Kusman, Felix, 1909-1983.

Felix Kusman (1909-1983) served in the Spanish Civil War with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and later was active in the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC) and the United American Spanish Aid Committee. This small collection contains Kusmans FOIA, file including information collected about Kusman while he was under surveillance by the FBI from the early 1940s the early 1960s.

From the description of Papers, 1937-1983 (bulk 1937-1963). (New York University). WorldCat record id: 475326013

Felix Kusman (1909-1983) was born in Estonia in 1909. He lived in Brazil for a year before working for twelve years on board ships out of Brazil and Argentina. He moved to New York City in 1929 and worked as a seaman on U.S. ships until 1936. In 1936, he moved to France and soon traveled to Spain to fight as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. He served for two years in the George Washington Battalion, where he was a captain. He arrived back in New York as a stowaway on the S.S. Normandie in September 1938. In New York, he worked as a social worker for the North American Committee for Spanish Relief in 1941 and as a national organizer for the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC) from 1942-1949. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the JAFRC and was a liaison for them with the embassies of many countries, doing work in arranging for Spanish and International Brigades exiles to live in Central and South America. In 1940, he registered for selective service in the United States Army, but never entered the military. His Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) file reveals that Kusman was under surveillance by the FBI from 1942-1963 because of his ties to the Communist Party and his work with the JAFRC. Never a U.S. citizen, he was detained on Ellis Island under the McCarran-Walter Act in 1954. His INS file (part of the FOIA file) includes information about his time in Spain. Kusman was active in the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

From the guide to the Felix Kusman Papers, Bulk, 1937-1963, 1937-1983, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)