Mackenzie Papineau Battalion

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Memorial to the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion in Victoria, British Columbia

The Mackenzie Papineau Battalion (also called Mac-Paps ) was a unit of Canadians who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War as part of the 15th International Brigade . With 1,546 participants, Canada had the largest contingent of internationalists in relation to its population after France .

history

The first Canadians to take part in the Civil War in Spain had mostly joined American units, e.g. B. the Lincoln Battalion and later the North American Washington Battalion , each with about 40 Canadian participants. The Lincoln Battalion was involved in the Battle of the Jarama , in which nine Canadians were killed.

In February 1937, the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee banned the participation of foreign illegal volunteers in the civil war. By April 1937, around 500 Canadians were involved and a separate battalion was formed at the beginning of May. Two months later, this battalion was named after William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau , the leaders of the 1837 rebellions .

The Mac-Pop soldiers came from all over Canada. In contrast to the British and American brigades, which had a high proportion of students and intellectuals, the Canadian unit consisted almost entirely of workers. These had come to the left and been organized during the Great Depression . The Soviet Union had urged communist parties around the world to come to the rescue of the Spanish Republicans, and the Communist Party of Canada answered that call.

But it wasn't just communists who responded: supporters of other parties, such as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the Liberal Party of Canada and non-party members, also responded . By and large, they had informed themselves about the situation in Spain and the possible consequences of a Francoist victory. In addition, many moderate groups also supported the Republicans and formed committees. A large part of the Canadian brigadists were originally from Europe, most of them from Finland and Ukraine .

In July 1937, the Canadian government decided to forbid the participation of Canadian nationals in the civil war in Spain. As a result, the Committee in Support of the Spanish Republic stopped recruiting soldiers, but continued to recruit medical staff. However, the Communist Party continued to pursue the recruitment of soldiers. The government refused to issue passports to those they believed were going to Spain and hired the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , RCMP, to monitor left-wing activities in the country.

For this reason, many of the participants had to leave the country under false information to get to Spain. Most first traveled to Toronto to the Canadian headquarters for recruiting. The applicants went through a selection process, had to prove their previous activity or support for the left, or were sent back. Drinker and adventurer types, some of which were accepted into European units, were also rejected. This left those who really felt committed to the fight against fascism . The relatively high average age of the soldiers, 61.5% were over 30 years old, and the strict selection process, as it turned out later, led to a strong and committed association. From Toronto the journey continued to Montreal , but more often to New York , from where the passage across the Atlantic to France began. Then we went on foot across the Pyrenees to Spain.

Before their deployment, the newcomers underwent basic training in Albacete , the assembly point for all international brigadists. The Canadians, who did not yet have their own unit, had their first combat experience between February and June 1937 at Jarama near Madrid , followed by the Battle of Brunete in July of the same year. In recognition of their contribution in this battle, and also out of national pride, the decision was made to use the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion as the third battalion of the XV. International Brigade.

Furthermore, the Mac-Paps fought in three major battles: the Battle of Teruel (December 1937 to April 1938), the Aragon offensive (August to October 1938) and finally the Battle of the Ebro (July to September 1938).

Mackenzie Papineau Monument in Ottawa

The decision of the Spanish government on September 21, 1938 under Juan Negrín López to disband the International Brigades also affected the Mac-Paps. Six months later, on March 28th, Madrid fell into the hands of the Franquists. 721 Canadians were killed in the fighting for the republic and in part in the purges that followed the end of the civil war.

The way home was, as for many brigadists, paved with stones. The Canadian government continued to ignore or even persecute the veterans from Spain. For the crossing had to be collected; some were arrested in France. It was not until January 1939 that the government approved the fighters' return to Canada. When they arrived, many were interrogated by the RCMP and many were given no jobs. Although Canada shortly thereafter as an ally some of the burden in the fight against Nazism took upon himself the struggle of the Mac-Paps was never officially recognized. The Spanish Civil War is hardly mentioned in current Canadian historiography. Many of the Mac Pap veterans fought in World War II; however, quite a number of them were turned down as soldiers because of “political unreliability”.

A memorial stands in Victoria , British Columbia to commemorate the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion . A national monument was only set up for them in 2001 in Ottawa . It is engraved with the names of 1,546 Canadian volunteers who served in Spain. This number includes the fighting members of the battalion, as well as those of the medical, telecommunications, transportation, translation and other units.

One of the most famous Canadians honored for their service to Spain is the doctor Norman Bethune , who developed the first mobile medical army units during his service for the Republicans. He later continued the concept in China in the 8th March Army , one of the forerunners of the People's Liberation Army . As a doctor in Spain, he was not part of the Mackenzie Papineau battalion, in which there were only fighters, but one of the medical forces.

Independent of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, a number of fighters from Canada came to Spain, where they joined the respective national groups of their original home countries, e. B. Ukrainians. That made u easier. a. linguistic communication on site.

See also

bibliography

  • Victor Howard (Hoar), Mac Reynolds: The MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion: Canadian participation in the Spanish civil war. Copp Clark Publ., 1969
    • New edition Victor Howard, Mac Reynolds: The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion: the Canadian contingent in the Spanish civil war . Carleton, Ottawa 1987
  • William C. Beeching: Canadian volunteers. Spain 1936-1939 . University of Regina , Regina 1989 (contemporary witness report)
  • Mark Zuehlke: The Gallant Cause. Canadians in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 . Whitecap, Vancouver 1996 (available in Google books )
  • Myron Momryk: "For your freedom and for ours." Konstantin (Milce) Olynyk, an Ukrainian volunteer from Canada in the International Brigades, in Canadian Ethnic Studies - Études Ethniques au Canada, vol. 10, no. 2, 1988, pp. 124-134
    • dsb .: Ukrainian volunteers from Canada in the International Brigades. Spain 1936, in Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 16, 1-2, 1991, pp. 181-194
    • dsb .: Участь у громадянській війні в Іспанії Майроном Моміком - відкриття для виставки Музей Шевченка, Торонто, 19 березня 2004. = Uchast' u hromadyans'kiy viyni v Ispaniyi Mayronom Momikom - vidkryttya dlya vystavky Muzey Shevchenka, Toronto, 19 bereznya 2004 (also in English, audio document only: Participation in the Spanish Civil War. Opening address for an exhibition. Shevchenko -Museum, Toronto, March 19, 2004)
  • Michael Petrou: Renegades. Canadians in the Spanish civil war. Vancouver 2008
  • Ronald Liversedge: MacPap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War. Ed. David Yorke. New Star Books, Vancouver 2013 ( eyewitness report )
Fiction
  • June Hutton: Underground: A Novel. Cormorant, Toronto 2009
    • Review , in Fictionalized realities, imagined histories. Contemporary Canadian literature about the Spanish Civil War, by Daniel Marcotte

Web links

Commons : Mackenzie Papineau Battalion  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Movies

  • Los Canadienses: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. National Film Board of Canada , NFB / ONF 1975. Camera: Albert Kish, 57 min. Documentary, interviews with veterans. Watch the film at the NFB / ONF
  • To my son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War. Documentary 2008. Dir. Dave Clement, book: Saku Pinta, voice: Michelle Derosier. 42 min.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Speech on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion Monument , Speech on the occasion of the unveiling of the monument to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, Ottawa, October 20, 2001, by Governor General of Canada , Adrienne Clarkson
  2. ↑ The lead author later changed his name to Howard; therefore both versions can be found in bibliographies