Gerchik Recalls His Spanish Civil War Days

[struggle4progress]

September 19, 2007
Bill Bruns , Managing Editor

... Dr. Max Gerchik, who is 96 and still active in the Palisades Democratic Club, ... recalled that after graduating in the top 10 percent of his class at New York University in 1932, he was denied admission by top medical schools in the U.S. because of strict quotas against Jews ...

'The civil war broke out two days before the counter-Olympics,' said Gerchik, who has white wavy hair and was wearing a bright-blue Hawaiian shirt at our interview. 'My friend didn't want to stick around, but I stayed and I was one of the first international volunteers.' In fact, Gerchik joined the forces in Spain before even the Abraham Lincoln Brigade arrived. Gerchik linked up with the government troops who fought General Franco's rebels in Zaragosa, west of Barcelona ...

After about five months of fighting on the Barcelona Front, Gerchik was interviewed by a correspondent with the Manchester Guardian. 'He wrote a short article about me that was picked up by the Herald Tribune in New York, and it caused a lot of panic in my family. That's how they found out I was fighting in Spain, not studying to become a doctor in Switzerland!' ...

'But I didn't believe it,' Gerchik said. "So I had a fellow student in Bern send a telegram in my name to say that I was back in school. My brother didn't buy that, and he sent another telegram: 'Mother is dying'hurry!' This time I believed him, so I requested a leave from my commanding officer and I made my way to France and sailed home. When I arrived in New York, there my mother was in good health, waving from the dock.' ...

http://www.palisadespost.com/content/index.cfm?Story_ID=3218

[Hardrada]

1. Viva la Republica!

Long live the Fifteenth Brigade & the other American Volunteers!