Video History

Since I went to stay with a friend for the weekend and was away from the archive, I thought I would bring along with me the complimentary DVD to the Facing Fascism exhibition. I've been wanting to watch it, but I never really sat down to do so until now. Needless to say, I'm very happy now that I've seen it. I guess what struck me about all the testimonies was the degree to which these people were involved in Republican Spain's cause, whether actively, ideologically, or emotionally. It's easy to tell from the interviews that the Spanish Civil War had a great effect on the interviewees' lives, which is really interesting considering these were Americans sympathizing with the problems of one European country.

I admire them for seeing in the Spanish Civil War what no one else at the time did--or at least not the democratic governments--that, complicated though it was, there was something of a dichotomous fight raging in this war between something more desirable for mankind and something that was not. I choose these terms to describe the sides because I don't want to simplify the war down to good vs. evil. No war is ever that simple. But I do mean to say that this war came closest to that description than any I can think of. And that's reflected in the interviewees' testimonies. One of the most poignant segments of the DVD for me was the "When the War Was Over..." segment. There were two interviews placed one after another that were really moving: Irving Schiller's and Amy Swerdlow's. Schiller seemed reach back into his feelings at the time and his words in the video were strong. He pointed to Spain as the place where fascism could have been stemmed. He said Hitler ruined the entire 20th century. It's a grand statement to make, but a quick reflection proved to me that it could be argued. Amy Swerdlow said, "Spain was a pure cause--for me." I think this quote must have summed up what many Republican supporters felt at the time. So Spain had a big effect on those who followed its convulsions. A quote from Abe Asheroff that I particularly loved: "And Spain was the place where I learned that I didn't have to know that I was gonna win in order to fight."

If I may comment on the video in its entirety, something I really liked about it was the tone of the ending, which was set by the interviewees. Vera Schiller said more than once that we're still trying to find a better way to run the world. Ultimately, I thought the video sustained a sense of tragedy that, when it came to the end, lingered. Thinking back on the testimonies, one questions whether we've moved very far since the Spanish Civil War, since that defining moment, where we capitulated.

Visit 7

In the previous visit I had satisfied myself with Archie Brown and was ready to move on. I think I have a good grasp now of the average experience of an American International Brigadier. I guess at this point I should feel lost as to what direction I should take regarding my project, but my natural interests are pointing me towards something to do with art. Because I have experience already with analyzing the art of propaganda, I'm thinking I might want to shy away from that now and focus on either formal visual art or literature. What intrigues me most about the Spanish Civil War is its impact on the people who lived through it. Impact is expressed through art. This is what I'd like to study--how people expressed the myriad of complicated issues and feelings engendered in this war.

Having more or less decided on this general direction, I started looking up names of creative people who were involved in the American volunteer brigades. I ordered a box of Ralph Fasanella's but upon looking through it, I found that the contents were mostly correspondence from later dates, which I was not interested in right then. The finding aid online says there should be more to the collection but I wasn't to figure out whether I had to order a different box number. I ended up just looking at the James Lardner Papers' finding aid and, seeing it contained 1930's correspondence, just ordered that instead.

Lardner was part of a family of writers. I read that he died in Spain. With the confusion over which box to get, I wasn't able to read very much and I plan on picking it up again next time--but I did notice the recurrence of some themes I've been keeping track of in the other letters.

Optimism: [About Valencia] "...and I don't think it will ever be conquered. there are too many people here who are fighting for things they believe in, and too few on the other side."

Scarce resources: "Four days in Barcelona were enough for me to see that there is not much chance of my getting into the artillery just now. There are too many trained men and not enough guns."

The finding aid said that someone (I forget who now) said of Lardner: he was the las to enlist in Spain and he was the last to die. I think this is a very powerful statement about the nature of the war and I hope to come back to it after I've read more from Lardner's papers.

Visit 6

Monday when I went to the archive, I decided to call back the Archie Brown Papers and bring that inquiry to a kind of conclusion. Since I wasn't able to read the full sequence of letters in my last visit, I started at the chronological end of his civil war correspondence and worked backwards. First, I wanted to know when they actually left versus when he knew they would be leaving. Last time the letters that mentioned the Americans' departure were dated in October. This time I found that they actually left sometime after December 22. I don't know whether this has any special significance; whether it indicates anything. I do remember, however, Brown saying that the French government was particularly unhelpful, which he marked as ironic since one would think that the French would want American volunteers out of Spain, since that policy would line up with their policy of non-intervention.

Something that was prominent in Brown's letters was the scarcity of resources--not only military resources but ordinary resources for civilians like food and soap. On October 18th he describes the great new lodging they've been given: "At the present moment I'm living practically in the lap of luxury... [descriptive paragraph]... But you can't get a damn thing to eat." That last line is actually enjambed to a second paragraph for extra stress. These lines reminded me of a paragraph in a previous letter: "Bimbo along with others went out to work the fields. The peasants are elated--there has been such a lack of man power. It's a shame to see the way the countryside is ladened with food and cannot be picked and the cities and the people generally are rationed." This is an issue I hadn't thought about but it makes perfect sense. Men are resources. A country needs them to fight but also to work. When men are trained well but ill-equipped, the casualties are higher than they should be. Thus, the country lost men at too great a rate. The frustrating issue, however, is that this loss was not the Republicans' fault. How could they equip their soldiers without being able to buy weapons?

What continues to surprise me in these letters is the examples of optimism I find. The volunteers can be discouraged, but they cannot be completely disheartened. Brown says, "Well we are finally on our way. We're sorry that we had to leave Spain before the struggle has been settled--but since we can do more good on the outside--it is better to be home working than in the rearguard of Spain waiting." Thus, Brown assumes the fight will continue on and he will continue to fight, if not in Spain, at home.

I think many Americans thought the war would go on longer than it did. That's what I've found in most of the letters I've read, at least. Even in Hemingway's play the main character predicts the war will go on for much longer. I wonder why the Americans felt this way when most Spaniards seemed to know that the end was near.

Visit 5

During my last archive visit, which was last night, I decided to look at the Archie Brown papers. Earlier I had looked through the database online at what photograph collections were available. I saw that Brown had his own photo collection and decided that before I requested it, I should request his personal papers. When I got the box, I started to take out the first folder, but then I changed my mind and looked for a folder full of letters written near the end of the period of American involvement in the International Brigades. I made this decision because the letters I've read from three different men were all written before and during the first months of combat. I couldn't have read their letters towards the end of the involvement because these men did not make it until that time. Therefore, I was curious to look at Brown's later letters.

I wasn't able to finish the folder I choose--I think it was eighteen--but still there were many interesting things in what I did read. The letters I read were written after Archie Brown found out that the American battalions were to be sent home. Throughout the course of those I read, Brown was never able to confirm the official date of departure.

From these letters I wanted to know why the Americans thought they were allowed to go home and whether they were demoralized or hopeful for Spain.

The first bit I came across that addressed this question was a section where Brown was talking about what places he and Ester, his correspondent, would see traveling. He named the U.S., then Mexico, "and perhaps France and the new Spain." This was curious to me. The context made me think that "new Spain" referred to a triumphant Republican Spain. The next line was, "Of course all these things are not in the cards but who can tell." I was unsure whether this referred to a victorious Republican Spain or to the possibility of their traveling. But then he wrote, "Perhaps the democracies will unite against the fascists--perhaps things will get better enough so that we can save enough to travel" and this mostly answered my question.

In the same letter Brown writes: "We were all depressed by the sell-out of Czechoslovakia. But we are becoming madder everyday. We feel that our added influence could lift the Embargo." What was interesting to me about this sentiment was that it was still hopeful. I remember reading in the Helen Graham book that once Britain and France sacrificed Czechoslovakia, the Republicans knew that Non-Intervention would never be lifted; that the cause was just about hopeless then. Therefore it is interesting to me that American Brown still has this persistent optimism: "By now it is pretty evident that the war will go on for another year, unless we end it sooner from our side ... if in the interim (before spring comes) the democracies will raise the embargo, Loyalist victory is assured. I hope Czechoslovakia has been a lesson." Here, Archie Brown's optimism is such that he hopes Czechoslovakia may be a lesson instead of what it was, and what the Spanish knew it was--a sign of doom.

In another later letter Archie Brown says, "The fact is that the Spanish Government and army is militarily strong enough to let us go." When reading, I immediately took this sentence as another example of unrelenting American optimism--until I read the second sentence: "The problem is not lack of men but lack of arms" and realized that Brown was not just uncompromisingly optimistic, but had an accurate analysis of the state of Republican standing in the war. I think these passages are important because they do reveal the American opinion--unless Archie Brown can not be taken as a representative of general opinion, in which case I'll have to read more--but they also show that the Americans had a good idea of the state of the war and understood the factors working against the Republicans.

Visit 4

On my last archive visit, I read a folder of letters Harold Malofsky wrote to Miriam Sigel. I really like reading Malofsky's letters because he covers a lot of subjects in each one. The interesting excerpts I copied down range from reports on the state of the soldiers, to updates on the war in general, to the details of everyday life.

At the front of the folder was a letter written by Harry Fellmen to Mrs. Sigel. I don't know who Harry is in relation to the rest of the cast of this folder but I copied this quote down:

"On a large scale aviation is about the most ineffective of all the death dealing instruments of modern war. It depends more on breaking morale ... But it doesn't break our morale because we have something to look forward to and a strong support based on firm convictions. The broken morale appears on the Fascist side among their soldiers."

I picked this quote out for two reasons. First, I think it calls necessary attention to the unprecedented all-pervasive use of air attacks. Planes compromised a significant bulk of the machine weaponry that Italy and Germany wanted to test out. Second, the writer analyzes the true effect of the planes. To an extent, he's probably correct, for air attacks were used not only against soldiers on the battlefield but against citizens in the cities specifically to break morale. I think this quote is important in the context of WWII where large scale aviation became a major factor in the fighting and the terrorizing. This letter records that it was first seen in Spain.

I finally came across a reference to the anarchist rebellions going on in other parts of the country during the war. Trotsky associates the "God-damn Trotsky menace" with anarchists. He says, "This is the worst type of enemy the people of Spain or anywhere could have. Wherever they are--they are vile poison. Isolate them! They are playing Franco's game. Anybody who tries to break the wonderful unity of the Popular Front here is a member of Franco's fifth column."

One thing I picked up on was Malofsky's diverting to the language of propaganda. I feel like these statements could have been on a Republican poster--although I don't think the Republicans produced propaganda that was negatively aimed at anyone besides the fascists. Not sure, though. Still, Malofsky here is supposed to be writing a letter not a pamphlet.

This excerpt provides a negative view of the revolutionary activities in places such as Aragon, Catalonia, and Barcelona. It would be interesting to read letters from participants in events in those areas to better understand the truth of the situation, but of course there's no information like that at ALBA because the majority of the soldiers were communists and the communist party was at that time aligned with Stalin's politburo and the Social Democratic Republicans. Still, I've focused on this issue because the division between factions on the left was a negative factor on the Republican side that, as far as I've read, was largely absent from the Nationalist side. And here is an example of that same-side aversion.

One thing I noticed was that Harold said the Americans were the best-trained troops in the People's Army. Again, was this true? Were there sources which asserted this? Or is this sentiment just an expression of pride and enthusiasm?

Malofsky's letters are always well-balanced between larger subjects and personal subjects. One letter in particular I found extremely. It was so funny that I didn't even feel guilty or wrong reading such about such personal matters were discussed. Harold talked about the lack of women around and made statements similar to: "In order to touch a girl you have to be married to her." Writing to Miriam, he avoided direct language and therefore was so much more humorous in describing the men's misfortune in Spain. He talked regretfully about the "supplies" that were handed out at the beginning by the doctors and how no one was using them. He said, "Most of the boys, however, are economical , and are using them for tobacco pouches." A new paragraph began with: "The major problem though is how to keep from going 'fruit' altogether. Already the boys are beginning to ogle eyes at each other, and sometimes Ernie frightens me." He ended the subject by saying that, if ever he had to re-sew the buttons onto his underwear, he'd sooner throw them out than have to sit through the ordeal again.

Visit 3

I went to the archive yesterday morning and was able to get through entire box of photographs from the Small Photographic Collections. There were many photos taken after the Spanish Civil War and many of unidentified figures. But still, I was able to see pictures of soldiers on break, soldiers in combat, and portraits of well-known people like Largo Caballergo, Dolores Ibarruri, and Miguel de Unamuno.

A series of photos that I found very interesting and that I would like to find more about each had been named "To Die in Madrid" Publicity Photo. This series showed different well-known people as well as soldiers in action. I took snapshots of them with my webcam on my macbook. These photos were the most interesting in the folder, in my opinion. I wish I knew their purpose.

One thing I noticed in a lot of the pictures is the presence of women. At a time when Italy and Germany were trying to turn back the clock on women and force them back into traditional gender roles separate fro

m men, women in Republican Spain were always present among the men, helping actively in whatever way they could.

Another thing I noticed in the photos was how many shots were taken of veterans going back to Spain. The images convey a mix of wonder and solemnity. They show the great extent to which the Spanish Civil War must have impacted the veterans' lives.

I looked at two photos from a "Veteran's Return" in NYC. I wonder how much Americans knew about the Spanish Civil War and to what extent the veterans were honored upon their return.

Although some of the photos were very interesting I still felt lost most of the time because I didn't know the significance of a lot of what I was looking at. But maybe the significance of everything was mixed.

Visit 2

Last class we talked about our approach to each of our blogs. I think my approach is going to be very honest. I really like the subject that we're studying and I often feel emotionally moved by what I read. I don't think that emotions are inappropriate reactions to record. Therefore, I will record them.

I really have to get into the library for a more substantial amount of time. I realize it takes me about an hour to get through one folder of one collection, as was the case today. I went back to the Miriam Sigel Friedman papers because I hadn't read anything written by Harold Malofsky. I really enjoyed his letters because they were long and he wrote about his personal experiences on and off the front.

There were a couple strands of things I noticed that I wanted to write about. Malofsky personified the fascists as "the muddy, traitorous hands of a dictator, a banker, and a fat priest." I picked this out specifically because the description matches up remarkably with some of the Republican propaganda of the war. Particularly, the "Los Nacionales" and "El Generalísimo" posters come to mind. It made me wonder whether this identification of the enemy was a common one or whether the Spanish propaganda had significant influence in drawing this portrait and impressing it upon its viewers.

One thing I found that I was really happy about was a quote I had read before in one of the course books. Malofsky wrote: "And it's ironic. A communist for years, I now find myself fighting to make the world safe for democracy." It was just really exciting to have read that line before but then held in my hand the letter from which it came. I think it's also a brilliant line. One thing that's interesting about the letters I've read so far are that they are all pretty well written and come from intelligent, thoughtful people.

Something else concerning propaganda--Malofsky said that at one point on the battlefield, "Junker plans" began to drop leaflets from the sky. Comparing the leaflet to those he had handed out on street corners for years, he called it "a very stupid manifesto" quoting it: "'Bilbao finally belongs to Spain. Viva the dead Mola! Viva Franco! Viva Spain! Join our ranks and surrender.' This was supposed to convert us, the jerks." I just thought it was funny the way he seems so disgusted by the fascists' attempt to persuade and propagandize. Probably because, for one, to him it would be unthinkable to cross over, but perhaps he was also laughing at their ignorance of quality political propaganda, something in which the communists were very experienced.

Following up on an issue I addressed last post--the issue of the accuracy of strategic information and Republican standing in the war--Malofsky wrote that the "Daily Worker" published some statistics and that he read it regularly to inform himself of the war's progress. I thought perhaps this was one of the primary ways soldiers received information, which made me wonder whether the published statistics were accurate. I wondered in general how truthful was the information the battalions received and how far off was their conception of their side's standing in the war.

One last thing I noticed in Malofsky's letters that was the same for Sigel and Arion was the undeniable optimism and dedication to the cause of Spain and fighting fascism. As I read more, I think I will find this optimism is pervasive throughout soldiers' letters--which is really actually very sad. Malofsky wrote, "Nothing can stop the Spanish people from their important historic task. I only hope I live to come back and tell the story." He would be disappointed on both counts. As I was reading a letter written on August 29th, 1937, I reached for the finding guide because I knew that Harold did not come back from the war. Turns out, he would be dead a week after he penned the letter I held.