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JIM JUMP draws attention to a history of the German contribution to the International Brigades, and the post-war destiny of the volunteers
EARLY ANTI-FASCISM: Red Front Fighters' League (RFB) lead by communist Ernst Thalmann (left) and Willy Leow (right) in Berlin, June 1927. Thalmann was executed on Hitler's orders in Buchenwald on August 18 1944, while Leow was shot on October 3 1937 during the Stalinist purges
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Spanish Sky Spreads Its Stars: The Story of the Thalmann Battalion and the First Germans in Armed Struggle Against Fascism
Ewald P Schulz, International Brigade Commemoration Committee, £6
MORE than 4,000 Germans fought in the International Brigades or in the anti-fascist militias and other Spanish military units during the Spanish civil war. Over 1,000 of them gave their lives.
Their story is recounted in this booklet by Ewald P Schulz, a Berlin-based lawyer and journalist who is active in the KFSR, the International Brigade Memorial Trust’s (IBMT) sister organisation in Germany.
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HELEN OCLEE-BROWN on keeping alive the memory and spirit of the Brigaders
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ALEX GORDON applauds the leading role played by Harry Pollitt and the Communist Party in the fight against fascism in Spain and salutes the memory of the International Brigades
JIM JUMP looks forward to the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM taking place in Belfast later this week where the spirit of solidarity will be rekindled
The decision highlights the tension between freedom of expression and the state’s role in shaping historical memory at former concentration camps, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI