The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Learn more at our website or
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Endorsing ALBA’s 2019 event in New York City this year, where the Immigration Justice Campaign will receive the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, is an Honorary Committee featuring world-renowned filmmakers, politicians, and activists. On May 5, ALBA and the Puffin Foundation will join in honoring and supporting the Immigration Justice Campaign (IJC)...
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The City College of New York (CCNY) was founded in1847 as the Free Academy of the City of New York. Offering free tuition, the school served as a combination prep school, high school and college. It was renamed the College of the City of New York in 1866 and became the City College of...
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Arthur Witt lived an interesting and full, but all too short, life. The first child of Herman and Ida Witkowsky, he was born on October 4, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. The family changed its name to Witt in late 1916. He died February 27, 1937, fighting the Fascists on the battlefield at...
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The Volunteer for Liberty, v. 2, No. 33, October 6, 1938 When Major E. Cecil-Smith Commander of the Mac-Paps was wounded at Hill 565, Teniente Gunnar Ebb, Finnish commander of Company 5 of the Battalion became what the Spanish Army calls an “accidental” commander of the Battalion. But there is nothing accidental about Comrade...
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The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 25, July 19, 1938 Just outside of Belchite towards Fuentes de Todos, a shell landed in the Estado Mayor of the Lincoln, killing commander Reiss and Battalion Commissar Parker. One of the corpse fell against Frank Rogers – a piece of shrapnel wounded him in the leg....
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Written During An Airplane Attack by Daniel Hutner American Volunteer Killed In Action –September, 1937 The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 1, No. 15, September 20, 1937 Dawn still sleeps; but we awake, Aware that soon those shadows in The sky may hover. Everywhere about us the earth is raw, With wounds from shells...
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The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 32, September 17, 1938. You know, when we got all those new Spanish recruits late in May, we looked at them and a lot of us thought “Hells Bells, look at the kindergarten broke loose.” Why, those kids –they didn’t shave, some of’em would cry if you...
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The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, no. 33, October 6, 1938 There is not a man of us who did not like and appreciate Teniente Johnny Cookson Adjutant of the Transmission Company of the 15th Brigade for he combined the rare qualities of a man of science, a good organizer, and a sincere simple and...
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The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 31, September 5, 1938 We moved down off the hill in single file, the taste of breakfast still in our mouths –coffee, chocolate, ham and sardines, bread, marmalade and plums. There was a comfortable weight inside us., and there was, too, the inevitable nervousness, the pre-action...
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Two Poems by Miles Tomalin The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 35, November 7, 1938 TO ENGLAND From the English Dead We, who were English once had eyes and saw The savage greed of those who made this war Tear up from earth, like a hog loose in flowers So many lives as young...
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ALBA's project to provide a complete list of the more than 2,800 individuals who left from U.S. territory to fight with the Spanish Republic
Dear friends, dear David Lomon, I want to thank you for your sacrifice and love to Spain and its people. I hope some day History would place you in the plece you deserve.
In the name of my grandad, who was executed in 1942 in Paterna (Valencia), thanks because I can listen to him through your words and I cand look at his eyes through your eyes.
Shalom:
María Luisa