Carl Trost was a young activist in the Nathan Hale Branch of the Young Communist League in the Bronx with several friends who volunteered to fight with the Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. One of these was Sanford "Pretty" Sperberg (born Leib Sparberg in Roumania in 1916), who sailed to Spain on the SS Georgic on May 15, 1937 and kept in touch with Trost by letter, describing his shipboard experiences, his early days in Spain in Spain (with comments on anarchist activity and other political news), and his battlefield experiences with the Lincoln-Washington Battalion. Other friends serving in Spain were Irving Weissman, Milton Herndon, Lou Cohen, and Carl Geiser, a member of the national committee of the Young Communist League. Geiser notes in a 1987 letter to Trost that Sperberg was fatally wounded near Quinto.
From the guide to the Carl Trost Papers, Bulk, 1937, 1930-1987, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
