Anti-Fascism, Anti-Communism, and Memorial Cultures

The International Brigades were volunteer military units that fought for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1938. Some 40,000-45,000 men fought in the International Brigades as an act of anti-Fascism, international solidarity, and national preservation. Although many historians have examined the volunteer soldiers’ motivations, wartime experiences, and reintegration into their home societies on a national basis, there has not yet been a global study of veteran reintegration and memorial culture. This global comparative study demonstrates that a state’s acceptance or rejection of their Brigade veterans was dictated by a global anti-Fascist and anti-Communist divide. In nations that underwent an ideological shift from anti-Fascism to anti-Communism after World War II, the veterans were repressed as potential threats and denied access to state-sponsored memory. In response to this exclusion, the veterans created their own memorial cultures. In nations that retained or renewed their commitment to anti-Fascism, the veterans were welcomed into the pantheon of state heroes as these states incorporated the Brigades into their national origin myths.