Milton Wolff, the last commander of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War, died of heart failure Jan. 14 in Berkeley. He was 92.
A child of the Great Depression, Wolff dropped out of high school at 15 and started coming into his own politically.
He worked in a millinery factory in Manhattan and joined the Young Communist League, which provided an international lens through which to view the world, including the problems in Spain.
The situation there was dire. Beginning in 1936 the elected government of Spain, considered liberal and reformist, faced a military revolt led by the conservative Francisco Franco. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Germany's Adolf Hitler supported Franco's forces, while the Spanish government had the support of the Soviet Union. The U.S. government, like that of other Western nations, abided by a non-intervention agreement.
When a Young Communist League organizer asked for volunteers to join Americans and other foreigners who supported the Spanish government, Wolff raised his hand. About 2,800 Americans fought in the war and some 900 were killed.
"Struggle is the elixir of life, the tonic of life. I mean if you're not struggling you are dead," Wolff said in Peter N. Carroll's 1994 book "Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War."
Wolff traveled to France on an ocean liner, hiked across the Pyrenees Mountains and began his work on the battlefield carrying water for a machine gun company. Initially, his plan was to be a medic; he was a pacifist and did not want to kill. But he was inspired by the African American commander of a machine gun unit, and soon Wolff found that others were inspired by his own leadership.
"Something latent in his character in the United States took shape in Spain, and the men and brigade leaders took note of it. He had a capacity to lead men in battle," wrote Cary Nelson in the introduction to "Another Hill," Wolff's 1994 "autobiographical novel," about his war experiences.
In Spain, Wolff met Ernest Hemingway, who famously compared the tall, gaunt Wolff to Abraham Lincoln in a 1938 piece that appears in "Spanish Portraits." Hemingway also detailed Wolff's battles and ascent to commander.
By the time Wolff became commander, four other commanders had been killed and four wounded.
