Jessi Duncanson HONS 2011J Maria Hernandez 18 October 2020 Eddie Balchowsky: Anti-Fascist of the Alleys Eddie Balchowsky was an enigma of sorts, a man who lived by a strong moral code to avoid moral codes and whose most consistent feature was his embodiment of contradictions. He always professed a lack of interest in politics, yet was active in leftist causes from an early age and boldly defended and uplifted those who he saw marginalized or threatened by tyranny. He was an intensely creative person and identified as an artist rather than a dissident, but was most famed for ignoring the dictates of the US government and fighting Fascism in Spain…

  Theadora Williams HONS 2011J Final Essay Professor Hernández-Ojeda   The Spanish Civil War: The Popular Front, The Commissars, and George Watt   Even in hindsight, the policy of the COMINTERN under Stalin during the Spanish Civil War is contentious, to say the least. Some attribute the downfall of the Republic to their interference, others praise them for the support they lent it. What might have won the war is easy to speculate about in retrospect, but was a much more pressing and difficult issue during its actual course. The policy of the COMINTERN was admittedly at times misguided, as was often the case, but nothing exists in isolation. Their…

Fiona Weinstein Maria Hernandez-Ojeda The Spanish Civil War in Art, Literature and Film 18 December 2020 Volunteer Aaron Hilkevitch   Unwavering Commitment to Freedom: Aaron Hilkevitch   Personal Statement As a student of political science and human rights, I was especially interested in the circumstances and psychology that encouraged the volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to take up arms and fight against Fransisco Franco and his fascist army in the Spanish Civil War. While taking into consideration the affects and conditions produced by the Great Depression that preceded the Spanish Civil War, it is still valiantly impressive that Americans and other nationalities outside of Spain were willing to lay…

Kristie Sanchez Professor Hernández-Ojeda HONS 2011J 12/18/20                                                          Abraham “Abe” Osheroff Personal Statement          Prior to taking this course on the Spanish Civil War, I had never heard of the Spanish Civil War. It was not until I watched the documentary The Good Fight that I realized the significance of this event and what the Lincoln volunteers did. In the class, we studied literature, art and film that preserve the memory of the Spanish Civil War in a number of ways. Many of the works we studied were thought provoking, emotional and informative. They were nothing short of memorable.       As a final project…

Ariana Guzman HONS 2011J Final Essay Professor Hernández-Ojeda   The Participation of American Women in the Spanish Civil War: The Story of Helen Freeman Personal Statement Prior to the course, I was not aware about the civil war in Spain or the involvement of international volunteers that would travel to Spain for its anti-fascist and humanitarian cause. In American history, the emphasis of the 20thcentury lies between World War I and War World II. Similarly, the participation of American citizens in the Spanish Civil War is not mentioned in history books. This aspect of history is not taught within the classrooms and remains unknown. I chose this class because I…

Maggie Kearney HONS 2011J Final Essay Prof. Maria-Hernandez Ojeda Ruth Davidow Personal Statement Ruth Davidow first caught my attention with her interview for the 1984 film The Good Fight my classmates and I streamed at the beginning of the semester. The documentary was one of my first real exposures to the Spanish fight against fascism, as I had never heard about the International Brigades in school beforehand. My only knowledge of this point in history before beginning this Spanish Civil War in Literature and Film course was Picasso’s Guernica, which conveyed the terror of the war only. I had no context for its role in world history or knowledge or…

Vasilis Kontodimas Professor Hernandez-Ojeda HONS 2011J, Section 01 8 Dec. 2020   Nicholas Ioannou Demas’ fight “to stop the barbarians” Personal Statement: Before I selected Nicholas Ioannou Demas as the one Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteer to research, I knew how treacherous the life for the Greek population had been in the early twentieth century.  My grandparents had personally served and lived through WWII and the ensuing Greek civil war.  So, I wanted to see what could motivate a Greek man, together with his brother,  to risk their lives for Spain when Greece still faced myriad issues.  I started with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and discovered that my subject was…