Author Archive for Mark Derby

Marianne Angermann and Franz Bielschowsky: Two German Antifascists in Republican Madrid

November 18, 2023
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Marianne Angermann and Franz Bielschowsky: Two German Antifascists in Republican Madrid

Marianne Angermann, a young German biochemist, joined a Madrid lab in late 1935 to work with her compatriot Franz Bielschowsky, a Jewish refugee who’d been there since 1933. When the war broke out the following year, both decided stay in Spain and serve the Republican war effort as medical personnel. Marianne’s letters to her...
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Refugees from McCarthyism in New Zealand: The Story of Bob and Augusta Ford

August 30, 2023
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Refugees from McCarthyism in New Zealand: The Story of Bob and Augusta Ford

Bob Ford, who worked in Hollywood and fought in Spain and World War II, suffered relentless surveillance because of his radical past, as did his wife, Augusta Ain. In 1950 they moved to New Zealand—and never looked back. 4 February 1938 We just returned from Madrid. We had rather a good time except the...
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New Archive Traces New Zealand Volunteer in the IBs

December 29, 2018
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New Archive Traces New Zealand Volunteer in the IBs

An archival donation reveals new details about Griff Maclaurin, a charismatic New Zealander who left Cambridge, England, to serve as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, where he fought alongside the poet John Cornford and died in the battle for Madrid.
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Doug Jolly: New Zealand Surgeon in Spain

July 1, 2018
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Doug Jolly: New Zealand Surgeon in Spain

Doug Jolly, a New Zealand-born surgeon who served with the Spanish Republican Army’s medical services during the civil war has been posthumously honored in his home town.
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A Pig Islander among the Mac-Paps

December 3, 2016
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A Pig Islander among the Mac-Paps

As a sergeant in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, Alex Maclure firmly aligned himself with New Zealand volunteers in the International Brigades. In the above letter, published in the Communist Party of New Zealand’s Workers’ Weekly, he refers to himself as a ‘Pig Islander’, a term then applied to New Zealanders by other nationalities. Yet Alexander...
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