INTERNATIONAL BRIGADESINTERNATIONAL BRIGADES
In the course of the war in Spain men of fifty-four nationalities fought for the Republic against the Axis Powers' inspired and supported rebellion. They fought under a name which has become almos legendary throughout the world, synonymous not only with self-sacrifice and courage of the highest degree, but military strength and skill as well. They called themselves the International Brigades.
It is very hard to say a few words in farewell to the heroes of the International Brigades, both because of what they are and what they represent. . .
You came to use from all peoples, from all races. You came like brothers of ours, like sons of undying Spain; and in the hardest days of the war, when the capital of the Spanish Republic was threatened, it was you, gallant comrades of the International Brigades, who helped to save the city with your fighting enthusiasm, your heroism and your spirit of sacrifice. . .
For the first time in the history of the people's struggles, there has been the spectacle, breathtaking in its grandeur, of the formation of the International Brigades to help save a threatened country's freedom and independence, of our Spanish land.
Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, Republicans - men of different views and different religions, yet all of them fired with a deep love for liberty and aspirations . . .
They gave us everything; their loves, their countries, home and fortune; fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters, and children, and they came and told us: "We are here. Your cause, Spain's cause, is ours - it is 'the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.'"
Comrades of the International Brigades. Political reasons, reasons of state, the welfare of that same cause for which you offered your blood with boundless generosity, are sending you back, some of you to your own countries and others to forced exile. You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy's solidarity and universality. .
We shall not forget you, and when the olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves again, entwined with the laurels of the Spanish Republic's victory - come back! . . .
Come back to us. With us those of you who have no country will find one, those of you who have to live deprived of friendship will find friends, and all of you will find the love and gratitutde of the whole Spanish people who, now and in the future will cry out with all their hearts:
"Long live the heroes of the International Brigades!"
Farewell Speech to the International Brigades, Barcelona, September 1938
I've heard you sobbing in the night
And know your tears are not for fright
But for the dead. Those Comrades lost
Who through this day have fought beside you all this way. . .
But mark you this - they still live on - as men.
For we must take the strength they leave
And to the goal they set must cleave
With ever greater unity -
"All men shall now be FREE".
I hear you sobbing in the night,
But in the day remember this
That we are they.
-William P. Smith, Jr. Lincoln Battalion From Volunteer for Liberty, August 9, 1937
Blood,
Or a flag,
Or a flame
Or life itself
Are they the same:
Our dream?
I came.
An ocean in-between
And half a continent.
Frontiers,
And mountains skyline tall,
And governments that told me NO,
YOU CANNOT GO! I came.
On tomorrow's bright frontiers
I placed the strength and wisdom
Of my years.
Not much, For I am young.
(Was young,
Perhaps it's better said -
For now I'm dead.)
But had I lived four score and ten
Life could not've had A better end.
I've given what I wished
And what I had to give
That others live.
And when the bullets
Cut my heart away,
And the blood
Gushed to my throat
I wondered if it were blood
Gushing there.
Or a red flame?
Or just my death
Turned into life?
They're all the same
Our dream!
My death!
Your life!
Our blood!
One flame!
They're all the same!