Jews Say: “Enough!”
Sometime in 2021, I naively asked the question: “When are Jews Going to Say: ‘Enough!’”? I was writing an article about Jewish participation in the Spanish Civil War when I heard that Orthodox Jews had been physically attacked for no reason other than they were identifiably Jewish. This was not the first time I’d heard […]
The Botwin Manifesto to the Jewish Population
On December 12, 1937, the XIIIth Polish Dombrowski Brigade’s leadership renamed the Palafox Battalion’s second company the “Naftali Botwin Company”. It was designated as a Jewish company (although membership was not limited to Jews) and was under Jewish military and political command. The Botwin Company reached out to worldwide Jewry with this prescient message. We, […]
1936 to 1939: Why Did Jews Volunteer to Fight for Republican Spain?
By 1936, the political ideology of right-wing populist governments and their concomitant “strong man” leaders had rooted in many parts of Europe. Antisemitism spread like a virus as political leaders gained popularity by arousing the masses against the mythical “Judeo-Bolshevik” enemy within. Jewish life had been obliterated in Germany. A Jew’s status was reduced to […]
Karl “Yekhiel” Gutman, First Commander of the Naftali Botwin Company
When the International Brigade leadership created the Jewish “Naftali Botwin” Company, no one doubted Karl Gutman, the 26-year-old weaver from Bialystok, one of the Dombrowski Brigade’s best military leaders and fighters, was going to be its first commander. Gutman had both military ability and compassion. He had the organizational skills necessary to manage people and […]
“The Role of Jewish Fighters in the International Brigades” by Gina Medem, Neilebn (March 1939), translated by Deborah A. Green, Esq.
On September 23, 1938, Republican Spain’s Prime Minister, Dr. Juan Negrin, issued an “Order of the Day” dissolving the five International Brigades. In the Order, Dr. Negrin wanted to show the world that the tragic and infamous Non-Intervention Pact, sponsored and signed by the major powers, was one-sided and unfair and that Germany and Italy […]