon Rodriguez • Howard and Lisa Brier Rose • Wolfgang Rosenberg • Catherine and Robert Roth • Helen Rucker • Yoa G.Sachs • Lois Salo in memory of Ted Salo • Ruth and Michael Samberg • Fred and Rosalind Scheiner • Richard Seeley • Joe Sexauer • Eugene Shapiro • Mary and Henry Shoiket • Patricia Sitkin • Melvin Small • Irwin and Elizabeth Sollinger • Clarence Steinberg • William Timpson • Jordi Torrent • Edwin Vargas • David Warren and Susan Crawford in memory of Alvin Warren • Frederick Warren in memory of Al Warren • Theodore Watts • Sam and Hilda Weinberg in mem- ory of Lou Secundy • Michael Slipyan • Susan Wallis • Chic Wolk • Peter Yarrow • Quentin Young • Henry and Josephine Yurek • The above donations were made from April 16, 2008, through July 31, 2008. All donations made after July 31 will appear in the December 2008 issue of The Volunteer. Your continued support of ALBA and its important projects is so appreciated!

24 THE VOLUNTEER September 2008 Preserving the past… to change the present. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an independent, nonprofit educational organization devoted to enlightening the American people about our country's progressive traditions and democratic political values. Over the past 25 years ALBA has created the largest U.S. collection of historical sources relating to the Spanish Civil War, including letters, diaries, public documents, photographs, posters, newspapers, videos, and assorted memorabilia. This unique archive is permanently housed at New York University's Tamiment Library, where students, scholars, and researchers may learn about the struggle against fascism. For more information go to: WWW.alba-valb.org

Yes, I wish to become an ALBA Associate, and I enclose a check for $40 made out to ALBA (includes a one year subscription to The Volunteer).

Name ______

Address ______

City______State ___Zip______q I’ve enclosed an additional donation of _____. I wish q do not wish q to have this donation acknowledged in The Volunteer. Please mail to: ALBA, 799 Broadway, Suite 341, New York, NY 10003 La Despedida Honor the 70th anniversary of the Barcelona Farewell Barcelona, Spain: October 23-26 San Francisco: Saturday, November 1, 2-5 pm Delancey Street Screening Room, 600 Embarcadero For tickets, contact Jill Annitto at [email protected]. NYC: Saturday, November 8, 6 pm King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, NYU 53 Washington Square South Free and open to the public. War Is Beautiful Reading and Discussion NYC: Monday, November 10, 6 pm Cervantes Institute of New York, 211 E 49th St. San Francisco: Tuesday, November 18, 7 pm City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave. Seattle: Thursday, November 20, 7:30 pm Elliott Bay Books, 101 S Main St. For more information & updates, visit our online calendar: www.alba-valb.org

The Volunteer Non Profit org c/o Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives 799 Broadway, Suite 341 US Postage New York, NY 10003 Paid San Francisco, CA permit no. 1577