About 800 Dutch volunteers, communists, anarchists and social democrats were active in Spain during the Civil War (1936-1939). They joined the International Brigades to support the fight against Franco. Upon their return their passports were taken from them and they became stateless.
Together with Yvonne Scholten, the IISH started a project in 2015 to compose an online biographical dictionary with the names of all the Dutch volunteers. The purpose is to publish a list, on a special website, as complete as possible, with the names of all Dutch volunteers who fought during the civil war in Spain. These data will be completed as well as possible so as to give the militants their own identity.
The IISH has many archives about the Spanish Civil War which will be crucial in composing the dictionary. Especially the archives of the Nederlandse Brigadisten and the Komintern will be consulted for this research. The IISH will host the website and keep it updated.
The research will be done by Yvonne Scholten, who published before about the volunteers, among others about Fanny Schoonheyt and Bart van der Schelling. Scholten will be assisted by VU and UvA students and by the Digitaal Platform Spanjestrijders.
The researchers will also consult the archives on Oud-Spanjestrijders by the Ministery of Justice 1937-1941 in the National Archive.
The project is made possible by a financial contribution from the Stichting Democratie en Media, complemented by crowdfunding.
The IISH also manages the website of the Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland. The new biographies will also be made accessible via the Dutch Biografical Portal.
Photos: Members from the International Brigades in Onteniente, Spain, 1937. Collection Trudel van Reemst-de Vries