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Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War refers to Jews who joined
International Brigades The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed ...
and fought in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
, which erupted on July 17, 1936 and ended on April 1, 1939.


History

The fighting was between the Republicans, who were loyal to the Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...
. The Nationalists prevailed and Franco would rule
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
for the next 36 years. The coup was supported by military units in
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
,
Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...
,
Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence o ...
,
Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...
,
Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
, Cordova, and
Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
. However, barracks in important cities such as
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
,
Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
,
Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...
and
Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...
did not join in the rebellion. Spain was thus left militarily and politically divided. The rebels, led by General Franco, then embarked upon an almost three-year war against the government for the control of the country. The rebel forces received support from the Third Reich, the Kingdom of Italy, and neighboring Portugal, while the Soviet Union and Mexico intervened in support of the Republican side. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, operated an official policy of
non-intervention Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
. A minority of the
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
population, particularly that of
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, were active in
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
and
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
organisations in the period between the two World Wars. They made up a considerable portion of the socialist volunteers, with estimates putting the figure at over ten per cent. Many of them joined the
International Brigades The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed ...
and the
Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
to fight in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
on the side of the Republicans. The leadership of the International Brigades considered forming an entirely Jewish brigade, but the high casualties made this impossible. However, a Jewish company, the
Naftali Botwin Company According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Bilhah (Jacob's sixth son). He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali. Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ...
, was formed within the
Palafox Battalion The Palafox Battalion was a volunteer unit of largely Polish and Spanish composition in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was named after José de Palafox, a Spanish general who successfully fought French Napoleonic force ...
. At least one Jewish volunteer is known to have served with the Nationalists. Emanual Rudolph Vischer was a former
Oberleutnant () is the highest lieutenant officer rank in the German-speaking armed forces of Germany (Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the Swiss Armed Forces. Austria Germany In the German Army, it dates from the early 19th century. Tr ...
of the
Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...
who had lived in Spain prior to the Civil War. The official journal of the Swiss Armed Forces reported his death in September 1936.


National origin of volunteers

The table below displays the national origin of the Jewish volunteers in the International Brigades. ::


Notable figures

* Seweryn Ajzner - later academic and scientist in communist Poland * Alfred Angiersztajn - later high trade unions official in communist Poland * Shimon Avidan – Palestinian Jew and future
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i military officer * Aleksander Bekier - later high MFA official in communist Poland *
Alfred Brauner Alfred Brauner (3 July 1910 – 1 December 2002) was an Austrian-born French scholar, author and sociologist, who was a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and an Austrian Resistance member during Occupied ...
– French Austrian communist, scholar and author * Michał Bron - later high military and MFA official in communist Poland * Mieczysław Broniatowski - later high security official in communist Poland * Robert Domany
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n Partisan and a People's Hero of Yugoslavia *
Gershon Dua-Bogen Gershon Dua-Bogen ( yi, גרשון דוא-באָגען, b. 1892, d. 1948), alias 'Admoni', was a Polish communist. He was an active militant of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR). He emigrated to the British ...
– later Polish communist party official * Grzegorz Dzierzgowski - later high military, MFA and economics official in communist Poland * Józef Epstein - Polish communist, later in French resistance * Stanisław Flato - later high military and MFA official in communist Poland *
Fernando Gerassi Fernando Gerassi (October 5, 1899 – 1974) was a Sephardic Jew born in Turkey. He was an accomplished artist who exhibited alongside Picasso before volunteering to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Personal life In 1922 Gerassi met Stephania ...
– Turkish artist * Kurt Julius GoldsteinInternational Brigader, Holocaust survivor, and author *
Szlama Grzywacz Szlama Grzywacz (1909-1944) was one of the members of the French resistance executed at the fort of Mont Valérien as a member of the Manouchian group, a volunteer of the French liberation army FTP-MOI. His name is one of the ten which featured o ...
- Polish communist, later in French resistance * David Guest – communist British mathematician and philosopher *
Juliusz Hibner Juliusz Hibner (real name Dawid Szwarc; 11 October 1912 – 13 November 1994) was a brigadier general in the Polish People's Army and recipient of the title of Hero of Soviet Union. He also served as the commander of the Internal Security Corps an ...
- later high security and interior official in communist Poland * Salomon Jaszuński - Polish communist * Bolesław Jeleń - later high military and MFA official in communist Poland * – banned German writer (also known as ''Helmuth Campe'') * Pinkus Kartin - later in Polish communist resistance *
Lou Kenton Lou Kenton (1 September 1908 – 17 September 2012) was an English proofreader who served as a medical courier and ambulance driver with the International Brigade and was its oldest surviving member at the time of his death. Early life Kenton ...
– British potter * – Croatian student * Wacław Komar - later high security and military official in communist Poland * Franciszek Kriegel - Polish communist, later high health care official in communist Czechoslovakia * Bert "Yank" Levy – a Canadian who famously used his experience to teach the British Home Guard and wrote a text on
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run ta ...
His service in the Civil War was memorialized in a
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
. * Eugenia Łozińska - later journalist and propagandist in communist Poland * Vladimir Majder
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n Partisan and communist * Stanisław Matuszczak - later mid-range party and trade unions official in communist Poland * Wiktor Mencel - later high MFA official in communist Poland * Mieczysław Mietkowski - later high security and business official in communist Poland * Emanuel Mink - Botwin Company commander, later mid-range security official in communist Poland * George Nathan – Chief of Staff of the XV International Brigade * Roman Orłowski - later high security official in communist Poland * Abe Osheroff – American communist *
Valter Roman Valter or Walter Roman (October 9, 1913 – November 11, 1983), born Ernst or Ernő Neuländer, was a Romanian communist activist and soldier. During his lifetime, Roman was active inside the Romanian, Czechoslovakian, French, and Spanish Co ...
– Romanian politician *
Carlo Rosselli Carlo Alberto Rosselli ( Rome, 16 November 1899 Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, 9 June 1937) was an Italian political leader, journalist, historian, philosopher and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy and then abroad. He developed a theory of refor ...
– headed the Matteotti Battalion * Leon Rubinsztein - Botwin Company commander, later high security and economics official in communist Poland * Leon Samet - later high military official in communist Poland *
Alfred Sherman Sir Alfred Sherman (10 November 1919 – 26 August 2006) was an English writer, journalist, and political analyst. Described by a long-time associate as "a brilliant polymath, a consummate homo politicus, and one of the last true witnesses to th ...
– British journalist and adviser to
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
*
Jack Shulman Jacob (Jack) Shulman, (1914–1999), was an American anti-Revisionist Communist activist who fought in the Spanish Civil War and later moved to the People's Republic of China. Background Jacob Schulman was born and raised in Rochester, New York ...
– American communist * Mieczysław Skorupiński - later mid-range security and business official in communist Poland * Manfred Stern alias General Emilio Kléber * Henryk Sternhel - later in Polish communist resistance * Mieczysław Szleyen - later high military official in communist Poland * Zofia Szleyen - later propagandist and translator in communist Poland * Eugeniusz Szyr - later deputy prime minister and high official in communist Poland * Drago Štajnberger
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...
n Partisan and a People's Hero of Yugoslavia * Henryk Toruńczyk - later high security and economics official in communist Poland *Saul Wellman – political commissar of the Lincoln Battalion and the Washington Battalion * Milton Wolff – commander of the Lincoln Battalion * Máté Zalka – Hungarian communist


References


Further reading

* *Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, ''Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives''. (2008). *Internationalism & the Spanish Civil War, ''Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives''. (2008). * *


External links


300 German and Austrian brigadists in French internment camp on jewishtraces.orgMartin Sugarman, ''Jews in the Spanish Civil War''Gerben Zaagsma, ''Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War''
{{XV International Brigade Foreign volunteers in the Spanish Civil War Jewish military history Jewish military personnel Jewish Spanish history Jewish anti-fascists