PRIMARY SOURCES: WRITTEN Selected letters and

PRIMARY SOURCES: WRITTEN

Selected letters and correspondence

Hyman (Chaim) Katz - letter to his mother

James Lardner – letter to his mother

Carl Geiser – letter to his brother

Boleslaw “Slippery” Sliwon – letter to a friend

Canute Frankson – letter to friend

Samuel Levinger – letter to his parents

Bunny Rucker – letter from World War II (D-Day)

John Lucid – Letter from World War II

Martha Gellhorn – Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt

Interviews, speeches and other texts

Evelyn Hutchins – excerpts from an interview

Dorothy Parker – Soldiers of the Republic, The New Yorker, February 5, 1938

Ernest Hemingway – On the American Dead in Spain

Crawford Morgan - Congressional testimony

Roosevelt – Quarantine Speech

Hyman (Chaim) Katz

Hyman Katz was a volunteer from New York. He went to Spain without telling his mother

because he did not want to upset her. But when he was wounded in action in 1937, the

young volunteer decided to explain to his mother why he had enlisted against her wishes.

His letter home reveals the motives of many other Jewish volunteers.

Citation:

Aaron Katz, “Letter from the Front in Spain,” Jewish Currents, XL (February 1979), pp. 4-6,

16-17.

11/25/37

Dear Ma,

It’s quite difficult for me to write this letter, but it must be done; Claire writes me that you

know I’m in Spain. Of course, you know that the reason I didn’t tell you where I was, is that I

didn’t want to hurt you. I realize that I was foolish for not understanding that you would

have to find out.

I came to Spain because I felt I had to. Look at the world situation. We didn’t worry when

Mussolini came to power in Italy. We felt bad when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany,

but what could we do? We felt--though we tried to help and sympathize--that it was their

problem and wouldn’t affect us. Then the fascist governments sent out agents and began to

gain power in other countries. Remember the anti-Semitic troubles in Austria only about a

year ago. Look at what is happening in Poland; and see how the fascists are increasing their

power in the Balkans--and Greece--and how the Italians are trying to play up to the Arab

leaders.

Seeing all these things--how fascism is grasping power in many countries (including the

U.S., where there are many Nazi organizations and Nazi agents and spies)--can’t you see

that fascism is our problem--that it may come to us as it came in other countries? And don’t

you realize that we Jews will be the first to suffer if fascism comes?

But if we didn’t see clearly the hand of Mussolini and Hitler in all these countries, in Spain we

can’t help seeing it. Together with their agent, Franco, they are trying to set up the same

anti-progressive, anti-Semitic regime in Spain, as they have in Italy and Germany.

If we sit by and let them grow stronger by taking Spain, they will move on to France and will

not stop there; and it won’t be long before they get to America. Realizing this, can I sit by

and wait until the beasts get to my very door--until it is too late, and there is no one I can

call on for help? And would I even deserve help from others when the trouble comes upon

me, if I were to refuse help to those who need it today? If I permitted such a time to come--

as a Jew and a progressive, I would be among the first to fall under the axe of the fascists;--

all I could do then would be to curse myself and say, “Why didn’t I wake up when the alarm-

clock rang?”

But then it would be too late--just as it was too late for the Jews in Germany to find out in

1933 that they were wrong in believing that Hitler would never rule Germany.

I know that you are worried about me; but how often is the operation which worries us,

most necessary to save us? Many mothers here, in places not close to the battle-front,

would not let their children go to fight, until the fascist bombing planes came along; and

then it was too late. Many mothers here have been crippled or killed, or their husbands and

children maimed or killed; yet some of these mothers did not want to send their sons and

husbands to the war, until the fascist bombs taught them in such a horrible manner--what

common sense could not teach them.

Yes, Ma, this is a case where sons must go against their mothers’ wishes for the sake of their

mothers themselves. So I took up arms against the persecutors of my people--the Jews--

and my class--the Oppressed. I am fighting against those who establish an inquisition like

that of their ideological ancestors several centuries ago, in Spain. Are these traits which you

admire so much in a Prophet Jeremiah or a Judas Maccabeus, bad when your son exhibits

them? Of course, I am not a Jeremiah or a Judas; but I’m trying with my own meager

capabilities, to do what they did with their great capabilities, in the struggle for Liberty,

well-being, and Peace....

Lovingly,

Chaim

James Lardner

The second of four sons of writer Ring Lardner, James was born in Chicago in 1914.

Educated at Andover and Harvard, he went on to become a reporter for the New York

Herald Tribune, and in 1938 he joined the Paris bureau.

After his articles about the Spanish Civil War did not have the expected impact, Lardner

joined the Lincoln Brigade, the Americans fighting for the democratically elected

government of Spain. He was the last American killed in the conflict.

In this letter, he explains to his mother why he has quit his job at the Herald Tribune in order

to join the ranks of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Citation:

James Lardner Mss, ALBA Collection #67, Tamiment Library, New York University

Carl Geiser

Carl Frederick Geiser was born in Orrville, Ohio on December 10, 1910. He was the oldest of

six children; his father, a farmer, died in the influenza epidemic at the end of World War I,

and his mother a year later of tuberculosis. His maternal grandparents, Swiss immigrants

who spoke little English, raised Geiser and his siblings. The young Geiser received his

primary education in a one-room schoolhouse while helping to tend the family's sixteen-

acre farm. Upon his graduation from Orrville High School in 1928, he enrolled in the YMCA

School of Technology (later Fenn College) in Cleveland, where he majored in electrical

engineering.

In 1932, following the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and

the Soviet Union, Geiser was part of the first National Student Federation mission to travel

to the newly recognized country. This visit had a decisive influence on shaping Geiser's

political thinking. Impressed by the Soviet system and the tenets of socialist ideology,

Geiser joined the Young Communist League upon his return to Ohio. He became an active

force in the American Student Union in Cleveland and served as a delegate to the First

Student Congress Against War and Fascism held in Chicago. It was there that Geiser met his

future wife Sylvia, a teacher and organizer who shared his political fervor. The couple

moved to New York where they were absorbed into a dynamic culture of political activism

and organizing. Geiser wrote press releases and edited International Labor Defense

bulletins, organized for the League against War and Fascism, and in 1936 was elected to the

National Committee of the Young Communist League.

On April 13, 1937 Geiser boarded the S.S. Georgicto join the International Brigades massing

in defense of the Spanish Republic. He served as an ammunition carrier at the Battle of

Brunete, saw action at Quinto, and advanced to the rank of Lieutenant. Following the Battle

of Belchite in September 1937, Geiser was promoted to Political Commissar and charged

with the organization of a training school for commissars at Tarazona. Wounded at the

conflict at Fuentes de Ebro, Geiser was hospitalized for three months. Returned to the front

as Commissar of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in January 1938, he was captured by

fascist forces on April 1, 1938. For the next year, he was interned at San Pedro de Cardeña,

along with over 650 International Brigades prisoners. Through the efforts of the Friends of

the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the U.S. State Department, Geiser and a group of 71

Americans were released in April 1939.

Geiser returned to New York and secured an engineering position with Liquidometer, a

manufacturer of aeronautic equipment. Working with the company in various capacities for

the next 40 years, Geiser filed numerous patents and, as a research director, supervised the

testing of a component used in the first lunar mission. He also served briefly as president of

Local 1227 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America. He and Sylvia

had two boys, Jim and Pete, before divorcing in 1946. With his second wife Doris he had a

son and a daughter, David and Linda. In 1956 Geiser enrolled at Columbia University's

School of General Studies as a psychology major, and graduated with a B.S. degree cum

laude in 1963.

By the early 1970s, Geiser turned his attention once more to Spain. At the promptings of his

wife, Geiser enrolled in a memoir-writing class. The essay he wrote on a Christmas concert

held in San Pedro de Cardeña found publication in The New York Times, and its positive

reception provided the impetus for Geiser to produce a more extensive treatment of his

concentration camp experience. Upon retirement at age 71, Geiser began to write a

comprehensive history of American volunteers captured during the Spanish Civil War. With

the assistance of fellow prisoner Robert Steck, Geiser amassed biographical information on

the 120 Americans incarcerated in Spanish prisons. He also corresponded with over 150

veterans worldwide to solicit their reminiscences, and traveled to archives in the United

States and Europe to conduct research. Ring Lardner, Jr., (whose brother James was killed

in action while fighting with the International Brigades) and members of Veterans of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, eager to see the project to fruition, provided financial support.

Five years of research and writing culminated in the production of a 900-page

manuscript. Prisoners of the Good Fight, a shortened version of his account, was published in

1986.

Carl Geiser

May 9, 1937

Albacete, Spain

Dear Brother Bennet & Grace:

Probably you are a bit surprised to hear I am in Spain fighting with the army of the

Spanish Republic. And so I suppose you want to know why I am here.

But before I do this, I’ll let you know I am well, busy and happy, and quite safe for the

time being.

The reasons I am here is because I want to do my part to prevent a second world war,

which would without doubt, draw in the United States and seriously set back our

civilization. And secondly, because all of our democratic and liberty-loving training makes

me anxious to fight fascism, and to help the Spanish people drive out the fascist invaders

sent in by Hitler & Mussolini.

You probably have 2 questions, or rather objections to my being here. One, that the

fight here is between the “Reds” and the church & democracy, and 2 that my being here

tends to draw the U.S.A. into war.

If these things are true then I actually should not be here. And if you think they are

true, you have been badly and maybe purposefully deceived. And in the time I have been

here, I have been able to ascertain without doubt, that the fight here is between democracy

and fascism, and not between communism & fascism or democracy.

Last July 16, an uprising was begun against the democratic legally elected Republican

Government of Spain. It was organized and financed by Hitler & Mussolini. Fortunately the

leader of the uprising was killed by a plane crash as he was returning from Berlin to Spain.

The uprising was supported by few Spaniards, notably the big landowners who have starved

the Spanish people for generations, the largest capitalists, the nobility, and the majority of

the Army, especially the officers, and certain sections of the hierarchy of the Catholic

Church who were rich & powerful & often held large lands.

The uprising would have been squelched within a short time, if Hitler & Mussolini had

not sent in tanks, airplanes, weapons, and men, until today they are literally invading Spain.

What would happen if Franco, Hitler, & Mussolini were victorious? It would mean that

fascism would be stronger everywhere, & fascism means war. Democratic France would be

encircled by fascist states preparing for war. The conquest of Spain is part of the fascist

preparation for a new world war.

On which side is the church? The great majority of the Catholics are on the side of the

government. How much the fascists love Catholics may be seen from Franco’s wiping out of

a village of 10,000 in Basque territory which is completely Catholic. Also you know what

Hitler is doing to the Church in Germany.

So you can see, it is a matter of checking fascism and war, of preserving democracy &

peace. We ought not think that if the fascists take Spain we are safe, no more than we

ought to think our house is safe if the neighbor’s is on fire. Protect yours by helping your

Bennet is Carl’s younger brother by a year, and Grace is Bennet’s wife.

neighbor put out his fire. That is why the idea of “neutrality”, of keep out of Spain, is very

wrong and harmful. Everyone who wants democracy and peace must help the Spanish

government, and right away. Frankly, if the Spanish government is victorious, Germany &

Italy will be surrounded by more or less democratic countries, and we shall have an excellent

chance of avoiding another world war.

I am a member of a machine gun crew in the American Battalion of the International

Brigades. And the members of the International Brigades that had come from 52 countries,

(I don’t know if there are any more countries) and are representing the working people of his

country, and here to fight fascism & war. And it looks now, with the continued support of

the peace & democracy loving people of the world, that the Spanish government will win in

time, and that fascism will be greatly weakened. But our powerful democratic Republic of

the United States is not doing enough, is not carrying its share of the fight for peace &

democracy. The rich & reactionary men of the USA, who too want fascism, have many

Americans deceived and inactive. That is something we have to change.

A few words about my life here. At present I am perfecting my knowledge of the

operation of the machine gun. Food is plain, not enough of course, it consists mostly of

soups, beans, rice, bread, bully beef & wine. Since there is a shortage of water one has to

drink wine. Milk, eggs, chocolate, most vegetables, pastries, are not served and can be

bought only occasionally. Soap is also lacking, and we feel this more than anything else.

But on the whole, the food is good, the weather quite warm & sunny & the exercise very

beneficial.

Quite a few of my friends are here both from New York & Cleveland. And our relations

with the Spanish people are very cordial.

I wish I could write to all my friends in Orrville, but it is not possible, and I shall have to

trust to you to tell them I am here, and why. I hope you will especially tell Marie, Amos,

Rose, & Gus.

Tell them all I send them my warmest regards.

You can write me here — Carl Geiser

Socorro Rojo Internacional

Place Altozano

20 G.P.

Albacete, Spain

And I hope you write very soon.

& give my regards to Leonard also.

Very sincerely,

Your Brother, Carl

P.S. 12 oranges for 4 cents, so we eat them all day long.

They grow them here and they are plentiful.

By the way, I don’t need any money or anything else. The best way you can help me

is by helping the people of Orrville know the truth about what is happening in Spain.

Carl

Sister, uncle, and an aunt who married Gus back in Ohio.

Socorro Rojo Internacional (SRI), International Red Aid, took the place of the Red Cross in Republican Spain.

Slippery Sliwon

Boleslaw (Slippery) Sliwon

International Brigade

Lincoln Battalion

c/o S.R.I. 17.1

Albacete Spain

Nov 28, 1937

Dear Comrade Samuel

I was sitting by Doug’s bed when he received your letter, somehow it made

me happy to learn that you have not forgotten me, and also that you received my letter,

which you still question weather its on the level or not. Well if I got a letter from you I

wouldn’t care weather it was all bull, just so I heard from you and now I ask you what you

got against me by not writing to me. Aint I been a real comrade didn’t we work together and

dine and dance, maybe youre sore because my name is Boleslaw. If that is the case, please

forgive me for carrying that kind of handle, it aint my fault, anyway I still got the other one

(Slippery). Everybody want to know why, how, did I ever get such nick name, so I starts back

to my Mongolians ancestors, by the time I gets to the place where I was born, they seem to

be in a hurry to see someone, or they have a important duty to perform. So they never

stayed long enough to hear about how I got that name.

Oh you must know that I am in the hospital recovering from a physical

breakdown, nervous breakdown, yellow Jaundice, at the present I have a minor touch of

remuthism in my left shoulder, and a cold not worth mentioning, but since I began coughing

while I began to write this letter, it made me do so. At this beautiful seaside health resort,

there are some boys you may know. There is James Crooks, Dud Male, and Katz, now you

wonder who Katz is, do you know Arrow in Frisco, the one who worked in the Center’s

library, well they are brothers. Ben Sills is still with the Batt. Dean joined our batt.

Lately I have received some fan mail, as I call it, two from Frisco, and two

from my girl in Brooklyn. One of the letters from Frisco was from Little Frenchy Rogers, tell

him I got his letter and I am sending him an answer soon.

Over here it makes a guy feel like he inherited a fortune when he gets a

letter, and if you put a package of Dentyne chewing gum like Hon does, it makes you feel

like going back and kissing her. Somehow nobody sent me gum, but I didn’t care, when I get

back I never talk to them, I’ll boycott them, I wont even tell them stories about this war, say

maybe I wont get back, then probably they’ll all have tears in there eyes, for being so

unrespectful to me. Aint that right Sam. (Some more if you turn over)

(Page 2 of the ‘Unfinished Manuscript)

Since I left you, as they say, (traveling broaden the mind) I seen planty, could go for

days talking about my experiences. Since you’re a busy man now, meaning becoming a

papie to Lee, settling down to a nice peaceful home like (Boy does that sound nice to me)

and raising a bunch of brats, who’ll no doubt become sailors or some kind of W.P.A. writers.

Any way I hope Lee, see that you don’t become a home pest and send you out to bring

home (Dinero) hard earned cash.

Happy to learn that Lee has taken the job as secretary in the Friend of Lincoln Batt.

That show you that she is doing her bit to help us. Dud told me about the article you want

from me for the book your writing. I think you will get plenty material about exciting

experiences at the front, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I will write a story about the kitchen and

how we worked at the front etc.

Since I have a habit of confusing things I’ll write it on separate paper and letter.

I almost forgot to tell you about our bombing we got the other day. Sitting in a café

the other afternoon eating some nice fried fish, there was a loud Booming, I jumped about

two feet of my chair and fell on the floor, soon I heard a roar of planes, they flew over the

café, with their machine guns strafing the road or street. Good Christ I say, they’re going to

blow hell out of us soon, so they circled around went back to the railroad station, and then

there was another Boom Boom. They flew low as hell strafing their machine guns at people

who were panic stricken, running for shelter, the town being no military value, was not

armed with Antiaircraft batters. Doing their bit of demoralizing the population they flew

down where all the hospitals are situated and began bombing the railroad tracks, somehow

their poor bombmanship, they missed landing their bombs near an orphanage.

This orphanage has small children from age of 6 month to 14 yrs who were rescued

from the fascists when they took Bilbao, all these children are mother and fatherless due to

fascists marching into town, killing people, with no mercy shown. If you could only spend a

day with these kids or even watch them go through their daily routine, you would say, How

different from U.S. kids, How brave little soldiers of misfortune. Every day they sing songs

that sound sweet and melodious, why kids in the States can’t half compare to these chubby

tots. They are in school in the morning, with an hour’s recreation on the beach, after lunch

have siesta and recreation, later an hour of school, I am not fairly acquainted with correct

routine, but it goes something like I just mentioned. During the bombing (in fact they were

in some bad bombing before) they began panicky so the soldiers would take as many as

possible and look for safe shelter, for it they ran they would be killed by bullets or bombs.

The fascists planes dropped their load leaving behind several bombs that didn’t

explode, an investigation was made, in the unexploded bomb were found, stuffed with

German antifascist newspapers, with letter that soon made public.

I hope they never come around again. I have been nervous since my hand shakes like as if I

were cold or something. I was getting over a nervous breakdown from the bombing, I was

at the front in a hospital, and now I’m back again, nervous. What a sensation to be bombed.

When bombs drop near you and the noise grows louder and louder, and the next one it

seems like you’re going to be blown to hamburger.

I have figured out a good punishment for people who want war, and those who

provoke wars. First take the bastards and put them in a place surrounded by barbed wire so

that they can’t crawl out, then have about 100 airplanes fly over the place for a while, low so

these bastards could see the bombs. Next on the menu have the little pursuit planes come

swooping down with their machine guns rattling, with hot lead dropping around this fence,

but not hitting any of these guys for that would be too easy for them at once. After half

hour of these little planes, let the bombers come over and drop their load of big bombs but

not on the men, no near them so that the noise could be heard, but not touched by

shrapnel. After several hours of bombing, let those bastards out, and I guarantee that they

would be cured of their War Mongering or any kind of war propaganda, they all would

become pacifists.

This kind of treatment would be the best, because when they send bombers to

bomb children, how could a person be a humanitarian, and let bastards like that get away.

Give them some of their own medicine.

Many times I went through a village where fascist bombed the people, their faces

showed it, sometime I was so mad at the fascists that tears began to run down my cheeks.

Dud told me you wanted to know what I thought of war. Quote Slowen, War is

something miserable, that cannot be described on paper, tales of war maybe written, but

one must be in war to really know what war is and its effects. Those who start wars are not

humans, for war become a place where people forget they are humans and fight with no

mercy shown, its either you or I that going to exist or both of us shall die.

Unquote that my way of saying just how I feel, but I am sorry to say my emotions

sometimes run high with hatred or pity. One day some fascists surrendered one had his arm

shot off. He was in pain and was thirsty. Sez he to me, Please give me some water. Sure, I

answered and gave him the canteen, he took about two swallows, and hand it back to me,

he was afraid to drink more. I knew that he was dry so gave him the canteen and told him to

drink all the water. Joy swept his face, he gulped down all the water to the last drop. Thanks

comrade he said, tears rolled down cheeks with happiness, they were told by the fascist

officers that it meant death and torture to be captured, but after they surrender they were

happy that they at last were with the loyalist people. This young boy with his shot off arm

was rushed to a hospital in our ambulance. Now he may be going to school with his fellow

prisoners, many of them never seen a school house till they were sent to one by the Spanish

Govt. One prisoner said he wanted to surrender but Italian officers who were in command

threaten to shoot anyone who surrendered. So one of the prisoners revolted and shot all the

officers and said to his comrades, now lets surrender. So drop me a line and lets hear from

our devoted league members. None other than the Ex Mayor of Emb. With a Salud

Boleslaw (Slippery) Sliwon

Editor’s note:

 We’ve left in most of the spelling and grammatical errors.

 Doug [Male], mentioned at the beginning was killed in March 1938.

 Katz refers to Hy Katz.

 Hon is Esther Brown, wife of Archie

 Lee is Lee Kutnich, wife of Samuel. He was head of the San Francisco chapter of Friends

of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

 league = Young Communist League

 Emb = Embarcadero, as the San Francisco waterfront was called.

 Slippery Sliwon was killed in March 1938, still fighting the fascists.

Canute Frankson

Frankson was born in the Parish of St. Catherine, Old Harbor, Jamaica on April 13, 1890. In

1917, together with his wife, Rachel, he emigrated to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, where

Frankson worked as a machinist. Frankson eventually settled in Detroit, where he worked in

the auto industry. Frankson joined the Communist Party in 1934. He sailed for Europe

aboard the Queen Mary on April 21, 1937.

In Spain, skilled machinists were scarce and Frankson with his proven ability was rapidly

promoted. He was appointed Head Mechanic at the International Garage in Albacete.

Fellow International Garage veteran, Marion Noble, noted that Frankson's fluency in

Spanish was a great asset and that many hours of his free time were spent teaching engine

repair classes to young Spaniards.

Frankson returned to the United States aboard the President Harding on September 24,

1938. Frankson was killed in an auto accident in either 1939 or 1940.

Citation:

Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks, Madrid 1937 (New York, 1996), pp. 33-35.

Excerpts from letter

Albacete, Spain

July 6, 1937

My Dear Friend,

I’m sure that by this time you are still waiting for a detailed explanation of what has this

international struggle to do with my being here. Since this is a war between whites who for

centuries have held us in slavery, and have heaped every kind of insult and abuse upon us,

segregated and jim-crowed us; why I, a Negro who have fought through these years for the

rights of my people, am here in Spain today?

Because we are no longer an isolated minority group fighting hopelessly against an

immense giant. Because, my dear, we have joined with, and become an active part of, a

great progressive force on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of saving human

civilization from the planned destruction of a small group of degenerates gone mad in their

lust for power. Because if we crush Fascism here we’ll save our people in America, and in

other parts of the world from the vicious persecution, wholesale imprisonment, and

slaughter which the Jewish people suffered and are suffering under Hitler’s Fascist heels. All

we have to do is to think of the lynching of our people. We can but look back at the pages of

American history stained with the blood of Negroes; stink

with the burning bodies of our people hanging from trees; bitter with the groans of our

tortured loved ones from whose living bodies ears, fingers, toes have been cut for

souvenirs¾living bodies into which red-hot pokers have been thrust. All because of a hate

created in the minds of men and women by their masters who keep us all under their heels

while they suck our blood, while they live in their bed of ease by exploiting us....

...We will crush them. We will build us a new society - a society of peace and plenty. There

will be no color line, no jim-crow trains, no lynching. That is why, my dear, I’m here in Spain.

On the battlefields of Spain we fight for the preservation of democracy. Here, we’re laying

the foundation for world peace, and for the liberation of my people, and of the human race.

Here, where we’re engaged in one of the most bitter struggles of human history, there is no

color line, no discrimination, no race hatred. There’s only one hate, and that is the hate for

Fascism. We know why our enemies are. The Spanish people are very sympathetic towards

us. They are lovely people. I’ll tell you about them later....

Don’t think for one moment that the strain of this terrible war or the many miles between us

has changed my feelings towards you. Our friendship has meant a great deal to me, and still

means much to me. I appreciate it because it has always been a friendship of devoted and

mutual interest. And I’ll do whatever is within my power to maintain it.

No one knows the time he’ll die, even under the most favorable conditions. So I, a soldier in

active service, must know far less about how far or how close is death. But as long as I hold

out I’ll keep you in touch with events. Sometimes when I go to the fronts the shells drop

pretty close. Then I think it’s only a matter of minutes. After I return here to the base I seem

to see life from a new angle. Somehow it seems to be more beautiful. I’d think of you, home

and all my friends, then get to working more feverishly than ever. Each of us must give all

we have if this Fascist beast is to be destroyed.

After this is over I hope to share my happiness with you....

So long. Until some future date. One never knows when there’ll be time to write. There’s so

much to do and so little time in which to do it. Love,

Salud,

Canute

Sam Levinger

When he volunteered in 1937 to fight against fascism during the Spanish Civil War, 20-year

old Samuel Levinger was an undergraduate at Ohio State University in Columbus, a

Socialist, and the son of a rabbi. He was an exceptionally sensitive man. He was also an

excellent writer—of stories, letters, and poetry.

Sam Levinger

In case of death only,

please send this to Mrs. Lee J. Levinger

2257 Indianola Ave. Columbus, Ohio

U.S.A.

Do not send in case of injury.

Thanks, comrade.

Samuel Levinger

Dear Mother and Father:

I suppose that by the time you receive this, I will have been dead several weeks. Of course,

war is a confused thing, and I have seen enough certified corpses walking around to make

me a little skeptical, but if you receive this and an official announcement too, count it as

definite.

This is the last day of relief. We are going up to some front tomorrow to clear out the

Fascists. I do not doubt that we will be successful in repatriating the boys across the street,

but it will be at considerable cost, and as the Lincoln Battalion is good it should be in the

middle of it.

I still stick by my original conviction that I will be alive long after a whole lot of dictators

have died of lead poisoning or hardened arteries; but I’ve been wrong on other matters

before. Hence I decided to write this letter.

Certainly I am not enthusiastic about dying. I’ve gotten a good bit of fun out of my first

twenty years despite the fact that, except for the last six months they were pretty useless. I

suppose I would have enjoyed my next twenty just as much. I wanted to write this letter,

however, to make clear that there is absolutely nothing to regret.

If I were alive again I think I would join in the battle again at this crucial place. There was an

extremely important job to do over here and I was one of the men who decided to do it.

That a good many of us were killed while doing it is unfortunate, and the fact that I was

killed is still more unfortunate from our standpoints. However, this has no relevance to the

necessity of doing the job. This difference between world Fascist and world socialism is too

great to permit out safeties to be a factor for consideration.

Next I want to beg both of you not to see this out of context. World change is a stern

master. It had killed and will kill millions of boys as dear to somebody as I am to you. The

Fascists want war, and bitter war we will give them.

You are more fortunate than many of the parents, for you still have two children with

extremely bright futures. You have your extremely valuable work. I am less able to evaluate

Father’s work, though I realize its great worth; but in my field, that of an author, I can say I

think Mother should become one of the most valuable authors of the generation. And you

still have the emancipation of America to be achieved.

I think my ideas on immortality agree largely with yours. I once wrote a lousy poem “If there

is darkness beyond I shall sleep, if light I shall wake.” So if I meet you folks again all to the

good-- if not, we’ve had quite a bit of pleasure in each other’s company while it lasted.

As for my friends, give them my love if you run across them. Tell them I said there’s only one

thing to remember--that there’s one comrade less to do the job of soldier of discontent.

They’ll all have to do some work to make up for my getting perforated. See if that will get a

few of these mugwumps into action.

This has been a clumsy letter. I just want to say that I love you both a great deal, and so

forth. Also that it isn’t such a serious thing.

Love and revolutionary greetings.

Joy to the world.

Samuel Levinger

Poem written in the hospital after being wounded a second time at Brunete.

The War Is Long

Comrades, the battle is bloody, the war is long:

Across grey hills ahead hear the shout of the guns;

Above us sweep white planes pregnant with pain:

See the tanks sullen and savage, hating flesh:

And listen--the rifles are pointing men out for oblivion:

The winging machine guns are beating the drums of death.

Comrades, the battle is bloody, the war is long:

There lies a comrade, head swathed in blood and bandages:

There stands a broken comrade with white face twitching;

There lie our dead, waiting for a little sand.

And we are tired with war and sick with danger.

Dreaming of girls waiting a long ways off:

And there is blood on our hands we cannot wash clean.

Blood on our souls which will not wash off for a long time.

Comrades, the battle is bloody, the war is long:

Still let us climb the grey hill and charge the guns.

Pressing with lean bayonets toward the slopes beyond.

Soon those who are still living will see green grass.

A free bright country shining with a star:

And those who charged the guns will be remembered:

And from red blood white pinnacles shall tower.

Editor’s Note:

After giving a lecture recently at the University of Vermont, I was approached by Levinger’s

niece, Laurie Levinson, who offered samples of her uncle’s writings.

The first is a letter that is self-explanatory as to its purpose and intention and, fair warning, will

touch most readers deeply. The second is a work of poetry.

We publish both pieces with the permission of Ms Levinger who has recently published a

biography of her uncle, Love and Revolutionary Greetings

- Peter N. Carroll

From: The Good Fight Continues. World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Ed.

Peter Carroll, Mel Small, and Michael Nash. NY: NYU Press, 2006.

John Lucid

October 14 [1942]

Dear Archie [Brown],

Didn’t get a chance to see you when I dropped by on my way out. At the time I was

considerably cheered up because it seemed that I would stop putting on fat as my

contribution to the defeat of fascism. Altho I knew the outfit here was a Quartermaster

company, even truck driving or warehousing is better than sitting on your ass--if you can’t

stay in a combat outfit.

However, I hadn’t looked forward to being in the Wehrmacht. And that is what I am in here,

in effect. Altho it is called the 358 Quartermaster, it consists largely of German nationals or

people of German extraction. There are a few Italians. Moreover, these people are I am sure

not a cross-section of German-Americans. Anti-semitism is the core of their intellectual

processes. Not all of them perhaps, but most of them certainly. One bastard, perhaps the

smartest character in the bunch, ran for congress with Coughlin backing some where in the

middle west. He is a veritable sewer of Fascist ideology. Another guy, a well educated bloke!

apparently, spent the hour before lights out last night spewing out filth that marks him as a

careful student of Streicher and Goebbels.

And from down the line of double-tiered bunks

came appreciations of his efforts.

There are also some anti-fascists here. Besides a small cadre of soldiers assigned to start the

company--it is only a month or so old--there are three veterans of the International

Brigades--you may know Morris, for one. And there is a guy named Spencer from

Philadelphia who was active in the unemployed movement. And one from Wisconsin, a left-

winger in the youth movement is here--his name is Hudson. Altogether ten or a dozen anti-

fascists I think.

So, naturally it is necessary that these Nazi sympathizers and so on be put on ice. I would

even say they are getting too good a deal here, as most of them are quite glad to be out of

danger. There is little enough to do, and the sonsofbitches are far from downhearted. But,

of course, the handful of antifascists want to do our part in the war and hate like hell to rub

elbows with such a bunch. Or so I think.

Best Regards,

Jack

Jack Lucid (1915-77), a student at the University of Washington before going to Spain in

1938, eventually fought with the Rangers in Italy, earning a Silver Star at Anzio, and

participated in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp in Germany.

Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels were leading Nazi propagandists.

Martha Gellhorn – Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt

Martha Gellhorn (1908 –1998) was an American novelist, travel writer, and journalist,

considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported

on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career. Gellhorn

was also the third wife of American novelist Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945.She and

Hemingway were in Spain together during the Spanish Civil War. She was a friend of first

lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Hemingway worked together with the Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens

on the Spanish Civil War documentary The Spanish Earth, which they were invited to screen

at the White House for FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt on July 8, 1937.

Evelyn Hutchins

Evelyn Hutchins was born in Snohomish, Washington in 1910 and developed an

independent spirit as a child. Her divorced mother was a worker and agitator for suffrage for

women, her stepfather a maritime worker blacklisted on the west coast for striking. Evelyn

moved to New York as a young woman to be a dancer, but wound up in sleazy burlesque

clubs when the Depression forced her to accept any work.

Educated in the school of hard knocks, she demanded respect as a feminist. When the

Spanish Civil War broke out, she drove trucks to collect clothing and other humanitarian aid

to ship to Spain, and when the call for recruits for the American Medical Bureau went out in

late 1936, she volunteered to be an ambulance driver. However, the organizers considered

her unqualified for the risky work because she was a woman. Hutchins continued to agitate

for the opportunity and eventually convinced them to send her to Spain. There she served

courageously as a truck driver, experiencing dangerous combat conditions on many

occasions.

After the war, the Yale University sociologist Dr. John Dollard interviewed Hutchins as part

of a study on the meaning of fear in battle; his published work was used by the U.S. Army

for morale training during World War II.

Dollard’s interview, conducted around 1942, is excerpted below.

Citation:

The complete interview can be found in John Dollard’s manuscript collection: ALBA

Collection #122, Tamiment Library, New York University.

Excerpt from an Interview with Evelyn Hutchins

I went to drive. They probably considered that in case something went wrong I could do a

lot of clerical work. On that basis they were willing to send me there.

I had driven a number of ambulances here around the city, taking them back and forth to

the boat, and they were satisfied that I really could handle the cars. It was found that I could

drive the car as well as, and better than, some of the fellows who were going...Some fellows

thought it was very funny that I should be there driving. I am little but I never made any

attempt to swagger or act mannish. I acted just the way I always acted. I used to argue with

them about it. They would say, “You are so little, what can you do?” And I would tell them,

“I am just me.” I was a girl, I was small and didn’t weigh much but I was doing a job and

wasn’t that enough. They would like to take pictures of me next to my truck; because I was

small they thought it was very funny. Some of them would say, “All I have to do is give one

hard blow and you’ll keel over.” But the important thing was that the fellows who

understood why I wanted to be there, why I had taken the job of driving which was the only

possibility of getting as close as I could to the actual fighting, they didn’t think a girl

shouldn’t want to fight and have a machine gun instead of driving a car - these fellows were

the fellows who took the thing seriously, and I found them to have a more serious and level

headed attitude about things that happened.

I always had to shift for myself and take care of myself and make my own decisions, and

sometimes it would be tough on me. If that conditions you, I was conditioned. On the other

hand I have always been very incensed at a lot of different injustices I have seen, and at the

injustices I have seen against women. I have been frustrated so many times because I was

not a man. So I probably see things faster than somebody else who doesn’t care. Some girls

might not mind not being allowed to go to the army...I was always told by everybody that I

must not do this, or I must not do that because girls don’t do those things. I was told so

many times that girls are inferior to men, that men can do things and girls can’t, and I

couldn’t take it. I didn’t care how hard it was on me.

So far as the political situation in Europe, I am not like some people who think that all this

stuff is just propaganda. I remember when Mussolini issued a decree - I was just a kid at the

time - he issued a decree that women were not to wear short skirts, and that they were to

keep their proper places. Well, Mussolini was definitely out so far as I was concerned. I was

convinced that anybody with that kind of an attitude was absolutely no good for the people

generally. I never felt that I was an outstanding genius, but people had to give me a chance

to think and develop whatever thinkabilities I had. If a person would not give me a chance I

would fight them. Hitler has the system where he sends women to camps to be breeders.

That strikes me at my very most innermost desire for freedom, and self-expression, and for

culture, and education. Just being an ordinary human-being I couldn’t tolerate a thing like

that. It has gotten to mean so much to me that I don’t care what I do in the process of

fighting against conditions like that.

I got the idea of going to Spain first and then my husband got the idea and my brother got

the idea, and they got there ahead of me. And I worked so hard to go over there. I had saved

money for it, I had to convince people. I had to argue with them, and to prove things. But

the average fellow or my husband had no difficulty getting there. It might have helped that

he was there. I don’t know....I went over there because I wanted to do a job.

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893–June 7, 1967) was an American writer and poet, best

known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century urban foibles.

She sold her first poem to Vanity Fair magazine in 1914 and some months later, she was

hired as an editorial assistant for another Condé Nast magazine, Vogue. She moved to

Vanity Fair as a staff writer following two years at Vogue.

Her greatest period of productivity and success came in the next 15 years. In the 1920s alone

she published some 300 poems and free verses in outlets including the aforementioned

Vanity Fair, Vogue, "The Conning Tower" and The New Yorker along with Life, McCall's and

The New Republic.

Some of her most popular work was published in The New Yorker in the form of acerbic book

reviews under the byline "Constant Reader.”

Citation:

“Soldiers of the Republic”, originally appeared in The New Yorker on February 5, 1938.

This biography excerpt was taken from Wikipedia.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain as a journalist for the North American Newspaper

Alliance four times during the Spanish Civil War. He also supported the Republican cause in

speeches and writings, paid for the passage of some volunteers, arranged for the purchase

of ambulances, and narrated the pro-Republican documentary film, The Spanish Earth

(1937).

He used some of his experiences in writing the novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls as well as

several short stories and a play, The Fifth Column.

Citation:

“On the American Dead in Spain” originally appeared in New Masses in February 1938.

On the American Dead in Spain

[Ernest Hemingway, 1938]

The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight. Snow blows through the olive groves, silting against the tree

roots. Snow drifts over the mounds with the small headboards. (When there was time for

headboards.) The olive trees are thin in the cold wind because their lower branches were once cut to

cover tanks, and the dead sleep cold in the small hills above the Jarama River. It was cold that

February when they died and since then the dead have not noticed the changes of the seasons.

It is two years now since the Lincoln Battalion held for four and a half months along the heights of

the Jarama, and the first American dead have been a part of the earth for a long time now.

The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight and will sleep cold all this winter as the earth sleeps with them.

But in the spring the rain will come to make the earth kind again. The wind will blow soft over the

hills from the south. The black trees will come to life with small green leaves, and there will be

blossoms on the apple trees along the Jarama River. This spring the dead will feel the earth

beginning to live again.

For our dead are a part of the earth of Spain now and the earth of Spain can never die. Each winter it

will seem to die and each spring it will come alive again. Our dead will live with it forever.

Just as the earth can never die, neither will those who have ever been free return to slavery. The

peasants who work the earth where our dead lie know what these dead died for. There was time

during the war for them to learn these things, and there is forever for them to remember them in.

Our dead live in the hearts and minds of the Spanish peasants, of the Spanish workers, of all the

good simple honest people who believed in and fought for the Spanish Republic. And as long as all

our dead live in the Spanish earth, and they will live as long as the earth lives, no system of tyranny

ever will prevail in Spain.

The fascists may spread over the land, blasting their way with weight of metal brought from other

countries. They may advance aided by traitors and by cowards. They may destroy cities and villages

and try to hold the people in slavery. But you cannot hold any people in slavery.

The Spanish people will rise again as they have always risen before against tyranny.

The dead do not need to rise. They are a part of the earth now and the earth can never be

conquered. For the earth endureth forever. It will outlive all systems of tyranny.

Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those

who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.

Crawford Morgan

Morgan was born November 4, 1910 in Rockingham, North Carolina. While still a child, he

moved with his family to Norfolk, Virginia where he attended high school. After graduation,

Morgan studied to become a printer. In 1932, he joined the Young Communist League.

During the Depression he became involved in organizations of the unemployed in New York

and was on one occasion arrested in a demonstration at the Home Relief Bureau.

On March 10, 1937 Morgan boarded the Washington bound for France. In Spain he was

assigned to the infantry attached to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and later transferred

to the Lincoln-Washington Battalion. His battalion went into action at the end of August

1937 on the Aragon front and Morgan received a leg wound storming the town of Quinto.

After recovery, Morgan rejoined the Lincoln-Washington Battalion's Third Company. This

was shortly after the action at Fuentes de Ebro in October 1937. Complications from his leg

wound resulted in his transfer to the XVth Brigade's Transport Unit where Morgan remained

for the remainder of the war. Morgan returned from Spain, on the SS Paris, on December

15, 1938.

In August 1942 Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in an all-black unit, until May

1946. After leaving the army Morgan resided in Norfolk, Virginia and worked as a truck

driver until 1949. He later returned to New York and became an offset printer.

On September 15 and 16, 1954, Morgan testified at length on behalf of the VALB in hearings

before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The SACB was in the process of declaring the VALB to be a subversive organization. The

VALB attorney called Morgan as a defense witness. He testified "being a Negro, and all of

the stuff that I have had to take in this country, I had a pretty good idea of what fascism

was. I got a chance there [in Spain] to fight it with bullets, and I went there and fought it

with bullets. If I get a chance to fight it with bullets again, I will fight it with bullets again."

Morgan remained an active member of the VALB. In the early 1970's, he worked with the

group's Historical Commission to gather information on other African American volunteers.

Morgan died on August 27, 1976.

Citation:

This Ain’t Ethiopia, But It’ll Do: African-Americans in the Spanish Civil War by Danny Duncan

Collum, Editor, and Victor A. Berch, Chief Researcher.

Excerpts of Congressional Testimony

In September 1954, the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) were brought

before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) in response to a petition by U.S.

Attorney General Herbert Brownell to classify the VALB as a subversive organization.

On September 15 and 16, 1954, Crawford Morgan, an African-American member of VALB,

testified before the SACB. The following are excerpts:

SACB: Did you have any understanding, Mr. Morgan, before you went to Spain, of what

the issues were connected to that war?

Morgan: I felt that I had a pretty good idea of what fascism was and most of its

ramifications. Being aware of what the Fascist Italian government did to the Ethiopians, and

also the way that I and all the rest of the Negroes in this country have been treated ever

since slavery, I figured I had a pretty good idea of what fascism was.

We have quite a few fascist tendencies in this country. Didn’t come to the point of taking up

arms and killing a lot of people, but for the longest time Negroes have been getting lynched

in this country by mobs, and that was fascism on a small scale.

But over there [in Spain] it was one whole big group against the other. It was the Franco

group that didn’t like democracy. And they rebelled against the people after the 1936

elections and tried to stick their ideas down the throats of the freedom-loving people of

Spain. So I, being a Negro, and all of the stuff that I have had to take in this country, I had a

pretty good idea of what fascism

was and I didn’t want no part of it. I got a chance to fight it there with bullets and I went

there and fought it with bullets. If I get a chance to fight it with bullets again, I will fight it

with bullets again.

SACB: Mr. Morgan, were those thoughts in your mind before you went to Spain?

Morgan: Ever since I have been big enough to understand things I have rebelled. As a small

child of three or four years old I would rebel at human injustice in the way I understood it at

that age. And as long as I have been able to remember, up until now, the government and a

lot of people have treated me as a second-class citizen. I am 43 years old, and all my life I

have been treated as a second-class citizen, and naturally if you always have been treated

like one you start feeling it at a very tender age.

With Hitler on the march, and fascism starting the fight in Spain, I felt that it could serve two

purposes: I felt that if we cold lick the Fascists in Spain, I felt that in the trend of things it

would offset a bloodbath later. I felt that if we didn’t lick Franco and stop fascism there, it

would spread over lots of the world. And it is bad enough for white people to live under

fascism, those of the white people that like freedom and democracy. But Negroes couldn’t

live under it. They would be wiped out.

SACB: Were you aware, at any time, that you were a member of the International

Brigades, of receiving any different treatment because of your race?

Morgan: No, from the time I arrived in Spain until after the time I left, for that period of my

life, I felt like a human being, like a man. People didn’t look at me with hatred in their eyes

because I was black, and I wasn’t refused this or refused that because I was black. I was

treated like all the rest of the people were treated, and when you have been in the world for

quite a long time and have been treated worse than people treat their dogs, it is quite a nice

feeling to go someplace and feel like a human being.

Roosevelt’s “Quarantine Speech”

Excerpts from Roosevelt’s “Quarantine Speech” of October 5, 1937

..It is true that the moral consciousness of the world must recognize the importance of removing

injustices and well-founded grievances; but at the same time it must be aroused to the cardinal

necessity of honoring sanctity of treaties, of respecting the rights and liberties of others, and of

putting an end to acts of international aggression.

It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When an

epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of

the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.

It is my determination to pursue a policy of peace and to adopt every practicable measure to avoid

involvement in war. It ought to be inconceivable that in this modern era, and in the face of

experience, any nation could be so foolish and ruthless as to run the risk of plunging the whole world

into war by invading and violating, in contravention of solemn treaties, the territory of other nations

that have done them no real harm and which are too weak to protect themselves adequately. Yet

the peace of the world and the welfare and security of every nation is today being threatened by

that very thing....

War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote

from the original scene of hostilities. We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure

ourselves against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement. We are adopting

such measures as will minimize our risk of involvement, but we cannot have complete protection in a

world of disorder in which confidence and security have broken down.

If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust

between nations must be revived. Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-

loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their

agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors

to preserve peace.

America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for

peace.

Click here to read the entire speech:

http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=956.

Press Reactions to President Roosevelt’s “Quarantine Speech"

From the New York Herald Tribune:

President Roosevelt, for all his eloquence at Chicago, cannot be credited with anything...specific. His

world audience no doubt thinks that much of his speech had reference to Japan. But he did not say

so. His talk of “quarantine” may be construed as an endorsement of economic sanctions but he did

not mention them. His appeal was wholly emotional. It named no names. It cited no specific treaty

clauses that are in default and no specific way of resenting treaty violation. If it was an appeal for

anything it was a popular emotional mandate to the President to take whatever course in our

international relations seemed to him the best.

From the Washington Post:

This speech, coming at the psychological moment, may well foreshadow a turning point in world

history. The forces now fighting intolerable aggression, whether in the case of the Chinese at

Shanghai or the Spaniards defending Madrid, are neither cowards nor weaklings. They are prepared

to carry on the fight for human decency unaided. But with the assurance that the United States has

not forgotten all moral standards in its ostrich hunt for security, the strength of their resistance will

be redoubled. President Roosevelt has only to make explicit the assurances implied in yesterday’s

speech and the turn toward peace will, for the first time since 1931, become apparent.

From the Boston Herald:

The mantle of Woodrow Wilson lay on the shoulders of Franklin Roosevelt when he spoke yesterday

in Chicago. It may be true that “the very foundations of civilization are seriously threatened.” But

this time, Mr. President, Americans will not be stampeded into going 3,000 miles across water to

save them. Crusade, if you must, but for the sake of several millions of American mothers, confine

your crusading to the continental limits of America!

From the Chattanooga Times:

Did Mr. Roosevelt intend to indicate, as it is apparently believed in some quarters, that the United

States will join other powers and be contributing police work in the Far East and the Mediterranean,

try to “quarantine” aggressor nations? Or does the President desire to encourage Great Britain and

France to follow a more determined course in Europe and Asia, while standing on this nation’s

traditional policy of isolation?

Writing Assignment

Write your own editorial response to Roosevelt’s speech, addressing this basic question:

Should the U.S. intervene to help the Spanish Republic in its fight against fascism or should the U.S.

continue to remain neutral even if it means the defeat of the Republic at the hands of the fascists?