Barcelona Monument to Jewish Volunteers in Spanish Civil War

Barcelona Monument to Jewish Volunteers in Spanish Civil War By ARIEH LEB0W1TZ N March 25, on a rainy morning in Union; Israel Kessar, secretary general, Othe Fossar de la Pedrera section of Histadrut; Lionel Kopelowitz, presi- the cemetery atop Montjuich (“Jews’ dent, European Jewish Congress; and Mountain) in Barcelona, nearly 150 par- from the USA, Elie Wiesel, Bella Ab- ticipants gathered to dedicate a memor- zug, the Yiddish journalist S. L. Shnei- ial to the estimated 7,000 Jewish volun- derman, and Abe Smorodin of the Vet- teers in the five International Brigades erans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. during the Spanish Civil War (1936- Over the past year, Liebermann re- 1939). Veterans, relatives of fallen fight- ports, the project was able to locate and ers and representatives of the city, in- bring 140 Jewish veterans (“ex-briga- eluding Luis Armet, Deputy Mayor of distas”) and/or their surviving spouses Barcelona, listened as names of Jewish and children in 15 countries: Austria, volunteers were recited, along with mes- Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, sages from members of an international Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Is- support committee headed by Willy rael, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Brandt, leader of the Socialist Inter- the United States, Yugoslavia and the national. Estimates of the total number Soviet Union. Ed Lending was the only of volunteers in the International Bri- U.S. vet present. gades vary from 35,000 to nearly According to Liebermann, the Jews 60,000. were proportionally one of the largest The project to commemorate these ethnic groups within the Brigades. I. Jews was initiated by the Union des An- Bobby Brown of Antwerp, Belgium, ciens Resistants Juifs de Belgique (Un- who went to Spain in 1936 and worked ion of Jewish Veteran Resisters of Bel- as a mechanic, and now lives in Brook- gium), headquartered in Brussels, ac- lyn, NY, told me that the Belgian Jews cording to D>ov Liebermann. A native who fought were Polish refugees ex- of Poland now living in Brussels and pelled from Poland in 1934 and 1935. himself a civil war veteran, Liebermann When the civil war broke out, they de- spent a full year to bring this project to cided to Fight. Albert Prago, a veteran fruition, including assembling the in- of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades and temational support committee and de- author of Jews in the International Bri- signing the monument, which was fab- gades in Spain, a pamphlet reprint from ricated in Brussels. JEWISH CURRENTS (1979), estimates In addition to Willy Brandt, the sup- that Jews made up about 30% of the port committee of 29 includes Gen. Al- North American contingent exander Osipenko, head of the Spanish The monument, a six-foot-tall star, Section of the Soviet War Veterans or- is located in a section of the Montjuich ganization; Mikhail Chlenov, president, cemetery in which also stands a monu- Jewish Associations of the Soviet ment to the Austrian members of the International Brigades as well as the ARIEH LEBOWTTZ, a new contributor, mausoleum of Luis Companys, leader is the editor of Israel Horizons in New of the Esquerra Republicana de Cata- York, a Socialist-Zionist publication. lunya, a Catalan left-Republican nation 24 JEWISH CURRENTS alist party which signed the Popular internal Spanish political affairs]. Front pact of 1936. (On this mountain, Neither did I struggle in the revolution the Inquisition once burned Jews at the [i.e., the social revolution of the Span- stake.) Made of granite and marble, the ish anarchist movement of the FAI and monument combines a grey triangular CNT].” image of the International Brigade sym- Prago, in describing Jews in the bol with another triangle, which to- International Brigades, noted that they gether make a Mogen David (Jewish “went to Spain as internationalists, as star). On the monument are engraved in- humanists, as antifascists, as commu- scriptions in Catalan, Spanish, English nists — and while they might not have and French that give “homage to the denied their Jewish heritage, they did Jewish heroes who, out of 7,000 Jew- not go to Spain identifying as Jews. ish volunteers, from all countries, This is particularly true of the Amer- fighters of freedom, fell in Spain 1936- ican Jews.” Several decades later Prago 1939.” At the base of the monument, began to understand that “Despite our in large Hebrew letters, is engraved the assimilationist posture, there remains word “L ’kavod” (Homage). the stubborn, pregnant fact that so large Also quoted are two statements. One a percentage of the American volunteers is by Luigi Longo (Luigi Gallo), In- were Jews. Obviously rising anti- spector General of the International Semitism had had a powerful effect on Brigades: “Immense is our debt to the us.” Only the Naftali Botwin Company Jewish heroes who, in all our Brigades, of 150 Yiddish-speaking Jews from Po- have written magnificent pages. We land was explicitly a Jewish unit, with will show the world these glorious ex- a high level of Jewish consciousness. amples of sacrifice.” The other is by Two Botwin veterans were present, Haim Herzog, president of the state of Company Commander Emanuel Mink Israel: “The triumph of fascism in and Henry Sulevic, Recruit Com- Spain paved the way for Hitler and led mander. to the annihilation of human dignity: When Barcelona’s deputy mayor millions of people, among them six Armet addressed the ex-brigadistas, he million Jews, paid with their lives. asked them to return to their countries Honor is due to the thousands of volun- and relate that Barcelona, and Catalonia teers who, arms in hand, took a stand as a whole, “is now tolerant and free.” here against fascism. Among them, the Among the people at the dedication Jews formed a very great contingent” was Patrick Liebermann, Dov’s grandson. A “voluntary militant,” as he de- Why did they fight? One woman scribed himself to me, Dov Lieber- in Barcelona, speaking for the Belgian mann, who is involved with the secular ex-brigadistas, said that in 1936 they Jewish community center in Brussels came to Spain knowing full well they and its biweekly magazine, Regards, were fighting to preserve the liberty of has been an activist for over six Spain, of their countries and of the decades. “Probably the project to get the world. Salman J. Salzman, who fought monument created and dedicated will be alongside the Italian Communist En- my last big action. it was one year rique Lister in the latter’s 11th division, of work, 1 2 hours a day, to make all and now lives in Israel, stated in re- the contacts, etc Now I give the sponse to a journalist’s question that, “I message to my grandson to go ahead.”■ was in the war against fascism in Spain. I didn’t struggle in the Spanish Have you renewed your sub? Civil War [i.e., didn’t take sides within MAY, 1990 25.

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