Milton Wolff (October 7, 1915 – January 14, 2008) was an American veteran of 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 Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
, the last commander of the
Lincoln Battalion
The Lincoln Battalion ( es, Batallón Abraham Lincoln) was the 17th (later the 58th) battalion of the XV International Brigade, a mixed brigade of the International Brigades also known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. It was organized by the C ...
of
XV International Brigade
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade ( es, Brigada Abraham Lincoln), officially the XV International Brigade (''XV Brigada Internacional''), was a mixed brigade that fought for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the Internation ...
, and a prominent communist.
[Douglas, 2008.]
Early life
He was born into a
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...
Jew
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""T ...
ish immigrant family in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. His parents originally came from
Lithuania and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
. He was also a member of the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...
during the
Great Depression.
He became active in the
Young Communist League
The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International.
Examples of Y ...
on returning to Brooklyn after the CCC. It was there that he volunteered to go to
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")
, i ...
to fight
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
.
Spanish Civil War
In early 1937, Wolff set off to join the
International Brigades in Spain, reaching
Albacete
Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete.
Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...
by March. As a
pacifist, a belief common in the 1930s, he originally wished to be a medic.
However, after the International Brigades' heavy losses at the
Battle of Jarama
The Battle of Jarama (6–27 February 1937) was an attempt by General Francisco Franco's Nationalists to dislodge the Republican lines along the river Jarama, just east of Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War. Elite Spanish Legionnaires and Mor ...
, he became a soldier instead, joining a machine gun company.
"Largely self-educated, ...
ewas an intellectual".
[Eby, p. 319] He "detested elegant uniforms", customarily wearing "baggy trousers, a stained leather jacket" and, in wet weather, a "woolly poncho".
After a year's fighting in
Brunete,
Belchite and
Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...
, the Brigade lost two senior officers,
David Doran and
Robert Hale Merriman at the
Gandesa
Gandesa () is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Terra Alta, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain.
History
In the place known as ''Coll del Moro'' there is an ancient Iberian archaeological site belonging to the Ilercavones tribe that l ...
battle on the
Aragon front. After which, in March 1938, Wolff became the battalion commander.
He led the now Lincoln-Washington Battalion during the
Battle of the Ebro
The Battle of the Ebro ( es, Batalla del Ebro, ca, Batalla de l'Ebre) was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War and the greatest, in terms of manpower, logistics and material ever fought on Spanish soil. It took place between Ju ...
and left Spain in November 1938 when the International Brigades were demobilized.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
described him during this period:
e was
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...
"...23 years old, tall as Lincoln, gaunt as Lincoln, and as brave and as good a soldier as any that commanded battalions at Gettysburg. He is alive and unhit by the same hazard that leaves one tall palm tree standing where a hurricane has passed."
World War II
In 1940, Wolff volunteered for the British
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...
, and arranged arms for the European resistance organizations. After the United States' entry into World War II, Wolff volunteered for the infantry in June 1942.
He saw action at the end of 1943 in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. There,
General "Wild Bill" Donovan met him and assigned him to the
O.S.S. to work with anti-
fascist partisans in occupied
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.
Later life
Wolff appeared before the
House Un-American Activities Committee to defend VALB (Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) from being banned as a
Communist front
A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not p ...
organization. His explanation for his actions owed to his ancestry: "I am Jewish, and knowing that as a Jew we are the first to suffer when fascism does come, I went to Spain to fight against it."
According to historian Peter Carroll:
When Congress passed the McCarran Act in 1950, obliging all designated subversive organizations to register with the federal government and creating heavy penalties for leaders who refused to cooperate, the entire executive committee of the VALB resigned in 1950. In its place, two Lincoln veterans stepped forward: Wolff became the National Commander; Moe Fishman became the Executive Secretary/Treasurer and served the organization in an executive capacity for the rest of his life.
Wolff also battled fiercely for civil rights and against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. He even offered the services of the aging veterans of the Lincoln Brigade to the North Vietnamese leader,
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
, who declined them. Later, Wolff campaigned against
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
, and raised money for ambulances in
Sandinista
The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C ...
-ruled
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
in the 1980s, personally delivering twenty of them.
Wolff completed two autobiographical novels, ''A Member Of The Working Class'' (published 2005) about his early life in New York, and ''Another Hill'' (published 1994) about his communist and Spanish experiences; he began a third book, ''The Premature Anti-Fascist'', describing his experiences after leaving Spain and during World War II, but did not finish it before his death.
Personal life
Wolff married and had two children. His family resided primarily in
Stony Creek, Connecticut
Stony Creek is a coastal village located the southeastern section of Branford, Connecticut, centered on a harbor on Long Island Sound. Stony Creek has the ambiance of a small seaside village which retains its roots as a summer vacation location wi ...
. His first marriage ended in divorce. Wolff and his second wife are both buried at the Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito.
Leftists Who Called El Cerrito Home
''bayareapunk.com''. Retrieved January 14, 2019
Books by Milton Wolff
*''Another Hill: An Autobiographical Novel'' (1994; University of Illinois Press, 2001).
*''A Member of the Working Class '' (iUniverse, 2005).
References
Sources
* Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (2008)
Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
Accessed: March 11, 2010.
* Davidson, Jo (1939). ''Spanish Portraits''. Georgian Press.
* Eby, Cecil (2007). ''Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War''. Pennsylvania State University Press.
* Martin, Douglas (2008)
"Milton Wolff, 92, Dies; Anti-Franco Leader"
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 17, 2008 (accessed: March 11, 2010)
* Merriman, Marion; Lerude, Warren (1986). ''American Commander in Spain''. Reno: University of Nevada Press.
External links
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives/Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
"He Remembers Papa"
Milton Wolff Papers
at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Milton
1915 births
2008 deaths
Special Operations Executive personnel
American communists
Jewish American writers
Jewish socialists
Abraham Lincoln Brigade members
People of the Office of Strategic Services
Civilian Conservation Corps people
People from El Cerrito, California
People from Brooklyn
People from Stony Brook, New York
Jewish anti-fascists
American anti-fascists
United States Army personnel of World War II
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Members of the Communist Party USA