The Palafox Battalion was a volunteer unit of largely Polish and Spanish composition in the

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. It was named after José de Palafox, a Spanish general who successfully fought French Napoleonic forces during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

History

The Palafox Battalion was formed on 28 June 1937 as a unit of the CL International Brigade. On 4 August 1937, two of its companies were sent to reinforce the

XIII International Brigade The 13th International Brigade – often known as the XIII Dąbrowski Brigade – fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in the International Brigades. The brigade was dissolved and then reformed on four occasions. ...

and the remaining companies followed on 12 October 1937. At that time the Palafox Battalion was merged with the Mickiewicz Battalion to form the 4th battalion of XIII International Brigade. It remained with the XIIIth Brigade until the International Brigades were demobilised on 23 September 1938. It was formed from Poles, Soviet citizens, with a nucleus of Spanish volunteers from the '' Pasionaria Battalion'' and had a larger Soviet component than most battalions. It was commanded by a Major Tkachev, and most of the four companies were led by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

lieutenants. It also contained Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians.

Organisation

It had five companies of which No. 2 was a specifically Jewish unit. *1 Coy: *2 Coy: Naftalí Botwin *3 Coy: Adam Mickiewicz *4 Coy: Taras Szewczenko *5 Coy: Ludwik Warynski

Adam Mickiewicz Company

It was common practice in the

to build new battalions around existing veteran companies and the Palafox Battalion's third company was used as the nucleus for the Mickiewicz Battalion.

Naftali Botwin Company

This company was formed of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

volunteers and was a sub-unit of the Palafox Battalion during the

. It was named after Naftali Botwin, a Polish Jew who was executed in 1925 for killing a police informer.

Background

The idea of a separate Jewish unit was first put forward to

Luigi Longo Luigi Longo (15 March 1900 – 16 October 1980), also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972. He was also the first foreigner to be awarded an Order of Lenin. E ...

and André Marty in Albacete by "Albert Nahumi" (''Arieh Weits''), a

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

leader in October 1936. The idea was well received and a call for volunteers went out. However, Nahumi died shortly afterwards and the idea was not progressed. A year later, the idea was resurrected and pressure was put on Longo and Marty by a group of influential Paris communists. On 12 December 1937, the Naftali Botwin Company was established by renaming and reforming No. 2 Company of the Palafox Battalion into an officially Jewish unit. The new company had about 150 members from Poland, France, Belgium, Palestine and Spain. Its flag bore the Dabrowski motto ("For your freedom and ours") in Yiddish and Polish on one side, and in Spanish on the other. It also had its own anthem, ''Der March der Botvin-soldaten'' ("March of the Botwin Soldiers"). The lyrics were by Olek Nuss, who survived wounds in Spain only to be executed in Nazi-occupied France. It was published in ''Botwin'', the journal of Yiddish-speaking soldiers in Spain, in November 1938.

Political dimension

By the end of 1937, the

were facing significant difficulties, both in Spain and abroad. Its supply of volunteers was drying up, as a result of high casualties and stories circulated by returning volunteers about harsh discipline and appalling conditions. The blockade on arms and materiel, organised by the

Non-Intervention Committee During the Spanish Civil War, most European countries followed a policy of non-intervention to avoid potential escalation or expansion of the war to other states. This policy led to the signing of the Non-Intervention Agreement in August 1936 an ...

was also having its effect. As Zaagsma writes:Zaagsma, p 19 ''The International Brigade was one of the Comintern's most powerful propaganda tools ... Given the high proportion of Jews in the various communist parties, a Jewish fighting unit was a powerful propaganda tool.''

References

Sources

* Zaagsma, Gerben ''Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War:'' A case study of the Botwin company. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2001.

External links

*Mitch Abidor
The Naftali Botwin Company
{{Authority control International Brigades Military units and formations established in 1937 Military units and formations disestablished in 1938