Catalonia Today
31 January 2008
‘WHERE’S THE INDIGNATION?’
by Angela Jackson

Milton Wolff, last commander of the Lincoln Battalion in the XV International Brigade, died on 14 January in California.
Despite his 92 years, Milton Wolff would bellow, ‘Where’s the indignation?’, in his strong Brooklyn accent on hearing of yet another injustice in a world not renowned for fairness, still raging against society’s apathy towards oppression. This same sense of indignation had caused him to become involved with left-wing causes as a young man, leading him to Spain in March 1937 where he fought for the Republicans as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the civil war. After many battles, Wolff became the ninth and last commander of the Lincoln Battalion.

Born on 8 October 1915, Wolff was only 21 when he left New York for Spain. To avoid worrying his mother, he said he was replacing one of the workers in a Barcelona factory who would be going to fight against Franco. She learned the truth on opening a newspaper and seeing a photograph of her son with Ernest Hemingway near the front lines.
Following a terrible retreat from Aragon early in 1938, Wolff spent days wandering through enemy lines before making his escape by swimming the fast-flowing the River Ebro. He and other survivors of the XV Brigade regrouped to the north of the river, spending many weeks near the village of Marçà. The dreadful losses suffered by the Brigade meant that the majority of men under his command were now raw Spanish recruits. During this time, Wolff dedicated himself to the preparation and training of the men until the time came to cross the Ebro again on 25 July 1938, beginning the final Republican offensive against the Nationalists.

In mid-September, whilst the desperate struggle of the Battle of the Ebro was being played out in the Pàndols mountains, all foreign volunteers of the International Brigades were ordered by the Republican government to leave Spain. However, the hope that this would result in a similar withdrawal of foreign troops from the Nationalist side was in vain.  In Barcelona, a crowd of thousands lined the streets for the final emotional farewell to the Brigaders. Wolff  remembered dancing with La Pasionaria at a dinner later that day. The invitation card she signed for him came to light recently amongst the few possessions he was able to take with him when he left Spain.
On his return to the USA, Wolff continued to campaign on behalf of Spanish refugees being held in appalling conditions in the camps in France and joined protests against political prisoners in Franco’s prisons. When the the Second World War began, he worked for British Intelligence until the bombing of Pearl Harbour brought the Americans into the war. He was amongst those classed as ‘Premature Antifascists’ for having taken part in the war in Spain. Throughout his long life, he continued to fight for the causes in which he believed, helping to send ambulances to Nicaragua in the 1980s and medical aid to a children’s orphanage in Cuba.

Milton Wolff has often been portrayed in the role of hero, a figure cast in the mould of Abraham Lincoln, attempting to inspire his men. This ability to bond with his audience and create a positive response was still evident when he returned to Marçà in 2003 at the invitation of the local association, No Jubilem la Memòria. After giving a talk to the packed hall, his cries of  ‘Viva la República’ brought the public to their feet for a standing ovation. He also revisted the exact spot near La Torre de Fontaubella where Robert Capa had photographed him in 1938, during the last military parade of the International Brigaders.

His last visit to Catalonia in 2005 was motivated by his wish to pay tribute to the young men who had fought and died under his command. As he stood on the banks of the Ebro during the ceremony, he recalled with great sorrow the soldiers who had lost their lives simply because they didn’t know how to swim.
Milton Wolff wrote of his experiences as a soldier in Spain and his coming of age during the Depression in the form of two autobiographical novels, Another Hill (1994) and Member of the Working Class (2005). The third and final part of his trilogy is still to be published.

For more about Milton Wolff, see Dr Angela Jackson’s new book, At the Margins of Mayhem: Prologue and Epilogue to the Last Great Battle of the Spanish Civil War soon to be published by Warren & Pell, UK.