Many young idealists from all over the world went to Spain in 1936 to fight against the fascists (Nationals, under the rule of Franco), as members of the International Brigades (Republican military units made up of many non-state-sponsored, anti-fascist, mostly socialist and communist, volunteers), in the Spanish Civil War. We are here extremely thankful to those brave peoples.
I've seen statutes and monuments devoted to those young fighters in places such as Glasgow, Scotland, UK (see the statue of "La Pasionaria", Glasgow's memorial to the International Brigade volunteers from Great Britain who fought and died in the Spanish Civil War), and even as far away as in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada (see below the monument to the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps, a battalion of Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s), where the relatives mourn some of these young people that were killed in the fight. When I saw the latter monument, I felt extremely touched and grateful to all international brigadeers in general, of course, but to them in particular, given the huge distance (according to wikipedia, except for France, no other country had a greater proportion of its population volunteer in Spain as did Canada). I was astonished, and I cried for the sacrifices that they undertook. It’s amazing what those young men and women did back then: they left their homes in those far places (Victoria is 9000 km away from Spain!) and crossed half world in the 30s to help the Spanish Republic fight the fascists. I wish we all had half of their strong will and endurance.
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