Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War started on July 17, 1936, and lasted until April 1, 1939, and saw fighting between the Republicans, who were loyal to the Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists prevailed and Franco would rule Spain for the next 36 years. The coup was supported by military units in Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Valladolid, Cádiz, Cordova, and Seville. However, barracks in important cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and Málaga 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.

A minority of the Jewish population, particularly that of Europe, were active in socialist and Communist 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 and the Popular Front to fight in the Spanish Civil War 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, was formed within the Palafox Battalion.

National origin of volunteers

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

Nationality	Number of volunteers
Poland	2,250
United States	1,250
France	1043
Palestine	500
Germany	400
Britain	200–400
Belgium	200
Austro-Hungary	120–150
Canada	71
Soviet Union	53

Notable figures

• Shimon Avidan - Palestinian Jew and future Israeli military officer.
• Robert Domany – Croatian Partisan and a People's Hero of Yugoslavia
• Gershon Dua-Bogen – Polish communist
• Fernando Gerassi – Turkish artist
• Kurt Julius Goldstein – International Brigader, Holocaust survivor, and author
• David Guest – Communist British mathematician and philosopher.
• de – banned German writer (also known as Helmuth Campe)
• Lou Kenton – British potter
• sr – Croatian student
• Bert "Yank" Levy – a Canadian who famously used his experience to teach the British Home Guard and wrote a text on guerrilla warfare His service in the Civil War was memorialized in a comic book.
• Vladimir Majder – Croatian Partisan and communist
• George Nathan – Chief of Staff of the XV International Brigade
• Abe Osheroff – American activist
• Valter Roman – Romanian politician
• Carlo Rosselli – headed the Matteotti Battalion
• Alfred Sherman – British journalist and adviser to Margaret Thatcher
• Jack Shulman – American activist
• Manfred Stern alias General Emilio Kléber
• Drago Štajnberger – Croatian Partisan and a People's Hero of Yugoslavia
• Saul Wellman – political commissar of the Lincoln Battalion and the Washington Battalion
• Milton Wolff – commander of the Lincoln Battalion
• Máté Zalka – Hungarian communist

See also

• Spanish Civil War
• International Brigades

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.org
• AJEX: Jews in the Spanish Civil War
• Saul Wellman Archive
• Gerben Zaagsma Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War