Hope Dies Last (links to samples below)
The Story of Two Americans Who Fought Franco, Hitler, Mussolini and then Their Own Government
In the opening of Studs Terkel’s book, Hope Dies Last, he quotes retired farm worker and labor activist Jessie de la Cruz, “With us, there’s a saying, ‘La esperanza muere ultima. Hope dies last.’ You can’t lose hope, if you lose hope you lose everything.”
These words serve as an apt aphorism for the lives of a handful of men and women now in the latter years of their lives. They have spent their eighty and ninety years on this earth literally fighting and working in every conceivable way for an egalitarian and democratic society. What binds them together as brothers and sisters, though, is their service as volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, the bloody first act of World War II.
They are the surviving members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who defied the will and laws of their country’s government to become the first Americans to fight the German Nazis and Italian fascists. Many of their friends died in that war and many more suffered terrible wounds and deprivations, but they did so in the belief that they were fighting for a just cause and in the hope of forestalling the Armageddon that would be World War II. Many of the survivors have said they fought in Spain so others might not have to fight a larger war later.
In all, they are a group whose lives have taken them on a journey that will never be repeated. They have seen the hopelessness of economic despair, the pain and fury of war, social injustice, discrimination, and personal persecution by the US government for their service in Spain. And yet they have never given up their idealism. They have never lost their hope and faith that they could make the world a better place.
“Hope Dies Last” is a book based on the lives of the survivors of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, as told in their own words. It is not a history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade per se, but the compelling story of their lives and experiences told in narrative form. It is intended to read like a novel as opposed to a straightforward historical retelling.
Though the author has conducted a number of interviews of surviving members of the Brigade and has permission from NYU’s Tamiment Library—the home of the Brigade’s archives—to use various materials, which includes many rarely if ever seen photos, letters, journals and video interviews, the book will be told from the perspective of ALB veterans Lou Gordon and Abe Smorodin. As lifelong friends, their stories intertwine and easily flow back and forth as they describe why their early lives and the events that led to their decision to travel to Spain to fight. They describe their experiences in that country and the pain and pathos of war as well as the moments of hope and humor in a way that is compelling, emotionally taught, and provide a glimpse into a long gone era of human history. They both describe returning from the battle field to an America still in the grips of depression and highly suspicious of those who were the first to fight Hitler and Mussolini.
As each moves through his own personal story—they were interviewed a number of times separately—Abe and Lou remain in constant narrative contact with the other. There is an intimacy in their retelling of their lives that I believe is rare today and that adds depth and texture to the larger story being told. Upon publication, they will become two of the more interesting and complex characters of the twentieth century.
After Spain their lives travel in two parallel though separate arcs as Abe marries and takes over the small grocery owned by his parents while maintaining his activism for numerous causes that could be summed as those of social justice. Meanwhile, Lou travels and works for a bit only to volunteer for the U.S. Army shortly after Pearl Harbor. He fights from the initial landings on D-Day until the surrender of Germany. Quite literally, Lou fought in the earliest battles of World War II right up to its final closing moments. Among his many experiences in the last throws of the War is his small role to liberate the Dachau concentration camp—the ultimate proof of the justness of his decision to fight in Spain.
Both men enter the 1950s under the watchful eye of McCarthy and are routinely harassed by the FBI for their participation in the Spanish Civil War and membership—though, since renounced upon discovering the cruelty and anti-democratic nature of Stalin—in the Communist Party. Undeterred, both men fight against the witch hunts and join many more causes such as the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement and many others.
To say the least, the lives of these two men have been defined not just by their friendship, but enduring belief in the causes of social justice. The book I am writing will tell the much larger tale of the Americans in Spain and their lives after through the eyes of Abe and Lou because their story is one of beauty, pain, humor and more.
The following links will take you to a sample chapter as well as two transcripts of my interviews with Lou and Abe:
Far From Home
Abe Smorodin
Lou Gordon
