To take care of the wounded among the international volunteers was a serious challenge. During the war, the Brigades managed over twenty hospitals and 1,500 medical personnel across Republican Spain. Understaffed and without adequate supplies, medical care was often improvised, and the medical personnel worked under atrocious conditions. The makeshift hospitals in Republican Spain lacked suitable space, medication, doctors, nurses, and other essential materials. Medical stations and ambulances on the front lines were often targeted by Franco’s Nationalist forces.
Americans supporting the Republican cause in Spain raised money for humanitarian aid for the international volunteers as well as the Spanish population in general. Other Americans with medical expertise traveled to Spain to assist as nurses, doctors, and ambulance drivers, including those who volunteered in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Sidney Vogel, a New York surgeon who served as director of several hospitals in Spain, described the challenging conditions of medical care on the front lines in an unpublished paper, War Medicine: Spain, 1936-39.
Nurses, Doctors, and Ambulance Drivers
Many American nurses, doctors, and ambulance drivers volunteered their services by traveling to Spain to support the Spanish Republic. Some went to Spain as non-combatants with the International Red Cross Committee or through the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy. Others directly joined the Lincoln Brigade as medical personnel.
The medical situation in Spain during the war was dire. Before the war, medical care was often provided by religious orders, especially Spanish nuns. The anti-clericalism of the Popular Front government caused a rift between the Catholic Church and the left-wing government. When the Spanish Civil War started, violence against churches, priests, and nuns further divided the government and the Catholic Church. Since the church hierarchy sided with the rebels, many nuns left for Nationalist Spain. As a result, there was a shortage of nurses on the Republican side. International women volunteers, including Americans, stepped in to fill the vacuum. Of particular note is Salaria Kea, the only African-American woman to serve in Spain. She had advocated for the Spanish Republic while still working as a nurse in the United States before she herself left to Spain to provide medical care for the international volunteers.
The American volunteer nurses and doctors had to work in makeshift hospitals, helping the injured. Like some of the men who had signed the fan, they were sent to Benicàssim to recover. Located on the Mediterranean coast, 50 miles north of Valencia, Benicàssim had been a resort for wealthy Spaniards. The International Brigades turned it into a hospital and convalescence center for thousands of injured volunteers. The medical conditions at Benicàssim were poor but far better than on the battlefronts. On the frontlines, ambulance drivers were targeted by enemy airplanes and they had to navigate the constantly changing maps to avoid driving accidentally behind enemy lines. Those who traveled to Spain to offer medical aid risked—and often lost—their lives.
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA). “Salaria Kea: A Negro Nurse in Republican Spain.”
Kathryn Everly. Salaria Kea in the Archive. The Volunteer. 11 February 2022.
Medical Aid for Spain. The Work of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee.
The International Red Aid, also known as Socorro Rojo Internacional, was a communist organization founded by the Comintern in 1922. It was created as a political alternative to the International Red Cross to provide aid to the victims of class warfare. During the Spanish Civil War, it was led by the Spaniard Joaquín Arderíus. The International Red Aid provided soup kitchens, organized refugee camps, set up makeshift hospitals, transported injured troops, and aided children. By the end of the Spanish Civil War, Arderíus fled Spain. In 1943, the organization was dissolved.
Call for information on Spanish Civil War time Socorro Rojo
The North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracywas an umbrella organization created in 1936 dedicated to raising funds for the Spanish Republic. As a coalition of labor unions, ethnic groups, and a wide spectrum of leftist organizations, it was tied to the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). Because the American Neutrality Acts of 1936 and 1937 made it illegal for citizens to provide any aid to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the United States refused to take sides. With one exception: Medical assistance was permissible. The North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy used this opportunity to raise funds for the embattled Republic and to support campaigns such as the lifting of the arms embargo against Republican Spain.
Lift the embargo against Spain : a survey of the facts, a call to action.
Image Politics: U.S. Aid to the Spanish Republic and Its Refugees.
The American Medical Bureau (AMB) was an American organization founded by Dr. Edward K. Barsky in 1936, intended to raise funds to provide humanitarian aid to the Spanish Republic and to shift public opinion against the ongoing boycott of aid to Spain. The AMB also recruited medical professionals in America for the Spanish Republic, many of them women who held leadership positions. In 1938, it merged with the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy.
Marx Memorial Library. International Solidarity Fund. “Aid for Spain.”
Spanish Civil War. Virtual Museum. “Milk for Spain.”
XV International Brigade in Spain. “Medical Services.”
Edward Barsky was an American surgeon and leftist political activist. He grew up in New York City and became a surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital. In 1937, he traveled to Spain with a group of medical practitioners to aid the Abraham Lincoln Brigade soldiers. In Spain, he was promoted to Surgeon General of International Sanitary Services, overseeing hundreds of international medical volunteers. After the Spanish Civil War, Barsky helped found the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, which focused on providing aid to Spanish refugees and political prisoners. As chairman of this organization, Barsky was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, but he refused to hand over the books and financial paperwork of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. He was convicted of contempt of Congress. After many appeals, Barsky was sentenced to five months in prison and suspension of his medical license for six months. He eventually returned to work at Beth Israel Hospital and remained a political activist. He passed away in 1975 at age 78.
“Edward Barsky, Surgeon, Dies; Joined Spanish Republican Side.” New York Times, 13 February 1975.