Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War

Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War discusses the participation of volunteers of Jewish descent in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, focusing particularly on the establishment of the Naftali Botwin Company, a Jewish military unit that was created in the Polish Dombrowski Brigade.

Gerben Zaagsma analyses the symbolic meaning of the participation of Jewish volunteers and the Botwin Company both during and after the civil war. He puts this participation in the broader context of Jewish involvement in the left and Jewish/non-Jewish relations in the communist movement and beyond. To this end, the book examines representations of Jewish volunteers in the Parisian Yiddish press (both communist and non-communist).

In addition, it analyses the various ways in which Jewish volunteers and the Botwin Company have been commemorated after WWII, tracing how discourses about Jewish volunteers became decisively shaped by post-Holocaust debates on Jewish responses to fascism and Nazism, and discusses claims that Jewish volunteers can be seen as 'the first Jews to resist Hitler with arms'.

“Jewish Volunteers offers valuable insights for a variety of historical specialists … Zaagsma has produced a readable and well-argued account, providing the reader with an engaging analysis of the formation of a Jewish company during the Spanish Civil War, and its interpretation and reinterpretation in popular memory during the remainder of the twentieth century.” – H-War

“[The] discussions of the origins and permutations of the Botwin Company myths are fascinating … This accessible book usefully clarifies the processes of appropriation and the evolution of European "Jewishness" in the shadow of the impending Holocaust … [The] insights into the links between history and legend make it deserving of a wide readership.” - Michigan War Studies Review