13 Facts About Milton Wolff

Milton Wolff was an American writer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the last commander of the Lincoln Battalion of XV International Brigade, and a prominent communist.

Milton Wolff was born into a working class Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York.

Milton Wolff was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

In early 1937, Wolff set off to join the International Brigades in Spain, reaching Albacete by March.

Milton Wolff led the now Lincoln-Washington Battalion during the Battle of the Ebro and left Spain in November 1938 when the International Brigades were demobilized.

Milton Wolff is alive and unhit by the same hazard that leaves one tall palm tree standing where a hurricane has passed.

In 1940, Milton Wolff volunteered for the British Special Operations Executive, and arranged arms for the European resistance organizations.

Milton Wolff saw action at the end of 1943 in Burma.

Milton Wolff appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to defend VALB from being banned as a Communist front organization.

Milton Wolff battled fiercely for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

Milton Wolff even offered the services of the aging veterans of the Lincoln Brigade to the North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, who declined them.

Later, Milton Wolff campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, and raised money for ambulances in Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s, personally delivering twenty of them.

Milton Wolff completed two autobiographical novels, A Member Of The Working Class about his early life in New York, and Another Hill about his communist and Spanish experiences; he began a third book, The Premature Anti-Fascist, describing his experiences after leaving Spain and during World War II, but did not finish it before his death.