Laila Abouhasswa
HONS 2011J, Section 01
Professor Hernandez-Ojeda
18 December 2020
Personal Statement
Prior to taking this class, I had no background knowledge on the Spanish Civil War. I was aware of fascism in Italy and Germany but I never knew that it had occurred in Spain as well. Although I was not aware of this war, as I learned about it I found several similarities between the activism involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and the activism of the volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. I have been very involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and I was able to draw similarities between my own experiences supporting a cause against injustice, and the volunteers who traveled half way across the world to do the same. Because of my connection to the BLM movement I knew that I wanted to focus on the perspective of an African American who participated in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout history, African Americans have been fighting against discrimination for their own freedom. It is interesting to see that despite their own struggles of being discriminated against, African Americans such as Thomas Page used their own experiences of injustice to fuel their passion of helping others. Although I was unable to interview a relative of Thomas Page, his story is extraordinary and depicts the ideology that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. While fighting in Spain, Thomas felt more free and liberated than he ever did in America which emphasizes the racial inequalities occurring in the United States at the time.
Introduction:
Thomas Page was an African American man referred to as Tom, that volunteered in the 
Abraham Lincoln Brigade and was part of the 86th Battalion. He was a driver and eventually worked his way up to fighting in battle. Thomas page conducted an interview in a reading room of the Club International of Albacete. In a transcript of this interview, he talks about why he joined the war and some of the events that took place while he was a soldier. The interview includes his experience as an African American man. He claimed to have felt that he was more free serving in the war than he was in America and made it his goal to defend the Republicans in Spain.
Early Life:
Thomas Page was born in New York on September 29,1909. He had a high school level education, but dropped out after 2 years. When Tom was in his twenties, the Great Depression had begun. Due to the lack of jobs and his lack of further education, he found it hard to find employment and for a brief time, illegally sold and manufactured liquor (Brooks, 2020). In his interview with the Club International of Albacete, Thomas Page claims he first became aware of the Spanish Civil War when reading a pamphlet by Harry Haywood titled, “Land, Freedom, Equality” while he had worked as a chauffeur in North Carolina. Soon after discovering this pamphlet, he traveled to New York in 1934. A couple of Thomas Page’s friends were members of the Communist party. After learning more about the Communist party and becoming involved in the Unemployed Councils, Thomas joined the Communist party in 1934. He stated, “As I understood events in that particular era, it was the Communist party who did anything. Everybody else just talked.” After joining the Communist party, Page helped organize a group of the National Negro Congress in Long Island. Soon afterwards he was sent to the District Evening Training School where he was recruited for Spain in February by A.W. Berry, a black organizer in Harlem. Thomas left for Spain aboard the Washington, on March 10, 1937.
Recruitment into the International Brigade
On April 4th of 1937, Thomas Page reached Spain where he was assigned to the Cordoba Front and was attached to a machine gun company of the 20th International Battalion (Brooks, 2020). While serving on the Cordoba front, Page was the only American. During this time Page felt very alone and wished to be transferred. He wrote a letter to his Comrade Gates (Figure 1),
where he talks about the struggles he felt. In his letter to Gates he states, “I Have taken your advice and tried to stick it out but to no avail. To me everything seems to be at a standstill and I speak another language but English. I don’t know what is being done or what’s going on around me.” The letter to Comrade Gates depicts the hardships of traveling to a different country where you do not speak the native language. Thomas Page found it difficult to adjust and requested to be moved to Albacete.
Not only did Page feel lonely on the Cordoba Front, but he was not satisfied with driving and had wanted to join the infantry. There were several reasons as to why Page wanted to be on the front line. Prior to leaving to Spain, some of Tom’s African American friends outside of the movement had teased him and said that he was foolish for volunteering. They warned him that he would probably be put to work doing dirty work like cooking or cleaning instead of actually fighting. They also told him that because he was a Negro he would never be put into a fighting force because Negroes were not allowed to handle guns. This was based off the fact that during World War 1 African Americans were discriminated against and not allowed to handle weapons. So when Thomas Page reached Albacete he wanted to be transferred to be put into the infantry. He asked an American cadre man named Brodsky for the transfer, and within 2 weeks he was placed into the 86th Brigade serving on the Southern Front (Opis, 1937). However he was still not placed into the infantry.
Thomas Page was placed into the 86th Brigade Transport service where he drove a truck for the Intendencia and munition supply. According to Page, there were about 15 Americans that were also in the Brigade transport unit. Page was happy to be surrounded by Americans and people that spoke the same language as him. In fact, Page believed that the Americans were superior to the other people in the Brigade due to their enthusiasm and their chauvinism. Since most of the Americans were new party members they still felt excited and the thrill of being a part of the action had not worn of as it did for some of the other nationalities in the International Brigade.
There were difficulties between the Americans and the other nationalities in the Brigade. Most of the others on the transport unit were French and Spanish. Due to the fact that the Americans felt superior and were overly excited, their commander who was a French man named Captain Cunin did not like them. The Americans were harder to control since they had a feeling of superiority according to Page (Opis, 1937). When Page was placed into the transport unit of the 86th Brigade he once again asked the Brigade commander for a transfer into the infantry but his request was not approved until several months later.
Eventually, Captain Cunin announced that all the Americans would be sent to the front as part of the 20th Battalion of the 86th Brigade. In Page’s company there were 4 Scandinavians, an Englishman and page, and the rest were all Spaniards (Opis, 1937). There was about 37 men in total and they occupied a position on a hill. Page and his battalion were responsible for keeping guard for a line that was about 100 meters long. Although there were other Republican troops on Page claimed he never saw them and never knew how far neighboring troops were. He also did not know how far away the fascists positions were, however the 20th Brigade had their firearms set to 800 meters. Sometimes they saw the fascists walking far off and would shoot at them. However, for the most part Page claims there was very little activity during this period. Page recalled during his interview that the Spanish soldiers would sing flamencos at night and that sometimes they could even hear the fascists singing. There was a Spaniard on the Brigade that had a blow horn and the Republicans would scream propaganda to the fascists at night. Although there was not much action the worst part about this period of the war for Page was the heat, the flies, and the terrible food.
Serving on the Frontline
During mid-September the company was moved to a new position where they had trenches and little huts to sleep in (Opis, 1937). They settled on a hill that overlooked a large plain. The range was over a thousand meters and the fascists had positions on the opposite side. However the fascist’s trenches were not visible to the naked eye which made it difficult when they attacked the Republicans. Thomas Page was interviewed in the movie The Good Fight and speaks about his experience of serving in the trenches. Page spoke about the less than ideal conditions that they had to fight in such as extreme cold. However no matter how hard the conditions got, Page believed in giving the war everything he could. There were times where he went out there without his shoes, or his overcoat but did not mind because he wanted to win. At one point he felt so cold he could not open his hands but he preserved. Everyone wanted to win and it was that pure determination that got them through the cold and made it all worth it.
Eventually Page’s company was taken out and sent to a training camp at Marmol about a month later. During training the company drilled and maneuvered for about 2 and a half weeks before returning to the front line to their former positions. During this time, Thomas Page was given a leadership position as the squad leader. He was an excellent leader and was noted for the way he trained the young Spanish conscripts that were assigned to his unit. Not only was Page a caring leader, but he led by example and was cited twice for bravery. At this point of time Page was the only remaining International Brigader in the company.
After training Page and his company returned to the front line, where the Fascists attacked using artillery with Moorish and Italian troops (Opis, 1937). The attack was early in the morning prior to breakfast and page had heard yelling in the valley. The Republicans were at a disadvantage because their machine gun had not been cleaned that morning and was not working well. The machine gun jammed every few shots, their ammunition was low, and they were far from their ammunition supply. The sergeant ordered for everyone to retreat and Page recalls everyone running. After running in fear for about 500 meters, the Republicans stopped to look back. The fascists were standing in their trenches and continued to shoot at them. The Republicans kept running until they finally reached a medical post about 3 kilometers away. The doctor at the Medical Post told the Republicans that they were under arrest and took their names. However the Republicans got over their fright of the artillery shells dropping around them and headed back to the front lines ignoring the doctor’s attempt to arrest them. On the way back, they met a machine gun company and infantrymen. Page’s lieutenant organized the company into a line and established the machine guns in defensive positions as they returned towards the battle ground.
There was one particular battle that was quite difficult for the Lincoln Washington Battalion. It was where the Lincoln Washington Battalion Co. 3 was overrun by Nationalists and the Republicans were forced to retreat. The 86th battalion was at a reserve position in Sierra Pandols. However on September 6, 1938 orders came down from the Brigade to move to the front-lines. The Republicans were outnumbered and the Nationalists attacked Co. 3 from the rear. The firing increased in intensity from both front and rear and the attack caused many casualties. The Republicans were outnumbered but during this battle however, Thomas Page showed an act of resilience. The Nationalists screamed to surrender as they charged towards the Republicans. Due to this, one of the company’s Spanish NCOS began to wave a white cloth as to surrender. However, Tom Page shot his comrade because he didn’t believe in giving up and didn’t want the man surrendering to affect the morale of the Republicans. After this attack only 8 men made it back to safety including Tom. This battle did not receive much attention due to the fact that it was fairly small and the overrun of the 86th Battalion on the last day was more striking in comparison (Brooks, 2020).
After the War
Later in Page’s career as a soldier he was severely injured and spent much of his remaining time in Spain hospitalized for wounds on his shoulder and stomach. Eventually, the International Brigade was sent home and Thomas returned to the United States on the Ausonia on December 20, 1938. When Page got back to New York, he continued his political activism. Page became a guard at the Soviet Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair and then in the New York fur market. Soon afterward, World War II had begun and Thomas once again became involved in the fight for freedom and justice. He joined the U. S. Army and was assigned to Company C, 376th Engineering Brigade. Page traveled and served in troops centered in North Africa, Italy and France. Once the war was over, Page took up hobbies such as photography and learned how to repair cameras. Although Page was no longer fighting in wars, he was met with a new problem. During the 1950s, Page was visited by the FBI several times who questioned him and his beliefs and ties to the communist party. However Page persistently denied talking to them. Later in life, Thomas worked for the Bell Telephone Company until his retirement (Brooks, 2020).
Page’s Legacy
Thomas Page died in April 1985. Thomas Page’s Obituary appeared in a newsletter called The Volunteer. In this obituary Albert Prago speaks of Thomas page and mentions some of the things that Tom had said in his interviews. The obituary reiterates how Thomas felt free fighting in Spain and spent a life fighting for dignity, justice and freedom. Thomas told his friend Lenny Lamb he did not want to return to America because he felt he was racially discriminated against and he would not be able to tolerate it after he had felt the freedom he did in Spain. Page felt that he was “judged as an individual…;”. Although he felt that he was this good brave, selfless man, he could not feel wholeness in America because his essential dignity was under constant attack. However in Spain, it was the first time Page had felt like he was treated as a human with respect. “I was treated as a person, by the Populace…and not as belonging to any particular group… and I was a man! A person! And I love it very much. In fact, that’s the only thing I will accept anymore. To be treated as a person, a human being. And that’s one of the main things Spain meant to me… it’s the first time in my life that I was treated with dignity! Treated as a human being, as a man. Not on account of my color, but as a person.” Being an African American Page was familiar with discrimination and a lack of injustice. But this exact injustice is what pushed Page to join the war. Page spoke of his experiences during Spain as more than just fighting against fascism- it was an experience that validated his existence in the world.
Works Cited
Brooks, Chris. Page, Thomas. 17 Oct. 2020, alba-valb.org/volunteers/thomas-page/.
Buckner, Noel and Mary Dore, directors. The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. First Run Features, 1983.
Landis, Arthur H. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The Citadel Press, 1967.
Opis, Delos. “Interview with Page.” Interbrigades of the Republican Army of Spain, 1937, interbrigades.inforost.org/.