Spain: “Brigada Internacional ist unser Ehrenname”

We publish an unofficial translation of the article of Servir al Pueblo found in their webpage.

We have received in our email different images of the solidarity actions due to the 87^th anniversary of the International Brigades. Among them, we have received an image of a tribute to the internationalist brigadist Hans Beimler, political commissary of the brigades and militant of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). The next 1^st of December is the anniversary of his fall in combat. In the picture we can see how a contributer left red flowers at his tomb in the Montjuïc cemetery (Barcelona) with the acronym of the “ICL”, wanting to show the International Communist League in the tribute.

We proceed to share the received images together with a short selections of quotes on the International Brigades and an article written by José Diaz in memory of Hans Beimler.

“Brigada Internacional ist unser Ehrenname” [International Brigade is our honorable name]

Ballade der XI Brigade, song to the international brigades in German.

“ From those planes you can, it is true, see the cemetery of the International Brigades (…) They were volunteers. They have traveled thousands of kilometers, disguised and under false names, striving to escape police terrorism (…) to fight an unequal combat with the professional mercenaries of a military machine dominated by ex-officio German and Italian officers. “They fought with rifles from before the Great War against modern German and Italian machine guns. “

“Notes from the Spanish Civil War” by the famous internationalist doctor Norman Bethune, compiled in his work The crime on the road from Málaga to Almería.

“We know that your victory will directly aid us in our fight against Japanese fascism. Your cause is our cause. We read with emotion of the International Volunteers organized by people from every land, and we are glad that there are Chinese and Japanese in their ranks. Many comrades of the Chinese Red Army also wish to go to Spain to join you. . . Were it not that we are face to face with the Japanese enemy, we would join you and take our place in your front ranks.”

“Letter to the Spanish people” by Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, written on 15^th May, 1937 and published in Jiefang (“Liberation”)

“We will win because we must not lack international solidarity; We will win, because the brave International Brigades, the best sons of the world proletariat, the best democrats, struggle hand in hand with us, practically setting an example of solidarity. The brother Communist Parties of France, England, Germany, Italy, etc., have given us great help.”

“Venceremos”, an article by José Díaz included in the compilation Tres años de lucha (Three years of struggle).

Tribute to Hans Beimler

Under the title “Our last farewell”, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain during the National-Revolutionary War, José Díaz, said goodbye to the German brigadist Hans Beimler, fallen in combat. This is the article:

“The name of Hans Beimler, fallen in Spain fighting for the freedom and peace of the world, fighting against fascist barbarism, is already registered forever, as an indelible symbol, in the glorious flags of the international brigades. It is, like so many heroes that fight with the indomitable Spanish people, like so many brave fallen with the best children of Spain, the personification of what is most noble, of higher in the conscience of the proletarian class and in the spirit of the best and most progressive part of humanity: international solidarity. This active, combative solidarity, which has formed and grows overwhelmingly around our struggle, is one of the legitimate proud of our people and one of the firm guarantees of our victory.

Our people, the heroic and indomitable people of Spain, have enough energy and courage to settle the scores against those who dreamed of being their executioners. But all the birds of prey, all the black beasts of world fascism, have been launched on Spain as if on coveted prey. They want to make Spain their trench to attack everything that remains in the world of democracy and freedom. They want to turn Spain into an incendiary torch to light the fire of war in everything that remains in the world of progress, culture, work and peace. In front of this wave of global fascist barbarism that has fallen on Spain, the irrepressible impulse of international solidarity arises in all free peoples and in the conscience of all free men. And together with the Spanish people who fight for their freedom, a handful of men come to take their place in the fight, the best and most conscious men of all peoples, who know that today to fight for the victory of our people against fascism, it is to fight for the freedom of its own people and for the consolidation of democracy and world peace. In front of the help of the German and Italian fascist murderers to their fellow men, and lackeys, the Spanish traitors to their homeland, we have the solidarity of our brothers, the workers of the world. In front of the community of bestial instincts in the work of massacres, faced with the messages of mourning and death from the Junkers and the Capronis, the solidarity of the steel chests of the best sons of other peoples, forming an insurmountable barrier with the chests of steel of the entire Spanish people. In front of the miserable hired assassins, mercenaries of Hitler and Mussolini, who come to steal pieces of our homeland to feed the vultures of foreign imperialism, the generous solidarity of the men who, feeling the true patriotism of their people, help to ours, to free itself from the clutches that want to distribute it.

In Hans Beimler, fallen on our land fighting for it, for his own and for the freedom of the world, we salute the best children of the world working class, the best children of the peoples who all feel and practice solidarity with our struggle, who fight, suffer and, if necessary, die alongside the noble sons of Spain, united with them in the common cause of global anti-fascism. In it we salute the glorious Communist Party of Germany, the heroic and martyred proletariat of Germany and its leader, Comrade Thaelmann, a symbol and flag of the anti-fascists of all countries.

The name of Hans Beimler will remain indelibly engraved in the hearts of the working class of Spain and of all the Spanish people. His living memory as a comrade, as a friend, as a brother, will serve as a new incentive for all combatants to avenge all the anti-fascists who fell in the struggle and honor his memory with the greatest of monuments: the annihilation of fascism, to raise above its ruins a free, peaceful, prosperous and happy humanity”