Numerous historians consider the Spanish Civil War that broke out in July 1936 a prelude to World War II. Spain, with a population of 28 million, became a bloody battleground of conflicting forces testing their arsenals in preparation for the battle of the giants that was to emerge shortly.
Jews did not sit on the sidelines in this crucial contest. Jewish participation, as a matter of fact, was stunningly extensive.
In 1987, at a fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the Spanish Civil War, then-president of Israel Chaim Herzog stated: “There were people who realized just what a Fascist victory in Spain would mean. Courageous men from many nations volunteered to help the Republicans. Among them were Democrats, Socialists, Communists.… Typically there was a relatively high number of Jews among the volunteers – the highest proportion of any other group…. I salute them as comrades in arms in the war against the Nazis.”
Jewish participation in the Spanish Civil War is a fascinating and relatively unknown chapter of Jewish resistance to Nazi and Fascist tyranny. The Jew was there to fire the first shots against the Fascist menace and in the process demonstrate that wherever a Jew could face the scourge with his chances more or less even, he would not shirk the fight.
Up to 25 percent of the fighters in the International Brigades were Jewish; the total global Jewish population at the time did not exceed four percent.
Ironically, Jews even formed their own Jewish Brigade in Spain, which fought heroically in crucial battles for the freedom of the Spanish people who had once expelled them from their midst.
Spain in the first half of the twentieth century was poor and splintered.
To better understand the country, one needs to remember that around the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, Spain was the most extensive empire on earth. It ruled territories on all continents except Australia, and it wasn’t until 1898 that it lost its last foothold on the American continent in the ill-fated Spanish-American War.
But nations don’t give up lightly on past glory. The people of Spain blamed the country’s failures on its ruling liberal government. For almost the first four decades of the 20th century, Spain demonstrated increasing instability, seesawing in its political fortunes between the Republican liberal left (the Popular Front) and the radical reactionary right (the National Front), often finding itself on the brink of violence.
By mid-May 1936, Spanish army officers began plotting the overthrow of the Popular Front government. There was no compromise in the offing. The National Front, ideologically in full solidarity with Fascist Italy and Germany, was pitted against the Popular Front, which was identified with the Comintern (Communist International), Socialist parties, and Russia. The Spanish Civil War had begun. The grand rehearsal for World War II was in progress. For the next two and a half years Spain was a bloody battleground, at the cost of nearly a million casualties.
By the end of August 1936, a Non-Intervention Committee began functioning under the aegis of the League of Nations. The principle of non-intervention, while noble, gave distinct advantage to the aggressor. Germany and Italy, members of the committee, had no qualms about supplying Franco’s Nationalist Front with planes, tanks, ships and ammunition in the quantities needed to assure its military superiority. Italy also supplied 50,000 troops, fully equipped and in uniform. The Republican Popular Front received some heavy equipment from Russia, but it was insufficient to offset the help the Fascist countries offered their client.
While the Nationalists had the backing and encouragement of their applauding allies, the Popular Front began receiving support from volunteers. These men and women often proceeded against the express prohibitions of their native governments to join an international brigade fighting on the side of the Republican Popular Front. The U.S. government wished to abstain from involvement in the Spanish Civil War, but it could not prevent its citizens from volunteering to fight on behalf of a cause they considered righteous.
There is no single and simple answer to determine why people would volunteer for a cause and endanger their lives thousands of miles from home. Some volunteered for Spain in search of adventure. Others were unemployed and penniless and wished to redress their sorry situation. There were those whose desire to fight Fascism was motivated by political ideology. And there were those, propelled by a noble social ideology, who wanted to create a better world.
