The OTHER Person in Moe Fishman's File

As a possible idea for a topic, I decided to research someone unknown, someone without a finding aid, and organize and annotate their file to make it easier for later researchers. Court Bevensee, a vet who's papers are squished into Moe Fishman's collection because he and Moe were friends, fit the bill. His papers consist of tons of letters to and from his sister and brother in law describing the Depression at home, Court's injury and subsequent hospital stay, and his journey home from Spain as it became clear that he would not return to the battlefield. The photos of Court show a mysterious looking man, someone I would imagine in a spy movie: Tall with a shifty look in his eye and a big, round head; easy to pick out in a crowd. A socialist, his letters discuss the worker strikes of the day while his sister laments about their tight economic situation; in one letter, she describes how she and her husband leave for a two-week vacation but run low on money a few days into it and are forced to seriously cut down their spending and start to think about just giving up and heading home early. Throughout the letters, his sister constantly speaks of her plans for him to stay with her upon his return, but apologizes time and again for her small house and their failed attempts to move to a larger home. Court does end up coming back early, returning to New York in February or March of 1939 after spending almost a year and a half in the hospital suffering from severe leg injuries which involve metal lodged in his leg, the removal of bone, nerve paralysis, and a fracture or two. Unlike the letters we read in class, in which the veteran stops writing until he leaves the hospital so as not to worry his family with his sickness, Court complains about his boredom, his loneliness as one of the only English-speakers in the hospital, the one International Brigade woman who brings him a couple Daily Workers and some candy, and his neverending call for more reading material. His brother in law teases him about his love for reading, but Court is totally serious, being bored out of his mind having to lie in bed all day for months on end. He was injured on June 20th, 1937 in Brunete, after just arriving in Spain, but despite the severity of his injuries, he managed to live well into his 80s in Westchester County, New York. I have only looked at a fraction of the letters and some of his photographs, and would like to come back to research more. Do you think this could work for a research project and how do you suggest going about it?

Sadye's post on Alfred Amery

Sadye wrote about Alfred Amery, a volunteer in the Mac-Paps Canadian batallion. I was especially interested by her commentary about Amery's conversion to Communism in his memoir entitled "Something More". He joins the navy to find "something more"; returns in the midst of the Depression; and is finally convinced of the inherent flaws in capitalism by a Communist friend's analogy of competition between chicken farmers in which everyone comes out the loser. The friend describes how the farmer lowers prices to match his competitors, and lowers wages to keep his profit margin. The farmer eeks out a meager existence in which his survival depends on the exploitation of his workers. Amery is convinced that with the current US economic system, the Depression will never end and so he feels only an economic revolution will pull the country out of its dire situation. I think Roosevelt's New Deal reforms and later government changes have made the system feasible without the revolution Amery clamored for. Social security, Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and welfare, to name a few programs, give citizens a safety net so that the Depression never occurs again. However, one only has to look at the current state of the market to see the flaws still present in the system. There is a long way to go, but I feel that the market will fluctuate no matter what system is put into place. There is no perfect economic system. The economy is like a roller coaster: It would be boring without some surprising lifts or drops (just kidding).

Ryan's blog

I read one of Ryan's entries in which he talks about a possible research projecting investigating US non-intervention politics during the war. The topic sounds very interesting, and a good base for a research paper. The politics are so complicated; the leaders appear untrustworthy and slippery - it would be a fascinating paper.

From peeking at later entries, it seems like Ryan altered his topic to focus on those in the US who advocated intervention; how they came to believe that the US should intervene; what actions they took to influence those in power; and what impact they had. This topic is less interesting to me. Everyone we have read about has been pro-intervention and yet the nation kept up the embargo and didn't aid the Republic. For some reason, the pleas of the interventionalists to the government went unheeded, even calls for action from prominent figures such as Langston Hughes, Albert Einstein, and Hemingway. Although the situations are vastly different, one recent political dilemma reminds me of Roosevelt's: President Clinton's decision to stay out of Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Speaking in Kigali four years later, he expressed regret and basically told the Rwandans that he didn't understand the situation at the time - "All over the world there were people like me sitting in offices who did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror." (The Nation) The facts suggest that Clinton knew full well the depth of the terror going on in Rwanda, but still failed to intervene. The Washington editor of The Nation thinks that the 1992-93 intervention in Somalia in which the US initially went in to combat a hunger epidemic and were drawn into battles among feuding warlords in which US soldiers died may have made Clinton hesitate from entering another African crisis.

Lucy's Post on Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas

I read Lucy's post on the Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas. It was very interesting. Like Mr. Fernandez, I was intrigued by the unopened letter found in one of the folders, and I hope that it is only unopened because the archivists have not sorted through that box yet. I do not agree with the argument that since the letter arrived unopened the person who donated it must have wanted the letter to remain sealed. A letter holds so much more information than an envelope.

The Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas box contains letters and other materials in Spanish. I am envious and impressed that Lucy can tackle archival material in Spanish. It also sounds like the boxes are rarely researched, partly because of the language issue, so they are swiftly sorted or not sorted at all. A collection like this would be a good one to annotate as part of the term project.

At the beginnning of the blogpost, she describes looking through the files of Robert Steck, a veteran who spend months in a Franco prison. I have read some of these files myself, and love the prison community Steck describes in which inmates set up a makeshift university, write the "Jaily News" and even use their meagre soap rations as chess pieces. The actions of the prisoners represents an absolute refusal to bend to the unhumanity and depression of Franco Spain.

Emily's Post About Daily Worker Microfilm

I read Emily's posting about the Janaury 1st, 2nd and 3rd of 1936 issues of the Daily Worker. I have not looked at microfilm yet, and am impressed and inspired to check it out after reading this post.

The paper sounds like a strong piece of propaganda, which would make the articles pretty boring to me. I was interested in the article about Stalin's interest and knowledge about agriculture, however. Emily brings up the good question of how the US Communist party related the Soviet Union's emphasis on agriculture to a largely industrial following in the States. Agriculture seems to represent the roots of civilization; In Homer's The Oddesey, Oddyseus often defines barbarism as a state in which nature grows wild and independently of man. In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, the main character looks out over the land from a hilltop, and, seeing no dividing line between farmers' fields, says one word: Communism. Wells seems to equate agriculture with the development of private property because one must keep ones crops to oneself in order to sell them and make money, and the only way to delineate between your crops and your neighbors' crops is to put up fences and stake out your territory. Stalin obviously holds a different view toward agriculture, perhaps seeing it as a good, simple labor for man to undertake.

I'm surprised the paper came out daily. For such a specific paper, I would have thought it would come out weekly or monthly. Today, it seems that a paper like the Daily Worker would not have enough readers or staff to make daily publication feasible. One of the filmmakers from the Good Fight spoke of reading a dozen papers a day to get all the different angles on the news, a possibility I cannot fathom. I try to read the free papers I find whenever I can. My family subscribed to the New York Times at home, but even then I did not take the time to read more than an article or two a day. The knowledge of world and local affairs during the time the volunteers decided to volunteer must have been so much more thorough than today. It helps me understand how young men and women can decide to risk their lives fighting against fascism across the Atlantic Ocean in Spain.

Carl Geiser on San Pedro de Cardenas

When looking through my past blog entries, I found the Al Tocar Diana record of songs from the San Pedro de Cardenas prison. The prison interests me because of the complex, sophisticated community that the captives formed in order to pass the time and raise their standards of living. Instead of submitting to depression under their dirty, oppressive conditions, they created a civilized community, albeit with rats and guards everywhere. They lectured each other on topics they knew about, taught each other to read and write, and formed a choir and other musical groups. Some even carved their meagre soap rations into chess pieces to entertain themselves, and give their brains some exercise. I am fascinated by how people maintain their sanity under extreme conditions like living in the San Pedro de Cardenas concentration camp, and the value the prisoners place in education.

When I typed in San Pedro de Cardenas on the Search Finding Aids function of the ALBA website, I found out that veteran Carl Geiser had researched and written a book in the 1980s about international prisoners during the war. I researched the box relating to his book in the archives. Geiser must have been in his 70s or 80s when writing this book, which shows that Spain stayed close to his heart throughout his life. The fact that he wrote the book so late in his life is probably due to the fact that he couldn't safely get information about the prisons when Franco still lived and held power. Therefore, he had to wait until the 70s to really have a chance to research the war.

El Sid, the Spanish epic poet, is buried at San Pedro de Cardenas, which has been a monastary since 900 CE. The book "In Spain" gorgeously describes the tranquility of Cardenas, and does not mention its period as a prison, but rather speaks of a lonely, forgotten church. I think the book was written before the Spanish Civil War. It seems weird to me that Franco would choose the sacred sight of Cardenas as the location for his prison, but perhaps as the author of In Spain describes, the area was abandoned and forgotten by the time of the war.

650 international brigaders and thousands of Basques were held there, the site being 11 miles SE of Burgos. Geiser has accumulated the prison diary notes of many of the inmates describing the conditions and activities. He describes how two monks lectured the prisoners daily in an attempt to "reeducate" them. I can guess how effective that plan was... I wonder why Franco would bother trying to win over the minds of his prisoners, and why he would think that it would work.

In another interesting note, Geiser asks why a prisoner who committed suicide was buried at Burgos instead of at the Monastary like the other prisoners. He suspects that the priests refused to taint the hallowed ground with the sin of suicide.

Many soldiers describe the educational programs that took place in the camp. Reading and writing classes were held in many different languages, party so that men could learn how to send home letters to their families. This also matches up with the Republic's emphasis on education as a tool of warfare, and the philosophy that an educated person would support the Republic and have more power. In addition to language and literacy study, which even included the doomed super-language, Esperanto, many of the soldiers lectured each other on their own fields of expertise. The lecture topics varied greatly from "Zoos and Circuses" to "Painting" to "Hiking in the Adirondacks" to "Exploring for Chinchilla in the Andes." The whole school, called the San Pedro Institute of Higher Learning, played host to 285 students in 19 different classes. The men used their extra money to buy paper, pens, and books. Lectures began at 9:30 in the morning, and would often extend late into the evening. One homework assignment I particularly enjoyed was when the volunteers split into 20 different book groups to read and discuss Lawrence of Arabia. The sophistication and civilized nature by which the soldiers kept themselves busy amazes me.

I've only delved into half of one folder of the entire box of info about the prison so there is lots more to discover. Do you think I could make a research project about this prison?

Communist Manifesto: Bourgeois v. Proletarians

The stories of Lincoln Brigade veterans have inspired me, and I hope to live with a fraction of their courage. I envy their defense of civil, social and political rights. However, I have thus far been unable to grapple with the Communist idealogy so many of the volunteers believed in. Communism has negative, radical connotations to me despite the fact that I know little about the ideas behind the word. During my research, I pushed the Communist political views of the volunteers to the back of my mind; I tried my best to ignore them. However, Communism played such a major role in the lives of ALB veterans that I have decided to read the Communist Manifesto to gain insight as to what the ideology meant to them, why it seemed attractive at the time, and whether or not it merits consideration as a political philosophy.

Part 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians

This chapter outlined the basic flaws of capitalism: The exploitation of the worker and the inability of the worker to advance himself and escape poverty; the cutthroat attitude that pits neighbor against neighbor in a competition for financial survival; the exploitation of non-industrialized nations by industrialized ones. These problems all still exist in one form or another today. On a positive note, union action has greatly improved working conditions, raised the minimum wage, and made employers offer more comprehensive benefits such as health insurance and severance pay. On the other hand, now more than ever small, independent businesses struggle to survive amid the domination of chain stores that use their resources to lower prices and run their competition out of business. Also, US companies like Walmart and KFC exploit workers and resources from China, Africa and other parts of the world in order to make their products as cheap as possible. The concerns of Marx and Engels still apply to today's world.

I was struck by the military imagery that comes up time and time again in the text. Take for example the following paragraph:

"Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect heirarchy of officers and sergeants."

I do not yet know why the authors chose such a militaristic tone.

The Volunteer's Portrayal of Artist/Soldiers

Joseph Vogel's piece in The Volunteer impressed me. The drawing shows a soldier with an exaggerated chest holding a gun. The chaos of the painting reflects the insanity of war. The abstract aspects leave room for our imaginations to add to the work. Vogel's work is currently displayed at the MET, the Smithsonian, and other notable museums. It is hard to imagine an artist volunteering to fight in a war, but, as Dr. Fernandez said, it shows his inspiring commitment to the cause of defeating fascism.

Three drawing by Mildred Rackley show three different dancing scenes from the US and Spain. I wonder if drawing helped artists confirm their own existences just as photography helped soldiers convince themselves and their families back home that they were still alive.

Edwin Rolfe's story presents a haunting image of the damage caused by McCarthyism and anti-Communism. An aspiring poet before the war, he later attempted to work in the film industry but was blacklisted in 1947 and twice named as a Communist during the Hollywood hearing of 1951. He was subpoenaed in 1952, but did not appear. All in all, the communist label and McCarthy harrassment ended his film career. The illogical nature of condemning a man who volunteered to defend the Spanish Republic, and later fought in World War II, baffles me.

As I read about more and more artists leaving the US or losing their jobs as a result of the Red Scare, I wonder how much US art was lost forever during the period. I am sure that unemployment prevented artists from getting the materials they needed to paint, draw or even compose music, and producing art often came after finding food, shelter and a little money. The artistic losses sustained during the anti-Communist attacks can never be redeemed.

I love this quote at the end of the Volunteer's issue:

"The fascists won the battles, but we had the good songs."

LaborArts Union Songs Exhibit

When I was in the archives, I picked up a flier for the LaborArts online exhibit called "Labor Sings! Songs from the 1930s and 1940s." The exhibit proved to be very interesting. About 20 songs were available to listen to, accompanied by a picture of the labor songbook the lyrics came from, and biographical information about the writers and singers. Some of the songs sounded resigned and mournful - slow acapella ballads condemning society and offering the union as the only hope for salvation. Others emanated energy, with full choirs belting out "Join the Union" and "Solidarity Forever." Some of the songs took their melodies from already popular folk songs, just like Jarama used the melody from The Red River Valley. Maurice Sugar's The Soup Song took its melody from the Scottish folk song "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." The classic union anthem, Solidarity Forever, took its melody from the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The use of this patriotic melody was likely meant to connect the union to patriotism, and to imply that real Americans were union members. Also, replacing the famous line "For the truth shall set us free" with "For the union makes us strong" makes listeners subconsciously associate the union with truth, and, in extension, justice.

I looked at these songs to see how they compared with the songs of the Spanish Civil War, knowing that many of the volunteers were also union members. Bill Bailey, for example, was an active union leader, and in an interview describes one shipping union strike he helped lead before going to Spain. I would guess that some of these union songs were sung unchanged in Spain by some of the American volunteers. Being far from home, the soldiers would want to sing songs they knew well and that reminded them of their homeland. Also, the union struggles for workers' rights share many similarities in spirit with the Spanish Republic in that both struggles represent the poor and middle class people who have been taken advantage of. For this reason, the songs would also resonate in Spain.

The Good Fight Production Materials

I looked at the box of production materials for The Good Fight, which produced some very interesting documents. I found a letter from a politician, Cordell Hull, to Senator Key Pittman disagreeing with Pittman's proposed resolution to lift the Spanish embargo. The arms embargo was first put into law on January 8th, 1937. Only one representative voted against it - I wonder who? In his letter, Hull refrains from calling the Spanish Civil War a civil war, but instead refers to the "civil strife" in Spain. This purposeful manipulation of language makes me think of the current US government's tentativeness to call the genocide in Darfur genocide. The terms politicians use to describe world events in themselves hold significance.

In another letter, Albert Einstein praises the work of the North American Community to Aid Spanish Democracy. As I keep coming across strong support for the Republic among prominent leaders of the artistic community, it is hard for me to imagine that the general feeling in the US was against intervention. I suppose the artists are only one small demographic, though, and do not represent nationwide views.

The grant request form for the Media Program, the sponsoring group, listed the total cost to make the movie at $244,331, which seems fairly cheap.

In the publicity folder, I found one ad and several articles spreading information about the film. Through these ads, I found out that the filmmakers were from Boston. One article spoke of the Julio Mela Brigade, made up of Cuban exiles who had fled to the US. This could be an interesting topic to research later on. In one piece, Noel Buckner specifically mentions that a person active in a pro-Republic committee in the US should be called a liberal or conservative, but NOT a leftist. I do not understand the offensive nature or innaccuracy of the term leftist, and I also don't think conservative would ever make sense when describing a US supporter of the Republic. Can you explain to me what Buckner meant?

My favorite find in the box was the transcript from a speech issued by FDR on Oct. 5, 1937. He moves away from the political strategy of isolation. Here are some quotes:

"The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality."

"There is a solidarity and interdependence about the modern world, both technically and morally, which makes it impossible for any nation completely to isolate itself from economic and political upheavals in the rest of the world."

"If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored." What is the Prince of Peace?

"America actively engages in the search for peace." Active engagement implies intervention not isolation.

"It is my determination to pursue a policy of peace." Pursuing peace also implies that avoiding the problem will not preserve peace but that taking action and defeating the nations who wish to wage war will lead to peace.

These quotes are inspiring and on point, but his actions from 1937 -1939 do not reflect these words at all.

Songs of the War Thesis Continued

I read chapters 3 and 4 of the thesis dealing with the songs of the war. These chapters were more interesting to me because they dealt with specific musical aspects of the songs, even showing snippets of sheet music as examples.

Republican songs were sung in many languages to showcase the international struggle and the universal goals embodied by the international brigade and the Republican fighters. Also, the Basque people and others sung songs in their regional languages to emphasize the regional differences the Nationalists failed to recognize in Spain. This reminds me of what Senegalese singer Baaba Maal said at a recend concert I attended. He sings songs in many different languages, and he said he chooses the language based upon which group he wishes to address or speak to in the song. The choice of language was important to the Republicans and is still important for Baaba Maal. In fact, The International, one of the most popular songs, was translated into a dozen languages in one songbook released by the Republic.

Melody was second to lyrics, and many songs simply changed the lyrics to already popular melodies. This made the songs easy for the population to pick up and remember. Also, some composers worked with successful Spanish poets who would create couplets as lyrics to the songs.

Some songs were improvised in the trenches.

In 1937, the Republican National Music Committee held a public song writing contest. The winners were published as Six Songs for Democracy, which were sung as a group on the album you let me borrow entitled Songs of the Spanish Civil War by Ernst Busch and Chorus.

Some of the musical propaganda groups included the Alianza de Intelectuales para la Defensa de la Cultura, the National Institute of Culture, the Milicias de la Cultura, the Brigadas Volantes, and the Republican radio station Altavoz del Frente. Carlos Palacio was the main composer for the station, and was given the money to work with a full orchestra in recording new songs.

Although many of the composers were highly-trained classical musicians, they generally stuck to simple marches because the intent of the songs was not groundbreaking new music but music that the people could relate to. Many of the songs were loud and grand, with a repetitive baseline to emphasize the march tempo. The 2/4 time signitures further underscored the march theme. Although it is true that some songs were improvised in the trenches, the musical propaganda associations often claimed their professionally-crafted songs were thought up by soldiers in the heat of battle. This lie tried to add authenticity and raw emotion to the songs, but many of them were passionate despite the fact that they were not composed by a soldier.

I was surprised by the amount of emphasis and organization propaganda groups for both sides placed in music.

Museo del Barrio Visit

I went to the newly reopened Museo del Barrio this weekend and came across a whole section of Communist and Spanish Civil War works of art. Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and others took a stand against Fascism in their art. Rivera's 1933 painting "Opponent of Fascism" depicts a strong workman restraining a Fascist hand holding a bloody knife with the Communist hammer and sickle in the background. This clearly and brazenly denounces Fascism before the Spanish Civil War, when Mussolini has power and Hitler has just achieved it. Another of Rivera's paintings, "Man at the Crossroads", shows a robotic army wearing gas masks in contrast with an army led by a women's choir which represents the army of the people. Also in the picture appear rich people having a dinner party, and a representation of Lenin and his followers. The mural was commisioned by Rockefeller, but when Rockefeller saw Lenin in the mural, he had the painting destroyed and forced Rivera to repaint without the important figure of Lenin present.

Another Communist artist, Siqueiros, came to the US as a Mexican government official in the mid 1930s. He had served as a captain in the 1910 Mexican Revolution. From April 1936 to January of 1937, Siqueiros led the Experimental Workshop as he taught his style of mural painting and collaborated with American artists. In 1937 Siqueiros left to fight in Spain for Mexico. Much later in his life, he admitted having attempted to assasinate Trotsky in his Mexico City home in 1940 after returning from Spain, but his admission came too long after his trial to merit arrest.

In Siqueiros' Tamiment vertical file are articles concerning his 1960 arrest and 8 year imprisonment for inciting student demonstrations against the Mexican government. The Artists Committee to Free Siqueiros included Georgia O'Keeffe among others. He painted from jail, and his paintings still sold and were popular.

Songs of the SCW Thesis

I read the introduction as well as Chapter 1 of the thesis detailing the songs of the SCW, with the chapter entitled "Song Heritage and the Civil War." The author describes how the isolation of Spain because of being surrounded by mountain ranges and its location on the Iberian Peninsula led to slower cultural development, which allowed for the preservation of folk songs. Also, he explains that little information can be found on the songs of the war because musicologists studying Spanish music generally focused on more professional styles (ie not folk music). Also, Franco's ban on Republican songs and the domination of pro-Franco historians obscured the history of the songs. Lastly, because of the nature of folk songs, they were passed down via the oral tradition and therefore are rarely found in written form as original source documents. I will continue to read more of the thesis. This chapter went into great detail describing the history and development of Spanish musical genres, which I chose not to write about until I have a better grasp of them. I do not yet know if my project will incorporate the history of Spanish music from the centures before the war.

Malofsky Letters 3

"There are too many beautiful landscapes, too many orange trees, too many rich, red, earthy fields of clay, cultivated by hands of hardworking peasants for centuries...too many to fall into and be squashed by the muddy, traitorous hands of a dictator, a banker, and a fat priest"

Malofsky works the machine gun with his cousin Bernie
After extolling virtues of Spanish people: "That's why it's absolutely essential to get rid of the bastard Trotskyites who tried to disrupt the unity, and therefore consciously knew that they were playing Franco's game."
-similar to quote in last blog describing Franco's Fifth Column. Malofsky seems to be worried about internal betrayal.

his friend Julius Blackstein married a year before the war. If he had married a year later, he might have already chosen to leave for Spain.
"You know pal, sometimes I wish all this had happened a year ago, when you didn't have all those responsibilities. I know damn well where you'd be- right here with me."

"crush and continue to crush those vile fascist fiends"
hateful, searing language for an otherwise good-natured man

He's part of the George Washington Battalion, which he describes as separate from the Lincoln Batallion. I don't really understand the military structure.

"The other day they sent us a sound truck with phonograph records. Across the hill the machine guns were ratt-tat-ing, and here we were listening to beautiful symphony and snappy jazz records."

One letter is written in another language that has a different alphabet. It looks Russian maybe. What is Malofsky's heritage?

Remember to look up Langston Hughes' The Song of Spain poem

In IWO Magazine article by Sam Pevzner:
"Fine as it is to have cronies, pals and comrades there is no friend that can do what your organization can do for you when it is based on the principle of friendship, of brotherhood."

Malofsky continued

Malofsky puts English lyrics to an Italian song. In another instance, a song was also slightly altered to apply it to the war: The Jarama Valley song uses the melody of the folk song the Red River Valley.

Malofsky was the Battalion singing master, lead the glee club, and directed the dramatics - all in his free time. It seems that distracting himself from the war was more important that being too busy. He worked with the men to rehearse and put on a show every 2 weeks.

Before the war, Malofsky, Ernest Arion (Ernie) and Bernie were part of a singing group called the Convulsionaries.

This quote of Malofsky's struck me: "Anybody who tries to break the wonderful unity of the Popular Front here is a member of Franco's Fifth Column."

The women he is writing to, Miriam Sigel, contributed strongly to the Youth Theatre back in the States. She was part of a dance group, and the production of Bury the Dead.

Harold Malofsky

I found an obituary in The Volunteer for Harold Malofsky, or Harry Meloff as he was often called. A musician and playwright, he was loved by his comrades in the International Workers Order (IWR) in the US and his fellow soldiers in Spain, where he died in September 1937 at Belchite, the first year he arrived. He wrote the theme song for the IWO musical "All Together Now", and the song became a sort of anthem for the group after Meloff's death. He also wrote the Song of the International Brigades.

I also found a program for the April 2, 1939 Harry Meloff Theatre Festival. Elia Kazan, the director of 'On the Waterfront' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire', helped sponsor the event, which was held at the Nora Bayes Theatre.

Malofsky also wrote many letters to Miriam Sigel back in the US.
"I'm glad you liked the song I sent. I wanted to write out some more for you, but I can't find a piano in this town. I guess my fingers will get stale too."

In one of the letters he references Camp Unity. I have seen photos and other vets talking about this camp also. What was it?

In another letter, he asks Miriam, whom he affectionately calls Mim, to take his sheet music of the song "We are the Fighting Anti-Fascists" to the New Masses magazine headquarters for the July 1937 issue.

Next visit, I am thinking of continuing my reading of his letters to Ms. Sigel in order to get a better understanding of who he is, and to learn more about how he was involved in music in Spain.

Ebony Band's Songs of the War

The Ebony Band, an alternative orchestral group from Holland under the direction of Werner Herbers, presented a series about songs banned by the Nazis in 1991. One of the concerts in this series was dedicated to the Spanish Civil War, and I listened to the first half of this concert on the CD "Music from the Spanish Civil War", recorded on BVHAAST Records. The following are my reactions to the songs:

1. Conlon Noncarrow - Piece for a Small Orchestra nr. 1 (1942)

member of Abraham Lincoln Brigade
passport confiscated on return from Spain so he moved to Mexico

2. Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) - Marcha del 5. Regimiento (1937)

member of German Communist Party
written for Jan. 7, 1937 Madrid concert
operatic

Kantate 'Auf den Tod eines Genossen' op. 64 (1937)
series of cantantes based on novel Pane e Vino (1937) by Ignazio Silone
antifascist lyrics, musical style of his mentor Schonberg

Kriegskantate op. 65 (1937)

3. Silvestre Revueltas (1899 - 1940)

Mexico en Espana (1937)
dramatic, operatic singer, strong brass march

Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca (1936)
response to reported murder of Lorca by fascists

-Baile
starts with solo mournful horn
transition to chaotic, high-pitched carnival music
ends with same mournful trumpet
(maybe I could transcribe this and play it?)

-Duelo
clarinet floating above creepy vamp
ends with hitting of gong

-Son
mariachi

-Frente a Frente I (1938?)
singing in Soanish

-Marcha (27 of April) (1938?)

-Frente a Frente II (1938?)
"Mussolini y Franco, Hitler y Pandilla, mueran, mueran, mueran."

Today I found a goldmine: The liner notes of Max Parker's record, Al Tocar Diana, with songs the Franco prisoners sung in the San Pedro de Cardena prison. He recorded the tracks just over a year before he died, when 70 years old. I hope to find the record stashed in ALBA, the Avery Fischer Center, or maybe even the NYPL.

Parker's parents were Lithuanian Jews, who came to the US around 1904. During the transition, their name changed from Parkelchick to the Americanized Parker. He learned to sing in the family's orthodox synogogue alongside his siblings. He dropped out of school at 15 to work. Being very involved in the New York Jewish community, he saw from the outset the personal threat posed by Nazi Germany. In 1933, he took part in his first anti-Nazi rally, selling ice cream to marchers heading down Broadway to the German Embassy at South Ferry. His business sense combined with his social justice sense. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he had to stand up against Fascism. In February 1937, he set sail for Paris en route to Spain.

After crossing the Pyrenees Mountains, he arrived in Spain, and after training served as a truck driver out of Albacete. During one harrowing search mission at Gandesa, where he was being ordered to travel behind enemy lines, his truck was captured by Italians. The Spanish soldiers were lined up, and one in every 10 or 20 was shot dead on the spot. The Italians wanted the Internationals alive to later trade in exchange for Fascist prisoners. Being the only man who spoke Spanish and English, Parker served as translater.

They first were held in Zaragoza. I believe it was in a church, and the Fascists made them relieve themselves behind the Church alter, while press took pictures. The pictures would be used to exemplify Republican disrespect for the Church. After some time, the prisoners were taken to San Pedro de Cardena. At this time, they realized that they would be in prison for some time, an unknown amount of time. They had all been sentenced to decades of time in jail. The men began to sing, teach educational lessons to each other, play chess, and do any other activities to mimic normal life and retain some sanity. He remembers his captain, Frank Ryan, as an inspiration, a man who maintained his honor in the face of brutal treatment. After being forced to sing the Fascist national anthem each morning, the internationals would return to their holding cell and sing Jarama. At the line "Before we continue this reunion, let us stand to our glorious dead," all the men stood and saluted. One of the prisoners was a choral director, and managed to create a steller choir out of the prisoners. They performed multiple times for the guards.

When Parker heard a group singing "Muera Negrin" in the prison courtyard, he knew the Republic was defeated for good. In February 1939 the Fascists decided to release some of the international prisoners. He was sent to San Sabastian, and soon after taken back to Paris and sent home. Amazingly, he answered the call again to fight in World War II.

His record, Al Tocar Diana (At Break of Dawn): Songs From a Franco Prison, was released from Folkways Records in 1982, FH 5435. Parker also recommends Songs of the Spanish Civil War Vols. I and II, Folkways FH 5436 and FH 5437.

Failed Visit

After researching Bill Bailey, a big name in the history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, I decided to personalize my research, and study a lessor-known topic. I came up with the idea to research the music inspired by the war, or if not that, then how music helped the volunteers cope with the toils of war. Although this is a promising topic, I must not be researching it in an effective way, because I found little information about my topic from searching the ALBA website.

Today I went to the archives to look up what little I had found related to music, but realized the tamiment library would be closing in 45 minutes for an event. It was frustrating to allot a portion of my time to research, only to find that the library would be unavailable. I rushed to research what I could in what little time I had, and found a few German patriotic songs of the war. However, when I tried to copy the lyrics, which were themselves copies of originals, two people rushed over to me one after the other to tell me that I was breaking the rules by copying archive files. All in all, it was a frustrating and unproductive visit.

Bill Bailey's Life Before Spain - INFO FROM 2 VISITS

I listened to John Gerassi's interview with union activist and Abraham Lincoln Brigade member Bill Bailey. Bailey describes his life in great detail, as he emerges from a poor, working-class family and becomes a union activist.

Bailey was one of thirteen children in an Irish/English family. His parents came over in the 1890s, and Bailey was born and grew up in Jersey City. Seven of his siblings died before age one. Bailey went to school through the fifth grade, but then dropped out to begin working. He bounced from job to job, finding whatever labor he could.

As a sailor on a ship making deliveries between London and the US, he met an Indian stowaway whom he took a liking to. He managed to get the fellow blankets, and generally watched out for him during the journey. When the boat arrives in London, the stowaway waves goodbye to Bill and heads out to catch a boat to India because his mother is dying. Later on, the Indian meet Bill Bailey again, this time in tears, telling of how the British ships refuse to take him to India and even are forcing him to return to the US. His story saddens Bill Bailey, but the Indian gets back on Bill's boat returning to the US. One night, however, during a heavy storm, the Indian jumps overboard to his death. He was wearing a life jacket, so it is unclear whether it was suicide or something else. Bailey was so struck with the iniquity and sadness of this man's story that he sought to make life more fair to the worker and fight what he saw as injustice. He found his avenue for this with labor unions.

After describing what inspired him to work for people's rights, Bailey goes into a humorous account of the first strike he attempted, aboard the Mun Dixie ship. The Marine Workers Industrial Union put him up to the task. He began by placing union pamphlets in conspicuous spots like toilet stalls, but no one read them. Then he came up with the devious idea to hide all the books on the ship, including sailors' personal collections as well as the ship's library. After the deed, with the seamen deprived of their reading and going crazy, he offered them union pamphlets to read. The sailors all read the pamphlets because there was no other reading options. This is how he ensnared the crew. When the ship made port in Baltimore, the sailors went on strike for better working conditions, but were soon arrested and replaced by scabs. His first strike was a failure.

In 1935, the arrest of the left wing activist Lauren Simpson by the German Gestapo created a big stir. Simpson had been caught distributing anti-Nazi literature on the "Manhattan" ship bound for Germany. Once the boat reached port in Germany, the Gestapo police stormed the ship, beat him up, and found some anti-Nazi buttons in his locker. This was enough to imprison him, and likely for execution later on.

This cause ignited anti-Nazi ferver, and Bailey and his mates decided they needed to make a statement. The plan was to sneak onto a German ship called the Bremen when it was in port, tear down the Swastika flag, and burn it. While this was going on, thousands of protestors would gather to condemn the Nazis. The plan did not work out as planned, however.

Bailey brought a razorblade in his pocket to slice the flag free from the flagpost. But being nervous, he kept sticking his hand in his pocket to see if it was still there, cutting himself each time. By the end of the night, the pocket with the razorblade was filled with blood from his hand. Second, the Nazi sailors, instead of being below deck, were on deck because it was a beautiful night. After a while, Bailey realized the plan would not work, but he and his friends still would not leave the ship without making a statement. They decided to get to the flag and rip them down, regardless of the repercussions. Bailey and three others fought their way toward the flagpost. Bailey climbed up, ripped one flag down, and when he went into his pocket to retrieve his razorblade, he realized it had slipped out the bottom and was lost. Luckily, a fellow Nazi protestor, Aaron Duffie, was nearby, and sliced the flag with his own razorblade. The Swastikas on the flags floated down into the ocean. The crowd was screaming by this time, either Nazi supporters out of horror, or anti-Nazi protestors out of excitement. Bailey was taken down by the Nazis, and carted off to jail, but the statement had been made.