The Abraham Lincoln Brigade
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), almost forty thousand men and women from fifty-two countries, including 2,800 Americans, traveled to Spain to join the International Brigades to help fight fascism. The U.S. volunteers served in various units (medical, combat and transportation) and came to be known collectively as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting public awareness, research, and discussion about the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the American volunteers who risked their lives to fight fascism in Spain. Using the continually expanding ALB archival collections at New York University's Tamiment Library, ALBA presents exhibitions, publications, performances, and educational programs related to the war and its historical, political, artistic, and biographical significance. With these activities, ALBA preserves the legacy of progressive activism of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as an inspiration for present and future generations.
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ALBA on PBS
A Lincoln Brigade Story: An episode of History Detectives, airing on June 28, 2011, includes a moving segment on the friendship between Lincoln Brigaders Sol Fellman and Doug Roach, featuring interviews with Matti Mattson and ALBA's Jim Fernández. View the 20-minute segment here:Featuring...
2012 ANNUAL CELEBRATIONS HONORING
THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE
New York Annual celebration & Second ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism - Sunday, May 13, 2012
Bay Area Annual celebration - Sunday, May 27, 2012
Also on the site...
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The ALBA Digital Library featuring four collections from the ALB Archives at NYU |
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ALBA's Robeson in Spain comic book by Josh Brown and Peter Carroll (purchasing info here) |
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Online lessons plans for middle and high school teachers, written by ALBA Staff |
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ALBA Institute for Education, programs for teachers and students |
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Links to Spanish Civil War archives around the world |
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ALBA's own online exhibits and bookstore |
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Recent book reviews and archived issues of our publication, The Volunteer |
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Brief histories of the Spanish Civil War and ALBA/VALB |
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ALBA's Volunteer Database, featuring entries for Brigade Volunteers |
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Archived queries and discussions on the ALBA listserv |
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Sign up for the ALBA mailing list |
ALBA Video
Embattled Spanish Judge receives ALBA-Puffin Human Rights Award
Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish magistrate who has headed the effort to identify human rights violations during the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Franco dictatorship, received the first ALBA-Puffin International Award for Human Rights Activism at the ALBA annual reunion in New York City on May 14. (Click here for Garzón's speech, event videos, and press coverage (New Yorker, Nation, Democracy Now, Reuters, Spanish-language media) “Judge Garzón’s exceptional courage in defense of human rights and his commitment to the recovery of historical memory regarding crimes against humanity make him especially worthy of this honor,” said Peter N. Carroll, chair emeritus of ALBA’s Board of Governors.
This award is given jointly by ALBA and the Puffin Foundation, which provides an endowed fund exclusively for this annual honor. “The award is designed,” said Puffin Foundation President Perry Rosenstein, “to give public recognition, support, and encouragement to individuals or groups whose work has an exceptionally positive impact on the advancement and/or defense of human rights. It is intended to help educate students and the general public about the importance of defending human rights against arbitrary powers that violate democratic principles.” Read more...
Featured Veteran: Doug Roach
Douglas Roach, the subject of a segment of this season's History Detectives (view 18-minute video segment here) was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1900. He completed high school in Provincetown and later attended the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst. There, although barely five feet tall, he achieved notice as a star wrestler. Roach joined the Communist Party in 1932. Upon completion of his studies, Roach became a part-time organizer and supported himself by working occasionally as a professional wrestler. Roach departed for Europe, aboard the SS Paris, on January 6, 1937. In Spain, Roach was assigned to the Lincoln Battalion and served in a machine gun company. Roach fought with the battalion at Jarama and during the Brunete Offensive and attained the rank of Gun Commander. Late in the Brunete Campaign Roach received a severe shoulder wound. In the fall of 1937, unable to continue fighting, he was sent back to the United States, where he went to work organizing for the seamen's union. Returning veterans formed the VALB late in 1937 and ... | Read More | Search the archive
Recent publications
War Is Beautiful: An American Ambulance Driver in the Spanish Civil War. By James Neugass (edited by Peter N. Carroll & Peter Glazer)
This nuanced and
deeply poetic chronicle of James Neugass's service as an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War combines fast-paced accounts of darting
onto battlefields to pick up the wounded with elegiac renderings of days
spent "on alert" in an ever-changing series of sharply observed Spanish
towns, enduring that most difficult of wartime activities: waiting. Reviewed in The Nation and the London Review of Books. Buy
from Powell's
For more recent publications, visit the ALBA Bookstore at Powell's.
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The Volunteer Online
ALBA's quarterly, The Volunteer, is now a full-fledged online
magazine, with longer articles,
a frequently updated blog, videos, slide
shows, and more.
In the September 2011 issue:
- Paul Preston on the Spanish Holocaust
- ALBA co-sponsors Centelles exhibit
- Garzón accepts ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism
- Gabriel Jackson on Angel Viñas's masterly SCW trilogy
- Pete Seeger and Patti Smith sing for ALBA
- The Ghost of Gerda Taro
- Picasso, Louis Delaprée, and the Bombing of Civilians
- ALBA & Puffin announce Human Rights Award;
- an interview with Gabriel Jackson (video);
- Trisha Ziff on Collective Memory in Spain and Northern Ireland.
- Amy Goodman speaks at ALBA event (video);
- the death of Oliver Law;
- an interview with Helen Graham (including video);
- the discovery of With the Lincoln Brigade, by Henri Cartier-Bresson (clip).
