c h i m i n t h e s p a n i s h c i v i l w a r- david seymour(1911-1956)（c h i m i n t h e s p n i s h c i v我l w r -大卫·西蒙（1911-1956））.docVIP

CHIM IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR 1936-1939 Carole Naggar, July 12, 2007 (Revised Feb 22, 2008) Here is what a Black American volunteer of the Brigades, C. Frankson, wrote his wife in a letter from Albacete on July 6, 1937, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War: “Why I, a Negro who have fought through these years for the right of my people, am here in Spain today? Because we are no longer an isolated minority, fighting hopelessly against an immense giant. Because, my dear, we have joined with, and become an active part of, a great progressive force, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of saving human civilization from the planned destruction of a small group of degenerates gone mad in their lust for power. Because if we crush Fascism here we’ll save our people in America, and in other parts of the world from the vicious persecution, wholesale imprisonment and slaughter which Jewish people suffered and are suffering under Fascist heels.” (1) Frankson’s words eloquently express why The Spanish Civil War remains to this day a unique episode in history. Not only does the war represents the opening battle of World War II, a time when Europe had a sense of a common cause against Fascism, but it is the last manifestation of a fierce idealism, of a symbolic battle between Fascism and Democracy. The dream of freedom and a better future and the sense of solidarity with Spain were powerful enough to bring 40,000 people from many countries into the International Brigades, courageous volunteers who did not hesitate to put their lives on the lines for the new Spanish Republic. To them, it was a matter of defeating what they saw as the forces of evil. The images to remember the war by are numerous. As Susan Sontag (2) has written, it was “the first war to be witnessed (covered) in a modern sense: by a corps of professional photographers at the lines of military engagement and in the towns under bombardment, whose work was immediately seen in newspapers and ma