Jewish volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War

For decades, the Spanish Civil War, and particularly the International Brigades’ struggle on the side of the Republic, has captured the imaginations and thoughts of many, and has been the subject of numerous scholarly works. One of the continuous themes in the discussions about the Civil War is the question of the international volunteers’ motivations, their reasons for fighting in Spain, and the role this struggle played in the development of internationalist concepts and anti-fascist, leftist identities. Concentrating on the involvement of Jewish volunteers in the International Brigades, Gerben Zaagsma makes an important contribution to this discussion, speaking to both scholars of Jewish history, and to those working on the Spanish Civil War. At least 35,000 volunteers came to the aid of the Spanish Republic during the Civil War; at least 10% of them were of Jewish descent. The author follows some of those Jewish volunteers, mainly those of Central/Eastern European origins who came to Spain via activism in communist immigrant groups in Paris.