Laura Montoya

Hons 2011J

Hunter College-CUNY

Professor María Hernández-Ojeda                                                                                                                                             

Jewish Involvement in the Spanish Civil War: The Story of Mark Straus

Personal Statement

          It is not often one gets the chance to go through primary sources and relive the story of such heroic characters. It was an intimidating task at first to think that words would not be sufficient to narrate the memories of a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and accurately bring their story back to life. While going through the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives list it was difficult to decide whose story I would be brave enough to tell. I chose Mark Straus because, unlike most volunteers, his files extended only to one small box. I concluded that the limited content in the box made telling his story evermore important. When I began going through the materials I realized that there was not one printed document. Instead, it was a composition of hand-written letters from him, family members and friends in French, English and Yiddish. 

          It was not until my third visit to the archives that I started to more easily decipher his doctorly handwriting. As I began to read through the letters, Mark Straus’ story began taking shape in my head. I could not help myself from wishing I spoke the other languages so I could have read the rest of the letters. I sat sometimes hours looking at the material playing a film in my head of what the Spanish Civil War was like according to his accounts, even bringing me to tears. Being able to tell his story and to learn more about Jewish involvement in the war, a topic very seldom documented, was an experience like no other. The bravery of this man and of all others who joined a war in a foreign land, not knowing if they would return home, is an example to live by and one that should never be forgotten.

Introduction

          Between 1936 and 1939 Spain was immersed in a bloody civil war. Tensions between the democratically elected leftist government and fascist sympathizers in the army festered in the tumultuous 1930’s. In July 1936, general Francisco Franco lead a military coup against the government of the Popular Front. Expecting an easy win, the military rebels were surprised to encounter such massive popular resistance. Within days, the country was split in half, with one front controlled by the Republicans and another controlled by the Nationalists. The initial attempt of military rebels to take over Spain, seeking to return to the old order of power and privilege for the few, turned into a three-year long conflict that claimed half a million lives. Though a highly publicized war, very complex and interesting aspects of the Spanish Civil War remain seldom known. The magnitude and significance of the Spanish Civil War resonated for years to come not only throughout Spain but through the rest of Europe and even the United States.

          Worldwide, the Spanish Civil War was seen as the struggle between two conflicting ideologies of liberalism and fascism. The international involvement in a civil war as it occurred in Spain was unprecedented. The Nationalists received extensive military support from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy while the Republic received Soviet and Mexican support to a much lesser extent. Despite the non-intervention policy adopted by various western powers, fearful to escalate the conflict, thousands of volunteers from over 50 countries around the world traveled to Spain to fight against fascism. Among those fighting for the Republicans were the approximately 3,000 Americans of the Abraham Lincoln brigade.

          What precisely motivated these young Americans to fight a foreign war in a foreign land remains a question. For some it might have been their left-leaning political views and abhorrence of fascism. For others, the harsh living conditions during the great depression. And less talked about, perhaps the racial repression being felt back at home and the escalating anti-Semitic tensions. What is certain is that the role of the Abraham Lincoln brigade fighters in the battle for democracy transcended borders and left behind a legacy of heroism and solidarity that shall not be forgotten.

Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

          Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War saw the conflict as an opportunity to fight against international oppression. For Jews, the fascist menace embodied both political oppression and racist anti-Semitism and many felt it their duty to go to Spain to fight against it. They felt that were fascism to triumph they would inevitably be the first to suffer. The International Brigades became the vehicle through which Jews, not only American but from all over the world, could confront this raging enemy. It was a way for the oppressed to unite and with weapons and other skills aid in the Republican fight.

          Even before the formation of the International Brigades, Jewish volunteers were among the first to take up arms in Spain and accounted for the majority of the medical staff on the Republican side. Many had fled Germany when Hitler rose to power and had been welcomed by the Republican government, as well as others who had arrived from various countries to take part in the People’s Olympics scheduled to begin in Barcelona in mid-July 1936. The People’s Olympics had been organized to protest against the World Olympics scheduled to take place in August in Hitler’s Berlin [1].

          Within the International brigades there was a high proportion of Jews with estimates ranging from 6,00 to 8,000[2], among the volunteers from many countries including Poland, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Palestine and the United States. Among the medical personnel who went to Spain from many countries, by some estimates 70% were Jews and accordingly the Yiddish language was often used in the operating rooms as a common language to overcome national differences. The largest number of Jews in Spain came from Poland and US Jews were the second largest contingent.

          Of the approximately 3,000 volunteers from the United States who formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, some estimates suggest that one-third were Jewish [3]. Many were children of European immigrants, who had arrived in the U.S. during the early years of the century. They had received an “Americanized” education in school, but still felt family ties to Europe. Most volunteers came from large cities, where immigrants had settled. Although a great portion of American volunteers were Communists or associate with the communist party many Jews were not and went to Spain to fight back against Nazis and fascists.

          The high percentage of Jews among the antifascist volunteers prompted the leadership of the International Brigades to consider forming an all-Jewish brigade. The purpose of this unit was to express the direct participation of Jews alongside other national groups in the fight against Fascism. High casualties made this impossible, but a Jewish company was formed within the Polish Dombrowski Brigade, and was named the Botwin Company after a Communist martyr of the Polish-Jewish labor movement[4]. Yiddish language publications were also published for all the Jewish volunteers and were scattered among the various national units. The Botwin company helped gather support from around the world in the fight against Fascism.

The Story of Mark Straus

          Mark Straus, born in 1909 in Brooklyn New York, was a Jewish doctor who served with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. While completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama, the initial signs of Straus’ need for involvement in a higher cause were seen. In March 26, 1928 Straus wrote to the commandant of the U.S. Naval Air Force at Penscola, Florida. In the letter, Straus expressed his interest in entering the naval air service that June and that he would travel down to Pensacola later that month to complete a personal application and interview. There are only two letters written by Straus during his time at the University of Alabama, one addressed to the Naval Air Force Station in Florida and the other the U.S. Army Corps indicating his desire to join. However, correspondence from a couple of years later indicate that Straus did not enroll, the reasons unknown.

          Instead, in 1931 he moved to Paris where he enrolled in the University of Montpellier to become a doctor and where we remain until 1936 when the Civil War began in Spain. It was while in Paris that Mark Straus became a radical leftist and where he inevitably grew aware of Spain’s increasingly tense environment. Much of the correspondence from his years in France was of course in French except for the letters written to his parents and siblings back in New York and a letter translating a French Newspaper article into English. The first letter in file written to Mark by his parents was in June 31 of 1933. Here, the incredibly close relationship that Straus and his parents shared became evident and to an extent was what made his story so captivating. In the letter, both his parents took a turn writing, each telling him how much he was missed at home and how they could not wait to have him back. A big portion of the letter was written in Yiddish, reminding him to practice and not forget about his Jewish roots. They called him “my boy”[5]. Little did they know how much more lied ahead for Mark.

          Records indicate that Mark returned to the U.S. briefly after completing his degree in 1936 only to be back in France the following year. In April 24, 1937 Mark wrote a letter to his parents letting them know he had arrived in Paris safely. He wrote about how glad his friends were in having him back and joked about how shocked they were at his appearance saying, “I must have been thin then.”[6] With the Spanish Civil War already in March, Mark told his parents that half his friends were there fighting and the other half had applied but been refused for good reasons. Judging from the number in his section, Mark concluded there must be many Frenchmen there. He finally asked his parents for the address of all those he knew so he could write once he arrived in Spain.

          In May 1937, Straus arrived in Spain as part of the American Medical Bureau, Group IV. Initially in charge of the Washington Battalion’s medical unit, Straus went on to become chief medical officer for the 15th International Brigade. On May 25, he wrote a letter to his brother, Leon Straus, telling him about his rank as First lieutenant, only second in rank in the battalion next to the commander who was captain. Mark expressed his fulfillment with his duty in the war and his readiness to “pay any price”[7] as long as he was helping the Republican cause.

          Although Mark’s experience in the war as a surgeon differed from most of the soldiers at the frontline, he was not a stranger to the horrors of the war. Some of his letters described the atrocities that occurred on a daily basis around him. Earlier that June he had been rescuing soldiers from the dugouts while planes were still hovering overhead dropping missiles in the distance. He had never seen so much blood. It was everywhere. Each explosion was the sound of death. The earth and his body vibrated like the very devil and he was only shocked to find he was still alive. He could feel his heart beating very rapidly. Amongst the chaos someone had said to Mark that his attempt at humor was what kept him from going crazy; a bittersweet account.

          In August 6, 1937 Mark wrote to his parents apologizing for the lack of communication saying that letters were certainly getting lost. With the war at its peak, one was lucky to receive or get correspondence across. He assured his parents that as a doctor he was pretty safe and in very little danger, and therefore they should not be worrying all the time. Despite the horrors of the war, Mark never let his parents worry. He wrote about his health and how he had never felt better physically or mentally. He asked if they could possibly imagine how much it meant for him to be doing the work he was doing? He wrote, “Isn’t it like living your lives all over again to know that your son is doing just what you surely dreamed of doing yourselves?”[8] Mark then tells his parents he is sending a picture taken in Madrid with his sergeant and 1^st assistant and thank them for the suits they had sent. He joked about the 1935 Chevrolete they had bought his brother Leo claiming they must be getting rich to be able to afford it.

          Despite Mark’s hopeful letters of reassurance to his parents, the evil of war inevitably took a toll on him. On September 8, 1937 Mark wrote a letter to his siblings, Bernard and Pearl Straus, about the death of Lieutenant Daniel Hutner, his best friend. Mark described his relationship with “Danny” as one of brotherhood and one of great admiration for one another. He described him as a brave man who was not afraid to take on any task. Daniel, who despite being a sergeant in charge, never hesitated to fight as an infantryman in the front lines. Mark described a regular day in the war, one in which bombs fell left and right, shots were fired indiscriminately, and where it was only a matter of luck to be able to make it through a day. Daniel, along with a few other soldiers, often engaged in risky missions to bring information about the Nationalist front which Mark called the “suicide squad”. One day a sudden burst of machine-gun fire from a nearby church killed all the members of the squad but Daniel, by some miracle, remained alive and unwounded. Mark recounts that later, during a bombardment, a bomb fell right next to the ditch Daniel was lying in completely deafening him but once again he was alive. Mark claimed it was because of that principle on which they all lived: “A miss is as good as a mile.”[9] Unfortunately, Danny’s luck came to an end. Five days before Mark wrote the letter, he was killed by snipers in a church. Mark painfully paints the picture of his departure and says that amidst the war, he was grateful they were able to bury his dear, no longer living friend.

          On September 27, 1937, Mark wrote to his parents, once again without letting them become worried for his life despite what was going on. After having lost his best friend to the Nationalists, Mark felt an increasingly intense obligation to help in the war against fascism. He had found his life’s work and was grateful to his parents for being who he was, both professionally and politically. He begged his parents that instead of growing old and grey worrying about him, they grow by sharing his life experiences and fulfillment in reading his letters. In response, Mark’s father wrote about how constantly he was thought of and missed but how he was nevertheless fully supported for his heroic actions and service. The love between Mark and his parents resounded though the words of his father who wrote:

…We look over your pictures again and again. I dream about you at night and day-dream about at work. I am doing with you your work over there. I safe guard you, I am shadowing you, following you step by step. You will surely smile when you read, as I once told you, even when you will reach my age and I will still be among the living I will still consider you as my baby. Much is the feeling of a father that loves his son. Preserve yourself my son for our sake. When you will come home we will provide you with all the comforts you earned and deserve, because you are actually doing the work which I was able to dream of only…[10]

          In the early months of the following year, Mark wrote to his parents about his vacation in the south of Spain and how hospitable everyone had been. He was treated as an honored guest and having climbed the ranks in the battalion, he was now being saluted by soldiers, officers and even the police. He joked about how worrisome a job saluting everyone back in a large town was that he had to get around it by not wearing his military cap and by hiding his uniform with his trench coat.

          Despite Mark Straus’ humor and high spirited personality, his last letter to his parents while in Spain, in May of 1938, showed the sadness of the unfortunate downfall of the Republicans. Mark wrote that life had become harder and that letters of support were needed more than ever. Yet, in some sort of denial maintained that him and his Republican brothers were sure of victory. He urged his parents to tell others to write letters of support only. Insisting that “Those who are now fighting desperately for victory want only expressions of hope and courage and certainty of victory, for we feel that and nothing more and understand that and nothing else.”[11]

          At the request of the Medical Bureau, Mark Straus returned to the United States on the S.S. Aquitania on July 12, 1938 and reunited with his family. Although there are no files in the archives, records state that after the war, Straus succeeded Dr. Edward Barsky as Chairman of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, when Barsky was sent to prison for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1950. Straus went on to teach at New York Medical College and at Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals and later had a private practice in Brooklyn, NY. Mark Straus passed away in 1993.

Conclusions

          Increasingly aware of the violent anti-Semitic rhetoric in fascist Germany and Italy, many Jewish volunteers like Mark Straus saw a chance to fight against it when the war broke out in Spain. Many had learned of the rise of Fascism in Europe and had seen obvious signs of its own brands in America. Anti-Semitism was not a stranger within the democracy they enjoyed. It was no historic accident that so many Jews were members of or sympathetic to the communist party or other left organizations and that they constituted such a large portion of the volunteers.

          For Americans like Strauss, it was also individual political convictions shaped by the experience of living in the U.S. during the great depression that motivated him to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Growing labor and communist movements, the ideas of the Harlem renaissance and the threat of growing anti-Semitism created a generation of Americans willing to fight against Fascism in a foreign country. Although the Republicans lost the war, the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and of all the other international battalions will be remembered for their crucial and heroic role in the fight for freedom.

 

[1] Zaagsma, Gerben. Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Diss. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2001.

[2] Ibid.

[3]Philpot, Robert. The Jews of the Spanish Civil War: a forgotten story. The Jewish Chronicle, 2016

[4] Zaagsma, Gerben. Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Diss. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2001.

[5] Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives Vertical Files. Mark Straus: ALBA.VF.007. Box 1. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid