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BRUNETE EN LA MEMORIA |
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BATALLA DE
BRUNETE - GUERRA CIVIL ESPAÑOLA - Julio 1937 |
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Ultima
Revisión: 19/01/2011 |
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BERNARD
ENTIN Conocimos
a Alan Entin hace unos meses, con ocasión del viaje que realizó por España
visitando las zonas por las que pasó su tío Bernard, soldado voluntario de la
XV Brigada Internacional desde mayo hasta julio de 1937, cuando murió en la
batalla de Brunete. Como en tantos otros casos de combatientes en Brunete, de
los que vamos sabiendo gracias a las familias que se ponen en contacto con
nosotros, Alan no conoce con precisión ni el día de la muerte de su tío, ni
las circunstancias, ni por supuesto el lugar en el que su cuerpo pudo ser
enterrado por sus compañeros de armas. A Alan lo vimos siempre atento y muchas veces emocionado por
estar pisando el mismo suelo que su tío Bernard “Butch”, por quien seguro que
siente orgullo de familiar, de antifascista y de compatriota. La de Bernard Entin fue otra vida joven puesta en peligro de
manera consciente y generosa por quien ya sabía en 1937 que al fascismo que
se abría paso en Europa había que pararlo por todos los medios, y mejor
pronto que tarde. Como tantos otros brigadistas anglosajones, Bernard dio un paso
al frente y con 22 años asumió voluntariamente el riesgo de ser herido o de
morir en España, como finalmente pasó. Contradijo con su compromiso con el
Frente Popular la política de los gobiernos que enmascararon bajo el Pacto de
No Intervención su aprobación y complicidad con el golpe de estado en España,
que había derivado en guerra civil. Todavía hoy, casi 75 años después, y seguirá así por muchos
más, su actitud valiente nos hace ver que los gobiernos, las multinacionales,
y en general todas las caras que tiene la política imperialista de USA antes
y ahora, no son los únicos representantes de la sociedad norteamericana (y lo
mismo sirve para el Reino Unido). Bernard Entin seguramente murió tras muchos días de intensos
combates en los que posiblemente pasó por muchos peligros y privaciones. Tal
vez pudo cumplir con la idea que lo trajo a esta guerra, castigar al enemigo con las armas antes de
caer bajo su fuego. Lo imaginamos, asumiendo la intuición de su familia, el día 26
de julio de 1937, flaco y exhausto, con el uniforme sucio y necesitado de
remiendos, quizás mirando rabioso desde las alturas de Valdemorillo, donde
estaba siendo replegada la XV BI por bajas y agotamiento, como las aviaciones
alemana, italiana y franquista seguían ametrallando y bombardeando las líneas
republicanas, que ya pegadas al borde sur de Villanueva de la Cañada tras
sucesivos repliegues, a duras penas conseguían sostenerse en la última
jornada de la batalla. Es posible que esa misma aviación le causara la muerte cuando
atacó a la XV BI concentrada en El Canchar. Nos acordaremos de Bernard “Butch” Entin y de los demás
brigadistas de la XV la próxima vez que veamos las imágenes rodadas durante
la visita que el presidente Eisenhower
hizo a Franco en los años 50, donde se los ve juntos y felices
recorriendo una avenida de Madrid en un descapotable. ...Nos acordaremos de Bernard Entin y de los demás brigadistas
norteamericanos, y una vez más, no tendremos dudas acerca de quienes fueron
en esos años los verdaderos representantes de la dignidad de su pueblo,
tantas veces oculta por la mentira y la propaganda oficiales, allí y aquí. Que este artículo que nos manda su sobrino para esta modesta
página sea un homenaje público a su persona. Su cuerpo, como el de tantos otros, quedó en algún lugar del
que fue entonces campo de batalla, pero su memoria de joven militante y soldado
voluntario de la República vivirá entre nosotros. “Salud, Bernie”
Bernard Entin in June 1931 at age 16 when he graduated from High
School “You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend” La Pasionaria (1938) We mark the nearly 70th Anniversary of
the death of Bernard Entin, a man a few people know only from distant
childhood memories, some of us know from stories, letters, and faded
photographs. Whatever happened to Bernie,
son, brother, cousin and uncle? That
question has puzzled, vexed, mystified and frustrated our family for almost
70 years. It was a topic that was not
readily talked about or openly addressed.
It was a family secret, which, like all secrets has its own mystique
and legacy for future generations. It
is the kind of stuff that creates legends and myths. A ready-made fill in the blanks history of
what was and what might have been. It
is a meditation of memory and loss and of the simultaneous existence of the
past and present.” (Vecci, 2005). Growing up I knew the outline, but not
the details. Uncle Bernie was a union
activist and organizer, implicated in a paternity suit, went to Recently, I “googled” Bernard Entin. I put his name into the search engine
Google on the internet and immediately his name popped up on the website of
the American – Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. The listing was for the Jewish Virtual
Library and referenced Jews in the Spanish Civil War (Part 2) edited by
Martin Sugarman. In a list of names
there it was: Bernard Entin, KIA, Brunete, the month and year and his
family's address in The second website on Google referred
to an article by Harry Fisher in The Volunteer, Journal of the Veterans of
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Spring 2001 (p.16), and referenced what turned
out to be on the third website, Harry Fisher's book Comrades , (1997), about
his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
Through further internet research, I was able to locate many books,
books not only about the Spanish Civil War, but some which referenced Bernie,
and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Through VALBA I was even able to locate
people who knew Bernie and were able to provide personal accounts and
insights about him (Moe Fishman, Wendy Fisher, Jack Shafran and Norman
Berkowitz). Bernie was born Uncle Bernie, nicknamed “Butch,” was
very bright, in accelerated classes and graduated PS 144 Elementary School in
June 1928 and
Muriel Sholin Miller, his cousin who
was 9 years younger than Bernie, remembers him very well. She recalls being quite ill at the age of
9. In the fall of the year she came home from school with a very bad report
card, quite uncharacteristic of her.
She had been a straight A student.
Bernie was so upset, he said “no cousin of mine should have such a bad
report card.” So he then came every
afternoon when she came home from school to help her with her school
work. He also read her poetry from his
college textbook, Century of Readings for a Course in English
Literature. Muriel still has this book
of Bernie's. In it, he signed his name
with a middle initial “A.” We do not
know what it stands for. Sometime in the years 1932 - 1934 Bernie was involved in a paternity case. The mother was a deaf mute and a girl was
born in 1932. The story goes that Samuel Liebowitz, a defense attorney who
went on to become a justice on the Supreme Court of New York, defended Bernie
and he won the paternity case, it may have even been thrown out of court. However, there was a second case, a civil
lawsuit, which Bernie lost.
Supposedly, the family “could not afford” to again hire
Liebowitz. It is confusing why having
won the paternity suit he still had to pay child support. In 1933 he joined the Young Communist
League, according to records at the Tamiment Library at Bernie was a leader in the the
Department Store Workers' He became close friends with
Fisher. The strikes occurred after
failed attempts to negotiate between the stores and the union. Fisher's Young Communist League was called
for help. He writes “Local 1250 of the
Department Store Employees Union called for assistance on the picket lines.
... Because I was unemployed at the time, I went down to the union and
volunteered my services” (1997, p.10). Fisher describes Butch as ”Not too
tall, but sturdily built, he was a tough, yet gentle, loyal and wise young
man. He was one of the most militant members of the Department
Store Union. He too had been arrested
many times on the picket line, and we had spent time in jail together” (1997,
pages 11 – 12). And “Butch was a good
– looking, husky, curly – haired guy who was tough as nails. Tough yes, but gentle and compassionate as
well. He was someone you wanted on
your side, and fortunately for us, we had him on ours” (Unpublished manuscript,
2003, pages 124 – 125). One incident that Fisher recalls is
that when they were arrested on the picket line, he got into an argument with
the arresting officer who threatened to “beat the hell out of me.” The officer challenged Fisher to meet him
in a gym, and although he agreed to do so, he never intended to meet him
because he outweighed him by at least 60 pounds. However, Butch, “thinking I was getting
myself into something I couldn't handle, came up to the front of the cell and
said, 'Hey, this kid can't fight, and besides, he's a lightweight. How about you and me meeting at the
gym?' the cop eyed Butch for a moment,
then backed off. 'Aw, I was only
kidding,' the cop muttered as he walked away” (1997, p 12). In another version of the story, the only
one who showed up at the gym the next day was Butch (Fisher, 2003, p 126). In
Comrades, Harry Fisher tells the story about when he and Butch were “riding
the freights” at the height of the Depression and a young woman with a small
child was threatened by railroad cop, known as “bulls.” When the bull waved his pistol at her and
made obscene remarks, Butch intervened, asking the cop to be more
respectful. The cop responded with
racial epithets and Butch just looked at him and said, ”Why don't you put
that gun away and let's fight it out.
You're nothing but a goddamn coward, or you wouldn't be picking on a
defenseless woman.” The bull responded by pointing his pistol directly at
Butch's head, threatening to pull the trigger. According to Fisher, “Butch just looked him
in the eye, not saying a word, and not flinching. Just then another cop came over and told
the bull to put his gun away, and not to be such a jerk. I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled
Butch away” (1997, pages 179 – 180). According to Muriel, Uncle Bernie was
“engaged” to Miriam , and that may be
using the term very loosely. Norman
Berkowitz said, “Butch was very much in love with her ,” and spontaneously
recalled her name, “Miriam Shrivel (sp),” thus verifying what Muriel
remembered and providing us with her last name (August 14, 2005). She was described as “a beautiful woman”
whose parents talked her out of the engagement apparently because there was
no future to being married to Bernie.
Although they broke up before my parent's wedding, January 24, 1937,
my grandmother wanted her to come to the wedding anyway, perhaps so as not to
have to tell people that they broke up.
On March 8, 1937 Butch wrote to Ruth
Goldstein, who was the business manager of the Union, “You know as well as I
that the situation at present in the 5 + 10 is hot. The union is now starting an intensive
campaign to organize all 5 + 10s. It
is an open drive” (Jack Shafran Papers, 1937). Passport # 373253 was issued to Bernie
on March 10, 1937. The New York Times of March 16, 1937
headlined “Fifth Store Joins Sit-In Strike: Parlay Today May End
Deadlock.” They reported “The first
tangible indication of a break in the deadlock between the two forces was
given last night by James A Largay, chief concilliator of the Staate Department
of Labor, who announced that he had received tentative assurance from
representatives of both the company and the union that they would meet this
afternoon to discuss the strike issues”(p 1).
Company executives met, but issued no statement to clarify their
position. The union reproted a letter
from the personnel director of the company had been read to the striking
employes, hinting at a wage increase if the strike were terminated. The proposal was voted down, largely
because it did not provide for employee recognition. The letter, according to Bernard Entin, a union organizer was
addressed to the manager of each store and said: “Please advise your employees the
company is working out the details of a plan to increase the basic rates of
compensation of salesladies and certain other employees in the stores in New
York and Brooklyn. It is proposed to
announce the plan and make it effective this week. “The same plan will be available to
employes in the stores currently closed by strikes. Obviously, however, the plan cannot be put
into operation in such stores until the strikes have terminated and normal
store operations have been resumed.” (New York Times, March
16, 1937, p 1) The strike committees in all the stores
announced their rejection of these terms and said the workers would remain
entrench until the strike had been settled by the union. On March 18th The New York Times
reported about the sit-down strikes at two Woolworth's and five Grand's
stores in the city: Some 200 customers were in the
Manhattan [Woolworth] store just before 11 A.M., when organizers for the
union entered, and ran from counter to counter informing clerks that a strike
signal was about to be given. Two
organizers, Bernard Entin and Eugene McCarren, then blew whistles and some
fifty girls, of about 100 employed in the store, left their counters and
formed a group at the lunch counter, together with a few men who joined them.
... Pickets on the sidewalk outside the store also asked customers not to
patronize the store. (New York Times, March 18, 1937, p 1) Norman Berkowitz, like Fisher, knew
Bernie from his Union activities. Berkowitz was a department store
employee, “worker was a dirty word,” at Macys and Butch was with the
Union. Norman Bekowitz recalls Butch
as a “very special guy ... one of the best ... a great kid ... wonderful”
(August 14, 2005). Before sailing to
Europe, he recalls that he either lent, or gave as a gift, $5 to Butch, which
my Uncle gave to his mother because the family had no money (August 14,
2005). When I asked Berkowitz when Bernie left
for Spain, he said it was in April, remembering because they sailed on the
Queen Mary together. I checked with the Cunard Line about
their 1937 April sailings, and there were two voyages in April: The first left New York April 7 and
arrived in Cherbourg, France on April 12, and the other was April 21 arrived
April 26. Berkowitz recalled they
sailed on the 7th of April.
Unfortunately, the National Archives Paid Search Service in the United
Kingdom was unable to locate Bernard Entin on any of the passenger lists for
March, April or May, 1937. NYU and
other records, however, list both men as having sailed on April 21. As Victor Berch, an archivist at Brandeis
University who compiled the passenger list for NYU cautions “One of the
things to remember is that some volunteers went over under false names and
some as just plain stowaways.” Berkowitz remembers the most memorable
part of the trip was that there was a “terrible storm for five days” and “600
of the 660 passengers in the Third Class got sick.” He recalls the captain saying that he had
been a seagoer for 30 years and never saw the sea that rough. Muriel remembers that he came over to
say goodbye to her family and “he was wearing an overcoat.” She
recalls that he told them that he was going to a convention in Russia,
as a delegate, but that her parents thought he was going to Spain. She remembers that he sent a photograph of
himself sitting on a deckchair and wearing an overcoat. His postcard of April 26, 1937 from Paris
confirms her memory. He sailed on the
Queen Mary and had a photograph taken of him sitting on a deckchair sent to
the family. Unfortunately, the
photograph is lost to history. Nettie, his mother, suffered a series of
strokes, the first one when she received the first letter from Bernie. In his May 4 letter Bernie writes that
he was touring France, which may have been a euphemism for his traveling
through France and over the Pyrenees Mountains to get to the Washington
Brigade. He wanted his mail sent to
Paris and said it would be forwarded to him.
He expressed concern that the family was “quite angry with me,- which
... makes me very sad. Evidently you
don't understand me yet. ... there are
things and duties in life that are even more important than the family. ... I
think you folks are weak.” After thus
admonishing his famcily, he goes on to write about “the beautiful city” of
Paris, the “open toilets in the street,” and the usual tourist
attractions. He then says, “As for you
Mom darling, take good care of yourself ... all the love I have is
yours. I am kissing you now. He closes by wishing the newlyweds “As much happiness as is possible for two
people to have ... from the bottom of my heart.” The motiffs of the family
being angry with him, feeling misunderstood, and his desperate desire to get
mail from them were to be common themes in his letters. According to the New York University
records, Uncle Bernie arrived in Spain on May 18, 1937. Berkowitz recalls that they received a few
pesos a month while in Spain. The
Volunteers did not want to take the money because they were not paid
mercenaries. The money came from the
Spanish Republic and helped them buy toiletries and other small items. The next letter, nearly a month later,
May 31, is addressed to his mother. He
had trouble writing it as he says it was his fifth letter, he tore up the
other four. He was very conflicted,
“going crazy,” because he could not decide whether or not to tell the the
truth. Bernie writes, “I spoke to you
many times about the struggle of the Spanish workers against the fascist
invasion of Hitler and Mussolini of Spain.
I tried to explain to you, about Spanish mothers trying to protect
their children from Nazi bombs. ...
You claimed to be a bitter anti-fascist.
If you were really so, it would be quite simple for you to understand
then, why I and tens of thousands of other anti-fascists from more than 52
nations throughout the world, have come here to Spain to do part of our share
in stamping out Fascism. I feel
exactly as the Spanish workers do.
That I would rather die fighting fascism than be forced to live in a
country under the rule of a Hitler.”
He describes scenes of Spanish cities being bombed by the Germans and
women and children fleeing for their lives.
He read that 5,000 Basque children were going to New York to “be taken
care of by workers and working class organizations” and “it would certainly
make me proud” if she were to take care of one of these children. He continues, “We came here to help the
Spanish people fight facism and we are not leaving until we are
victorious. The defeat of fascism here
will help to keep fascism out of the United States.” He then tells them about himself, how he is
a “soldier in the International Brigade”, about life in the camp. And the
“excellent training and instruction from the best instructors in the world
to-today.” At that time there was not
much fighting going on, “but when the Spanish government decides to start,
'Heaven help the fascists.'” In June 1937 Fisher wrote that he
received a letter from Butch who is in training. On June 6, and for the first time using
the address of the George Washington Battalion, Bernie wrote my mother, an
obvious response to her letter. Again
he is aware of lying and deceiving the family for not telling them where he
was going. He tells her “how rotten
life really is under capitalism (which you already know) and how this life
could be changed for the better. Why
is it that two young people who get married find it necessary for both to
work. Why can't the husband be able to
take decent care of his wife while she raises a family? ... Fascism is the
last phase of capitalism. Fascism is
the open dictatorship, the most brutal oppression of the working
people.” Bernie wrote to the family on June 21
“I trust of course you are all happy and healthy. Maybe you are shaking your heads when I say
happy but I want you to be. Mom dear,
you are no doubt thinking that you can't very well be happy while one of your
sons is at war. Well sweetheart, try
to be happy as that will most certainly make me happy. ... but remember, that
we volunteered to fight (and for a damn good reason), whereas in other wars,
workers are forced to fight. I could
have stayed in the U.S., and been perfectly safe. Certainly, but what a stinking traitor I
would have been to the working class, and to my Spanish brothers and sisters,
and to the glorious Soviet Union. ...
you probably think my mind poisoned.
If I was a communist in the States, then you should see me now. It takes an actual struggle to make one
really understand the class struggle.”
He then writes that he is thinking about my father, who had recently
had a birthday, wondering how my parents were doing, chiding them, “come on
folks, I want to be an uncle. Call him
Butch. You see, it must be a
boy.” Provokingly adding, “Uh, uh, you
can't afford a baby. Why not? Don't earn enough, Jack? Well ask yourself why not? Is there or is there not something
wrong. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I guess its the old red agitator in
me. Well, I still think you are a
swell guy Jack.” He closes, once
again, by “wondering if they (the
family and relatives) could be so kind as to write to me. Thats all I want. ...Please don't be bitter. Try your best not to worry.” Bernie wrote to the family on July 15,
having received a letter from them 10 days ago, “I am angry because you write
so seldom. I thought I made it quite
clear about mail, that you should write every day ...” He continues, “Yes, I am at the front now
for some time. I have seen quite a bit
of action in open warfare. I'm still
one whole piece and kicking. .... War is the lousiest goddam thing in the world, and by the way, as long
as we still have capitalism, we'll still have war. The American capitalist bastards some of
the worst in the world. I happen to
know for a fact how much American capitalists are helping Franco. I happened to fall over a dead fascist who
was wearing an American ammunition belt and carrying American bullets. Boy was I burnt up. And yet people such as you will shrug your
shoulders and say 'we know that American capitalists do these things but what
is it our busines and what can we do?'
There is plenty you can do...”
In describing his situation he writes that he is on the Guadderamma
front and “...the fascist airplanes are continuously flying overhead and
dropping bombs. It's a pain in the
neck. ... we have chased the fascists back about 16 kilometers. It does our hearts good to see the bastards
run. We are fighting mainly against
Moors (boy, can they shoot) and Italians with German aviators. This proves that its not a civil war but an
international war. However, the long
awaited offensive is on at last and its 'on to victory.'” He closes by wishing for his mother to “say
something to me, and you write it down.
I think of her every day and pray for her health. If I have done anything to make her feel
bad, I'm sorry, but it can't be helped.
Some of the boys received letters from their mothers that makes you
feel real good. Revolutionary letters,
in which the mothers are proud of their sons.
I wish my mother were proud of
me.” Around the same time, also in the
middle of June, Harry Fisher describes how he was reunited with some of his
union comrades, including Butch, who had recently come from the states and
had been in the Washington Battalion until it was decimated. They brought him up on the union's
activities, the sit-in strikes and the organizing drives going on a several
department stores. When they started
the Brunete offensive, the Lincoln and Washington battalions joined
forces. Many of the men who knew each
other from the labor struggles were now in the same battalion. They each had suffered heavy casualties,
leaving only about 550 men to make up the new combined battalion. They fought at Mosquito Hill, then at
Villanueva del Paradillio, and possibly some other offensives. They then rested. Bernie wrote again the next day, July
16, to my father, informing him that
he just received his letter of June 27 “but I didn't know about Mom,”
evidently meaning her strokes. And, as he has done in all the previous
letters, Bernie implores my family to write him every day, especially
detailed news and gossip. And, again,
he is concerned that his mother is angry with him. He continues, “My battalion (G. Washington)
merged with the Abe Lincoln yesterday.
We are now one. A few hundred
Americans. There are many more
Americans in training. Hundreds are
driving trucks. ... We are resting right now after seeing plenty of
action. I am a real honest to goodness
soldier right now.” This was to be his
last letter. Harry Fisher describes what he
remembers of the action in the Brunete offensive, “we moved into a new
position, a deep, dry riverbed, with a battle going on directly in front of
us. Suddenly I saw Butch Entin walking
toward the headquarters staff. He
greeted me with a big grin. 'I got me
a blighty. It's nothing. I'll be back in a few days.' A bullet had passed through his shoulder,
but he clearly was in no pain. He was
on his way to the first-aid station down the road, or maybe to the ambulance
waiting nearby. I never saw him again”
(1997, pages 68 – 69). “All our union people in Spain tried to
find Butch, to learn what had happened to him” (Fisher, 1997, p 69). In September, Fisher wrote his sister, “I'm
doing everything possible to find out about [Butch] but can't get any word'
(September 1937). Also that month,
Irving Fajans wrote from his hospital bed to the Commissariat of the
International Brigades concerning Butch's whereabouts: Butch was wounded about two weeks after
I was, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him. If you can find out where he is, I wish you
would send me his address. His name is
Bernard Entin and he was in the second company of the Washington Battalion. (Moscow
Microfilm, 1937) In January, 1938 Jack Shafran wrote a
friend from Local 1250 after months without hearing from Butch, “We have given up hope too –
It's five months now we haven't heard from him – It's a god-damn shame – But
there is nothing can be done – I told my mother he sends his regards as I
don't want her to know” (1938). Fisher
wrote, “There is nothing new about Butch.
No news at all. Very Bad”
(January 23, 1938). In Prisoners of the Good Fight, Carl
Geiser refers to an offensive in the Battle of Brunete: “Eight Americans were
captured” (1986, p 24) and the footnote, from the 15th International Brigade records
at the Institute of Marxism - Leninism in Moscow, “the seven captured
Americans who did not survive” listed “Bernard Entin, 24, from Brooklyn,
N.Y.” (p 272). Table 6-3: Americans
Killed After Capture has him listed
under “At Brunete- July 1937” as age
22 with the passport issued on March 10, 1937 (p 263), the dates of birth and
issuance of his passport being consistent with other records. An informational card from the Friends
of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade says “Bill Frances reports he
was wounded July 25th in left shoulder and was very weak. Put into ambulance and never seen
again. He thinks without a doubt he is
dead.” Fisher writes: “It was John
Rody, my friend from Wisconsin, who was finally able to fill in the missing
pieces. John, a first-aid man, had
accompanied Butch and another wounded American to a waiting ambulance a few
miles from the front. ... After seeing that his wards were safely in the
ambulance, John headed back to the battalion.
He hadn't gotten far when three Nazi planes appeared overhead, flying
low. John jumped into a ditch and
watched as the ambulance took a direct hit.
After the bombing, the Nazi planes left in a hurry, and John rushed
back to the road. The ambulance had
been completely demolished” (2003, p 128). After 70 years of uncertainty, we have
evidence to accept July 25, 1937 as the date my uncle was Killed In
Action. Bernard Entin died at the age
of 22, only 2 months and 2 weeks after arriving in Spain, in Brunete.. It is unclear how, or when, my family
and others were notified or learned of Bernie's death. In an October 3, 1937 letter, Harry
Fisher wrote to his family, “Another
fellow from the Department Store Union is here with us. ... So the only one
we have to worry about now is Butch” (1997, p 85). “Sadly, as we were to discover, Butch had
been killed near Brunete” (1997, p 182). Nettie and Jack Entin always said they
were never notified of Bernie's death.
However, since my grandmother's name was on the VALB Card, it remains
unclear as to whether or not the Friends of the VALB notified the family of
his disappearance or death. On March 9, 1939 , Jack Small, which
was the alias for Jack Shafran (Fisher, 2003, p 124), wrote a letter to “Miss Entin” saying that
“I was told by the Friends of the Lincoln Brigade that you wish to have some
information about your brother Bernard.
I was a very close friend of his and I would be glad to see you.” A follow up letter the following week to my
father (March 14, 1939) confirms a meeting had been arranged. In a recent telephone conversation with
Jack Shafran (June 31, 2005), he remembers visiting Bernie's family after he
returned from Spain. According to
Muriel, Charles Sholin, her father and Bernie's uncle, said that he went to a
hotel to talk with or meet many of the men who came home from the war. Uncle Charlie may have even met with Jack
Shafran. Understandably, almost 70
years later, Mr. Shafran does not recall who he met with. However, my family never mentioned that
visit and always maintained that they never knew what happened to Uncle
Bernie. They did not seem willing to
accept his death, even though they had received a “petition to erect a
plaque” and his name was listed among those being memorialized. It remains a mystery as to why my family
denied his death all these years. In 2001, reminiscing about his trip to
Germany in the Volunteer, Harry Fisher thought “Bernard Entin's ambulance was
blown to bits and there was nothing left of him or the other wounded. ... [However] (W)hile listening to these
Germans and Americans singing, it hit me that there was something left of
Bernard Entin. My son's name is John
Bernard Fisher, his middle name in honor of my close friend” (p 16). We have known Bernie from a child's
vision and memory, from family photographs, and now we add the perspective of
his best friend. From the anecdotes we
learn that he had the personality traits of an individual who seemed on the
outside to be tough as nails, but beneath the facade was very loving, tender
and gentle. An idealist with a deep
faith and conviction in doing what was right, he stood up for his friends and
believed firmly in the causes of the working class. We now have a pretty clear picture of what
happened to Bernard “Butch” Entin, son, brother, cousin and uncle. We know some incidents about his life that
give us insight into his character, we know what happened to him in Spain and
we even know where, when and how he died.
He ended his letters from Spain “Salud,
Bernie.” We have arrived where we
began. We have come full circle. The family can say “Salud, Bernie.” BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES TO BERNARD
ENTIN Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
No Pasaran! The 50th Anniversary of the braham Lincoln Brigade,
1986. A roll call of the American
volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Berch, Victor. Email comunication,
September 9, 2005. Berkowitz, Norman. Personal Communication, August 14, 2005. Bernstein, (is this meant to be
Berkowitz?) Norman. Moscow Microfilm
Collection, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Bobst
Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New York,
NY 10012. Entin, Bernard. Unpublished Letters, dated 1937. Collection of Alan D Entin. Fagans, Irving, Moscow Microfilm
Collection, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Bobst
Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New York,
NY 10012. Fifth Store Joins Sit-In Strike; Parley
Today May End Deadlock. The New York
Times, March 16,1937, p 1. Fisher, Harry. Comrades, Tales of a Brigadista in the
Spanish Civil War, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Fisher, Harry. Germans and Americans Facing Each Other
Again. he Volunteer, Journal of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade,
September 2001, p. 16. Harry Fisher Papers, Letter, June 3,
1937, Folder 3, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer
Bobst Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New
York, NY 10012. Harry Fisher Papers, Letter, Sept. 17,
1937, Folder 6, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer
Bobst Library, New York University
Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012. Harry Fisher Papers, Letter, Jan. 23,
1938, Folder 9, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer
Bobst Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New
York, NY 10012. Geiser, Carl. Prisoners of the Good Fight, Westport,
Conn: Lawrence Hill and Company, 1986. Rowe, Jason. From The Picket Line to the Front Line: The
New York City Department Store Workers' Union and the Fight for Spain, Unpublished Paper, May 2, 2005, The
Tamiment Library and Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, New York University. Shafran, Jack. Jack Shafran Papers, Letter from Butch
Entin to Ruth Goldstein, March 8, 1937, Folder 20, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives,
Elmer Bobst Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square
South, New York, NY 10012. Shafran, Jack. Jack Shafran Papers, Letter, January 7,
1938, Folder 7, The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer
Bobst Library, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New
York, NY 10012. Shafran, Jack. Personal communication, July, 2005. Sugarman, Martin. Jews in the Spanish Civil War (Part 2), Jewish
Virtual Library, the most comprehensive online Jewish encyclopedia in the
world. www.virtualjewishlibrary.com. The Tamiment Library/Robert F Wagner
Labor Archives, Elmer Bobst Library, New York University Libraries, 70
Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012. The Volunteer, Journal of the Veterans
of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The
Jarama monument is dedicated. Spring,
1995, p.10. Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade. 3X5” Index Card of
information filled out and maintained by the Friends of the Brigade on the
eve of going to Spain. Woolworth Girls Strike in 2
Stores. The New York Times, March
18, 1937, p. 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY La Pasionaria. Farewell Address to the International Brigades. 1938.
Quoted in Geiser, Carl.
Prisoners of the Good Fight, Westport, Conn: Lawrence Hill and
Company, 1986, p vii. Vecci, Jim. The Photographer's Showplace, Online
Gallery, Photo-eye Books, July 20, 2005, Vol 5.29. From his sibling position, as the
younger brother of an older brother... there may have been conflict and
competition.. And, as the older brother of a younger
sister, he may have learned to protect
and defend younger, more vulnerable individuals, especially women. Broken home -----------brigade joiner Muriel and Alan decided to declare July
27 as the date of Bernie's death. VALB
records and accounts by Fisher (1997, 2001, 2003) and (Geiser, 1986) establish
that Uncle Bernie died sometime in the latter part of July, 1937. We chose July 27 because there are many
repeating dates in the history of our family.
On July 27, a nephew of Uncle Bernie's was married, their daughter, as
well as another cousin, were born We
thought the date appropriate. |
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