Customer Reviews

Comrades: Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War

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Harry Fisher, a young, idealistic labor activist, relates a very personal tale of his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. This period of history ignored by most Americans, was a crucial moment in the history of Western Civilization. Fisher, recognizing the battle between Democracy and the Fascist powers, ignored the wishes of his family and volunteered to fight in Spain, supporting the democratically elected government there against the Nazi supported military rebellion of Franco.

War is hell, but getting to the battlefield was no easy matter. Not only did the United States refuse to aid the Spanish government, it actively sought to block American citizens from opposing the fascists and Hitler's nascent military machine. (this at a time when Henry Ford and Prescott Bush (our "president's" grandpa) were raking money in supplying the Nazis). Fisher finally made it to Spain.

The book relates comradeship, sudden death, misery, deprivation, and the courage that can only come from putting your life on the line for a cause you desperately believe in. Fisher relates anecdotes in a soft, gentle, personable manner.

This book can be compared with Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Orwell spends more time with political analysis and historical background. His style is less personal, and somewhat harsher. Fisher brings in his family, his hopes, his fears, but leaves the greater political context largely unexplored. Both books are five-star-must-reads.

After reading Comrades, I again had to wonder, "What might have happened if America had acted as a Democracy instead of a Capitalist Oligarchy and officially backed the legitimate Spanish government? Even weapons sales might have enabled the forces of Democracy to prevail ... and taught Hitler and Mussolini that the Democracies would not stand idly by while they attempted to subdue the world.

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A page-turner, this book tells a story of idealism, without glorifying war. It is everything "Saving Private Ryan" is not, because although it shows the horrors it is in the context of the meaning of fighting fascism before it was fashionable. It is so well written that it is like watching a compelling movie. Must, must read.

"Comrades" is more than just a story of one American's experience in the Spanish Civil War. It is the story of young men and women taking responsibility for the issues of their day. Harry Fisher and his comrades are quite possibly the "greatest" of what Tom Brokaw has called the "Greatest Generation." In the days before World War II, the young Americans of the Lincoln Battalion joined tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world to fight the emerging evil of facism in the Spanish Civil War. Instead of being rewarded for their foresight, our own country branded them as radicals and subversives.

Read "Comrades" and learn the story of these forgotten American heroes. Then make an attempt to contact one of the 130 or so who are still living and tell them "thank you."

I lived in Spain from 1959 - 1988 and dodged Franco's secret police for eleven years before what I was involved in became legal there. The author speaks with total authority. His account of a return to Spain at the age of 85 brought tears to my eyes. I recommend this book most highly!

If you need a reaffirmation of the goodness in humanity, read this book. Fascism, in many artful guises, still oppresses and exploits ordinary people throughout the world. Although Harry and his comrade Brigadistas were deemed to be 'premature anti-fascists', they recognised the need to fight it ­ even though the odds were stacked against them. What fine men and women volunteered to aid the people of Spain. In my country, we are taught nothing about the Spanish Civil War, even in its true context as the first battle of the second world war. I would encourage young people, indeed everyone, to read this thoughtful book. It gives an insider¹s insight to an extremely important and much-maligned historical event. And lends a little faith that there were and are decent souls in the world.

The solidarity the members of the International Brigades showed in their battle against fascism in Spain is outstanding. I am so thankful and respectful that these people even gave their lives trying to ban the fascist danger. The Brigadistas didn't get the honor they deserved when they got back to their country: During the McCarthy area they where denunciated as "prematured Antifascists" and suffered under the treatment of the FBI. Keep the rembemberance alive - never forget their heroic battle! I can also recommend the book of James Yates "Mississippi to Madrid - Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade"

This is a fine addition to the body of memoirs already left by other Brigadistas. A great book, recommended for anyone who wants an account of citizens of a democracy confronting fascism years before it became fashionable to do so. What a shame President Reagen didn't read it before making his ignorant remark that the veterans of the International Brigades fought 'on the wrong side'.

Harry Fisher writes movingly about those men who were among my personal heroes, the 3200 Americans who served in the 15th (Abraham Lincoln) International Brigade that fought Hitlerism as "Pre-Mature Anti-Fascists" in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Nearly all were Communists or Socialists, almost half were Jews, and half of them gave their lives. Another 400 or so lost their lives as members of the United States Armed Forces during World War II.

Harry Fisher tells of his motivation in going to Spain - fighting poverty on the lower East Side of New York, joining the Young Communist League, concerns about Hitler and Fascism. He writes poignantly of friends who never came home, like Butch Entin, whose ambulance was blown up by Fascist airplanes; or of the Stone Brothers - two of whom lost their lives within days of each other. He writes of little human interest stories too - of finding a genuine Jewish restaurant - complete with Gefilte Fish, Chicken Soup, Roast Chicken, in a little apartment on a side street in Barcelona and how good the food was, even though the owners were rumored to be "Trotskyites".

Unfortunately, this is where Fisher loses his moral compass. For Harry Fisher came home and went to work for TASS, the Soviet bureau of Lies and Propaganda. He learned very little from the Hitler-Stalin Pact, or even from the Khruschev revelations of how murderous Uncle Joe Stalin was - or how he hated Jews as much as his friend Schicklgruber. He apparently either remained a Communist (Stalinist) Party member to the end of his days - or at any rate, remained close to the Party.

Fisher also, unfortunately, chose to put one Oliver Law on a pedestal, even though Law, a Black American Communist was regarded by many Lincoln veterans as the most incompetent of the Comintern-chosen American commanders in Spain. Fisher claimed that Law was killed gallantly facing the Fascists; other former Lincoln vets, including William Herrick, whose "Jumping the Line" is the most honest account of an anti-Fascist Lincoln vet ever written, claim that Law was possibly shot by his own men after leading the Lincolns into ambush after ambush.

The literature - and the first hand accounts of Americans who fought Hitlerism in Spain are few and far-between, and Fisher's book, like Herrick's is a valuable resource. Unfortunately for Fisher, while his decision to go and fight Fascism is to be admired, his affiliation with TASS not only leaves much to be desired - but also is an advisement to the reader to take much of the idelogy lurking in the background with a grain of salt.

Read "Jumping The Line". Herrick may not have served in Spain as long as Fisher did, but it is a far more solid - and honest - work.

Comrades had me enthralled from beginning to end. This is a war story told by someone who must be a pacifist at heart. Readers will laugh and cry as they come to know some fascinating human beings. These people were among the first to recognize the horrors of fascism. While most governments turned their backs on the plight of the Spanish people, 3,000 Americans joined 40,000 other volunteers from around the world to try to do what their governments would not -- stop Hitler before it was too late. Had the volunteers succeeded, one can only wonder how many lives might have been saved in the holocaust that followed.

Fisher was a star in Studs Turkel's "documentary" on the Lincoln Brigade.
He finished out his professional career working for the Soviet Tass Agency.
Those of us who experienced life on the dark side of the Iron Curtain know what really happens when the utopia of the Lincolns is put into operation. Perks for high party functionaries like Fisher and grinding, humiliating poverty for the rest.
Fisher was not the last commissar. They continue to this day albeit with different job titles.
And wherever they commit bloody aggression, whether it be in Spain, Cambodia, Ukraine, Angola, Jenin or Qana, they make it sound like it was done for the good of mankind rather than for its subjugation.