Milton Wolff
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| Milton Wolff | |
 Wolff in 2007
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| Born | October 7, 1915 Brooklyn, New York |
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| Died | January 14, 2008 (aged 92) Berkeley, California |
| Known for | Lincoln Battalion |
Milton 'Milt' Wolff (October 7, 1915 – January 14, 2008) was an American veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the last commander of the Lincoln Battalion of XV International Brigade, and a prominent social activist. He died in Berkeley, California on January 14, 2008 at age 92. [1]
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[edit] Early life
He was born into a working class Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York. He became active in the Young Communist League and joined the Communist Party during the Great Depression era. He was also a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps at about the same time.
[edit] Spanish Civil War
In early 1937, Wolff set off to join the International Brigades in Spain, reaching Albacete by March. As a pacifist, a belief common in the 1930s, he originally wished to be a medic. However, after the International Brigades' heavy losses at the Battle of Jarama, he became a soldier instead. "Largely self-educated, ... [he] was an intellectual"[2]. He "detested elegant uniforms", customarily wearing baggy trousers and a stained leather jacket with "no cape whatsoever"; during wet weather he wore a "woolly poncho".[3].
After a year's fighting in Brunete, Belchite and Teruel, the Brigade lost two senior officers, David Doran and Robert Hale Merriman at the Gandesa battle on the Aragon front. After which, Wolff became the battalion commander. He led the now Lincoln-Washington Battalion during the Battle of the Ebro and left Spain in November 1938 when the International Brigades were demobilized. Ernest Hemingway described him during this period: [he was] "...23 years old, tall as Lincoln, gaunt as Lincoln, and as brave and as good a soldier as any that commanded battalions at Gettysburg. He is alive and unhit by the same hazard that leaves one tall palm tree standing where a hurricane has passed."
[edit] World War Two
In 1940, Wolff volunteered for the British Special Operations Executive, and arranged arms for the European resistance organizations. After the United State's entry into World War II, Wolff volunteered for the infantry in June 1942.
He saw action at the end of 1943 in Burma. There, General "Wild Bill" Donovan met him and assigned him to the O.S.S. to work with anti-fascist partisans in occupied Italy.
[edit] Later life
Wolff appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to defend VALB (Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) from banning as a Communist front organization. His explanation for his actions owed to his ancestry: "I am Jewish, and knowing that as a Jew we are the first to suffer when fascism does come, I went to Spain to fight against it."[4]
Wolff later campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, and raised money for ambulances in Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s. Milton wrote three autobiographical novels documenting his life, including A Member Of The Working Class about his early life in New York, Another Hill about his communist and Spanish experiences; and The Premature Anti-Fascist, describing his post-war experiences.
| “ | This extraordinary novel centers on one battalion, the Americans, known as the Lincolns, barely trained men who went into battle armed with 1903 Remington rifles. I have never read more intimate, convincing, and devastating accounts of combat. ~ Martha Gellhorn on Another Hill | ” |
[edit] Books by Milton Wolff
- Another Hill: An Autobiographical Novel (1994; University of IIlinois Press, 2001). ISBN 978-0252069833
- A Member of the Working Class (iUniverse, 2005). ISBN 978-0595372676
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Milton Wolff, 92, Dies; Anti-Franco Leader.", New York Times, January 17, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-25. "Milton Wolff, the last commander of the American volunteers who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War and the longtime commander of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, died Monday in Berkeley, Calif. He was 92."
- ^ Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars, p. 66.
- ^ Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars, p. 67.
- ^ VALB Teaching Module
[edit] References
- Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007). ISBN 978-0271029108
