American Medical Bureau

Humanitarian aid organization in the Spanish Civil War

American Medical Bureau

Founded| 1936
Founder| Edward K. Barsky
Dissolved| 1939
Type| Non-governmental organization, Non-profit organization
Focus| Humanitarian
Location|

* United States

Area served

| Second Spanish Republic
Method| Aid

The American Medical Bureau (AMB), also known as the American Medical Bureau to Save Spanish Democracy,[1] was a humanitarian aid institution associated to the Lincoln Battalion that provided a medical corps, nursing systems for casualties, accommodation, and treatment to those who were wounded while they fought for the Spanish Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).[2]

## History

[edit]

Organized by Dr. Edward K. Barsky, the American Medical Bureau recruited doctors, dentists, nurses, administrators, ambulance drivers to support the Spanish Loyalists. In its fundraising events, it also used the names American Medical Bureau to Save Spanish Democracy and Medical Bureau & North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy.[3]

In the United States, the AMB also staged events to try to shift public opinion away from supporting the aid boycott to the Spanish Republic, which was imposed by the US government after the Non-intervention Committee's agreements. In Spain, the AMB was assigned to hospitals and medical centers of the Spanish Military Medical Services (Cuerpo de Sanidad), mainly at the Gómez Ulla Military Hospital, in Madrid, and also to frontline locations. AMB members, who also included women, treated both foreign and Spanish combatants.[4]

Ambulance of American Medical Bureau in Spain, 1937

By the end of the war, most of the Spanish aid committees and the leadership councils of the AMB were women. Many women leaders in the aid movement were wives of prominent American leftists or of soldiers in the Lincoln Battalion. Katherine Duncan, the wife to Governor LaFollette's secretary, and Peggy Dennis, a communist party leader, were leaders in the active Madison, Wisconsin, chapter. Marion Merriman, wife to Abraham Lincoln Battalion Commander Robert Merriman (the supposed inspiration of Ernest Hemingway's hero in For Whom the Bell Tolls), was the chairwoman of the large San Francisco, California, branch of the organization. She and one other woman, Fredericka Martin, hold the honour of being the only woman to receive officer commissions from the Spanish Républicain. Evelyn Hutchins, an active member of the AMB, agitated for years to be a hospital driver on the front liines, but Spanish Republican policies prevented women from serving on there until 1938, when Hutchins won the right to serve on the front line as a driver.[5]

## See also

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* International Brigades
* Spanish Republican Army
* Yankee Squadron
* Lincoln Battalion
* Military history of African Americans
* XV International Brigade

## Bibliography

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* Jane Pacht Brickman, "Medical McCarthyism and the Punishment of Internationalist Physicians in the United States," in Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Theodore M. Brown (eds.), Comrades in Health: US Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013; pp. 82–100.
* Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.
* Walter J. Lear, "American Medical Support for Spanish Democracy, 1936-1938," in Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Theodore M. Brown (eds.), Comrades in Health: US Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013; pp. 65–81.
* De Quesada, Alejandro; Walsh, Stephen (2015). The Spanish Civil War 1936–39 (2): Republican forces. Osprey Publishing. p. F. ISBN 9781782007852.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Spanish Civil War History
2. ^ Medical Aid to the Spanish Republic During the Civil War (1936-1939)
3. ^ Medical Bureau & North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy
4. ^ Medical Aid to the Spanish Republic During the Civil War (1936-1939)
5. ^ Graham, Helen. The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, 40-45.

## External links

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* The Volunteer, the quarterly journal of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
* Some Men Put Up Their Lives
* List of Abraham Lincoln Brigade Volunteers New York University Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
* Online guide to the archives of the Lincoln Brigade, Tamiment Library (New York).
* Photograph of Dr. Arnold Donowa posed with American Medical Bureau to Save Spanish Democracy vehicle
* The Journey of James Neugass Archived 2015-10-10 at the Wayback Machine

* v
* t
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XV International Brigade – Abraham Lincoln

Commanders|

* János Gálicz (Jan–Feb 1937)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Feb–Jul 1937)
* Klaus Becker (Jul–Aug 1937)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Aug 1937–Mar 1938)
* Robert Hale Merriman (Mar–Apr 1938)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Apr–May 1938)
* José Antonio Valledor Álvarez (May–Sep 1938)

Battalions|

* British Battalion
* Lincoln Battalion (incl. American Medical Bureau & Connolly Column)
* Dimitrov Battalion
* Sixth of February Battalion
* 24 Battalion
* Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion
* Washington Battalion

People|

* William Aalto
* Bernard Ades
* Bill Alexander
* Edward K. Barsky
* James Walker Benét
* Alvah Bessie
* Delmer Berg
* Herman Bottcher
* Edward A. Carter Jr.
* Christopher Caudwell
* Lewis Clive
* Morris Cohen
* Robert Garland Colodny
* Fred Copeman
* John Cornford
* Jock Cunningham
* Peter Daly
* Peko Dapčević
* Carmelo Delgado Delgado
* Charles Donnelly
* Bob Doyle
* Petar Drapšin
* Frank Edwards
* Leo Eloesser
* Moe Fishman
* Hugh Garner
* John Gates
* David Guest
* Jason Gurney
* William Herrick
* Robert Hilliard
* Jack Jones
* Salaria Kea
* Robert Klonsky
* Oliver Law
* Laurie Lee
* Maurice Levitas
* Yank Levy
* Matti Mattson
* Alex McDade
* Paddy Roe McLaughlin
* Kosta Nađ
* Conlon Nancarrow
* George Nathan
* Steve Nelson
* Paddy O'Daire
* John O'Reilly
* Michael O'Riordan
* Thomas Patten
* Will Paynter
* Koča Popović
* Harry Wayland Randall
* Patrick Read
* Esmond Romilly
* Frank Ryan
* Alfred Sherman
* George Sossenko
* Stephen Spender
* Wally Tapsell
* Robert G. Thompson
* Tom Wintringham
* Milton Wolff

Political parties|

* Communist Party USA
* Communist Party of Great Britain
* Communist Party of Canada
* Communist Party of Ireland
* Republican Congress
* Communist Party of Yugoslavia
* Communist Party of Cuba

Related|

* International Brigades
* Communist International
* Yankee Squadron
* International Brigade Memorial Trust
* Jarama Valley
* Songs of the Lincoln Battalion
* Viva la Quinta Brigada
* Jewish volunteers
* Yugoslav volunteers
* Irish volunteers
* Yugoslav Partisans
* Atomic spies
* Smith Act

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