CNT union of Barbers of Barcelona. “At last we are free!”
Barcelona market bombed
Barcelona 1938 David Seymour. I’m not sure if that is the Boqueria market or Barceloneta market. If the latter it would make it 18 September 1938 on which more than 40 people were killed. Sant Antoni market was also hit. Original here at Magnum.
Marina Ginestà in colour
A colourised version of the famous and iconic Marina Ginestà photo standing on the roof of the Hotel Colón in Plaça Catalunya on 21 July 1936. In fact she was never a militia fighter. She worked through the war as a journalist and as an interpreter for the Soviet correspondent Mijaíl Koltsov. This colourised version of Hans Gutmann (Juan Guzman)’s original is by Jared Enos. Great job and gives impression of photo a little overexposed due to the sunlight which adds authenticity
Sant Felip Neri bombing
Another tragic Barcelona anniversary today. 77 years ago two fascist Italian bombs fell on the Sant Felip Neri church and square and killed dozens of people, mainly orphaned children from Madrid who had sheltered here.
Barcelona 1939
Today, on a freezing cold morning 76 years ago, Barcelona fell to Franco’s rebel fascist army which set about destroying everything republicans and revolutionaries had built. Rather than show an image of his triumphant troops in Plaça Catalunya, here’s one of civilians in a food queue three days later in the defeated city.
Nehru in Barcelona
Jawaharlal Nehru, future first Prime Minister of India, visited Barcelona in June 1938. The photo above shows Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, who also later became Indian Prime Minister, together with Catalan president Lluis Companys.
See also India and the Spanish Civil War
It was the Europe of 1938 with Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement in full swing and marching over the bodies of nations, betrayed and crushed, to the final scene that was staged at Munich. There I entered into this Europe of conflict by flying straight to Barcelona. There I remained for five days and watched the bombs fall nightly from the air. There I saw much else that impressed me powerfully; and there, in the midst of want and destruction and ever-impending disaster, I felt more at peace with myself than anywhere else in Europe. There was light there, the light of courage and determination and of doing something worthwhile.
The quote is from Nehru’s autobiograpahy Toward Freedom: From here
Gerda Taro’s grave
The sorry state of the grave of photographer Gerda Taro, Peré Lachaise cemetery, París. Taro came to Spain with Robert Capa in August 1936 and together they set out to depict the war and revolution. She was tragically killed when a republican armoured vehicle accidentally crushed her during a retreat in the Brunete battle on 26 July 1937. Photo from here
A Jewish Iraqi in the Spanish Civil War
Letty Abraham from Baghdad. Via here
International Brigade website
Check out this great site dedicated to the International Brigades run by Kevin Buyers. At the moment it is centred on English-speaking brigaders, but looks like it will expand to more. It has plenty of photos I have never seen. In the photo British Volunteers in Barcelona, December 1936.
Photo shows a group of British Internationals after the retreat from Mosquito Ridge Battle of Brunete July 1937.
Canadian involvement in the Spanish Civil War
As many as 1600 Canadians came to Spain to fight for the Spanish Republic; more than 400 of them were killed. Many were Finnish or Estonian Canadians
Media
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Excellent CBA radio doc: Canada’s “MacPaps” and the Spanish Civil War
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and more here
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Youtube documentary: Los Canadienses: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War
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Online film about Norman Bethune “This feature documentary is a biography of Dr. Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who served with the loyalists during the Spanish Civil War and with the North Chinese Army during the Sino-Japanese War. In Spain he pioneered the world’s first mobile blood-transfusion service; in China his work behind battle lines to save the wounded has made him a legendary figure.”
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