The Mackenzie Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades
Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
This monument commemorates the gallant men and women of British Columbia and Canada who offered their lives to defend the principles of democracy and served as the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades in defence of the Republic of Spain.
In July 1936, the opening shots of the Second World War were fired in Spain. Insurgent forces led by General Franco staged a rebellion to crush the democratically elected Government of the Spanish Republic. This treason was met with armed resistance by the people of Spain who rose to defend the New Republic. Thus the Spanish Civil War had begun which pitted the democracy embodied in the Spanish Republic against the fascism of the insurgent forces lead by Franco, whose allies were the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini.
Against the backdrop of appeasement of Hitler, the policy of Non-intervention, and arms embargoes against the Republic rendering it virtually defenseless, volunteers from 53 countries – who formed the International Brigades – went to Spain to defend democracy and resist the spread of fascism. They fought at the side of the infant Spanish Republic to defend the right of the Spanish people to chose, by election, their government.
Nearly 1600 Canadian volunteers – confronted by the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1937 enacted by the Canadian Government and facing criminal charges under the Act – joined in that struggle to defend the Spanish Republic and the democracy it embodied. One-quarter of those volunteers came from British Columbia. Members of the Mackenzie-Papieau Battalion served with distinction, honour, courage and valour on the battlefields of Spain during the Civil War which raged from 1936 to 1939
Over 600 volunteers in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion were killed in Spain. These brave individuals are forever part of the earth of Spain. Many of the survivors of the Battalion who returned to Canada in 1939 endeavoured to join and did join the Canadian forces to fight with the Allies in World War II, which began six months later. Once again, they were fighting fascism. The fascist alliance of the Axis Powers was finally defeated in 1945.
NO PASARÁN
Marker is on Menzies Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
