Imani Springer
Hons2011J
Final Essay
Professor María Hernández-Ojeda
Reviving the Legacy of Virginia Malbin
Personal Statement
While looking through the list of the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, I took notice of Virginia Malbin’s work mainly because of my desire to become a social worker. As a future social worker for children, I was very inspired by Mrs. Malbin’s dedication and service to helping the Spanish Social Services. Combating conditions at home is one thing, but fighting for what you believe in in other country shows true heroism. Not only did she go against the US non-intervention policy, she went against the gender norms of the period. Virginia Malbin exemplifies one of the many people who assisted the Republicans in the Spanish Civil. She proved that one does not have to physically fight to make a difference. At the Taminement Archives, I found many boxes containing the records and reasoning of Mrs. Malbin’s stay in Spain. Like many of the other volunteers, she went
to Spain selflessly to fight for justice for not only Spain but for the rest of the world. She has been added to Memory’s Roster in the Magazine “The Volunteer” as a proud veteran of the Brigade. She was committed to the cause and helping to aid humanity towards a better light. She risked her life and because of that deserves more recognition as a humanitarian. Because of the United States’ policy at the time, she didn’t receive as much acknowledgement as she deserves, but the Taminment Archives are here to change this. Her work here in the US as well as in Spain is highly inspirational and sets an example for social workers and humanitarians everywhere.
Introduction
Turmoil and conflict between the Republicans and Fascists caused what is known as the Spanish Civil War. During the Republic in Spain, there was a democratically elected Popular Front government that General Francisco Franco wanted to overthrow. The Second Republic had brought change to Spain as more schools emerged and women were given the right to vote. With the aid of Hitler and Mussolini, Franco’s fascist regime overthrew the Republic. Many countries around the world became aware of what was going on in Spain, but many signed a non-intervention policy. During the 1930s, despite the United States declaring a non-intervention policy, 2,800 Americans volunteered to travel to Spain to fight against fascism. The war lasted from 1936 to 1939 and gained an outpour of support from forty thousand men and women from fifty-two countries. The Americans in the war felt like it was their duty to fight for freedom, something that some Americans took for granted at home. Many African Americas joined the war because saw Franco’s military rebellion in Spain as an extension of Mussolini’s aggression against Africa. This was a moral-political test case, which made it was nearly impossible not to take sides on the war.
Once in Spain, these volunteers formed the International Brigades, and some fought alongside the loyalists against Francisco Franco’s fascist regime. Other American volunteers joined the cause in relief units. They were the backbone of the fight, offering medical aid and resources to the Spanish Citizens and Republican soldiers. The Spanish Civil War had the first integrated fighting unit of Black and White Americans since the War of 1812. The US volunteers faced struggles, being that they were mostly unprepared to fight in the war. American relief ships sent food and supplies to Spain with the purpose of telling the United States to lift the embargo and offer help to the Republican side. They received little to no training and any victories were short lived as the Republicans were attacked by the fascists who had a stronger military and more weapons.
Hitler assisted the Nationalist side, because he wanted to try out new weaponry in anticipation for future wars to come. The only formal assistance the Republicans received were from the USSR and Mexico, which wasn’t much. Man and women alike had clear intentions of why they chose to join this fight against the will of the United States. One third of the Lincoln Brigades were killed and of the remaining, many were wounded. American volunteers risked the loss of citizenship, faced scrutiny once they returned, and faced more discrimination in the US work force. They were labeled premature anti-fascists and were blacklisted After the war was over, many Lincoln troops felt distrust for any American fight against fascism, because they have stopped it before it expanded.
Volunteers from the Spanish Civil War are not as known to the public as soldiers from other wars that the US was involved in. Mostly because of the United States’ policy during this war, many of the volunteer soldiers have been almost erased from historical documents except from what has been preserved by family and friends. The Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives were founded in 1979 by the veterans of the Lincoln Brigades, to preserved the history of the US’s role in the Spanish Civil War. These Archives document the history of each volunteer, their life before the war, their purpose for joining the war, and how their life changed afterwards. They volunteered for various reasons from political affiliations to personal choices. All of them joined to fight on the side of the Republic, to help them fight for all the things Americans already had such as education and basic rights. Although they faced turmoil when they returned home, the experience of fighting for their beliefs and for freedom would remain with them forever. Many continued to fight at home as well as raise awareness for the cause.
One Lincoln Brigade member that aided in the international effort despite the US policy and against gender norms was Virginia Malbin. Mrs. Malbin was one of the 150 women from the United States who served as the backbone to the fight. The women served as nurses, chemists, social workers, pharmacists, as well as ambulance and truck drivers. The women rarely fought directly on the battlefront, as much as they would’ve liked, but they still held an important role in helping the Republican side fight against the Nationalists.
Story Unfolded
Virginia Malbin was born in 1913 in Illinois and attended the University of Chicago. She graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa, the most prestigious honor society in the nation. It promotes and advocates for excellence and chooses its members based on the demonstration of intellectual integrity, tolerance for other views, and a broad range of academic interests. Virginia Malbin clearly demonstrated all the requirements of her sorority and much more. In the 1930s, while in college, Virginia was introduced to politics of the South Side of Chicago. She was appalled by the lack of funds and services for Black students. Along with other students from the University, Virginia protested the Universities’ discriminatory housing policy towards black students. As a result, she was placed on list of people to be watched. This list, made by local police, was a practice of placing “radical” individuals under surveillance (Halpern). This did not stop her as she continued to protest and picket against injustices.
As a Jewish woman, she was attracted to the ideologies of the Communist Party. Communism stressed liberation, drawing in many women who wanted to fight against forms of oppression against woman. The party offered Mrs. Malbin, as well as other Jewish women gender equality and the opportunity to fight against fascism in Spain. In 1937, Mrs. Malbin joined the fight to aid the Spanish Social Services in Valencia. There she represented the North American Committee for the Aid of Spanish Democracy and aided in the resettlement of refugee children (Geist). This committee was founded in 1936 and donated funds, food, and medical necessities to Spain during the war. This organization wanted firsthand evidence of the conditions in Spain and sought out five women throughout the social services organization in the U. S. who would undertake the work. It was identified as a communist front that was linked to the communist party in the United States.
Virginia Malbin was one of the five women from the Social Workers Committee to Aid the Spanish Democracy. For her, it didn’t take much courage because she was moved by passion and dedication to social justices. First and foremost, she was a social worker, and her experiences in Spain made her conviction even stronger. During her stay in Spain, she wrote various notes on her findings and reasons for joining the war. She wrote, “Spain was the testing ground for WWI. The Spanish Republicans were fighting for their lives, their freedom, [and] the right to National self determination” (ALBA). To her, joining this fight meant helping to provide a sense of security of the people in Spain as well as across all nations. During the war, over one million Spanish people had been displaced due to bombing and the abandonment of orphanages. It is estimated that over sixty thousand children had become refugees. Virginia Malbin, as well as other social workers in Spain, had the task of resettling refugee children. It is estimated that about 200,000 fled these war zones, with the Republican government providing assistance to most. Although many children were reunited with family after the war was over, many remained in their refugee country and lost all ties with Spain.
There was a surge of social work organizations in Spain during the 1930s that were made complicated due to the start of the war. Organizations such as child welfare and women’s rights were linked to the Communist party and backed by the Republican side of the war. Child welfare was a huge project during the war and the revolution. Before the war, orphanages were controlled by the Catholic Church and heavily Franco-orientated. The onset of the war left many of the orphanages abandoned as many of the nuns and priests joined the fascist side. This crisis led to many rushed reforms in the midst of the outbreak of war. All the children in these orphanages had to be allocated for and possibly relocated. The Spanish Government led huge social welfare reforms that were under the guidance of Constancia De La Mora as well as social workers from the United States.
In Spain, Mrs. Malbin she worked in various concentration camps for children, where she helped them survive through the suffering of the war. In these camps, teachers had to assure that the children’s education persisted despite the war. This including various projects, such as drawing, to depict their experience of the war. There Virginia saw the loss of childhood innocence and wanted to make this known to the world. Social workers such as Virginia believed that art would help the children deal with being separated from their family. Because of this art project, the children produced thousands of drawings, which were displayed in an exhibition titled They Still Draw Pictures. This exhibit was organized by the ministry of education and displayed in Valencia. The drawings depicted bombings, death, and pain. Some of the drawing were selected and sent to the United States and England to raise funds for the children’s relief effort.
When Virginia returned to the US for a short period in 1937, she brought some of the drawings with her. Subsequently 60 of the drawings of Valencia were published in a book with the same name of the exhibition. This book, made by Jose A. Weissberger and Aldous Huxley, contains the collection of drawings made by children during the Spanish Civil. Its intend was propaganda to show to outsiders the effects of the Civil War in the eyes of children. Virginia Malbin was able to experience firsthand their pain, and this collection made it possible for everyone to have an insight. The drawings gave humanitarians and social workers alike an incentive to keep fighting for the cause, to keep helping these refugee children have as normal as a life that they can, given the circumstances.
Not only did Mrs. Malbin assess the situation of the refugee children and the relief efforts, she wanted to provide more resources that the Constancia de la Mara, a social services organization, wasn’t providing. Rather than setting up a separate effort to gain funds, Mrs. Malbin worked with this organization and the Spanish Government to care for the refugees as well as to bring up the entire peasant population to 21st century living standards. Mrs. Malbin compared the social welfare of Spain to the United States and said, “In spite of the war and difficulties, I encountered more caring and concern for the welfare of Spanish Children by the republican government than I encountered for the welfare of children as a social worker in the US…” (Bernack). She goes on to say that the Republic made more social progress in terms of education for the poor Spanish citizens than the US has done without war.
This comparison is important because it shows how although Spanish was stricken with war, they still managed to create some efforts. This is what drew people like Virginia Malbin to Spain. The fight was real and resources were heavily needed to try to make their circumstances better. After assessing the situation, Malbin returned to the United States to raise funds for the relief effort. Before returning to Spain, she worked with the International Relief Agency in Paris, which received aid from other countries. Although many of the European countries had an embargo and non-intervention policy, many still felt sympathy for the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. At one point Malbin received a letter of support from the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Jawaharlal Nehru himself had spent time in Barcelona during the war, which sparked his letter f support. In his autobiography, Toward Freedom, he, “I felt more at peace with myself than anywhere else in Europe. There was light there, the light of courage and determination and of doing something worthwhile” (Nehru), while talking of Spain during the war. He was able to experience the cause that the Republican side and its supports were fighting for.
Virginia Malbin returned to Spain in 1938 to work closer to the front. There she joined her husband, Dr. Bernard Malbin, to help evacuate wounded international soldiers in the brigade hospitals. She worked to secure places for the sounded soldiers to go, which meant acquiring passports and trying to move people around. She saw that it was especially hard for soldiers from Germany, Poland, or Italy because the Nazis had dominated much of Europe. Many were instead sent to Latin America where they were able to restart their lives and not fear that they would be future wounded by the impended war, WWII. According to an account by Mrs. Malbin in 1982, “We had no idea how to fight back, we felt hopeless” (ALBA). Even though this was true, Virginia as well as other Lincoln Brigades continued with their efforts because of their feelings towards justice, decency, and fairness. They witnessed the horrible atrocities inflicted on the civilians because of the war. Virginia’s experience in Spain shaped the rest of her life as she continued to be politically active years after the war was complete. She did not complete her service in Spain for pay. It was solely, “por la causa” (for the cause). Her efforts as well as many others of the brigades did not stop once the war was over.
The last battle of the war was a painful experience for many of the brigades. They were overwhelmed and forced to retreat. They knew they had been defeated for the last time, and that the war was about to be over. The Brigades from all countries were withdrawn from Spain on September 27th, 1938. Not too soon after World War II began, initiating another fight against fascism. Mrs. Malbin said, “The gift of Spain to me was this: living and working as comrades with the people of Spain, we came to partake in their vision of what the world could be and to share in their resolve to make it happen”(ALBA). With the defeat of the war, Virginia and her husband returned to the United States. Virginia continued to work in anti-fascists organizations and her husband served as an Air Force flight surgeon during World War II.
Once the war the over, the couple and their children moved to Washington, where they became a part of group wanted to make life better after the McCarthy era. Still fueled by the desire to help children live better lives, Virginia worked for a child welfare agency and later obtained her masters degree in social work from the University of Southern California. This shows that her passion had not died. She had faith that things would change not only for children in the US, but for children and their families everywhere. She lived a full life and continued to fight and protest for justice until she died. She remained controversial to Country wide American politics as well as local politics. She received a grant for a project that would fund appropriate housing and services for the indigent elderly, who were caught up in San Francisco’s practice of incarcerating them in mental hospitals. Up until she retired in 1977, she taught community organizing and writing for San Francisco State University. Her life long association with Phi Beta Kappa promoted her drive for politics, organizations, and justice. She became involved in campus politics, helped fight for the creation of the first school of ethnic studies throughout the nation, and maintained connections with various organizations that promoted peace and freedom for all.
Conclusion
Virginia Malbin was one of the many young progressive woman in the United States who was, “trying to make the world more fair, to create a society that was more than just than any society that have ever been” (Halpern). Although very idealistic, women like Virginia Malbin wanted to make a difference, not only in Spain, but across all societies. Mrs. Malbin was the ideal humanitarian offering support to many causes. Virginia Malbin and all the international brigades offered support from both ends, at home and in Spain. Her efforts never stopped to makes life better for children and refugees alike. Her efforts did not cease even when the war ended. In an interview, she said “I had never before had, in quite the same way, a sense of happens when you strive, work hard, suffer together with others for a common cause” (Geist). And this why I chose to revive the legacy of Virginia Malbin.
Sources
The Berkeley Gazette, Feb 1982; The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigades in Spanish Civil War: Production Materials; ALBA.216; Box 1; Folder 15; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Bermack, Richard. The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Berkeley, CA: Heyday, 2005. Print.
Geist, Anthony L. Otra cara de América: los brigadistas y su legado de esperanza. University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Halpern, Ian. “Fighting Fascism: 60 Years Later, We’re Retrieving the Hidden History of American Jewish Women in the Spanish Civil War.” Lilith 24.1 (1999): 26. Web.
Nehru, Jawaharlal. Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru. United States: Createspace, 2015. Print.
Record of Stay in Spain, 1937; Virginia Malbin Papers; ALBA.274; Box1; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
