An Irish farewell to Dave Smith -
Last surviving USA Lincoln Brigade veteran of the Battle of Jarama

There is additional material on Abe Osherof and Milt Wolff, two recently deceased US veterans.
Manus O'Riordan.
Updated, July 24th 2008.

I was saddened to learn of the death of Lincoln vet Dave Smith on July 2, so soon after his achievement in driving the San Francisco Lincoln Brigade Memorial to its completion. It was indeed a privilege for me to be present at that unveiling on March 30 and to renew my acquaintanceship with Dave himself.

I had first met Dave in Spain during the 1996 Homenaje a las Brigadas Internacionales. I had also met Abe Osheroff on that occasion. It is my great regret that I never had the opportunity to say even a few words to Abe twelve years later, after witnessing his slow arrival in his wheelchair at the San Francisco memorial ceremony and having been overwhelmed by the power of his subsequent address. Different people were hit by emotion at different stages of the event and, of course, there was added poignancy to Abe's words re that memorial - "Thank you for making us immortal!" - when we subsequently learned that both he and Abe Smorodin, whom I had seen fall at the end of the ceremony, had passed on a week later. Like Dave, it was as if they had both willed themselves to live for that memorial completion, as my own Irish vet father Michael O'Riordan had willed himself to live for the first ever annual general meeting of the International Brigade Memorial Trust to be held in Dublin in October 2005, before falling only one month later and being permanently hospitalised for the last six months of his life.

The part of Abe Osheroff's speech that had particularly, but unexpectedly, ambushed me with emotion was, however, the following: "What the hell are monuments all about? ... I'll tell you what it's all about for me. Some day in the not too distant future, some guy will be walking through here with a couple of his adolescent kids, and one of the kids will say, 'Dad, what's that?' And this Dad may know the answer."

The tears flowed because I was immediately hit by the memory of when I had first met and last talked with Abe in Madrid. My own vet father had been accompanied to that 1996 Spanish homenaje, not only by my sister and myself, but also by my wife and our three children. Abe himself was accompanied by his daughter Sara and her young son who, in turn, began to play with my then eight year old youngest child Luke. Abe made a point of emphasising to me how important it had been to bring the kids to such a gathering of International Brigaders. And so, in another sense, vets will also be immortalised through such memories recalled by their own grandchildren.

Having also met Dave for the very first time in 1996, I was delighted that both he and his partner June Spero subsequently visited us in Dublin in Spring 2001. As I would do with other Lincoln vet visitors to Dublin - like Lou Gordon and his wife Ann, and Moe Fishman and his partner Georgia Wever - I brought Dave and June to the Goilin Traditional Singers Club. When we met up again this March, Dave recalled that evening with such enthusiasm! But then there was always a special place in Dave's heart for the Irish. "My Experience with the Irish Section of the Lincolns" was the title of his subsequent article in the September 2001 issue of "The Volunteer", which I reproduce hereunder in fond farewell. But first I must quote another expression of the immortality of those who defended the Spanish Republic. A year after my father's death our family scattered a portion of my father's ashes in the river Ebro in May 2006. A month previously we had scattered the first portion of his ashes in the Irish Sea, on which occasion I sang an adaptation of a poem by that great Spanish anti-fascist poet Rafael Alberti, "Si mi voz muriera en tierra", together with my own Irish language and English translations:

If my voice should die on earth
It's from the sea it may be heard
If you leave it on the shore.

So take my voice down to the sea
That a captain it may be
Of a white ship of war.

O let my voice be decorated
With the emblems of a sailor:
With an anchor from the heart
That anchor reaching for a star
And from that star the wind will rise
With wind to sail - my undying voice!

Yes indeed! From the Lincoln Brigade Memorial at the Embarcadero, the undying voices of Dave Smith and Abe Osheroff, and all other deceased Lincoln vets, do indeed rise over San Francisco Bay! And so, to Dave's own 2OO1 article: My Experience with the Irish Section of the Lincolns.

Salud companero!

Manus O'Riordan

Other material is available online

SEE www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/11/BA4M11NE08.DTL for San Francisco Chronicle obituary for Dave Smith.

SEE www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3834632.ece for the London Times - and www.abeosheroff.org/NYTObituary.html for the New York Times - obituaries for Abe Osheroff; See also www.abeosheroff.org for a dedicated website in his memory.

SEE www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWmWEJKshbA for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Monument Dedication on March 30, 2008 at which Dave Smith, Abe Osheroff and Abe Smorodin made their last public appearances.

SEE either www.abeosheroff.org/SFYouTube.html

or www.abeosheroff.org/SFMovie.html for a full recording of Abe Osheroff's final speech [At the back of the crowd the red, yellow and purple banner of the "Connolly Column, 15 Brigada Internacional" is carried by Manus O'Riordan]. The full text of that speech is reproduced hereunder.

Abe Osheroff's "Last Stand" in San Francisco:

Abe made an epic trip between Seattle and San Francisco less than a week before he died, to take part in the dedication of the memorial to the Lincoln Brigade vets. It was a joyous, brave and fitting journey for his last days.

Abe's dedication speech on March 30:

"Many people consider going to Spain as simply a sacrifice. I'm not one of those. To me, being an activist has always been a special privilege. And it's a wonderful job. You never run out of work. You meet some of the nicest people. The pay is very high. Yes, it is! IF you value the love and respect of the people you work with and know more than you do money and physical things, then the pay IS very high. And that's why I'm able to say, at the ripe old age of pushing-93, that I've had a glorious life, in many ways. Now, let's see what we are dealing with. At this moment, there are, what, as of last week 39 people who remain out of the Struggle which is on the surface a rather small percentage. And yet, there is this incredible feeling that the stuff we are made of never goes away. With or without monuments. Because the bastards will never cease their evil, and the decent human beings will never stop their struggle. This has been a very difficult thing for me to do, not only because I'm getting a little frail (finally!). But because I approached it with very mixed emotions. Going down to the very basics: what the hell are monuments all about, beside places for birds to deliver bird shit. And I'll share that feeling with you. I'll tell you what it's all about for me. Some day in the not too distant future, some guy will be walking through here with a couple of his adolescent kids, and one of the kids will say, "Dad, what's that?" And this Dad may know the answer. And giving that answer is like putting another spark plug into the vehicle of progress that we're all engaged in. I'm very happy to see you guys here. And one more moment- I'm not a San Franciscan. I'm a New Yorker! But our record is not that great- no truthfully! I can't imagine any other place where this would have taken place first except San Francisco! Because in many ways, San Francisco is one of the crossroads of growing culture, of advanced ideas that has appeared on the map. So I salute you, all you San Franciscans, and I thank you on behalf of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade for making us immortal."

From: MANUS O'RIORDAN, 23 January 2008
CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF MILT WOLFF

Anne Taibleson, Executive Director, Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

Dear Anne,

On behalf of the Relatives and Friends of Irish International Brigaders, I wish to extend to the relatives of Milt Wolff, to the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and to you yourself and all at ALBA, our heartfelt condolences on the sad loss of Milt Wolff. It was my privilege to have met Milt in Spain in 1996 at the 60th anniversary commemorations, while my own brigadista father Michael O'Riordan (died 2006) would have been reunited with him on many more occasions, as they are now reunited in our memories.

While old age and illness may reduce the element of surprise on hearing such news, it does not diminish the painful sense of loss on the passing of these heroes, particularly when Milt Wolff himself passed on so close to the date of the unveiling of the National Monument at San Francisco. Indeed, the very last email I received from Moe Fishman, only six weeks before his death last year, stated: "A monument will be put up on the ferry slip next to the Embarcadero, San Francisco. I will send you exact information. Maybe there is some chance you can come across and join us for this occasion."

Yes, I will certainly honor that invitation to come across to San Francisco to pay tribute to all the Lincoln Brigaders, and, in particular, to recently departed comrades and friends like Milt Wolff, Moe Fishman and Lou Gordon. And I know that on that occasion my own father will also be joining them in spirit.

Salud y abrazos

Manus O'Riordan
Executive Member for Ireland
International Brigade Memorial Trust

See www.cervantestv.es/documentales/video_reportaje_frente_fascismo.htm for Moe Fishman and Abe Osheroff singing in the opening sequence, and see this video from the 8th minute onward for interviews with Moe Fishman, Milt Wolff, Abe Smorodin and Jack Shafran.

At the San Francisco Memorial Service for Milt Wolff, held courtesy of the International Longshore Workers Union on March 29, 2008, the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who spoke were Dave Smith and Matti Mattson. Manus O'Riordan, Executive Member for Ireland of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, spoke on behalf of the relatives and friends of the "Connolly Column, la Quince Brigada Internacional", the Irish International Brigaders who had fought in the ranks of both the 15th Brigade's British Battalion and its Abraham Lincoln Battalion. At the Bay Area Lincoln Brigade Reunion in the Post Street Theater on March 30, Manus O'Riordan also sang a song in tribute to the Irish poet Charlie Donnelly, of the James Connolly Unit of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, who was killed in action during the Battle of Jarama, February 1937.

See www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWafzvEr1k&feature=related for Dave Smith's address on the occasion of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Monument Groundbreaking on February 28, 2008.

See www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZk8019SEY for Moe Fishman's address to the Veterans for Peace Convention in 2006.

For Moe's August 2007 obituaries, see www.chelseanow.com/cn_47/moefishman92.html and www.pww.org/article/articleview/11569/1/386.

See also www.miltwolff.rb68.com for a dedicated website in memory of Milt Wolff, including his January 2008 obituaries.

See www.alba-valb.org for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives website;

www.international-brigades.org.uk for the International Brigade Memorial Trust website

www.oocities.org/irelandscw for the "Ireland and the Spanish Civil War" website.