International Brigade Memorial Trust
A series of events is taking place this autumn to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Ebro, the withdrawal of the International Brigades and their famous farewell parade in Barcelona.
On 23 September in the small town on El Perelló, near Tarragona, an IBMT plaque will be unveiled to two members of the British Battalion – one Welshman and one Scot – who are buried in the municipal cemetery. John Ferguson and James Scott were injured in the 1938 Battle of the Ebro and died in a rearguard makeshift hospital near El Perelló. The programme for the ceremony has yet to be announced. It is being drawn up in association with the local council by Ivan York (ctganga@yahoo.co.uk), an ex-pat living in the town, who discovered the fact that these two volunteers are buried in a mass grave also containing the remains of other Spanish Republican soldiers.
On 24-26 October an international conference in Paris will bring together specialist historians from around the world to discuss women in the International Brigades. Linda Palfreeman, author several books on the medical volunteers from Britain and Ireland, will attending on behalf of the IBMT. The event is being organised by ACER, our French sister organisation, and is titled ‘¡Solidarias! Voluntary involvement and action of foreign women in international solidarity during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)’. For a PDF of the programme (5MB), email:
secretary@international-brigades.org.uk.
On 25-28 October the Barcelona-based Friends of the International Brigades in Catalonia (Amical de les Brigades Internationals de Catalunya) is coordinating a series of events in the city, including visits to nearby sites associated with the International Brigades. It was in Barcelona, at the farewell parade on 28 October 1938, that Dolores Ibárruri (La Pasionaria) gave her memorable ‘You are history, you are legend’ speech addressed to the International Brigades. More details here: Programme (English).doc.
On 29-30 October, the Centre for International Brigade Studies at Albacete’s University of Castilla La Mancha is hosting an international congress, ‘The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), 80 Years later’. Albacete was the main base for the International Brigades. More information is available from: www.brigadasinternacionales.uclm.es
On 16-18 November our German sister organisation, KFSR (Friends and Fighter of the Spanish Republic), and the Lo Riu historical memory association in La Fatarella will mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Ebro with various commemorative events in the town, including the inauguration of a new memorial to the International Brigades. See:
https://loriuassociacio.blogspot.com
Posted on 3 June 2018.
