Fighters Across Frontiers: Transnational Resistance in Europe, 1936-48

377 Pages·2020·6.055 MB·English

by  Robert Gildea, Ismee Tames

Fighters across frontiers
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Fighters across frontiers
Transnational resistance in Europe, 1936–48
Edited by
Robert Gildea and Ismee Tames
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © Manchester University Press 2020
While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press,
copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter
may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of
both author and publisher.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 5124 7 hardback
First published 2020
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Cover photograph: Evira Kohn, Kampor Concentration Camp on the island of Rab
on 8 September 1943 (the day Italy surrendered to the Allies). Reproduced by kind
permission of the Croatian History Museum
Typeset by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
List of plates vii
List of maps ix
List of contributors x
List of abbreviations xiv
Chronology of events xvii
Acknowledgements xxii
Introduction – Robert Gildea and Ismee Tames 1
1 ‘For your freedom and ours!’: transnational experiences in
the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39 – Samuël Kruizinga with
Christina Diac, Enrico Acciai, Franziska Zaugg, Ginta Ieva
Bikše, Olga Manojlović Pintar and Yaacov Falkov 12
2 The ‘Spanish matrix’: transnational catalyst of Europe’s anti-
Nazi resistance – Yaacov Falkov and Mercedes Yusta-Rodrigo
with Olga Manojlović Pintar, Diego Gaspar Celaya, Cristina
Diac and Jason Chandrinos 31
3 Camps as crucibles of transnational resistance – Robert Gildea
with Jorge Marco, Diego Gaspar Celaya, Milovan Pisarri,
Enrico Acciai, Bojan Aleksov and Yaacov Falkov 49
4 From regular armies to irregular resistance (and back) –
Zdenko Maršálek and Diego Gaspar Celaya 70
5 Inherently transnational: escape lines – Megan Koreman,
Diego Gaspar Celaya and Lennert Savenije 90
6 Transnational perspectives on Jews in the resistance – Renée
Poznanski, Bojan Aleksov and Robert Gildea 109
7 SOE and transnational resistance – Roderick Bailey 132
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vi contents
8 Transnational guerrillas in the ‘shatter zones’ of the Balkans
and Eastern Front – Franziska Zaugg and Yaacov Falkov with
Enrico Acciai, Jason Chandrinos, Olga Manojlović Pintar,
Srdjan Milošević and Milovan Pisarri 155
9 Transnational uprisings: Warsaw, Paris, Slovakia – Laurent
Douzou, Yaacov Falkov and Vít Smetana 180
10 Afterlives and memories – Robert Gildea and Olga Manojlović
Pintar with Mercedes Yusta Rodrigo, Jorge Marco, Diego
Gaspar Celaya, Roderick Bailey, Jason Chandrinos, Cristina
Diac, Zdenko Maršálek, Franziska Zaugg, Bojan Aleksov,
Yaacov Falkov and Megan Koreman 214
Conclusion – Ismee Tames and Robert Gildea 240
Notes 257
Bibliography 310
Index 343
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Plates
Plates can be found on pages 183–192
The transnational origins of International Brigaders
1 The Swiss Brigader Clara Thalmann (sitting on the wall) with
a mixed international Anarchist unit, Pina (de Ebro), 1937.
Reproduced from Medienwerkstatt Freiburg (ed.), Die lange
Hoffnung: Erinnerungen an ein anderes Spanien mit Clara Thalmann
und Augustin Soúchy (Grafenau: Trotzdem Verlag, 1985).
2 The Romanian fighters Galia Sincari (front row, left) and Mihail
Burcă (back row, third from left) in Barcelona, 1938. Courtesy of the
National Archives of Romania.
The Spanish matrix
3 Soviet aviators in Spain. Ilya Finkel, Soviet Jewish aviator, killed near
Barcelona on 26 October 1937, is fifth from the right. Public domain.
4 Spanish guerrillas in Moscow during the German offensive against
the city, late 1941 or early 1942. Courtesy of the General Archive of
the Spanish Civil War, Salamanca / the Spanish Ministry of Culture
and Sport.
Camps as crucibles of transnational resistance
5 Sculpture of the French Republic built from mud at Gurs to
commemorate the 150th anniversary of the French Revolution by an
Italian and a Romanian International Brigadist, July 1939. Courtesy
of the National Archives of Romania.
6 Ramón Via at Camp Morand, Algeria, 1939, just before his escape.
Courtesy of Jean-François Bueno.
A sample of transnational fighters
7 The Dutch International Brigader Jef Last. Self-portrait from the
front, 25 May 1937. Courtesy of the estate of Jef Last.
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viii list of plates
8 Gerhard Reinhardt, a German anti-Nazi who deserted to the Greek
resistance. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin.
9 Otto Miksche, who moved between the Czechoslovak army,
International Brigades and Free French. Courtesy of the Central
Military Archives, Prague.
10 August Agbola O’Brown, a Nigerian jazz musician who took part
in the 1944 Warsaw uprising. Courtesy of the Association of Polish
War Veterans and Former Political Prisoners.
Escape lines
11 Dutch Engelandvaarders helped across the Pyrenees by Dutch-Paris
on the Spanish side of the border, February 1944. Courtesy of Palli
van Oosterzee-Worp.
Guerrilla fighters in the Balkans
12 Giuseppe Manzitti (left), formerly an intelligence officer with the
Italian army’s Parma Division, photographed in British battledress
while serving in Albania with an SOE mission in 1944. Courtesy of
the National Archives (UK).
13 The Albanian guerrilla Mehmet Shehu with Italian soldiers won over
in Albania, October 1943. Courtesy of the Archivio Militare Italiano.
The nationalisation of transnational resistance
14 Captain Georges Barazer de Lannurien, commander of the French
guerrilla unit in Slovakia, in the company of a Slovak woman in
national costume, Banska Bystrica, 29 August 1945. Courtesy of the
News Agency of the Slovak Republic.
Commemoration of Yugoslav International Brigaders
15 Veljko Vlahović, former fighter of the International Brigades,
unveiling the monument to the International Brigades in Belgrade,
27 October 1956. Courtesy of TANJUG News Agency (AY,
112–06694–66).
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Maps
1 Spain during the Civil War, 1937 19
2 The Eastern Front, July 1943 32
3 Italy and the Balkans 157
4 Slovakia and the uprising of 1944 205
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