Abraham Lincoln brigade archives

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives: Small Photograph Collections is a compilation of images that have been separated from ALBA archival collections. For historical/biographical information on each individual, consult the guide to the corresponding manuscript collection. The images include scenes of the battlefield and daily life in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, Spanish civilians and locales during the War, portraits and group shots of American volunteers in Spain and in the pre- and post-Spanish Civil War years, and images of Dolores Ibarruri, among other subjects.

These records are a result of a response to Freedom on Information Act requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for all records maintained by the organization from its surveillance of VALB. The records reveal surveillance of the organization starting in 1940 and continuing into 1965. The FBI applied some exemptions to the records, resulting in redacted portions in certain documents. These FOIA requests were made by Julia Newman, former executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), an organization of friends and family of veterans, academics, and others interested in exploring and preserving the history of the Lincoln Brigade.

The Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939) was a conflict between the newly-elected left-leaning government of the Spanish Republic and its supporters and the (ultimately successful) rebellion against the Republic led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Thousands of men and women from around the world volunteered to serve as soldiers and medical and support personnel for the Republic, which organized them into International Brigades (including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, made up of North Americans). Film was one of the weapons used by international organizations supporting the Republic and the Brigades to document the war and to generate support and raise money; after the war they used moving images to aid the Republic’s refugees.

The major works in the collection include “With the Lincoln Brigade In Spain”, directed by Henri Cartier-Bresson; footage shot by in Spain ca.1937-1938, by Harry Randall, head of the Photographic Unit of the Fifteenth International Brigade (which functioned as the photographic arm of the Lincoln Brigade); and “Refuge.”

“With the Lincoln Brigade In Spain,” is a short documentary film produced by Herbert Kline, directed by still photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and shot in 35mm (although distributed in 16 mm) by Cartier-Bresson and movie camera operator Jaques Lemare. It was filmed in 1937 and released in 1938. Shown in union halls, clubs, and other small venues throughout the United States, “With the Lincoln Brigade in Spain” was used to raise funds to bring the Brigaders home. (At the same time that it was shooting “With the Lincoln Brigade in Spain,” the same production team was shooting another Lincoln Brigade-related documentary film in Spain--“Return to Life”--for the American Medical Bureau of the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy in Spain (AMB)). “Refuge,” was shot in 1939, to publicize the plight of Spanish Republican refugees in refugee camps in France and the deplorable conditions in these camps. It was produced by Cine Liberte and the AMB, directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois (aka Jean-Paul Dreyfuss), and edited by Irving Lerner. It includes footage from (and may be a shortened version of) “Un peuple attend,” another documentary on the same subject shot earlier that year, and also directed by Le Chanois.

• Crusells, Magí.“REFUGE, a pro-republican documentary from the Spanish Civil War.” International Journal of Iberian Studies 19 (2006): 231-239. Accessed July 3, 2012. doi: 10.1386/ijis.19.3.231_3.

• Faber, Sebastiaan. “Images of Displacement -- The Spanish Civil War and the Birth of the Modern Refugee.” The Volunteer 16 (2009): 6-9; 17-18. Accessed July 3, 2012. http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/sfaber/refugee.pdf

• Randall, Harry, interview by Erika Gottfried. April 10, 2002. New York, New York. Harry W. Randall, Jr. Oral History Interview (transcript). Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives Vertical Files: Individuals. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York, New York.

• Rosemont, Franklin. "Spanish Revolution of 1936." In The Encyclopedia of the American Left, Second Edition. Eds. Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 792-793.

• Salas, Juan. “Henri Cartier-Bresson Film Found in ALBA Archive.” The Volunteer 17 (2010): 8-9,11. Accessed July 3, 2012. http://www.albavolunteer.org/2010/03/henri-cartier-bresson-footage-%E2%80%A8found-in-alba-archive/

• Sills, Sam. "Abraham Lincoln Brigade." In The Encyclopedia of the American Left, Second Edition. Eds.Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 2-4.