All Topics  
International Brigades

 

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

International Brigades



 
 
The International Brigades were Republican
Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14 1931, when King of Spain Alfonso XIII of Spain left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in urban areas and April 1 1939, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered to Nationalist...
 military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 units in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
, formed of many non-state sponsored volunteers of different countries who traveled to Spain, to fight for the republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'International Brigades'
Start a new discussion about 'International Brigades'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Flag of the International Brigades
The International Brigades were Republican
Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14 1931, when King of Spain Alfonso XIII of Spain left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in urban areas and April 1 1939, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered to Nationalist...
 military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 units in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
, formed of many non-state sponsored volunteers of different countries who traveled to Spain, to fight for the republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. An estimated 32,000 people from a "claimed 53 nations" volunteered. They fought against rebel Spanish Nationalist forces, who were led by General Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco

Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Te?dulo Franco y Bahamonde, Salgado y Pardo de Andrade , commonly known as Francisco Franco or Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was the dictator and Head of State of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975....
 and assisted by Nazi
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
 German
Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
 and Fascist Italian
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the Italian unification under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia; it existed until 1946 when the Italians opted for a republican constitution....
 forces.

Formation and recruitment

Using foreign Communist Parties
Communist party

A political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government....
 to recruit volunteers for Spain was first proposed in Moscow in September 1936 – perhaps at the suggestion of Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez

Maurice Thorez was a France politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947....
 - by Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg

Willi M?nzenberg was a leading propagandist for the KPD during the Weimar Republic, and later murdered by the NKVD. Earlier he had been one of the General secretaries of the Communist Youth International....
, chief of Comintern
Comintern

The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
 propaganda for Western Europe. As a security measure, non-Communist volunteers would first be interviewed by an NKVD
NKVD

The NKVD or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for Soviet political repressions during the Stalinism era....
 agent.

By the end of September, the Italian and French Communist Parties had decided to set up a column. Luigi Longo
Luigi Longo

Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italy Communism politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972....
, ex-leader of the Italian Communist Youth, was charged to make the necessary arrangements with the Spanish government. The Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 Ministry of Defense also helped, since they had experience of dealing with corps of international volunteers (during the Russian Civil War). The idea was initially opposed by Largo Caballero, but after the first setbacks of the war, he changed his mind, and finally agreed to the operation on 22 October. However, the Soviet Union did not withdraw from the Non-Intervention Committee
Non-Intervention Committee

The purpose of Non-Intervention Committee was to prevent personnel and mat?riel reaching the warring parties of the Spanish Civil War. It was set up as a result of the Non-Intervention Agreement....
, probably to avoid diplomatic conflict with France and the United Kingdom.
International Brigades Poster2
The main recruitment centre was in Paris, under the supervision of Polish communist colonel Karol "Walter" Swierczewski
Karol Swierczewski

Karol Waclaw Swierczewski was a military officer in Bolshevist Russia, and later a general in the service of the Soviet Union, Republican Spain and the Provisional Government of National Unity....
. On 17 October 1936, an open letter by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
 to José Díaz
José Díaz

Jos? D?az was a Spain trade unionist and Communism politician....
 was published in Mundo Obrero, arguing that liberation for Spain was a matter not only for Spaniards, but also for the whole of "progressive Humanity"; in a matter of days, support organisations for the Spanish Republic were founded in most countries, all more or less controlled by the Comintern
Comintern

The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
.

Paths were arranged for volunteers: for instance, Josip Broz, who would became famous as Marshal Josef Broz Tito, was in Paris to provide assistance, money and passports for the volunteers from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
. Volunteers were sent by train or ship from France to Spain, and sent to the base at Albacete
Albacete

Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the Albacete in the autonomous communities of Spain of Castilla-La Mancha....
. However, many of them also went by themselves to Spain. The volunteers were under no contract, nor defined engagement period, which would later prove a problem.

Also many Italians, Germans, and people from other countries with repressive governments joined the movement, with the idea that combat in Spain was a first step to restore democracy or advance a revolutionary cause in their own country. There were also many unemployed workers (especially from France), and adventurers. Finally, some 500 Communists who had been exiled to Russia were sent to Spain (among them, experienced military leaders from the First World War like "Kléber" Stern
Manfred Stern

Manfred Stern was a member of Soviet Military Intelligence . He served as an spy in the United States, as a military advisor in China, and gained fame as General Kl?ber, leader of the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War....
, "Gomez" Zaisser
Wilhelm Zaisser

Wilhelm Zaisser was a German Communist politician and the first Stasi of the East German .Born in Gelsenkirchen, Zaisser studied to become a teacher from 1910 to 1913 in Essen, Germany....
, "Lukacs" Zalka
Zalka Mate

M?t? Zalka was a Hungarian writer and revolutionary. His real name was B?la Frankl. He attended Polg?ri Iskola in M?t?szalka, which was later renamed in his honour....
 and "Gal" Galicz
Janos Galicz

Janos Galicz, better known as "General Gal", was a brigade and division commander during the Spanish Civil War....
, who would prove invaluable in combat).

The operation was met by Communists with enthusiasm, but by anarchists with skepticism, at best. At first, the Anarchists who controlled the borders with France were told to refuse Communist volunteers, and reluctantly allowed their passage after protests. A group of 500 volunteers (mainly French, with a few exiled Poles and Germans) arrived in Albacete on 14 October 1936. They were met by international volunteers who had already been fighting in Spain: Germans from the Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion

The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
, Italians from Centuria Gastone Sozzi and French from Commune de Paris Battalion. Among them was British poet John Cornford
John Cornford

Rupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford, and was through his mother a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin....
. Men were sorted according to their experience and origin, and dispatched to units.

Albacete soon became the International Brigades headquarters and its main depot. It was run by a troika of Comintern
Comintern

The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
 heavyweights: André Marty
André Marty

Andr? Marty was a leading figure in the French Communist Party, the PCF, for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly of France, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern from 1935 to 1944; and Political Commissar of the International Brigades in Spain from 1936 to 1938....
 was commander; Luigi Longo
Luigi Longo

Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italy Communism politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972....
 (Gallo) was Inspector-General; and Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio

Giuseppe Di Vittorio, also known under the pseudonym Nicoletti , was an Italy Syndicalism trade unionist and Communism politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I....
 (Nicoletti) was chief political commissar.

The French Communist Party
French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. Although its electoral support has greatly declined in recent decades, it remains the largest party in France advocating communist views, and retains a large membership and considerable influence in French politics....
 provided uniforms for the Brigades. Discipline was extreme. For several weeks, the Brigades were locked in their base while their strict military training was under way.

Service


First engagements: Siege of Madrid


The Battle of Madrid was a major success for the Republic. It staved off the prospect of a rapid defeat at the hands of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco

Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Te?dulo Franco y Bahamonde, Salgado y Pardo de Andrade , commonly known as Francisco Franco or Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was the dictator and Head of State of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975....
's forces. The role of the International Brigades in this victory was generally recognised and sometimes even exaggerated. For instance, the British Ambassador, Sir Henry Childon, declared that there were no Spaniards in the army which had defended Madrid; in fact, all but 3,000 of the 40,000 Republican troops in the city were Spanish. Even though the International Brigades did not win the battle by themselves, nor significantly change the situation, they certainly did provide an example by their determined fighting, and improved the morale of the population by demonstrating the concern of other nations in the fight. Many of the older members of the International Brigades provided valuable combat experience having fought during the First World War (the Spanish Army remained neutral in 1914-18).

One of the strategic positions in Madrid was the Casa de Campo
Casa de Campo

The Casa de Campo is thw largest urban park situated west of central Madrid, . It was formerly a royal hunting estate. It's area is more than 1700 hectares....
. There the Nationalist troops were Moroccans
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
, commanded by General José Enrique Varela
José Enrique Varela

Jos? Enrique Varela Iglesias was a Spanish military commander and an important figure in the Spanish Civil War.Varela started his military career as an enlisted man and fought in the colonial wars in the Rif for three years starting in 1909....
. They were excellent fighters in the open, but were ill-trained for urban warfare, a role in which the Republican militia had shown prowess in from the early days of the war. They were stopped by III and IV Brigades of the regular Republican Army.

On 9 November 1936, the XI International Brigade
XI International Brigade

The XI International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War.It would become especially renowned for providing desperately needed support in the darkest hours of the Siege of Madrid on 8 November 1936, when, with great losses, it helped repulse a major assault by veteran Nationalist troops, buying time for...
 - comprising 1,900 men from the Edgar André Battalion, the Commune de Paris Battalion and the Dabrowski Battalion
Dabrowski Battalion

The Dabrowski Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was initially formed entirely of volunteers, "chiefly composed of Polish miners recently living and working in France and Belgium"....
, together with a British machine-gun company - took up position at the Casa del Campo. In the evening, its commander, General Kléber
Manfred Stern

Manfred Stern was a member of Soviet Military Intelligence . He served as an spy in the United States, as a military advisor in China, and gained fame as General Kl?ber, leader of the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War....
, launched an assault on the Nationalist positions. This lasted for the whole night and part of the next morning. At the end of the fight, the Nationalist troops had been forced to retreat, abandoning all hopes of a direct assault on Madrid by Casa de Campo, while the XIth Brigade had lost a third of its personnel.

On 13 November, the 1550-man strong XII International Brigade
XII International Brigade

The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7th November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formally named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the Italian partisan leader, Giuseppe Garibaldi....
, made up of the Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion

The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
, the Garibaldi Battalion
Garibaldi Battalion

The Garibaldi Battalion was a group of mostly volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War from October, 1936 on. It became part of the XII International Brigade, also known as the Garibaldi International Brigade....
 and the André Marty Battalion, deployed. Commanded by General "Lukacs", they assaulted Nationalist positions on the high ground of Cerro de los Angeles
Cerro de los Ángeles

The Cerro de los ?ngeles is a famous hill located in Getafe, Spain, about 10 km south of Madrid. The site is famous for being considered the geographic centre of the Iberian Peninsula....
. As a result of language and communication problems, command issues, lack of rest, poor coordination with armoured units, and insufficient artillery support, the attack failed.

On November 19, Anarchist units of the Republican Army were forced to retreat, and Nationalist troops — Moroccans and Spanish Foreign Legionnaires, covered by the Nazi Condor Legion
Condor Legion

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C0214-0007-013, Spanien, Flugzeug der Legion Condor.jpgThe Condor Legion was a unit composed of "volunteers" from the Nazi Germany Air Force which served with the Spain under Franco side during the Spanish Civil War of July 1936 to March 1939....
 — captured a foothold in the University City. The 11th Brigade was sent to drive the Nationalists out of the University City. The battle was extremely bloody, a mix of artillery and aerial bombardments, with bayonet and grenade fights, room by room. Anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti
Buenaventura Durruti

Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a central figure of Anarchism in Spain during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War....
 was shot there on 19 November 1936, and died the next day. The battle in the University went on until three quarters of the University City was under Nationalist control. Both sides then started setting up trenches and fortifications. It was then clear that any assault from either side would be far too costly; the nationalist leaders had to renounce the idea of a direct assault on Madrid, and prepare for a siege
Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by Battle of attrition and/or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit." A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender ....
 of the capital.

On 13 December 1936, 18,000 nationalist troops attempted an attack to close the encirclement of Madrid at Guadarrama
Guadarrama

Guadarrama is a town in the Community of Madrid in Spain.Pop: 13032 , approx. 60000 .Co-ordinates .Founded by the Arabs, Guadarrama achieved the status of "villa" under Ferdinand II of Aragon on November 22, 1504....
 — an engagement known as the Battle of the Corunna Road
Battle of the Corunna Road

The Battle of the Corunna Road was a battle of the Spanish Civil War from 13 December 1936 to 15 January 1937, north west of Madrid.The Battle of Madrid in November 1936 had been fought to a standstill, with the Nationalists failing to take the city....
. The Republicans sent in a Soviet armoured unit, under General Dmitry Pavlov
Dmitry Pavlov

For other uses, see Pavlov.Dmitry Grigorevich Pavlov was a Soviet Union general who commanded the key Soviet Western Front during the initial days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, or Operation Barbarossa, in June 1941....
, and both XI and XII International Brigades. Violent combat followed, and they stopped the Nationalist advance.

An attack was then launched by the Republic on the Cordoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
 front. The battle ended in a form of stalemate; a communique was issued, saying: "[t]oday, our advance continued without loss of land". Poets Ralph Winston Fox
Ralph Winston Fox

Ralph Winston Fox was a British novelist, social historian, journalist, translator and politician.Fox studied modern languages at Oxford University, identified himself with socialist and communist political movements after a visit to the Soviet Union in 1920, where he saw the effects of the Russian Revolution of 1917 for himself....
 and John Cornford
John Cornford

Rupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford, and was through his mother a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin....
 were killed. Eventually, the Nationalists advanced, taking the hydro electric station at El Campo. André Marty
André Marty

Andr? Marty was a leading figure in the French Communist Party, the PCF, for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly of France, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern from 1935 to 1944; and Political Commissar of the International Brigades in Spain from 1936 to 1938....
 accused the commander of the Marseillaise Battalion, Gaston Delasalle, of espionage and treason and had him executed. (It is doubtful that Delasalle would have been a spy for Francisco Franco; he was denounced by his own second-in-command, André Heussler, who was executed for treason during World War II, by the French Resistance.)

Further Nationalist attempts after Christmas to encircle Madrid met with failure, but not without extremely violent combat. On 6 January 1937, the Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion

The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
 arrived at Las Rozas, and held its positions until it was destroyed as a fighting force. On January 9, only 10 km had been lost to the Nationalists, when the XIII International Brigade
XIII International Brigade

This article is about the 13th International Brigade - often known as the XIII Dabrowski Brigade - which fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades....
 and XIV International Brigade
XIV International Brigade

The XIV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. It was raised on 20 December 1936 with volunteers mainly from France and Belgium, under General "Walter" ....
 and the 1st British Company, arrived in Madrid. Violent Republican assaults were launched in attempt to retake the land, with little success. On January 15, trenches and fortifications were built by both sides, resulting in a stalemate.

The Nationalists did not take Madrid until the very end of the war, in March 1939. There were also some pockets of resistance during the consecutive months.

Battle of Jarama


On 6 February 1937, following the fall of Málaga
Málaga

M?laga is a port city in Andalusia, southern Spain, on the Costa del Sol coast of the Mediterranean. At the 2007 census the population is 576,725....
, the nationalists launched an attack on the Madrid
Madrid

Madrid is the Capital and largest city of Spain. It is the Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its Madrid metropolitan area is the Largest urban areas of the European Union in the European Union after Paris aire urbaine, Greater London Urban Area, a...
-Andalusia
Andalusia

Andalusia is a country in the Spanish State. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Spain....
 road, south of Madrid. The Nationalists quickly advanced on the little town Ciempozuelos
Ciempozuelos

Ciempozuelos is a town in Spain. It is located in the south of the Community of Madrid.It had a population of 17,769 in 2005Its origins appear to be Moorish and the name refers to the number of well that existed in the town....
, held by the XV International Brigade
XV International Brigade

*Brigade name/s: XVth Brigade*Brigade songs: Jarama Valley , Viva la Quinta Brigada *Battles: Jarama, Brunete, Boadilla, Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel, El Ebro...
, which was composed of the British Battalion
British Battalion

The British Battalion was the 16th battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was also sometimes known as the Saklatvala Battalion or the Clement Attlee Battalion....
 (British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 and Irish
Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
), the Dimitrov Battalion
Dimitrov Battalion

The Dimitrov Battalion was part of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was the 18th battalion formed, and was named after Georgi Dimitrov, a passionate and high profile Bulgarian supporter of the Spanish Popular Front....
 (miscellaneous Balkan nationalities), the 6 Février Battalion (Belgians
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
 and French), the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canada who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War....
 and the Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
 Battalion (Americans
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, including African-American). An independent 80-men-strong (mainly) Irish unit, known as the Connolly Column
Connolly Column

The Connolly Column refers to the Irish volunteers who fought for the Second Spanish Republic in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
, made up of people from both sides of the Irish border also fought. Several histories of the Irish in Spain record that they included an ex-Catholic Christian Brother
Congregation of Christian Brothers

The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a world-wide community of religious brothers within the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Beatification Edmund Ignatius Rice....
 and an ordained Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland. Like other Anglican churches, it considers itself to be both Catholicism and Protestant Reformation....
 (Anglican Protestant) Clergyman, fighting and dying on the same side. (These battalions were not composed entirely of one nationality or another, rather they were for the most part a mix of many)

On 11 February 1937, a Nationalist brigade launched a surprise attack on the André Marty Battalion (XIV International Brigade
XIV International Brigade

The XIV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. It was raised on 20 December 1936 with volunteers mainly from France and Belgium, under General "Walter" ....
), stabbing its sentries
Sentry

Sentry may refer to:*A sentry is a guard at a gate or other point of passage. See General Orders for Sentries*Sentry , an automatic near-Earth asteroid collision monitoring system...
 and crossing the Jarama
Jarama

Jarama is a river in central Spain. It flows north to south, and passes east of Madrid when El Atazar Dam is built on a tributary, the Lozoya River....
. The Garibaldi Battalion stopped the advance with heavy fire. At another point, the same tactic allowed the Nationalists to move their troops across the river.

On 12 February, the British Battalion
British Battalion

The British Battalion was the 16th battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was also sometimes known as the Saklatvala Battalion or the Clement Attlee Battalion....
, XV International Brigade
XV International Brigade

*Brigade name/s: XVth Brigade*Brigade songs: Jarama Valley , Viva la Quinta Brigada *Battles: Jarama, Brunete, Boadilla, Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel, El Ebro...
 took the brunt of the attack, remaining under heavy fire for seven hours. The position became known as "Suicide Hill". At the end of the day, only 225 of the 600 members of the British battalion remained. One company was captured by ruse, when Nationalists advanced among their ranks singing The Internationale
The Internationale

The Internationale is a famous socialism, communism, social-democratic and anarchism anthem and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world....
.

On 17 February, the Republican Army counter-attacked. On February 23 and 27, the International Brigades were engaged, but with little success. The Lincoln Battalion was put under great pressure, with no artillery support. It suffered 120 killed and 175 wounded. Amongst the dead was the Irish poet Charles Donnelly
Charles Donnelly

Charles Donnelly was an Irish poetry and political activist....
.

There were heavy casualties on both sides, and although "both claimed victory ... both suffered defeats". . It resulted in a stalemate, with both sides digging in, creating elaborate trench systems.

On 22 February 1937 the League of Nations
League of Nations

The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members....
 Non-Intervention Committee
Non-Intervention Committee

The purpose of Non-Intervention Committee was to prevent personnel and mat?riel reaching the warring parties of the Spanish Civil War. It was set up as a result of the Non-Intervention Agreement....
 ban on foreign volunteers went into effect.

Battle of Guadalajara

International Brigades Poster3
After the failed assault on the Jarama, the Nationalists attempted another assault on Madrid, from the North-East this time. The objective was the town of Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Spain

Guadalajara is a city and municipality in the autonomous communities of Spain of Castile-La Mancha, Spain, and in the natural region of La Alcarria....
, 50 km from Madrid. The whole Italian expeditionary corps — 35,000 men, with 80 battle tanks and 200 field artillery — was deployed, as Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, Order of the Bath Sovereign Military Order of Malta Order of the Tower and Sword was an Italy politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
 wanted the victory to be credited to Italy. On 9 March 1937, the Italians made a breach in the Republican lines, but did not properly exploit the advance. However, the rest of the Nationalist army was advancing, and the situation appeared critical for the Republicans. A formation drawn from the best available units of the Republican army, including the XI
XI International Brigade

The XI International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War.It would become especially renowned for providing desperately needed support in the darkest hours of the Siege of Madrid on 8 November 1936, when, with great losses, it helped repulse a major assault by veteran Nationalist troops, buying time for...
 and XII International Brigade
XII International Brigade

The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7th November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formally named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the Italian partisan leader, Giuseppe Garibaldi....
s, was quickly assembled.

At dawn on 10 March, the Nationalists closed in, and by noon, the Garibaldi Battalion counterattacked. Some confusion arose from the fact that the sides were not aware of each other's movements, and that both sides spoke Italian; this resulted in scouts from both sides exchanging information without realising they were enemies. The Republican lines advanced and made contact with XI International Brigade. Fascist tanks were shot at and infantry patrols came into action. There was reportedly an incident in which a fascist officer asked why Italian soldiers were shooting at his party, and they responded Noi siamo Italiani di Garibaldi (literally: "we are Garibaldi Italian"), at which point the Fascists surrendered. The common language was used to advantage by the Republicans, who used loudspeakers and dropped leaflets from planes, to broadcast propaganda messages, including a promise to pay Fascist deserters.

On March 11, the Fascists broke the front of the Republican army. The Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion

The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
 suffered heavy losses, but succeeded in holding the Trijueque
Trijueque

Trijueque is a municipality located in the Guadalajara , Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 909 inhabitants....
-Torija
Torija

Torija is a municipality located in the Guadalajara , Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 576 inhabitants....
 road. The Garibaldi also held its positions. On March 12, Republican planes and tanks attacked. The Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion

The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
 attacked Trijuete in a bayonet charge and re-took the town, capturing numerous prisoners.

The International Brigades also saw combat in the Battle of Teruel
Battle of Teruel

The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War in December 1937-February 1938. The combatants fought the battle during the worst Spanish winter in twenty years....
 in January 1938. The 35th International Division suffered heavily in this battle from aerial bombardment as well as shortages of food, winter clothing and ammunition. The XIV International Brigade
XIV International Brigade

The XIV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. It was raised on 20 December 1936 with volunteers mainly from France and Belgium, under General "Walter" ....
 fought in the Battle of Ebro in July 1938, the last Republican offensive of the war.

Disbandment


The International Brigades were disbanded by the Republican government of Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín

Juan Negr?n y L?pez was a Spain politician and physician.Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he became a university professor of physiology....
, who announced the decision in the League of Nations
League of Nations

The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members....
 on 21 September 1938 in an effort to get the Nationalist's foreign backers to withdraw their troops and to persuade the western democracies such as France and Britain to end their arms embargo
Embargo

In international commerce and International relations, an embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative....
 on the Republic. By this time there were about an estimated 10,000 foreign volunteers still serving in Spain for the Republican side, and about 50,000 for the Nationalists (excluding another 30,000 Moroccans).

Perhaps half of the International Bridgadists came from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy or other countries, such as Hungary, which had authoritarian right wing governments at the time. These men could not safely return home and parts of them were instead given honorary Spanish citizenship and integrated in to Spanish units of the Popular Army. The remainder were repatriated to their own countries. The Dutch volunteers lost their citizenship because they had served in a foreign army.

Composition


Overview


;For a military overview, see International Brigades order of battle
International Brigades order of battle

The International Brigades were volunteer military units who fought on the side of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The volunteers were motivated to fight on political or social grounds and made their way to Spain independently....


International Brigades Poster1
The first brigades were composed mostly of French, Belgian, Italian, and German volunteers, backed by a sizeable contingent of Polish miners from Northern France and Belgium. The XIth
XI International Brigade

The XI International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War.It would become especially renowned for providing desperately needed support in the darkest hours of the Siege of Madrid on 8 November 1936, when, with great losses, it helped repulse a major assault by veteran Nationalist troops, buying time for...
, XIIth
XII International Brigade

The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7th November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formally named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the Italian partisan leader, Giuseppe Garibaldi....
 and XIIIth
XIII International Brigade

This article is about the 13th International Brigade - often known as the XIII Dabrowski Brigade - which fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades....
 were the first brigades formed. Later, the XIVth
XIV International Brigade

The XIV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. It was raised on 20 December 1936 with volunteers mainly from France and Belgium, under General "Walter" ....
 and XVth
XV International Brigade

*Brigade name/s: XVth Brigade*Brigade songs: Jarama Valley , Viva la Quinta Brigada *Battles: Jarama, Brunete, Boadilla, Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel, El Ebro...
 Brigades were raised, mixing experienced soldiers with new volunteers. Smaller Brigades - the 86th, 129th and 150th - were formed in late 1937 and 1938, mostly for temporary tactical reasons.

About 32,000 people volunteered to defend the Spanish Republic. Many were veterans of the World War I. Their early engagements in 1936 during the Siege of Madrid amply demonstrated their military and propaganda value.

The international volunteers were mainly Communists, or under Communist authority, and a high proportion were Jewish
Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

Many Jews were active in Socialist and Communist organisations in the period between the two World Wars . They were highly represented in the International Brigades and numbered "about fifty per cent among the Abraham Lincoln Brigade....
. Some were involved in the fighting in Barcelona
Barcelona

Barcelona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous communities of Spain of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008, while the population of the Metropolitan Area was 3,161,081....
 against Republican opponents of the Communists: the POUM
Workers' Party of Marxist Unification

The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification was a Spain Communism political party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, and mainly active around the time of the Spanish Civil War....
 (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, an anti-Stalinist Marxist party) and anarchists. However, overseas volunteers from anarchist, socialist, liberal and other political positions also served with the brigades.

To simplify communication, the battalions usually concentrated people of the same nationality or language group. The battalions were often (formally, at least) named after inspirational people or events. From Spring 1937 onwards, many battalions contained one Spanish volunteer company (about 150 men).

Later in the war, military discipline tightened and learning Spanish became mandatory. By decree of 23 September 1937, the International Brigades formally became units of the Spanish Foreign Legion. This made them subject to the Spanish Code of Military Justice. The same decree also specified that non-Spanish officers in the Brigades should not exceed Spanish ones by more than 50 per cent

Data

Brigades' composition by nationality
Nationality Thomas Others
9,000 9,000
3,350 3,000
3,000 5,000
3,000 3,000
2,000-3,000 
2,800 2,800
2,000 1,800
– 1,600
1,500 1,500
1,500 1,660
1,500 –
1,000 1,448
Scandinavians 1,000 –
– c. 800
700 
250 (served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) 
90  
160 
60 
>
Casualties
  • Killed in action: 9,934 (16%)
  • Wounded in action: 7,686 (12.9%)
  • Missing in Action: unknown
  • Prisoners-of War: unknown
 


Non-Spanish battalions

  • Abraham Lincoln Battalion: from the United States, Canada and Irish Free State
    Irish Free State

    The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
    , with some British, Cypriots
    Cyprus

    Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
     and Chile
    Chile

    Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
    an who lived in New York and were members of the Chilean worker club of New York.
    • Connolly Column
      Connolly Column

      The Connolly Column refers to the Irish volunteers who fought for the Second Spanish Republic in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
      : This mostly Irish republican
      Irish Republicanism

      Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the Irish nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a single independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
       group fought as a section of the Lincoln Battalion
  • Mickiewicz Battalion
    Mickiewicz Battalion

    This was a volunteer battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It formed part of the XIII International Brigade from 27 October 1937 until 23 September 1938, when the International Brigades were disbanded....
    : predominantly Polish.
  • André Marty Battalion: predominantly French and Belgian, named after André Marty
    André Marty

    Andr? Marty was a leading figure in the French Communist Party, the PCF, for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly of France, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern from 1935 to 1944; and Political Commissar of the International Brigades in Spain from 1936 to 1938....
    .
  • British Battalion
    British Battalion

    The British Battalion was the 16th battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was also sometimes known as the Saklatvala Battalion or the Clement Attlee Battalion....
    : Mainly British but with many from the Irish Free State
    Irish Free State

    The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
    , Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Cyprus
    Cyprus

    Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
     and other Commonwealth countries
    Commonwealth of Nations

    The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
    .
  • Checo-Balcánico Battalion: Czechoslovakia
    Czechoslovakia

    Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
    n and Balkan.
  • Commune de Paris Battalion: predominantly French.
  • Deba Blagoiev Battalion: predominantly Bulgarian, later merged into the Djakovic Battalion.
  • Dimitrov Battalion
    Dimitrov Battalion

    The Dimitrov Battalion was part of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was the 18th battalion formed, and was named after Georgi Dimitrov, a passionate and high profile Bulgarian supporter of the Spanish Popular Front....
    : Greek
    Greeks

    The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
    , Yugoslavian
    Yugoslavs

    Yugoslavs is a national designation used by some people across the former Yugoslavia and by some of its diasporans, which continues to be used in some of its successor countries....
    , Bulgarian, Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Romanian. Named after Georgi Dimitrov
    Georgi Dimitrov

    Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communism leader....
    .
  • Djure Djakovic Battalion: Yugoslav, Bulgarian, anarchist, named after the former Yugoslav communist party president Đuro Đakovic.
  • Dabrowski Battalion
    Dabrowski Battalion

    The Dabrowski Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was initially formed entirely of volunteers, "chiefly composed of Polish miners recently living and working in France and Belgium"....
    : mostly Polish and Hungarian. Also Czechoslovakian, Ukrainian
    Ukraine

    Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
    , Bulgarian and Palestinian Jews. See also Dabrowszczacy
    Dabrowszczacy

    Dabrowszczacy, also known as Dabrowski's Brigade or Dombrowsky Battalion was a predominantly Polish International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War ....
    .
  • Edgar André Battalion: mostly German. Also Austrian, Yugoslavian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch
    Netherlands

    The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
    .
  • Espańol Battalion: Mexican, Cuba
    Cuba

    The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
    n, Puerto Rican
    Puerto Rico

    Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
    , Chile
    Chile

    Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
    an, Argentinian
    Argentina

    Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
     and Bolivia
    Bolivia

    The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....
    n.
  • Figlio Battalion: mostly Italian; later merged with the Garibaldi Battalion
    Garibaldi Battalion

    The Garibaldi Battalion was a group of mostly volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War from October, 1936 on. It became part of the XII International Brigade, also known as the Garibaldi International Brigade....
    .
  • Garibaldi Battalion
    Garibaldi Battalion

    The Garibaldi Battalion was a group of mostly volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War from October, 1936 on. It became part of the XII International Brigade, also known as the Garibaldi International Brigade....
    : Raised as the Italoespańol Battalion and renamed. Mostly Italian and Spanish.
  • George Washington Battalion: the second U.S. battalion. Later merged with the Lincoln Battalion, to form the Lincoln-Washington Battalion.
  • Hans Beimler Battalion: mostly German; later merged with the Thälmann Battalion
    Thälmann Battalion

    The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
    .
  • Henri Barbusse Battalion: predominantly French.
  • Henri Vuilleman Battalion: predominantly French.
  • Louise Michel Battalions
    Louise Michel Battalions

    Two battalions of French-speaking volunteers in the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War were named after Louise Michel, a heroine of the 1871 Paris Commune....
    : French-speaking, later merged with the Henri Vuillemin Battalion.
  • Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
    Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

    The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canada who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War....
    : the "Mac-Paps", predominantly Canadian.
  • Marsellaise Battalion: predominantly French.
    • Incorporated one separate British company.
  • Palafox Battalion
    Palafox Battalion

    The Palafox Battalion was a volunteer unit of largely Polish and Spanish composition in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
    : Yugoslavian, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, Jewish and French.
    • Naftali Botwin Company
      Palafox Battalion

      The Palafox Battalion was a volunteer unit of largely Polish and Spanish composition in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
      : a Jewish unit formed within the Palafox Battalion
      Palafox Battalion

      The Palafox Battalion was a volunteer unit of largely Polish and Spanish composition in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
       in December 1937.
  • Pierre Brachet Battalion: mostly French.
  • Rakosi Battalion
    Rakosi Battalion

    The Rakosi Battalion was a volunteer unit, formed predominantly of Hungarians, who fought in the XIII International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War ....
    : mainly Hungarian, also Czechoslovakians, Ukrainians, Poles, Chinese
    Overseas Chinese

    Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese people birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China ....
    , Mongolians and Palestinian Jews.
  • Nine Nations Battalion (also known as the Sans nons and Neuf Nationalités: French, Belgian, Italian, German, Austrian, Dutch, Danish, Swiss
    Switzerland

    Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
     and Polish.
  • Six Février Battalion ("Sixth of February"): French, Belgian, Moroccan
    Morocco

    Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
    , Algeria
    Algeria

    Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
    n, Libya
    Libya

    Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
    n, Syria
    Syria

    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
    n, Iran
    Iran

    Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
    ian, Iraq
    Iraq

    Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
    i, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Palestinian Jewish.
  • Thälmann Battalion
    Thälmann Battalion

    The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
    : predominantly German, named after German communist leader Ernst Thälmann
    Ernst Thälmann

    Ernst Th?lmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald concentration camp on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944....
    .
    • Tom Mann Centuria: A small, mostly British, group who operated as a section of the Thälmann Battalion
      Thälmann Battalion

      The Th?lmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned Communist Party of Germany leader Ernst Th?lmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians....
      .
  • Thomas Masaryk Battalion: mostly Czechoslovakian.
  • Tschapaiew Battalion: Ukrainian, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, Turkish, Italian, German, Austrian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Belgian, French, Greek, Albanian, Dutch, Swiss and Baltic.
  • Vaillant-Couturier Battalion: French, Belgian, Czechoslovakian, Bulgarian, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
  • Veinte Battalion
    Veinte Battalion

    The Veinte Battalion was a volunteer battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
    : American, British, Italian, Yugoslavian and Bulgarian.
  • Zwölfte Februar Battalion: mostly Austrian.


Status after the war

25 Anni Int Brigades
Perelachaise Brigadesinternationales P1000377
Since the Civil War was eventually won by the Nationalists, the Brigadiers were initially on the "wrong side" of history, especially since most of their home countries had a right-wing government (in France, for instance, the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)

The Popular Front was an alliance of History of the Left in France movements, including the French Communist Party , the Socialist SFIO and the Radical Party , during the interwar period....
 was not in power any more).

However, since most of these countries found themselves at war with the very powers which had been fought in Spain, the Brigadists gained some prestige as the first guard of the democracies, having fought a prophetical combat. Retrospectively, it was clear that the war in Spain was as much a Spanish civil war
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
 as a precursor of the Second World War.

Some glory was therefore accredited to the volunteers (a great deal of the survivors having also fought gallantly during World War II), but this soon faded in the fear that it would promote (by association) communism
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
.

In addition, the ambiguous stance regarding Germany of the Communist Parties in the West, during the period between the Hitler-Stalin pact and the German invasion of the Soviet Union, contributed to widespread uneasiness when evaluating the Brigadists' role in the politics of the Nazi era.

Since the fall of the Soviet bloc, the International Brigades have been generally regarded as anti-Fascist heroes, and the legitimacy of their fight has, for the most part, washed away the stain of summary executions and Stalinist manipulation, despite being non-governmental combatants .

An exception is among groups to the Left of the Communist Parties, for example anarchists
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
. Among these groups the Brigades, or at least their leadership, are criticised for their alleged role in suppressing the Spanish Revolution
Spanish Revolution

The Spanish Revolution of 1936 began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Much of Spain's economy was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavy Partido Comunista de Espa?a influence....
. An example of a modern work which promotes this view is Ken Loach
Ken Loach

Kenneth Loach , commonly known as Ken Loach, is an English film director and television director director. He is known for his naturalistic, social realism directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness and Labor rights ....
's film Land and Freedom
Land and Freedom

Land and Freedom is a 1995 in film film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen . The movie narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight for the Second Spanish Republic side in the Spanish Civil War....
. A well-known contemporary account of the Spanish Civil War which takes this view is George Orwell
George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an England author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, an intense dislike of totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language....
's book Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia

Homage to Catalonia is Political journalism and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War, written in the first person....
.

In East Germany


After the Second World War, the German Democratic Republic found itself in need of a 'founding myth
Founding myth

A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values....
' going beyond the conquest of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army. The Spanish Civil War, and especially the role of the International Brigades, were considered ideal, and became a substantial part of East Germany's memorial rituals, aided by the fact that substantial numbers of Eastern European communist figures had served in the bridgades, and that Germany had provided many men for the brigades.

In Switzerland


In Switzerland, public sympathy was high for the Republican cause, but the federal government banned all fundraising and recruiting activities a month after the start of the war so as to preserve Swiss neutrality
Neutral country

For other uses of Neutral and Neutrality, see NeutralA neutral country takes no side in a war between other parties. A neutralist policy aims at neutrality in case of an armed conflict that could involve the party in question....
. Around 800 Swiss volunteers joined the International Brigades, among them a small number of women. Sixty percent of Swiss volunteers identified as communists, while the others included socialists, anarchists and antifascists.

Some 170 Swiss volunteers were killed in the war. The survivors were tried by military courts upon their return to Switzerland for violating the criminal prohibition on foreign military service. The courts pronounced 420 sentences which ranged from around two weeks to four years in prison, and often also stripped the convicts of their political rights. In the judgment of Swiss historian Mauro Cerutti, volunteers were punished more harshly in Switzerland than in any other democratic country.

Motions to pardon
Pardon

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent Roman Catholic Church authority....
 the Swiss brigadists on the account that they fought for a just cause
Just cause

Just cause or Bare sagen is a common standard in labor arbitration that is used in Trade union contracts as a form of job security....
 have been repeatedly introduced in the Swiss federal parliament, so far to no avail. A first such proposal was defeated in 1939 on neutrality grounds. In 2002, Parliament again rejected a pardon of the Swiss war volunteers, with a majority arguing that they did break a law that remains in effect to this day. Another bill of pardon has been introduced in 2006 by MP Paul Rechsteiner and remains pending.

In the US

In the United States the volunteers were labeled as "premature anti-fascists" by the FBI. It was the signal to assign them to non-combat units or inactive fronts and to deny them promotion.

Recognition


In Spain

On 26 January 1996 the Spanish government gave Spanish citizenship to the Brigadists. At the time, roughly 600 remained. By the end of 1938, Prime Minister Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín

Juan Negr?n y L?pez was a Spain politician and physician.Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he became a university professor of physiology....
 had promised Spanish citizenship to the Brigadists, a promise which could not have been kept since the Republic had lost the war.

In France


In 1996, Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac

Jacques Ren? Chirac served as the President of France from 17 May 1995 until 16 May 2007. As President he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French L?gion d'honneur....
, then French President, granted the former French members of the International Brigades the legal status of former service personnel ("anciens combattants") following the request of two French communist MPs, Mr Lefort and Mr Asensi, both children of volunteers. Before 1996, the same request was turned down several times including by François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand

Fran?ois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the French Socialist Party ....
, former Socialist French President.

Monuments

Image:University of Washington International Brigade Monument.jpg|
In Seattle
Image:International brigade memorial.01.JPG|
In London
Image:LaMano1maj2007.jpg|
In Stockholm
Stockholm

is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish Government of Sweden, the Parliament of Sweden, and the official residence of the Swedish Monarchy of Sweden....
Image:PICT4198.JPG|
In East Berlin
East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet Union Allied Occupation Zones in Germany of Berlin that was established in 1945....
Image:Australians-Spanish_Civil_War.JPG|
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (erected 1993)
Image:MackenziePapineau_monument_1.jpg |
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a major tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than one billion dollars into the local economy....
Image:Mac-pap_monument_ottawa.jpg |
Ottawa
Ottawa

Ottawa is the Capital of Canada. The city has population of 812,000, the List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population municipality in the country and second largest in Ontario....
Image:Lincoln_Brigade_Memorial_San_Francisco.jpg |
San Francisco


Symbolism and heraldry

The International Brigades were inheritors of a Communist aesthetic, which explains the numerous very stylised posters about the subject.

The flags featured the colours of the Spanish Republic : Red, Yellow and Purple, often along with Communist symbols (Red flags, hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle

The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist Party, or a Communist state....
, fist,...). The emblem of the brigades themselves was the three-pointed red star, which is often featured.

Notable associated people

  • Irish Socialist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
    Irish Socialist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

    Irish Socialist volunteers in the Spanish Civil War describes a grouping of IRA members and Irish Socialists who fought in support the cause of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War....
  • Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
    Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

    Many Jews were active in Socialist and Communist organisations in the period between the two World Wars . They were highly represented in the International Brigades and numbered "about fifty per cent among the Abraham Lincoln Brigade....
  • Polish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
    Polish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

    This article is about volunteers of Polish nationality or extraction who fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. According to Andr? Marty, the Comintern "chief organiser", about 3,000 Poles volunteered for the International Brigades....


  • Norman Bethune
    Norman Bethune

    Henry Norman Bethune was a Canada physician and medical innovator. Bethune is best known for his service in war time medical units during the Spanish Civil War and with the Chinese Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War....
     - Canadian doctor with Mac-Paps
    Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

    The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canada who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War....
  • George Orwell
    George Orwell

    Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an England author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, an intense dislike of totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language....
  • Willy Brandt
    Willy Brandt

    Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a Germany politician, Chancellor of Germany of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
     - West German Chancellor from 1969-1974, Nobel Peace Prize 1971, 1976 until 1992 Leader of the Socialist International
    Socialist International

    Socialist International is a worldwide organization of Democratic socialism, social democracy and labour party political parties. It was formed in 1951....
  • Fred Copeman
    Fred Copeman

    Fred Copeman OBE was an England volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, commanding the British Battalion. He is also notable for organising London's air raid defences during the Second World War, an achievement which earned him the OBE....
  • Lt-Col Vladimir Copic
    Vladimir Copic

    Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Copic was the commander of the XV International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to mid-1938. He was Croat....
  • John Cornford
    John Cornford

    Rupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford, and was through his mother a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin....
  • Charles Donnelly
    Charles Donnelly

    Charles Donnelly was an Irish poetry and political activist....
  • General "Gal" (Janos Galicz
    Janos Galicz

    Janos Galicz, better known as "General Gal", was a brigade and division commander during the Spanish Civil War....
    )
  • Bill Gannon
    Bill Gannon (Irish Republican)

    Bill Gannon was a well-known militant of the Irish Republican Army and later a leading member of the Communist Party of Ireland....
  • Pierre Georges
    Pierre Georges

    Pierre Georges , better known as Colonel Fabien, was one of the two members of the French Communist Party who perpetrated the first assassinations of German personnel during the Occupation of France during the Second World War....
     ("Colonel Fabien")
  • Nordahl Grieg - Norwegian writer
  • David Guest
    David Guest

    David Guest was a Communism United Kingdom mathematics and philosophy who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in Spain in 1938....
  • Ernest Hemingway
    Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
  • Jack Jones (trade union leader)
    Jack Jones (trade union leader)

    James Larkin Jones Order of the Companions of Honour Order of the British Empire , known as Jack Jones, is a former British trade union leader and former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union....
  • James Robertson Justice
    James Robertson Justice

    James Robertson Justice was a popular Anglo-Scottish character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s....
     - British actor
  • Paul Robeson
    Paul Robeson

    Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson was an American actor of film and stage, All-American and professional sportsperson, writer, multi-lingual orator, lawyer, and basso profondo concert singer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism....
    - troops entertainer/fundraiser/honorary member
  • Oliver Law
    Oliver Law

    Oliver Law was an African American communism, labor organizer, and social activist, who fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War....
  • Laurie Lee
    Laurie Lee

    Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, Order of the British Empire was an England poet, novelist, and screenwriter, raised in the village of Slad, Gloucestershire....
  • Luigi Longo
    Luigi Longo

    Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italy Communism politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972....
  • Petro Marko - Albanian novelist (Hasta la Vista)
  • André Marty
    André Marty

    Andr? Marty was a leading figure in the French Communist Party, the PCF, for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly of France, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern from 1935 to 1944; and Political Commissar of the International Brigades in Spain from 1936 to 1938....
  • Guido Nonveiller
    Guido Nonveiller

    Guido Nonveiller was a Croatian entomologist, an officer in the International Brigades, an intelligence officer for the French Forces of the Interior, United Nations expert and professor at the University of Belgrade....


  • Herman Bottcher
    Herman Bottcher

    Major Herman J. F. Bottcher was a German people national who achieved the rank of Major with two different armies: the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and the United States Army during World War II....
     - Awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses during World War II
  • Edward A. Carter, Jr.
    Edward A. Carter, Jr.

    Edward Allen Carter, Jr. was United States Army Staff Sergeant#United States who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during March 1945 during World War II....
     - Earned the Medal of Honor
    Medal of Honor

    The Medal of Honor is the highest Awards and decorations of the United States military awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed on a member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action...
     in World War II.
  • Arthur H. Landis
    Arthur H. Landis

    Arthur Harold Landis born Birmingham, Alabama 1917 died of bone cancer in Los Angeles January 1986 was a fantasy, fiction and non-fiction author....
     - fantasy
    Fantasy

    Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
     and non-fiction
    Non-fiction

    Non-fiction is an document or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question....
     author
    Author

    An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
    , wrote Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, Order of Friendship of Peoples
    Order of Friendship of Peoples

    The Order of Friendship of Peoples was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons , organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as Subdivisions of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in strengthening of inter-ethnic and international friendship and cooperation, for economical, political, scientific, military, and cul...
     recipient
  • Carmelo Delgado Delgado
    Carmelo Delgado Delgado

    Lieutenant Carmelo Delgado Delgado , from Guayama, Puerto Rico, was a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party...
     - Puerto Rican Nationalist
  • Conlon Nancarrow
    Conlon Nancarrow

    Conlon Nancarrow was a United States-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955.Nancarrow is best remembered for the pieces he wrote for the player piano....
     - American-born composer
  • Abe Osheroff
    Abe Osheroff

    Abraham Osheroff was an American social activist, carpenter, war veteran, documentary filmmaker, and lecturer....
     - American activist
  • Ezekias Papaioannou
    Ezekias Papaioannou

    Ezekias Papaioannou was a Cypriot communist politician and Secretary General of the left wing political party of AKEL.He was born in the village of Kelaki, Limassol District and received his secondary education at the American Academy of Larnaca....
     - later general secretary of AKEL
  • László Rajk
    László Rajk

    L?szl? Rajk was a Hungary Communist; politician, former Minister of Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was an important organizer of the Hungarian communist's power ; but he eventually fell victim to M?ty?s R?kosi show trials, probably, apart from the Communist parties' endemic power struggles, because he was a homegrown Co...
     - Hungarian communist leader
  • Henri Rol-Tanguy
    Henri Rol-Tanguy

    Henri Rol-Tanguy was a France communist and leader in the French Resistance....
     - Colonel Rol
  • Valter Roman
    Valter Roman

    Valter or Walter Roman , born Ernst or Erno Neul?nder, was a Romanian Communism activist and soldier. During his lifetime, Roman was active inside the Romanian Communist Party, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, French Communist Party, and Communist Party of Spain Communist parties as well as being a Comintern cadre....
  • Esmond Romilly
    Esmond Romilly

    Esmond Marcus David Romilly was a British socialist and anti-fascist, now remembered mainly for his marriage to Jessica Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters....
     -- English upper-class communist
  • Frank Ryan
    Frank Ryan (Irish republican)

    Frank Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army , editor of An Phoblacht, Left-wing politics activist and leader of Ireland volunteers on the Second Spanish Republic side in the Spanish Civil War....
     - Irish Republican Army
    Irish Republican Army

    The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation descended from the Irish Volunteers, established 25 November 1913 and who in April 1916 staged the Easter Rising....
     man led the Connolly Column
    Connolly Column

    The Connolly Column refers to the Irish volunteers who fought for the Second Spanish Republic in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
  • Žikica Jovanovic Španac
    Žikica Jovanovic Španac

    File:Zikica Jovanovic Spanac.jpg?ivorad "?ikica" Jovanovic , better known as ?panac was a Yugoslav partisan and is credited for starting the anti-fascist struggle in Yugoslavia during World War II....
     - Serb activist
  • Anton Raspor - Španac - a Croatian communist and Partisan
    Partisan (military)

    A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements that opposed Nazi Germany rule in several countries during World War II, or those who after the war fought the Soviet Union in the Eastern blo...
  • Todor Angelov
    Todor Angelov

    Todor Angelov Dzekov was a Bulgarian communist revolutionary and terrorist who lived and was active for a long time in Western Europe. During World War II, he headed a Brussels-based group of the Belgian Resistance against Nazi Germany; he was captured and capital punishment by the Nazis....
  • Mehmet Shehu
    Mehmet Shehu

    Mehmet Ismail Shehu was an Albanian Communism politician who served as premier of Albania from 1954 to 1981....
  • Stephen Spender
    Stephen Spender

    Sir Stephen Harold Spender Order of British Empire was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work....
  • General "Kléber" (Manfred Stern
    Manfred Stern

    Manfred Stern was a member of Soviet Military Intelligence . He served as an spy in the United States, as a military advisor in China, and gained fame as General Kl?ber, leader of the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War....
    )
  • General "Walter" (Karol Swierczewski
    Karol Swierczewski

    Karol Waclaw Swierczewski was a military officer in Bolshevist Russia, and later a general in the service of the Soviet Union, Republican Spain and the Provisional Government of National Unity....
    )
  • Asim Vokshi
    Asim Vokshi

    Asim Vokshi was the commander of the "Garibaldi Battalion" in the International Brigades#Non-Spanish Battalions during the Spanish Civil War....
     - Albanian commander of Garibaldi Battalion
    Garibaldi Battalion

    The Garibaldi Battalion was a group of mostly volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War from October, 1936 on. It became part of the XII International Brigade, also known as the Garibaldi International Brigade....
  • Simone Weil
    Simone Weil

    Simone Weil , who occasionally used the anagrammatic pen name Emile Novis, was a French philosopher, Christian mysticism, and social activist....
  • Tom Wintringham
    Tom Wintringham

    Thomas Henry Wintringham was a United Kingdom soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxism, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the Home Guard during the World War II, and was one of the founders of the Common Wealth Party....
  • Milton Wolff
    Milton Wolff

    Milton 'Milt' Wolff was an United States veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the last commander of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of XV International Brigade, and a prominent social activist....
     - last commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion
  • General "Gomez" Wilhelm Zaisser
    Wilhelm Zaisser

    Wilhelm Zaisser was a German Communist politician and the first Stasi of the East German .Born in Gelsenkirchen, Zaisser studied to become a teacher from 1910 to 1913 in Essen, Germany....
  • General "Lukacs" Mate Zalka
 


See also

  • International Brigade Memorial Trust
    International Brigade Memorial Trust

    The International Brigade Memorial Trust is a British educational trust formed by the veterans of the International Brigade Association, the Friends of the IBA, representatives of the Marx Memorial Library, and historians specialising in the Spanish Civil War....
  • Militant anti-fascism
  • Abraham Lincoln Brigade
    Abraham Lincoln Brigade

    The Abraham Lincoln Brigade refers to volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades. They fought for Second Spanish Republic forces against Francisco Franco and the Spain under Franco....
  • Polish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
    Polish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

    This article is about volunteers of Polish nationality or extraction who fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. According to Andr? Marty, the Comintern "chief organiser", about 3,000 Poles volunteered for the International Brigades....
  • Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
    Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

    Many Jews were active in Socialist and Communist organisations in the period between the two World Wars . They were highly represented in the International Brigades and numbered "about fifty per cent among the Abraham Lincoln Brigade....
  • Arditi del Popolo
    Arditi del Popolo

    The Arditi del Popolo was an Italian militant anti-fascist group founded at the end of June 1921 to resist the rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and the violence of the Blackshirts paramilitaries....


Further reading and media


Nonfiction

  • The Spanish Civil War, Hugh Thomas ISBN 978-0141011615
  • British Volunteers For Liberty, Bill Alexander
  • Book of the 15th Brigade, (Ed. Frank Ryan
    Frank Ryan (Irish republican)

    Frank Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army , editor of An Phoblacht, Left-wing politics activist and leader of Ireland volunteers on the Second Spanish Republic side in the Spanish Civil War....
    )
  • Britons in Spain, Bill Rust
  • Connolly Column, Michael O'Riordan
    Michael O'Riordan

    Michael O'Riordan was the founder of the Communist Party of Ireland and also fought with the Connolly Column in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War....
    , Dublin, New Books, 1979 (an account of the contribution of the Irish members of the Brigades)
  • - a memoir by Irish vol. Joe Monks.
  • Homage to Catalonia
    Homage to Catalonia

    Homage to Catalonia is Political journalism and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War, written in the first person....
    , George Orwell
    George Orwell

    Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an England author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, an intense dislike of totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language....
    , (an account of his time fighting with the POUM
    Workers' Party of Marxist Unification

    The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification was a Spain Communism political party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, and mainly active around the time of the Spanish Civil War....
    )
  • A Moment of War, Laurie Lee ISBN 978-0140156225
  • XV International Brigade (ed. Frank Ryan
    Frank Ryan (Irish republican)

    Frank Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army , editor of An Phoblacht, Left-wing politics activist and leader of Ireland volunteers on the Second Spanish Republic side in the Spanish Civil War....
    ) Madrid, Commissariat of War, 1938.
  • Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 Antony Beevor
    Antony Beevor

    Antony James Beevor is a United Kingdom historian, educated at Winchester College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He studied under the famous historian of World War II, John Keegan....
    , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. ISBN 978-0297848325
  • Comrades: Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War by Harry Fisher. University of Nebraska Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8032-6899-8


Fiction

  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
    For Whom the Bell Tolls

    For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an anti-fascist guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War....
    , Ernest Hemingway
    Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
  • The Pursuit of Love
    The Pursuit of Love

    The Pursuit of Love is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars....
    , Nancy Mitford
  • The Aesthetics of Resistance, Peter Weiss
    Peter Weiss

    File:Peter Weiss 1982.jpgPeter Ulrich Weiss was a Germany writer, Painting, and artist of adopted Sweden nationality. He is particularly known for his play Marat/Sade and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....
  • Winter in Madrid, C. J. Sansom
    C. J. Sansom

    Christopher John "C.J." Sansom is an England writer of Crime fiction novels. He was born in 1952 and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a Bachelor of Arts and then a Doctor of Philosophy in history....


Photographs



Films

  • Land and Freedom
    Land and Freedom

    Land and Freedom is a 1995 in film film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen . The movie narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight for the Second Spanish Republic side in the Spanish Civil War....
    , by Ken Loach
    Ken Loach

    Kenneth Loach , commonly known as Ken Loach, is an English film director and television director director. He is known for his naturalistic, social realism directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness and Labor rights ....
    . Although the subject of the film is not the International Brigades, it portrays international volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. The actual International Brigades are featured, largely as villains.
  • by André Malraux
    André Malraux

    Andr? Malraux was a France author, adventurer and statesman, and a dominant figure in French politics and culture....
     (features the International bomber squadron in margin of the Brigades)
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls - 1943 film by Ernest Hemingway
    Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
     about a young American who fights in the International Brigades.
  • Memories of a Future - 2007 film by Margaret Dickinson and Pepe Petos. This documentary
    Documentary film

    Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
     follows a group of volunteers of the International Brigades, their friends and family travelling back to Figueres
    Figueres

    Figueres is the capital of the Catalonia/Comarques of Alt Empord?, in the province of Girona , Catalonia, Spain.The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dal?, and houses the Dal? Theatre and Museum, a large museum designed by Dal? himself which attracts many visitors....
     Spain in 2006. The film interrogates the relevance of the veteran's deed and contextualises it in current social and political climate.


External links


Websites

  • search the various internment database


Audio streams

  • Martha Gellhorn
    Martha Gellhorn

    Martha Gellhorn was an United States novelist, travel writer and journalist, considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century....
     talks about the Spanish Civil War (BBC Radio 4
    BBC Radio 4

    BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history....
     audio stream).
  • part of the BBC Radio 4
    BBC Radio 4

    BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history....
     In Our Time
    In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)

    In Our Time is a discussion programme hosted since 2002 by Melvyn Bragg on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom, described as a series investigating the "history of ideas"....
     series.