The Volunteer, March 2006

8/14/2019 The Volunteer, March 2006

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Vol. XXVIII, No. 1 March 2006

Osheroff speaks at Human Rights Day Celebration, page 1

ALBA-Bob Reed Library to open in Spain, page 1

Children Search for Themselves in Mirrors, a story by Carlos Blanco, page 3

Parade honoring the vets who died at the Ebro (center, left to right) Spanish Brigader Leandro Saun, Susan Wallis (daughter of MiltWolff), Milt Wolff, Heather Bridger, and Italian Brigader Giovanni Pesce.See story page 10.


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Letter From the EditorWe continue to receive letters o praise or our special

September issue, The Cultural Legacy o the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade. Some readers have suggested we ex-

plore other aspects o that legacy, such as the contributionso Lincoln volunteers to other creative areas in science

and medicine. The ALBA collection at the Tamiment

Library has many unexplored les on the medical side o

the Spanish Civil War story. We welcome resh research

in the archives and encourage studies o volunteers like

John Cookson, Dr. Edward Barsky, and Proessor Clement

Markert, as well as the prominent social scientists on the

Lincoln roster, including anthropologists John Murra and

Elman Service, historian Robert Colodny, and many others

who deserve urther attention.

Another aspect o this legacy also shows up requently.Education reormer and author Jonathan Kozol, the winner

o the Pun-Nation prize or creative citizenship in 2005,

credited the Nation magazine or raising his political con-

sciousness. But who had introduced him to that magazine

over 40 years ago? A Lincoln vet who lived in his neighbor-

hood, Marcus Alper! Still another educational reormer is

Susan Linn, daughter o Lincoln vet Sid Linn, whose book

about the evils o marketing strategies that target children

is reviewed in this issue.

Meanwhile, ALBA strives to extend the infuence o

Lincoln vets through educational outreach. Thanks togenerous grants rom Perry and Gladys Rosenstein o the

Pun Foundation, Ltd., and rom The Cervantes Institute,

we have embarked on a major museum exhibition, New

York City and the Spanish Civil War. It is scheduled to

open at the Museum o the City o New York in March

2007, along with an accompanying catalogue o essays.

Were also planning another round o ALBA activities

this spring. See the back page or details o the upcoming

reunion o the Veterans o the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Singers Barbara Dane and Bruce Barthol have created a

wonderul new program, Songs Against War: Voices othe Anti-Warriors, part o a tribute to the Veterans or

Peace. This year the ALBA-Bill Susman Lecture will be

presented by Barcelona artist Francesc Torres on the topic,

The Retrieval o Memory in Contemporary Spain: An

Artist's Approach. Hope to see you there!

Peter N. Carroll

TheVolunteerJournal of the

Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade

an ALBA publication799 Broadway, Rm. 227

New York, NY 10003

(212) 674-5398

Editorial BoardPeter N. Carroll Gina HerrmannFraser Ottanelli Abe Smorodin

Book Review EditorShirley Mangini

Art Director-Graphic DesignerRichard Bermack

Editorial Assistance

Nancy Van ZwalenburgSubmission of Manuscripts

Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk.

E-mail: [email protected]

Dear Friends,

Thanks or the wonderul magazine. Please keep send

ing it to me or the Museum Archives o the Association

o Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women o the UK, AJEX, owhich I am Archivist. We greatly value the magazine and

have a large permanent Spanish Civil War (Jewish) exhibi

http://www.ajex.org.uk/

Shalom and Salud,

Martin Sugarman

P.S. - Was sad to hear o death o Salmon Salzman in

Israel, who helped me greatly with my long study on Jew

in the Spanish Civil War.

Dear Editor:Please note, the cultural issue let out the scientic

contributions o the members o the Abraham LincolnBrigade. This is a very bad message to purvey in this era opseudo-science and anti-intellectualism. I want to know thscientic contributions o this group o wonderul people awell.

Sincerely,

Joan Amatniek

Lrs t the Editor


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THE VOLUNTEER March 2006

By Mark Epstein

Veteran Abe Oshero gave the

keynote speech at the SecondAnnual Human Rights Day

Assembly, held in the Paul Robeson

Perorming Arts Center o Seattles

Rainier Beach High School on

December 9. The assembly, attended

by 400 students, was presented by

two o the high schools world his-

tory classes. Oshero spoke or 30

minutes, ollowing student skits,

speeches, songs, and poetry. In his

calm, yet rm voice, he hammeredhome the message that being an ac-

tivist is a long-term endeavor, not

something that happens overnight.

Rainier Beach is Seattles poorest

high school, with the highest percent-

age o Arican-American students in

the city. Ater years o community de-

mand, the school district built an $8

million dollar perorming arts center

in l998, named last year ater the great

Paul Robeson. Oshero has been astrong presence in programming at the

Perorming Arts Auditorium. He spoke

at Holocaust Awareness programs in

2002 and 2003. During those programs,

he oten had to battle students or their

attention and was able to get it.

This time, he held students

spellbound. The theme o activism

in Osheros talk reinorced the e-

orts o a small core o teachers at

the school who have pushed or de-veloping the concept o the our As

o RobesonAcademics, Athletics,

the Arts and Activismas the key to

transorming their student culture.

Rainier Beach historically has been

a state leader in basketball, ootballand track. Many o the students have

tremendous untapped talents in mu-

sic, drama and public speaking. The

school has battled impressions o a

lack o academic strength, but teach-

ers have been working diligently to

turn test scores around and promote

academic achievement. While students

and sta have been able to articulate

the need or academics and the ath-

letic achievements have continued to

gain recognition, discussion o whatconstitutes activism has been the mos

dicult to promote.

The assembly opened with the

rst perormance o the 16-member

Paul Robeson Orchestra and Band.

Ater students were seated and ex-

horted to behave themselves by new

Continued on page 23

Mark Epstein teaches social studies and

language arts at Rainier Beach High

School.

The late Bob Reed, Lincoln

vet and ALBA board mem-

ber who died last year in

Seattle, Washington, let behind a

Spanish Civil War library o over

300 titles. In January, the presi-

dent o the University o Alcala de

Henares in Spain, Vergilio Zapatero,agreed to accept these books to

orm the core o the ALBA-Bob Reed

Library, part o a project to pro-

mote Spanish Civil War studies at

one o Spains oldest universities.

Famous as the birthplace o

Cervantes, Alcala de Henares also

housed the weary Lincoln Battalion

in May 1937 during a brie respite

rom the Jarama ront. Today, the

university is home to an Instituteor North American Studies and

attracts numerous U.S. college stu-

dents who study abroad.

The acquisition o the books is

expected to be the rst o other col-

laborative programs between ALBA

and the university, including the ex-

hibition o They Still Draw

Pictures: Childrens Art in

Wartime next all, a lecture series,

and the creation o other research

opportunities.

Vergilio Zapatero, president of the

University of Alcala de Henares (right)and Peter Carroll discuss their interests

in developing programs related to the

role of Americans in the Spanish Civil

War. The photo on the wall of the

president's office is of Fernando de los

Rios, the last ambassador of the

Spanish Republic in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Jeannette Ferrary.

ALBA-Bob Reed Libraryto open in Spain

Abe Osheroff KeynotesHumanRightsDayCelebration


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2 THE VOLUNTEER March 2006

New Childrens Art Showin Moscow

In the ace o ascist bombings

o civilians during the Spanish Civil

War, many parents agreed to sendtheir children to places o saety,

sometimes in colonias, or camps,

which were run by social workers,

teachers, and other proessionals.

There, as a orm o therapy or their

psychological ears, the youngsters

drew many pictures that expressed

their experiences o warare, personal

displacement, and lie in the colonias,

and their hopes or the uture.

Humanitarian organizations,such as the Quakers, later arranged

to exhibit these drawings around

the world to appeal or assistance or

the uprooted children and to gain

support or the embattled Spanish

Republic. Many o the drawings

survive in U.S. archives. Recently,

ALBA acquired a booklet o draw-

ings rom the children in the colonia

named ater Ben Leider, a New York

aviator killed near Madrid. They hadoriginally been sent to his amily in

1938 as a condolence message. The

drawings can be ound on the ALBA

website at the ollowing address:

www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/in-

dex.php?module=7&page=P002

Using several o the drawings

rom this booklet, as well as a new

collection o images that are part o

the collection o the Avery Library at

Columbia University, ALBA has cre-ated a new version o the exhibition,

They Still Draw Pictures. Unlike

the original show based on drawings

rom the University o Caliornia at

San Diego, the new show consists

o electronic scans that are virtually

indistinguishable rom the paper

drawings and are capable o being ex-

hibited without risk o deterioration.

Curated by Anthony Geist andPeter Carroll, the new show has em-

barked or exhibition in Moscow.

And who are the people hosting

the show in Russia? The surviving

Ninos de la Guerrathe organiza-

tion o Spanish exiled children who

still live in Moscow, nearly 70 years

ater their parents had sent them

away or saety.

ALBA hopes to bring the exhibi-

tion to Spain this autumn, as parto the 70th anniversary events com-

memorating the outbreak o the

Spanish Civil War.

University of WashingtonSponsors ALBA Lecture

Initiating what promises to be

a regular ALBA lectures series, the

University o Washington presented

award-winning poet Sam Hamill tolaunch the ALBA-Abe Oshero-Bob

Reed Lecture on Friday evening,

March 3. Honoring Seattles premier

political organizers and Lincoln

vets, the lecture series is a tribute to

their lielong commitment to social

justice issues.

Hamill, author o 14 volumes o

original poetry, three volumes o es-

says, and two dozen translations, is

the ounding editor o CopperCanyon Press and ormer director o

the Port Townsend Writers

Conerence. In 2003, he ounded

Poets Against the War. His latest

book isAlmost Paradise: New and

Selected Poems & Translations

(Shambala Press).

In Brief

Bereley Library Event Celebrate the Lincoln Brigade

In anticipation of the VALB Reunion, the Berkeley Library displayed

photographs from Richard Bermack's The Front Lines of Social Change:

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and screened Judy Montell's

Professional Revolutionary: The Life of Saul Wellman. It also hosted a

presentation with Milt Wolff talking about his new book, Member of the

Working Class, Bruce Barthol discussing the culture of the Lincoln Brigade,

and Barthol and Heather Bridger performing songs of the brigade.


5/28


By Carlos Blanco Aguinaga

Editors Note: To accompany ALBAs

exhibition o childrens drawings, TheyStill Draw Pictures, at the University o

Washington in the spring o 2005, Tony

Geist organized a conerence that included

some o the children exiled during the

Spanish Civil War: Angela Giral, Marisa

Navarro, and Carlos Blanco. A writer o

fction, Carlos Blanco presented the ollow-

ing remarks.

As you have heard, 500,000 people

were orced to exile themselves romSpain in late winter and early spring

o 1939. Never in the 20th Century,

withperhapsthe exception o

the Armenians who had to fee the

genocide they suered at the hands

o the Turks in the 1920s, was there

such a massive political exile. And,

as you have heard rom Angela and

Marisa, the children o the Spanish

exiles had to bear what was a heavy

burden or their age. But, mind you,because children always somehow or

other manage to adapt themselves to

whatever comes their way, their pain

and burdens cannot be compared with

that o their elders who, in act, had

lost their lives, whereas those o the

children lay ahead o them. But, or a

great variety o reasons, early wounds

come to hurt you later on in lie, even

i that lie has beenlet us sayrela-

tively peaceul, or even, by somestandards, relatively successul.

But I dont want to go into that in

personal terms. Instead, since I have

been allowed by the organizers o

this meeting to do it, I am going to

read a short story. I wrote in Spanish,

o course, and I have translated into

English or this occasion. It is not, and

yet it is in some way, autobiographical.

The eelings and the meaning may be

mine, I dont know, I am not sure; but

the characters and the story are notabout me.

This time you are in luck,

your erratic little watch

has not let you down.

You have a 10:30 appointment

with the pompous, useless and craty

Dean o the School o Architecture,

you have almost nished shaving, and

its now only 8:10: theres plenty o

time to get there. So youre O.K.But watches and clocks dont tell

real time, what is called Time. Its

now 8:10 and its Wednesday, yes, but

o what year? Forget the month: you

know its February. What matters is

the year, increasingly what matters is

the year, although, in act, or a long

time now, i you dont watch out, all

years seem to be alike. Just like I am

still the same person, as I have casual

ly noticed in the mirror while shaving

Even though my receding hair is morwhite than gray, and it is now rather

thin, naturally. O course. So lets not

kid ourselves: le temps passe et cour,

just like in the French song that only a

ew o us still remember, the ew o us

who are still around. First our elders

started dying, as it seems natural, but

or quite a while now We have started

dying. Those o us who were 12 years

old, as in the title o that old and or-

gotten novel. I am sure its orgotten.Or was it a movie?

Twelve years old, or ten, or seven,

or three. Even some who were born o

board ship, the ships that brought us

all here.

But thats not the point either.

Old Exi led Chi ldren Search forThemselves in the Mirrors

Continued on page


6/28


Its not a question o how, in general,

Time passes: Time passes or every

damn one o us. Which is not the same

as how it has passed or me, or Us.

Because the guy in the mirror that

tells me that I am me is not the skinnyand dark-haired child that I remem-

ber more sharply every day; the kid

who was sweating so much when he

landed in Veracruz that he thought he

was crying; who was horried when

he saw the buzzards eating all kinds

o shit in the middle o the street; the

chamaquito (little kid) they then put on

a train which came all the way here

ater climbing enormous mountains,

then crossing seemingly interminableplains, and then climbing mountains

again; the kid who then discovered

this city and to his surprise and his

parents concern began to enjoy the

mere, simple act o walking around

and pretending he got lost in the

streets o the center o town.

Although the truth is he would

get lost, but in a world o antasies im-

possible to repeat today.

Youre always in the clouds,Martn, his mother would tell him,

both complaining and admiring. You

must come down to earth, my son.

But he just went on with his ways.

The best part was in the early

evening, a couple o hours ater leav-

ing school, when you would go up

Madero Street, all amazing shadows

and lights at around seven or eight

oclock, depending on the time o year:

a World like in the movies, AnotherWorld. Elegant people coming and go-

ing among the beggars and the ragged

and clownish newspaper boys who,

shouting themselves hoarse Extra!

Extra! Extra! were always invent-

ing variations on the headlines o the

papers they sold as i they were giving

away hotcakes.

GERMANY INVADES HOLLAND!

HOLLAND CONQUERED!

THE NAZIS IN HOLLAND!

Although sometimes they could

be radically laconic:DUNKIRK! DUNKIRK! DUNKIRK!

Or else:

PARIS FALLS! PARIS

FALLS! PARIS FALLS!

as i the magic city had crum-

bled, like the tower o Pisa might one

day crumble.

But that was ater you had practi-

cally run out o the Alameda, when the

crooked cops had started showing up

in order to get some money rom thecouples who kissed and elt each other

up on every bench, sometimes two cou-

ples per bench, thusas they used to

sayoending the morals o society.

Whats up, kid? What are you do-

ing here? those ragged cops would

say to you with an apparent and dan-

gerous riendliness. You better go

home, you uckin stupid kid, they

would then add, expressing their real

eelings.And, o course, you let more

or less hurriedly. To take reuge in

crowded Madero Street. There were

no cops there, just beggars, scream-

ing newspaper boys and those elegant

men and women that used to be called

decent people, gente decente. I dont

know i anybody uses that term any-

more, I havent heard it in a long t ime.

It probably was a term let over rom

the times o Don Porrio, beore theRevolution.

And I see how, ater wasting a

little time in San Juan de Letrn, you

walk slowly to the Zcalo, how you

wander around under the arcades and

how, totally relaxed, you eventually

return to Revillagigedo Street where,

still in no hurry, you nally enter you

home, that minimal, sparsely ur-

nished apartment.

But where have you been,

Martn? your mother asks every

night, every single night.Nowhere, mom. Just around,

you know, you answer her, appar-

ently very calm and sure that nothing

has happened that might destroy the

Worlds balance. The equilibrium o

this world where you once landed

sweating so much that it seemed that

you were crying.

Something o the same, but in

daylight, would happen when you

went somewhat out o your way to goto school in the morning and strolled

down Reorma Avenue, passing in

ront o the Waikiki, the night-club

where, as everybody said, all the

prostitutes and all the swingers in

town spent the nights dancing. And

then, a bit urther down, there was

the Reorma Hotel, where so the

rumor went the great Hollywood

actors who visited Mexico spent their

nights doing who knows what, HedyLamarr, Robert Taylor, Judy Garland,

Tyrone Power.

Ater which, o course, you had to

run, because i you were late or class

they were going to give you hell.

Thats how it was, exactly like

that. My ather and my mother with

their survival problems and with the

pain o the War they had brought wit

them, with their anguish expressed

only in sighs, and me doing my bestto orget that little town in Catalonia,

Caldas de Malavella, where my moth-

er and I were reugees while my athe

was at the Ebro Front, all o us know-

ing perectly well where the Ebro was

and what a ront was.

MirrorsContinued from page 5

Continued on page


7/28


(A ront dont orget it is

where, amid machine-gun re and the

ring o big guns, on one side are the

ascists and We are on the other side,

and i they win the battle and kill myather, they are going to come all the

way here and kill us all.)

Thats the way it was, and thats

how it is when I can so easily remem-

ber that skinny and somewhat dark

kid who landed in Veracruz at the

end o the summer o 1939; a kid who

doesnt look at all like the plump child

standing with his ather somewhere in

Madrid in the picture your mother let

with you when she died.In Madrid, this was beore, in

Madrid, she would repeat every time

she took the picture out o a drawer

so that you would not orget. And

you didnt even remember the Puerta

del Sol, or Montera Street, or the

Bulevares, not even la Gran Va

But its been some time since I -

nally understood that my childhood

is three childhoods, two over There,in Madrid and in Caldas, and another

one Here; and that none o them has

anything to do with me, with the guy

in the mirror. Is that possible?

I was asking Manolo Riera about it

the other day in the ca. Weve known

each other since we started playing to-

gether in the Mexique, the ship that

brought us here, and which sometimes

I wonder i it really existed or Manolo

and I invented it. Manolo was the un-ruliest o the kids on board, always

bugging the grown-ups and making

them angry by singing:

The moors that Franco brought

Want to take Madrid.

But as long as one miliciano is let,

They shall not pass. No pasarn!

Shut up, kid! the most em-

bittered ones would tell him. And

Manolo would run away rom them,

laughing his head o.

Then, in school here, he was atruly lazy and bad student, but he has

turned out to be quite an important

lawyer. And he loves it when the caes

sexy waitresses call him Licenciado.

Good aternoon, licenciado;

Goodbye, licenciado. And he smiles

as he walks into the ca and when he

leaves it a couple o hours later.

Manolo thought about my ques-

tion or a moment, then he raised his

eyes towards the mirrors in ront o us

that refect the mirrors behind us, and

he said he had read something about

that and that it was clear or exam-

ple that a our-year-old child doesnot know anything about his previous

lie, who he had been rom the day o

his birth until then.

But then, as they say and write,"

he also explained, in order to sedate

my evident nervousness, "ater that

everything becomes organized and

turns out to be coherent until the day

we die.

I told him that sure, o course,

thats how it seems to be. Except that

the coherence used to move orwardrom the past, and now it goes back-

wards rom Here and Now, where

Now is always turns out to be Beore

and Time seems to ade, losing preci-

sion and details, until it gets stuck in

an age beyond which you see nothing

Like a xed and blurry picture, and

yet, peculiarly much too clear.

(As we were talking I could see in

the mirrors bombs coming down on

Madrid, in my barrio o Argelles, I

think it was Argelles, but I cannot be

sure).

What I didnt explain clearly to

Manolo that aternoon is what I havetold him many times beore, anyway:

that I have had three childhoods,

three, and that now that Ive nished

shaving, although everything seems t

be clear and in good order, I dont see

the coherence because I have nothing

Continued on page 1

MirrorsContinued from page


8/28


We all know that an archive,

and the knowledge and

values it represents, can be

kept alive only through use. Judging

rom the furry o special initiativestaking place at NYU this semester, the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

are very much alive and kicking.

Thanks to the intense collaboration

o ALBA and NYU, unprecedented

numbers o students and scholars

are being exposed to the antias-

cist legacy chronicled in the archive.

Here is a sample o the ALBA-cen-

tered campus projects this spring:

Francesc Torres, one o Spainsmost important conceptual artists,

holds the King Juan Carlos I o Spain

Chair this semester at NYU. He is

teaching a graduate seminar (cross-

listed in Spanish and Portuguese

and Museum Studies) on The Art

o Memory and the Representation

o History. The course is run as a

workshop, whose end product will

be a ormal proposal or a major

museum exhibition based on theALBA holdings. Torres plans to pres-

ent the proposal to the Center o

Contemporary Culture in Barcelona.

One o Torres best known works is

the massive installation (now held

by the Reina Soa National Museum

o Modern Art in Madrid) titled

Belchite-South Bronx, which is a

meditation on the ruins produced by

dierent kinds o civil war. Torres,

who recently photographed the pro-cess o excavating one o the mass

graves rom the Spanish Civil War,

will present the ALBA-Bill Susman

lecture in May (see back page).

Proessor Jo Labanyi just joined

the Department o Spanish and

Portuguese and has hit the ground

running. Students in her undergradu-

ate course on Spanish Culture are

studying Spanish Civil War posters

in the ALBA collection at Tamiment.

She is also teaching a graduate semi-nar titled Memorializing the Spanish

Civil War. Labanyi is one o the con-

tributors to the important volume

edited by Noel Valis and published by

the Modern Languages Association:

Teaching Representations o the Spanish

Civil War (2006).

Juan Salas, a doctoral candidate

in NYUs Department o Perormance

Studies, is teaching an undergradu-

ate seminar on American Volunteersin the Spanish Civil War, which is

crosslisted in the Spanish and History

Departments. His dissertation ex-

plores the uses o photography in the

International Brigades. Using the ALBA

archive as the course textbook, stu-

dents in this undergraduate seminar

will write individual research projects

based on their original research.

Elizabeth Compa, a recent gradu-

ate o NYU and the co-curator o theNYU exhibition on the Cultural

Legacy o the Abraham Lincoln

Brigade, is now working as a re-

searcher on the exhibition New York

City and the Spanish Civil War,

which will open at the Museum o the

City o New York in 2007. Her oce

is in the King Juan Carlos I o Spain

Center. James Fernndez, Director o

the Center, has applied or unding

rom the NYU Humanities Council ora workshop on New York City and the

Spanish Civil War, which will run par-

allel to the exhibition.

The Cultural Legacy o the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, an ex-

hibition sponsored by the Pun

Foundation, continues to draw atten-

tion, even though the show ended its

run at NYU in late December. The ex-

hibition was eatured on a television

show produced by Sarah Foudy, o

CUNY TV, in February.

Meanwhile, the Madrid oce oNYUs King Juan Carlos I o Spain

Center organized and co-sponsored a

book launch at the Crculo de Bellas

Artes or the Spanish translation o

Peter Carrolls La odisea de la Brigada

Abraham Lincoln. Participants included

the author; John Healey, Director o

the KJC oce in Madrid; Manuel

Montesinos, ormer Director o the

Garca Lorca Foundation; Giles

Tremlett, correspondent or TheGuardian in Spain; and Mary K.

McCoy, translator. A packed house in

the Mara Zambrano auditorium at-

tended the presentation and was

treated to a rousing speech rom the

daughter o Dolores Ibarruri, who wa

in the audience.

ALBA: A Living Archive

From Joseph Vogel's sketch book, one o

many treasures in the ALBA Archive


9/28


By Alan D. Entin

W

e mark the nearly 70th an-

niversary o the death o

Bernard Entin, a man a

ew people know only rom distantchildhood memories, some know

rom stories, letters, and aded photo-

graphs. Whatever happened to Bernie,

son, brother, cousin and uncle? That

question has puzzled, vexed, mysti-

ed and rustrated my amily or

almost 70 years. It was a topic that

was not openly addressed. It was a

amily secret, which, like all secrets,

had its own mystique and legacy or

uture generations. It is the kind ostu that creates legends and myths.

A ready-made ll-in-the-blanks his-

tory o what was and what might have

been. It is a meditation o memory

and loss and o the simultaneous

existence o the past and present.

Growing up, I knew the outline,

but not the details. Uncle Bernie was a

union activist and organizer, implicat-

ed in a paternity suit, went to Spain to

ght in the Spanish Civil War and wasnever heard rom again. I had amily

photographs and letters he wrote home

rom Spain and a petition to erect a

memorial in memory o those killed

in Spain, which included his name. Yet

my amily seemed unwilling to accept,

or acknowledge, his death.

Recently, I googled Bernard

Entin: immediately his name popped

up with inormation and reerences

to books and articles and, through theVALB, to people who were able to pro-

vide inormation about him.

Bernie, I learned, was born

March 1, 1915, to Abraham and Nettie

Davidson Entin, the middle child,

with a brother Jacob (my ather), 3

years older, and a sister Rosylin, 7

years younger. Abraham, an only

child, died March 21, 1930, when

Bernie was 15.

Bernie attended PS144 and gradu-

ated rom Alexander Hamilton HighSchool in Brooklyn in 1931 at age 16.

He attended St Johns College or a se-

mester. He took an English literature

course, and Muriel Sholin Miller, his

cousin, who was 9 years his junior,

remembers him reading poetry to

her rom his college textbook, Century

o Readings or a Course in English

Literature. Muriel still has this book.

Bernie signed his name in it with the

middle initial A. We do not know

what the A stands or.

Sometime in the years 1932-1934,

Bernie was involved in a paternitysuit. The story goes that Samuel

Liebowitz, a deense attorney who

later became a justice on the Supreme

Court o New York, deended Bernie

and won the case. However, there was

a second case, a civil lawsuit or child

support, which Bernie lost.

Bernie joined the Young

Communist League and became activ

as a union organizer in 1933. During

the Orbachs and Kleins Department

Store strikes the ollowing year, hemet Harry Fisher, who reers to him

as Butch. They became best riends,

rode the rails, were arrested many

times on picket lines, and spent time

in jail together. Fisher describes Butch

as one o the most militant members

o the Department Store Union a

good-looking, husky, curly-haired gu

who was tough as nails. Tough yes,

but gentle and compassionate as well

He was someone you wanted on yourside, and ortunately or us, we had

him on ours.

Once, when they were arrested,

Fisher argued with the arresting o-

cer, who threatened to beat the

hell out o him. While Fisher agreed

to meet the cop in a gym, he never

intended to meet him. Butch, how-

ever, thinking Fisher was getting int

something he could not handle, cam

to his deense and challenged the coto a ght. The story goes that when

the cop eyed Butch, he backed o.

Another incident Fisher recalls is

when they were riding the reights

at the height o the Depression and

a young woman with a small child

was threatened by a railroad cop who

waved his pistol at her and made ob-

scene remarks. Butch intervened. The

cop responded with racial epithets,

and Butch said, Why dont you putthat gun away and lets ght it out.

Youre nothing but a goddamn cow-

ard, or you wouldnt be picking on

a deenseless woman. The cop re-

sponded by pointing his pistol directl

at Butchs head, threatening to pull th

Continued on page

Salud, Bernie


10/28


trigger. Butch just looked him in the

eye, not saying a word, and not finch-

ing. Just then another cop came over

and told the cop to put his gun away

and not to be such a jerk.

Twice, in mid-March o 1937,Bernie was quoted in ront page ar-

ticles o the New York Times or his role

in the unions organizing strike activi-

ties against Woolworth stores.

My parents got married on

January 24, 1937, and three months

later, on April 21, Uncle Bernie let or

Spain. Norman Berkowitz, who knew

him rom their union activities and

sailed with him on the Queen Mary,

recalls Butch as a very special guy one o the best a great kid won-

derul. He remembers he gave $5 to

Butch beore he sailed to Europe. My

uncle gave the money to his mother

because the amily had no money.

They arrived in Cherbourg, France,

April 26.

Muriel remembers Bernie came

over to say goodbye to her amily and

he was wearing an overcoat. He

said he was going to a convention inRussia; her amily did not believe that,

but he, like most volunteers, did not

say he was going to Spain. She recalls

that he sent a photograph o himsel

sitting on a deckchair and wearing

an overcoat. He sent a postcard rom

Paris, but the photograph is lost.

His mother suered a series o

strokes, the rst when she received

the rst letter rom Bernie. On May 4,

1937, Bernie wrote that he was touringFrance, which may have been a eu-

phemism or traveling through France

and over the Pyrenees Mountains to

join the Washington Brigade. He was

concerned that the amily was quite

angry with me, which makes me

very sad. Evidently you dont under-

stand me yet. there are things and

duties in lie that are even more im-

portant than the amily. I think you

olks are weak.

Uncle Bernie arrived in Spain in

May 1937 and sent his mother anotherletter.He had trouble writing it be-

cause he could not decide whether or

not to tell the truth. He says, I spoke

to you many times about the struggle

o the Spanish workers against the as-

cist invasion o Hitler and Mussolini

o Spain. I tried to explain to you,

about Spanish mothers trying to pro-

tect their children rom Nazi bombs.

You claimed to be a bitter anti-as-

cist. I you were really so, it would be

quite simple or you to understand

then, why I and tens o thousands o

other anti-ascists rom more than

52 nations throughout the world,

have come here to Spain to do part o

our share in stamping out Fascism.

I eel exactly as the Spanish workersdo. That I would rather die ghting

ascism than be orced to live in a

country under the rule o a Hitler.

He read that 5,000 Basque children

were going to New York to be taken

care o by workers and working class

organizations and it would cer-

tainly make me proud i you were to

take care o one o these children. He

continues, We came here to help the

Spanish people ght ascism and we

are not leaving until we are victorious

The deeat o ascism here will help tokeep ascism out o the United States.

About a week later, and or the

rst time using the address o the

George Washington Battalion, Bernie

responded to a letter rom my mother

Again, he is aware o lying and de-

ceiving the amily by not telling them

where he was going. He tells her how

rotten lie really is under capitalism

and how this lie could be changed o

the better.

Bernie wrote to the amily on July

15, having received a letter rom them

10 days earlier. I am angry because

you write so seldom. He continues,

Yes, I am at the ront now or some

time. I have seen quite a bit o action

in open warare. Im still one wholepiece and kicking. War is the lousi-

est goddam thing in the world, and

by the way, as long as we still have

capitalism, well still have war. The

American capitalist bastards are some

Salud, BernieContinued from page

Continued on page


11/28


o the worst in the world. I happen to

know or a act how much American

capitalists are helping Franco. I hap-

pened to all over a dead ascist who

was wearing an American ammunition

belt and carrying American bullets.Boy was I burnt up. And yet people

such as you will shrug your shoulders

and say we know that American capi-

talists do these things but what is it our

business and what can we do? There is

plenty you can do.

Around the same time, Harry

Fisher writes how he was reunited

with some o his union comrades, in-

cluding my uncle, who had been in the

Washington Battalion until it was dec-imated. The Battle o Brunete was to

begin. My battalion (G. Washington)

merged with the Abe Lincoln yester-

day, Bernie wrote in mid-July. We are

now one. A ew hundred Americans.

There are many more Americans in

training. Hundreds are driving trucks.

We are resting right now ater see-

ing plenty o action. I am a real honest

to goodness soldier right now. This

was to be his last letter.In Comrades, Harry Fisher de-

scribes what he remembers o the

action in the Brunette oensive: [W]e

moved into a newposition, adeep, dry

riverbed, with a battle going on direct-

ly in ront o us. Suddenly I saw Butch

Entin walking toward the headquar-

ters sta. He greeted me with a big

grin. I got me a blighty. Its nothing.

Ill be back in a ew days. A bullet had

passed through his shoulder, but heclearly was in no pain. He was on his

way to the rst-aid station down the

road, or maybe to the ambulance wait-

ing nearby. I never saw him again.

The puzzle surrounding his death

lingered, however, because no one ac-

tually witnessed. A note in the VALB

les indicates that Bill Frances reports

Butch was wounded July 25th in the

let shoulder and was very weak. Put

into ambulance and never seen again.

He thinks without a doubt he is dead.

But Fisher writes in an unpublishedarticle that John Rody was nally able

to ll in the missing pieces: John, a

rst-aid man, had accompanied Butch

and another wounded American to a

waiting ambulance a ew miles rom

the ront. Ater seeing that his

wards were saely in the ambulance,

John headed back to the battalion. He

hadnt gotten ar when three Nazi

planes appeared overhead, fying low.

John jumped into a ditch and watchedas the ambulance took a direct hit.

Ater the bombing, the Nazi planes

let in a hurry, and John rushed back

to the road. The ambulance had been

completely demolished.

Thus, ater 70 years o uncertainty,

we learned that Bernard Entin was

killed in action on July 25, 1937. He

died at the age o 22, only 2 months

and 2 weeks ater arriving in Spain.

In 2001, reminiscing about his tripto Germany in the Volunteer, Harry

Fisher thought about his good riend

and how Bernard Entins ambu-

lance was blown to bits and there was

nothing let o him. However, it hit

me that there was something let o

Bernard Entin. My sons name is John

Bernard Fisher, his middle name in

honor o my close riend.

We have known Bernie rom a

childs vision and memory, rom am-

ily photographs, and now we add the

perspective o his best riend. From

the anecdotes we learn that he hadthe personality traits o an individual

who seemed on the outside to be

tough as nails, but beneath the acade

was very sot and gentle. An idealist

with a deep aith and conviction in

doing what was right, he stood up or

his riends and believed rmly in the

causes o the working class. We now

have a pretty clear picture o Bernard

Butch Entin, son, brother, cousin

and uncle. We know some incidentsabout his lie that give us insight into

his character, we know what hap-

pened to him in Spain, and we even

know where, when and how he died.

Even 70 years ater his death, I can

only wonder about how he would

have lived his lie, the impact he

would have had on me andthe amily

and his contributions to society.

He ended his letters rom Spain

Salud, Bernie. We have arrivedwhere we began. The amily can say,

Salud, Bernie.

Salud, BernieContinued from page


12/28


By Susan Wallis

For many years Milton Wol has

regretted the lack o a memo-

rial to the Lincolns who died

in the Battle o the Ebro. He thoughtthat a foral tribute on the Ebro River

would in some small way correct this

omission and would be a tting re-

membrance to these men. To this end

he returned to the Ebro last November

to make his oering and put to rest,

at last, his grie or those lost there.

The commemoration took place

in Flix, in Catalonia. A large number

o dignitaries boarded the erry or

the symbolic recrossing o the Ebro.Wol quoted the words o Ernest

Hemingways elegy To the American

Dead in Spain: our dead are a

part o the earth o Spain now and the

earth o Spain can never die. Our dead

will live with it orever.

Wol added: Here their blood

fows with the waters o the Ebro to

the sea and the sea is eternal. He then

dropped a large bouquet o red carna-

tions in the river. A group o stringplayers rom Flix played Pablo Casals

The Song o the Birds. Pere Munoz,

mayor o Flix, addressed those assem-

bled and introduced Juan Alsace, the

U.S. Consul General or Catalonia and

Andorra. [See box.]

In his remarks, the consul said

that he was there to honor a ellow

American who had come to Spain to

ght against ascism. Alsace noted

that the sacrices o Wol and hisellow volunteers had gone unrecog-

nized or a long time and expressed

gratitude that this oversight is now

being corrected.

The ceremonies on the boat were

ollowed by a parade led by the brass

band o Miravet to the town hall, where

an exposition o photos had been in-

stalled. A huge Robert Capa poster

o the departure o the International

Brigades in Barcelona on October 29,

1938, was displayed outside. Ater

speeches at the Social Union Hall, the

group o about 200 people proceeded tothe Flix monument to the International

Brigades, where a monument honor-

ing the visit o Milton Wol on that day

was unveiled.

The events in Flix and those in

Marca the day beore were organized

by Angela Jackson, president o the

association No Jubilem la Memoria (lit-

erally: Let us not retire the memory).

In Marca, the translation o

WolsAnother Hill, which had justbeen published, was presented at

a large gathering. Francesc Pique,

Mayor o Marca, and Ernest Benach,

President o the Catalan parliament,

oered brie remarks. Lluis Martin

Bielsa, president o the Association o

Political Prisoners, and ALBA Board

member Shirley Mangini discussed

Wols book. Wol autographed over

100 copies in Marca and Flix.

That evening in Marca, the town

celebrated Wols 90th birthday.

Heather Bridger and Bruce Barthol

sang songs o the Spanish Civil War.

Angela Jackson presented Wol with

a beautiul watercolor by Francesc

Masip o the town o Miravet, shown

perched high above the Ebro River.The ollowing week Wol gave

several interviews in Barcelona and

was received at the City Hall, rst

privately and then by a larger au-

dience o over 200 people. He was

greeted by a standing ovation. At this

Milt Wolff Honors Lincoln

Continued on page 1

Parade after floral tribute in Flix. Spanish Brigader Leandro Saun, Susan Wallis, Milt Wolf

Heather Bridger, and Italian Brigader Giovanni Pesce

Susan Wallis, Milt Wolff's daughter,

accompanied him to Catalonia.


13/28


Remarks delivered at the Ebro

by U.S. Consul General in Barcelona

Juan A. Alsace

November 6, 2005

It is an honor and a privilegeor me to be here today at these

ceremonies marking the anni-

versary o the Battle o the Ebro and,

particularly, the part played in those

momentous days by my compatriot,

Milton Wol, the last commander o

the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. And

I want to thank especially Angela

Jackson, who I met last year while

walking parts o the battleeld with

my son, or taking the initiative tohave me invited to participate.

To be honest, when Angela rst

mentioned this event and asked

about my taking part, I hesitated. I

did so not because I didnt want to

comeas a lover o history and a

man who stands in awe o the cour-

age shown here over nearly ve

long months, I could hardly stay

away. But as I have learned during

my two plus years in Spain, the ter-rain ought over in this battleand

in all the others throughout the

Spanish Civil Waris not solely in

the domain o history. For many o

the people I talk to in Barcelona, the

Spanish Civil War is a amily aair,

a time not so distant in memory,

a living thing ound in the still

sometimes bitter recollections o

grandparents and parents. So, as an

American diplomat, I tread lightlyaround the memories o a con-

lict that is still, in the hearts and

minds o many Spaniards, a sensi-

tive matter.

I am not here to render judg-

ment on the morality o the

warnor am I qualied to do so.

Neither do I take sides over a con-

fict that, looked at today through

the prism o history, seems to many

a crystal clear struggle betweengood and evil, but that in its day was

a muddied confict between isms.

I am here today, however, tohonor a ellow American, Milton

Wol. Mr. Wol came to Spain 68

years ago, a young man driven by

idealism, an American who, in the

words spoken on behal o another

American, Robert Kennedy, saw

a wrong and tried to right it. Mr.

Wol, then and now, believed in the

universal principles o democracy,

o reedom, o the equality o men

and women. And he perceived theseguiding principlesones which un-

dergird the United Statesas under

attack in Spain. So he came hereas

a volunteerto ght against as-

cism, one o two ideologies that

threatened then to subsume the

world in darkness. Why? In his own

words: I you want to do some-

thing, you just cant be against

something. You have to be or some-

thing as well. And whatever youbelieve inbe prepared to sacrice.

Mr. Wol was one o 2,800

American volunteersa groupwhose median age was 27 (Mr.

Wol was only 21)many o them

students, but also proessors, art-

ists, poets, doctors, and nurses, who

were willing to sacrice. Indeed,

some 1,300 gave their lives. Mr.

Wol and those young Americans

were a vanguard, i you will, o the

hundreds o thousands o young

Americans who were to ollow

them to Europe to ght Hitler andthe Nazis in World War II. Unlike

those who were to be seen as part o

Americas Greatest Generation, the

sacrices o Mr. Wol and his cohort

went or a long time unrecognized.

I am grateul that this oversight

Continued on page 23

Who Died at the Ebro

Milt Wolff with Spanish vet Leandro Saun (left), Mayor Pere Muoz (back, left), U.S.

Consul General Juan Alsace (right), and Commander of Aviation for the Spanish

Republic Antonio Vilella Valls (right of Alsace).


14/28


to do with the kid who arrived here

with a single and double childhood on

his shoulders. Which means that i I

am not that kid, those two kids, I must

be Another. But how the hell can One

be Another? Another than somebodyelse, yes, o course; but Another rom the

One without whom I would not be me?

Amelia. Listen, Amelia, I say

to my wie as I come out o the

bathroom.

What, my love?

I orget what I was going to tell

her and, instead, I ask her why she

still calls me my love, ater so many

years.I dont know, my love. Habit.

Sure. Habit, o course. Sure. The

coherence o routine, Time that doesnt

pass. Coherence be damned!

What is the matter with you,

Martn?

Nothing, bonita. I am sorry. Just

pretend I never said what I said. I am

sorry. The thing is I have to go see the

Dean and, you know

As she always tells it with a well-centered satisaction, Amelia had a

peaceul and happy childhood in

Coatepec, a small town in the state o

Veracruz where her ather had a large

coee plantation. Thats why as she

always tells it she gave birth to our

children so trustingly. But what she

doesnt tell is i she also talks to the

mirrors sometimes.

But, as I tell mysel, that is aterall not as grave as the question o

dreams. Just yesterday I asked Manolo

i streets rom Here and streets rom

Over There get all mixed up in his

dreams. I they appear in sheer dis-

order, so to speak. And he told me he

doesnt dream o streets, but o elds.

What elds? I asked him.

The elds rom around my home

town o which my parents spoke all

the time, especially my mother. Near

Sagunto, you know. I dont remember

them at all.So, how do you know that they

are those elds?

Because they are, damn it!

Because they are.

That seemed to me a not very

good answer or as wise and subtle a

lawyer as they say he is, and we ell

into one o those silences we both have

shared so comortably or years, or

a whole lie you might say. A whole

lie Here, o course. Well: even beoreHere, since the Mexique. But the

problem is that lie on the ship was

neither Here, nor There. On board

ship we were like lost in Limbo,

without Time, with Time totally

suspended. A land behind us and an-

other, unknown, ahead o us, and only

water around us. Everything on the

ship was solitude and never-ending

horizons.

But, no. No, no. There is no suchthing as Limbo in lie. Time on the

ship was a time dened by space be-

cause the days went by somewhere

between what was let behind and

what was going to appear up ront. All

times are Time, even though they are

not always measured in the same way.

Today, as I was shaving, I saw

mysel in the mirror again, I nally

told Manolo as we were coming out o

our silence.

Bah! he answered me. Who

doesnt see onesel in the mirror whilshaving?

But what happens is that I have

been searching or mysel in it, and I

have not ound me, I told him. Its

worse than the dreams.

Bah!

Very, very ar away rom here,

in Montauban, a quiet and ugly

town in the south o France, Germn

Rodrguez, the son o la Chata,Martns best riend in their Madrid

childhood, passes by the plaque

thatso laconicallyindicates that in

that modest Hotel Mercure Manuel

Azaa, the President o the Spanish

Republic, died in exile. But today,

around noon, Germn has stopped

and has read whatwith so ew

words, and in Frenchthe plaque

says, which is what he has known all

o his lie: that don Manuel Azaa,President o the Spanish Republic,

died in one o this hotels rooms,

November 4, 1940.

Thats why I am here, Germn

tells himsel. But thats a stupid thin

to say, he adds immediately. Youd

think I am now discovering America.

Big news!

Then, 15 minutes later, as he sips

the vermouth in one o the dark, shab

by cas o the plaza while chattingwith Gaston Lapbie, a lie-long rien

who replaced Martn in April or May

1939, he sees in the cas mirrors thou

sands and thousands o children

playing.

MirrorsContinued from page 5


15/28


By Miguel ngel NietoSantiago Carrillos riends threw

him a surprise party. On the night ohis birthday, and beore his very eyes,

an enormous crane tore down the last

equestrian statue o Franco remaining

in Madrid. This took place in 2005, 30

years ater the death o the dictator.

In high school my children study

the gure o this man reduced today

to a couple o pages in their textbooks,

with an illustration like the postage

stamps he made in his image. Nearly

35 percent o the population o Spainwas born ater his death. Several mil-

lion other Spaniards were under 15

years o age on November 25, 1975,

with scarcely a memory o the tyranny

and humiliation o his 40-year reign o

repression, silence and ostracism.

Very ew Spaniards over 40,

mostly those who live in major ur-

ban centers, were blinded by teargas,

withstood the onslaught o the Franco

police orce or witnessed the orcedconscription into the army o workers

who dared go on strike.

Veinte aos no es nada--20 years

pass in the blink o an eye, as the tan-

go says, and so do 30. Nonetheless, in

the last three decades this country has

shown it is able to live without the ear

o terror, without the rattling o sabers

and with no direct memory o who

was all these things in a Spain bled

dry by three years o civil war.I belong to the generation that

was 15 years old when Franco died.

In my high school in Madrid there

were underground meetings o ille-

gal opposition groups at least once a

month. I went to many o them, slip-

ping unseen through the halls. I was

never aware o the risks I was taking,

though I understood perectly what

was at issue in those secret conclavesthat ormed my own subversive spirit.

Because I worked days, I went to

night school. Many o my classmates

were two and three times my age,

working men and women like me,

whose political awareness amazed

me. We ormed an inormal network

to share articles and books orbidden

under the dictatorship. I remember

the sense o pride we elt to circulateXerox copies o Pablo Nerudas po-

etry, Spain in the Heart, that was totally

unavailable in Spain and that some-

one sent us rom Paris. Our contacts

abroad sent us the publications o

Ruedo Ibrico, the mythical opposition

press in exile.

Fortunately my children dont un-

derstand when I try to explain these

skirmishes to them. I know that one

day, when they are older, they willbe the ones to ask me, but or the

time being it is impossible or them

to understand that books could be

orbidden or that smudged copies o

articles had to be smuggled rom read-

er to reader, or that we would gather

in the most secret corners o parks to

discuss their contents.

Some criticize the loss o historical

memory in our youth. I belong to thecamp that applauds it. Nothing makes

me happier than to realize that Franco

has ceased to exist so completely. Its

not just that his body is eternally con-

demned to Purgatory; it is that his soul,

i he ever had one, has also disappeared

My rst ather-in-law was

Republican to the core. One day he

was stopped by a crew rom the state-

sponsored television station (the only

one that existed in Spain) or a man-in-the-street interview. They wanted

to know: Who is Franco or you? H

didnt want to betray his belies or en

up in jail. Suddenly the answer came

to him: He is the greatest thing that

ever happened to Spain.

(Translated by Tony Geist)

Dispatch from MadridThirty Years without You, Generalissimo

gathering, the historian and journalis

Gregorio Moran spoke at length abou

Wols book.

Wols presence in Spain was cov-

ered widely by local and national pres

TV and radio; a number o articles

appeared in La Vanguardia, the major

newspaper o Catalonia, and El Pais, th

major national Spanish newspaper, as

well as in El Peridoico and El Mundo.Wols message to his audiences

was that war was the worst thing hu-

mans had invented, that it should be

avoided whenever possible, and that

his aith was with humankind and es

pecially with the young. He signed hi

book with the words Salud y Paz.

Return to the EbroContinued from page 10


16/28


Milton Wolffautobiographical novelsMember he Wrkg Cass

Member of the Working Classprovides rich,

curious details about working-class lie in the

1920s and 1930s. Tis blunt account o a rough,

unadorned American lie helps us nd clues to

Wolf's uture persona. How did the man who

Ernest Hemingway called as brave and good

a soldier as any that commanded battalions at

Gettysburg become the natural leader o the

volunteers who went to Spain to ght ascism?

Aher H Gritty realism and an eye or

political complexity...the muscular narrative

provides valuable testimony o what it was

like to ght Spain's rebel Nationalist troops

while the Western democracies passively

looked on. Publishers Weekly

Engrossing: [Wolf] has an eye or

signicant detail and a git or dialogue.

Bernard Knox, New York Times

Book Review

Member of the Working Classcan be ordered rom the publisher, iUniverse, at www.iuniverse.com, or atwww.Amazon.com or www.BarnesandNoble.com.Another Hillcan be ordered at www.BarnesandNoble.com or www.Amazon.com.


17/28


18/28


Consuming Kids: Protecting OurChildren from the Onslaught of

Marketing & Advertising. By Susan Linn.

Anchor Books, 200.

By Jeannette Ferrary

On page 3 o her thorough and

disturbing book on marketing to

children, Susan Linn writes, From

the mid-1930s, my parents were ac-

tively involved in struggles or socialjustice. Her mother was an early

childhood educator, her ather Sid

Linn, a Lincoln vet rom Detroit.

Consuming Kids shows another aspect

o the legacy o the Lincoln Brigade.

In her career as a psychologist

at Judge Bakers Childrens Center

in Boston and Harvard Medical

School, Dr. Linn has pioneered thera-

peutic methods o working with

disturbed children, ormed the co-alition Campaign or a Commercial

Free Childhood, and documented the

shocking specics o the multi-billion

dollar industry devoted to creating

cradle-to-grave consumers. She also

appeared in the recent documentary

lm, The Corporation.

For those who think o childrens

advertising as nothing more than the

whimsical vignettes strewn among

Saturday morning cartoons, this bookwill come as a revelation. Many may

not suspect the existence o organi-

zations like APK (Advertising and

Promoting to Kids) and Kid Power

Exchange, but these groups special-

ize in marketing to children and

even honor their most successul

campaigns with Oscar-style Golden

Marble Awards.

As Linn details, these ubiquitous

eorts begin early, with products like

the videos Baby Gourmet and Baby

Einstein and, or the pre-natal audi-

ence, Oh the Places Youll Go! A Book to

be Read In Utero. School is no reuge

rom consumer advertising; as one

marketing enthusiast puts it, todays

savvy marketers realize that all roads

eventually lead to the schools. Joel

Babbit o Channel One, the commer-cial-ueled educational TV program

or schools, demysties the strategy:

The advertiser gets kids who cannot

go to the bathroom, cannot change

the station, who cannot listen to their

mother yell in the background.

As or ater-school, Latchkey

kids are a natural or a lot o consumer

products, one marketer advises. We

are just beginning to seehow many

purchases kids control and calculatinghow much potential they represent.

I childrens ads seem to incor-

porate pester power, as it is ondly

termed in the industry, a Heinz man-

ager explains: All our advertising is

targeted to kids. You want that nag

actor so that seven-year-old Sarah

is nagging Mom in the grocery store

to buy Funky Purple. Were not sure

Mom would reach out or it on her

own.Nor are cigarettes and beer o-

limits. A memo rom Altria (aka

Phillip Morris): Todays teenager is

tomorrows potential regular custom-

er the smoking patterns o teenager

are particularly important to Philip

Morris. And then theres the Coors

deal with Disney-owned Miramax to

incorporate Coors beer into 15 movies

aimed at teens.

How pervasive is our consumer-

based culture? To the question about

why the campaign or war with Iraqwas launched in the all, President

Bushs chie o sta replied, From a

marketing point o view, you dont in-

troduce new products in August.

Linn doesnt stop at recounting al

aspects o this massive assault. She

provides solutions or ghting back

and ull inormation on resources and

organizations devoted to protecting

children rom the ravages o non-stop

commercialism. Combating this $15billion industry is our responsibility,

she advises, as citizens, proessionals

advocates and activists.

Jeannette Ferrary is the author ofOut of

the Kitchen: Adventures of a Food Writer.

Book Reviews

Brainwashing the Young

All our advertising is targeted to kids. You want that nag facto

so that seven-year-old Sarah is nagging Mom in the grocery

store to buy Funky Purple. Were not sure Mom would reach ou

for it on her own. a manager for Heinz


19/28


The Spanish Civil War: A Very ShortIntroduction. By Helen Graham. Oxford

University Press, 2005.

By Peter N. Carroll

This is ar and away the best

short introduction to the Spanish Civil

War that I have read in any language,

says Paul Preston, the celebrated

historian o the London School o

Economics and himsel the author omany distinguished books about the

war.

Graham, whose earlier schol-

arly volume, The Spanish Republic at

War: 1936-1939 (2002), won acclaim

or her analysis o the social and cul-

tural background o the confict and

showed how broad historical patterns

played out in the war, now condenses

her work into 175 tightly written pages

that include a brie bibliography, achronological list o major events, and

a glossary o the various acronyms

that beuddle non-specialist readers.

In a eld that has attracted tens o

thousands o volumes, its no small

achievement to produce a book that is

accessible, accurate, and sensitive to

the most recent historical discoveries

and interpretations.

But this book is more than that.

Grahams ideas and insights pop andsizzle on the page. Her analysis o

the international context o Spains

civil war, or instance, connects the

local confict to broader patterns o

European modernization: the move

o rural people into the cities and the

cultural tensions caused by urban lie

during the 1920s and 30s. By oer-

ing to restore Spains pure nation,

Franco and the generals appealed to

those disaected by new economic

and political trends, not least being an

organized industrial proletariat.

Similarly, as she did in her earlier

book, Graham connects this confict o

values to the way the war was ought.

Francos decision to bomb civil-

iansthe rst time this had occurredin Europerevealed his insistence on

purging a population he deemed un-

t to participate in national lie. And

the subsequentguerra de desgastewar

o attritionserved not only to de-

eat the enemy militarily, but also to

destroymethodically, slowly, and

cruellyits alien values and the peo-

ple who held them.

Graham also takes on some recent

historical critics who blame the deeato the Spanish Republic on the poli-

cies o the Communist party and who

have suggested that Francos victory

was probably good or the Spanish

people. By contrast, her villains are

the so-called democratic countries

that ailed to support the Republic

rom the beginning o the war when

Communist infuence was insigni-

cant. And even later in the war, she

argues, they might still have saved theRepublic without sacricing constitu-

tional principles. As or claims about

a sovietization o Spain, Graham

derides a deeply anachronistic read-

ing o historynamely that the Soviet

Union intervening in Spain in 1936

was already the political and eco-

nomic superpower o the post-Second

World War period. Graham points

out that the creation o Soviet satellite

in eastern Europe required both proximity and the red army on the ground

In Spain, she concludes, none o

these things obtained.

A nal chapter comments on the

impact o the Spanish war on World

War II and the settlements that result-

ed in the Cold War. Graham possesse

a keen eye or details and a ne abilit

to summarize their implications. Her

choice o illustrations, though repro-

duced in dull gray haltones, is

excellent. The photographic portrait o

Amparo Barayon in her cloche hat

perectly captures the modernist spir

o the twenties and suggests exactly

why she would later be killed byFrancoists in her home town o

Zamora. Illustrations o home ront

culture, as seen in Madrids maga-

zines, urther reveal that the Spanish

Civil War was truly a battle o ideolo-

giesnot just democracy versus

ascism, but ree minds challenging a

monolithic world o xed belie. That

why writings about the confict con-

tinue to excite imaginations. This boo

is a small jewel.

Peter N. Carrolls history of the Lincoln

Brigade has just been published in Spain

La Odisea de la Brigada Abraham Lincoln

(Renacimiento).

Book Reviews

A War of Minds

Grahams ideas and insights

pop and sizzle on the page.


20/28


Added to Memorys Roster

Jack Bjoze(1911-2005)

Jack Bjoze, Lincoln vet and ex-

ecutive secretary o the Veterans othe Abraham Lincoln Brigade during

World War II, died in New York City

in December.

Bjoze was an early volunteer in

the Spanish Civil War, so early, in act,

that his group rode across the border

into Spain by bus instead o having

to cross the Pyrenees on oot. He was

one o the original members o the

Lincoln Battalion.

According to Arthur Landisbook, Bjozes eorts in keeping a

steady supply o hot coee at the ront

lines did wonders or morale over the

long, cold trench vigil.

In late 1937, he was asked by lead-

ers o the International Brigades to

recruit U.S. volunteers into a special

guerrilla warare training school out-

side o Barcelona. Among the men

he chose was Morris Cohen, a riend

rom New York. Cohen later achievednotoriety as a Soviet spy during the

Cold War. When Cohen let New York

mysteriously in 1950, Bjoze became a

target o FBI investigation and surveil-

lance. His hopes to have a reunion

with his old riend were thwarted by

Cohens death in 1994.

Ater the Spanish Civil War, Jack

emerged as a leader o the VALB.

During World War II, he spearhead-

ed the eort to overturn the armysdiscriminatory policies that pre-

vented Lincoln vets rom obtaining

commissions as ocers and over-

seas assignments. Ater he visited

Washington, D.C., in 1943, to lobby

Secretary o the Interior Harold Ickes

and investigative journalist Drew

Pearson, the War Department alteredits policies.

Soon aterward, Jack was drated

into the army, where his combat expe-

rience and training in Spain justied

his exile to Alaska.

Hounded by the FBI in the postwar

years, he eventually ran a travel agency,

a capacity rom which he helped a-

cilitate many Lincoln trips abroad or

reunions or worthy causes. He did not

always go into much detail when askedquestions about Spain, occasionally

preerring to use his warm but quiet

smile as the disarming answer.

In 1994 Jack was the lone Lincoln

representative at the unveiling o the

IB plaque in the cemetery o Morata de

Tajua on the Jarama battleeld. It was

there that a memorable photograph

was taken o him next to the re-

nowned Spanish poet and riend o the

International Brigades Raael Alberti.Sitting at a table with similar white

manes, they almost looked like twin

brothers, so much so that at the 1996

Amigos homenaje, Jack was oten re-

erred to as that Lincoln vet who looks

so much like Alberti. Both he and his

amily enjoyed the comparison.

Jack is survived by two daughter

several grandchildren, and his com

panion o many years, Vicky Willaine

Robert Coale and Peter N. Carro

Leo Fabritius

Leo Fabritius, the last Finnish vet

eran o the Spanish Civil War, died

March 22, 2005.

As a young man, Fabritius went t

sea and jumped ship in Canada. Ther

he learned that the Spanish army

had revolted against the Republican

government. In Sudbury he acquired

a passport under the name o LeoRiutta and joined other volunteers in

Montreal to be shipped to France.

Ater a short training in

Tarragona, he went to the ront and

was wounded at Teruel. Later, dur-

ing the retreats, he carried a small

Spanish girl or ve days beore nd-

ing someone who could take care o

her. Then he crossed the Pyrenees on

oot into France, where a Finnish gen-

eral ound him at a reugee camp andsent him home to Finland. Later he

wrote a book about his experiences,

Tasavaltalaisena Espanjan sisllissodassa

(As a republican in the Spanish civil war)

It was published in 1986.

In 1940 Fabritius sailed to New

York and resumed his work as a sea-

man. But when England declared war

on Finland, he was taken rom his ship

to a prison camp in Jamaica or three

years. In 1954 he let the U.S., headedor Australia. He kept a store in Sydne

or 16 years. In 1988 he moved back

to Finland, where he nally settled in

Saukkola with his wie.

Leo Fabritius was a kind and help

ul person. Brotherhood and justice

were his leading stars during his whol


21/28


lie. Fabritius leaves his wie and many

relatives and riends around the world.

Olavi Koivukangas, Institute o

Migration, Turku, Finland

Joseph Tannenhaus(1915-2005)

Joseph Tannenhaus, a Canadian-

born member o the Lincoln Brigade

and resident o Coronado, Caliornia,

died on November 21 at the age o 90.

Daid Marshall

(1916-2005)Arriving in Barcelona onSeptember 4, 1936, the poet David

Marshall, who has died at the age o

89, was one o the rst British volun-

teers to ght in the Spanish Civil War.

Tall, slight and bespectacled, look-

ing more like a scholar or a poet than

a working man, he joined the Tom

Mann Centuria, a predecessor o the

International Brigades. He delighted

in the vibrant revolutionary atmo-sphere o the Catalan capital, thrilled

to be where the working class seemed

to be in control, and he soon joined the

Communist Party.

Ater nearly seven weeks in

Barcelona, he was sent to the head-

quarters o the newly ormed

International Brigades at Albacete.

There, the Centuria was incorpo-

rated into the English section o the

predominantly German Thaelmannbattalion o the 12th International

Brigade. Ater training near Madrid,

he was thrown into action during the

advance o General Francos Arican

columns, neither he nor his comrades

ever having red a rife beore. They

attacked on the hill known as the

Cerro de los Angeles, without artil-

lery support. Late in the aternoon o

November 12 1936, a snipers bullet hit

him just above his ankle. Ater treat-

ment in Alicante, he was repatriatedto England at the end o 1936 to cam-

paign or aid or the republic.

By his own account, he had hith-

erto lived utterly ignorant o the world,

wrapped in my bookishness, oblivious

to the hunger marches and the ght

against Oswald Mosleys British Union

o Fascists. Yet he was increasingly radi-

calized by what he saw o the appalling

experiences o the unemployed. They,

and now he, lived in the drab world othe depression, o disillusionment with

capitalism. Looking out rom that bleak

landscape, he saw the Spanish war as

the inspiring example o an oppressed

people ghting or a decent way o lie

against Spains backward landed and

industrial oligarchies and their Nazi

and ascist allies. Thus, orging a let-

ter o paternal permission, he went to

Spain, believing that the republican ex-

periment held hope or all o Europe.When Marshall came back rom

that war he began to write poetry

and, shortly ater reaching home,

he wrote his most celebrated poem,

Retrospectincluded by Stephen

Spender and John Lehmann in their

classic anthology Poems or Spain (1939)

alongside work by WH Auden, Louis

MacNeice, Spender himsel, Cecil

Day Lewis and other great names

o the era. In Retrospect, Marshallcontrasted images o an England still

at peace with a Spain torn by ascist

bombing raids. In another poem, he

spoke o the deep vein o grie that

runs throughout my generation.

Because o his Spanish service,

he was not permitted to enlist at the

beginning o World War II, but he man

aged to volunteer in January 1940. He

took part in the Normandy landings in

June 1944 and was present at the libera

tion o Belsen concentration camp.Marshall returned to work or the

Ministry o Labour in Middlesbrough

He helped purchase and reurbish a

derelict house to use as oces or the

local Communist Party and Young

Communist League. For 10 years he

was secretary o the Middlesbrough

Trades Union Club. By now an ac-

complished carpenter with a range o

building skills, he planned and, with

the help o volunteer labor, built a halthat held 500 people, with a stage or

weekly dances, concerts, lm shows

and lectures.

Despite a talent or revelry, he

never deradicalized, as testied

by the bitter poem written in the

Thatcher years, Where Will You Slee

Tonight? In the poem, he contrasted

the tears o the well-heeled opera-

goers or Mimi, Violetta or Butterfy

with their indierence to the ate oa homeless girl in Covent Garden.

Earlier this year, he saw the publica-

tion o his book, The Tilting Planet

(London Voices/International Brigade

Memorial Trust), with poems about

Spain and ater.

As the women who knew him an

his love poems attest, he was a loving

and tender man. Always witty, warm

and aectionate, as he raged against

the dying o the light, he could be cantankerous, but he never lost his dry

sense o humor and his sharp percep-

tions o the world around him.

Paul Preston, abridged rom Th

Guardian, October 29, 200

See page 21 or a poem by David

Marshall.

Added to Memorys Roster


22/28


ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS

ALBA EXPANDS WEB BOOKSTOREBuy Spanish Ciil War books on the WEB.ALBA members receive a discount!

WWW.ALBA-vALB.ORgBookS ABouT ThE LINCoLN BRIGADETe Spanis Civil War: A Very Srt Intrdctinby Helen GrahamMember f te Wring Classby Milton WolffFigting Fascism in Erpe. Te Wrld War II Letters fan American Veteran f te Spanis Civil Warby Lawrence Cane, edited by David E. Cane, JudyBarrett Litoff, and David C. Smith

Mercy in Madridby Mary Bingham de UrquidiTe Frnt Lines f Scial Cange: Veterans f teAbraam Lincln Brigadeby Richard Bermack

Sldiers f Salamasby Javier CercasJan Carls: Steering Spain frm Dictatrsip tDemcracyby Paul Preston

Britis Vlnteers in te Spanis Civil Warby Richard BaxellTe Wnd and te Dream: Sixty Years f AmericanPems abt te Spanis Civil War

by Cary NelsonPassing te Trc: Te AbraamLincln Brigade and its Legacy f hpeby Anthony Geist and Jose MorenoAnter hillby Milton Wolffor FigtWritings by Veterans f teAbraam Lincln Brigade: Spain 1936-1939edited by Alvah Bessie & Albert Prago

Spains Case Was Mineby Hank RubinCmradesby Harry FisherTe odyssey f te AbraamLincln Brigadeby Peter CarrollTe Lincln Brigade, a Pictre histryby William Katz and Marc Crawford

EXhIBIT CATALoGSTey Still Draw Pictures: Cildrens Art in Wartime

by Anthony Geist and Peter CarrollTe Aura f te Cause, a pt albumedited by Cary Nelson

VIDEoSInt te Fire: American Wmen in te Spanis CivilWarJulia NewmanArt in te Strggle fr FreedmAbe OsheroffDreams and NigtmaresAbe OsheroffTe Gd FigtSills/Dore/Bruckner

Frever ActivistsJudith Montell

Y Are histry, Y Are LegendJudith MontellPrfessinal Revltinary: Life f Sal WellmanJudith Montell

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

Name __________________________________

Address __________________________________

City________________ State ___Zip_________

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

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


23/28

THE VOLUNTEER March 2006 2

The Brigade PoeticaIZOBONGO FOR THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADEBy Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco

Accent on International

against the globaloney

that never arrives

at the hungry mouths of the world.

Accent on the International

Brigades that are still

the deathless moment human Being

became conscious of itself.

Accent on the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade, which has always

belonged to the heart of,by and for all lovers of liberty,

which has never stopped

bringing supplies, medicine

to front lines of struggle against

fascism in whatever form,

with an ageless energy redounding

to original hope, defying

the advocates of coalitions of alone

by bringing collectivity

into the twenty-first century,

inspiring brigadistas

everywhere-on mountainsides,

on cultural fronts-

to continue the war

humanity can never lose.

I wIsH I wERE BACkBy David Marshall

I wish I were back in t he trenches round Madrid

Along with the chicos, among the strangeness of tongues:

Strong in my body, testing it thus and thus,

Half wondering that my flesh can bear these things.

Glad in my loneliness, wrapt in my alien thoughts;My quaintness cloaking me, like cold air

Stirring on the skin when putting off familiar clothes

Just as I stepped out of my time-pocked life

Into this.

Then the terror stript me of bewilderment,

Left me shrinking and shell-less, my soul

A slim white worm, curling blindly in fear:

Only one direction to my consciousness,

To kill before I was kill ed, and glad to die

That our new world begins.

And the tanks lurching like monsters

Stiff-shouldered through the slime,

The horrid black concussion of bombs

Spouting earth skywards,

And the vicious shrapnel

And the hideous chatter of machine-guns

All these could not shatter our resolution.


24/28


ALBAs planned giving pro-

gram provides an extraordinaryway to make a ift, increase in-

come and slice the donors tax

bill all in one transaction!

The charitable git annu-

ity program was created or our

many riends who have expressed

a desire to make a signicant git,

while still retaining income rom

the principal during their lie-

time. A charitable git annuity

gives the donor additional retire-ment income, while aording the

satisaction o supporting ALBAs

continuing educational programs

and its traditions o ghting or so-

cial justice and against ascism.

HOW DOES A

CHARITABLE GIFT

ANNUITY WORK?

A charitable git annuity is a

simple contract between you and

the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Archives (ALBA). Under this ar-

rangement, you make a git o cash

or marketable securities, worth a

minimum o $5000, to ALBA. In re-turn, ALBA will pay you (or up to

two individuals) an annuity begin-

ning on the date you speciy, on or

ater your sixtieth (60th) birthday.

WHAT ARE THE

ADVANTAGES OF A

CHARITABLE GIFT

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A charitable git annuityhas our distinct advantages:

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gits o securities save twice!

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ALBAs PlannedGiving Program

Tax Advantages for Gift Annuities


25/28

THE VOLUNTEER March 2006 2

principal, Robert Gary, a skit parody-

ing and honoring the work o Rosa

Parks was presented by the world

history classes. This was ollowed

by student speeches and poetry onvarious articles o the Universal

Declaration o Human Rights, in-

cluding the battle against child labor

and deense o the right to assembly.

The nal student perormance was a

tribute to the work or gang peace by

Caliornias Stanley Tookie Williams,

taking place just 4 days beore his ex-

ecution in San Quentin. At the skits

conclusion, students wearing red and

blue chorally asked the question tothe audience, What do you thinko

the execution o Stanley Williams

planned or next Tuesday?

As the actors let th

Documents

The Volunteer, March 2006