scholarly journals Training of volunteer nurses during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939): A historical study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261787
Author(s):  
María López ◽  
Rubén Mirón-González ◽  
María-José Castro ◽  
José-María Jiménez

Background The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) is an example of a historic event involving nurses, with the participation of professional and volunteer nurses from Spain and other countries. In this context, nurses were trained over short periods of time and recruited to work at hospitals serving the two warring camps. Objectives To identify the characteristics of the training received by volunteer nurses on both sides in the Spanish Civil War and compare it with previous experiences in the history. Design Historical research. Methods Heuristic and hermeneutical analysis of nurse training manuals and news articles from 1936 to 1939. Spanish primary sources were consulted at the Red Cross Documentation Centre Archive in Madrid, the General Military Archive in Ávila, the Municipal Newspaper Archive in Madrid, and the archives of Spanish daily newspapers ABC and La Vanguardia. The following variables were analysed: duration, entry requirements, and theoretical content of the training courses. Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) has been used. Findings Both sides in the conflict offered a varied training programme, which was supported by official institutions and private initiatives. The courses lasted between one week and two months. Entry requirements were influenced by education level, age, moral conduct, health status, and social and political background. Training content focused on the techniques needed in conflict settings and covered specific moral values. Conclusions Despite the different social and political characteristics of the two warring factions, the variety of training programmes on offer, the entry requirements, and the theoretical content of volunteer nurse training were similar on both sides. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, volunteer nurses on the Republican side suffered reprisals or had to go into exile. We now know that some countries involved in World War II provided training courses for volunteer nurses. It would therefore be interesting to ascertain whether Spanish volunteer nurses contributed their experience to these courses.

Author(s):  
Emily Robins Sharpe

The Jewish Canadian writer Miriam Waddington returned repeatedly to the subject of the Spanish Civil War, searching for hope amid the ruins of Spanish democracy. The conflict, a prelude to World War II, inspired an outpouring of literature and volunteerism. My paper argues for Waddington’s unique poetic perspective, in which she represents the Holocaust as the Spanish Civil War’s outgrowth while highlighting the deeply personal repercussions of the war – consequences for women, for the earth, and for community. Waddington’s poetry connects women’s rights to human rights, Canadian peace to European war, and Jewish persecution to Spanish carnage.


Author(s):  
Cliona Ni Bhrolchain

Specialist and advanced nursing roles have started to emerge in paediatrics and paediatricians may be asked to support nurses through their training. While there are specific training programmes for some areas of practice eg, neonatology, there are currently no programmes for others. Paediatricians may therefore find themselves being asked to train nurse specialists outside a formal training programme, or to provide the clinical specialty component linked to a generic MSc course, where the paediatrician may be required to devise a training curriculum specific to their area of practice. Using, neonatology, there are currently no programmes for others. Paediatricians may therefore find themselves being asked to train nurse specialists outside a formal training programme, or to provide the clinical specialty component linked to a generic MSc course, where the paediatrician may be required to devise a training curriculum specific to their area of practice. Using community child health as an example, this paper outlines how paediatricians might approach this, based on the experience of the author. However, the principles outlined can apply to any area of paediatrics.


Author(s):  
Martin O'Donoghue

This chapter examines how such individuals from Irish Party backgrounds coped with the shift from Free State to republic as independent Ireland faced challenges at home and abroad. It charts the struggle of the AOH to reinvent itself as a Catholic social organisation which retained lingering vitality in the border areas while statistical analysis illuminates the home rule legacy in Fine Gael, disclosing that between 30% and 40% of its deputies up to 1949 had traceable Irish Party roots. This chapter analyses responses of such figures to the Spanish Civil War; the introduction of the new constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann: Irish neutrality during World War II; and the controversial declaration of a republic by Fine Gael Taoiseach John A. Costello — a home ruler in his youth and leader of a government including individuals such as James Dillon, Bridget Redmond, Alfie Byrne, and ex-MP and World War I veteran John Lymbrick Esmonde.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. Pacheco

ArgumentThis paper considers some aspects of the reception and development of contemporary mathematics in Spain during the first half of the twentieth century, more specifically between 1910 and 1950. It analyzes the possible influence of scientists’ mobility in the adoption of newer views or theories. A short overview of key points of the social and scientific background in nineteenth-century Spain locates the expounded facts in an appropriate context. Three leading threads are followed. First is the consideration of the mobility of some Spanish mathematicians during a period including World War I and World War II – when Spain was a theoretically neutral country – and the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Second, the emergence and socio-political behavior of a dominant mathematical group gathered around Julio Rey Pastor between 1915 and 1936 is also accounted for, as well as its continuity after the Civil War into the 1940s. Third, attention is paid to the migration or interior exile of a number of mathematicians as a consequence of the Civil War. The paper is organized around nine Tables containing information on mobility of mathematicians, doctorates awarded in the mathematical sciences, and mathematical production in Spain during this period, accompanied by statistical résumés and comments on interesting entries. The main conclusions drawn are: 1) a number of integrants of the Rey group, himself included, officially traveled to Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland – usually after having obtained doctorates and fixed positions – imported mathematical knowledge into Spain; 2) the group also managed to dominate the mathematical panorama from both the scientific and the sociological viewpoint; 3) social usages in Spanish mathematical affairs established in Spain in the years prior to the Civil War present a clear continuity under the Franco regime once the war was over.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Todd Bernhardt

The International Brigades were volunteer military units that fought for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1938. Some 40,000-45,000 men fought in the International Brigades as an act of anti-Fascism, international solidarity, and national preservation. Although many historians have examined the volunteer soldiers’ motivations, wartime experiences, and reintegration into their home societies on a national basis, there has not yet been a global study of veteran reintegration and memorial culture. This global comparative study demonstrates that a state’s acceptance or rejection of their Brigade veterans was dictated by a global anti-Fascist and anti-Communist divide. In nations that underwent an ideological shift from anti-Fascism to anti-Communism after World War II, the veterans were repressed as potential threats and denied access to state-sponsored memory. In response to this exclusion, the veterans created their own memorial cultures. In nations that retained or renewed their commitment to anti-Fascism, the veterans were welcomed into the pantheon of state heroes as these states incorporated the Brigades into their national origin myths.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
Branko Šuštar

SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN SLOVENIAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKSThe article examines the image of the 1936–1939 Spanish civil war as presented in Slovenian history textbooks for primary and secondary schools 75 years after the war. In textbooks, this topic is important for presenting the period before World War II in Europe as well as the social and political differences present in Europe at that time. The Spanish civil war raises questions of democracy, fascism, communism, social reforms, violence and revolution in Europe. Initially, the textbook authors briefly discussed the Popular front, democracy and elections, communists and revolution, as well as the support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to Franco’s Nationalist faction and the support of Soviet Union to the Republican faction. After 1980, textbooks included a more detailed presentation of the broader social situation, the attitude of artists towards the Spanish civil war, and the impact of war on political divisions in Slovenia during World War II. The first textbooks generally mentioned that a number of Yugoslavs were fighting for the Republican faction, whereas later authors provided more information in accordance with research studies, i.e. that 500 Slovenians participated in the International Brigades.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Ádám Anderle

The elite of the Hungarian volunteers of the Spanish Civil War became victim of the Communist terror after World War II (1949-1950). The main role was played by the brigadist, László Rajk, who, before the trial, was the secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, Minister of the Interior, and then Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was charged with spying for the “imperialists” and Tito as well as with high treason and anti-Semitism. In the show trial of “Rajk and his associates” 155 people were charged and convicted, 15 of them, including Rajk, were condemned to death. In the indictment Rajk was condemned for his activity during the Spanish Civil War: he was accused of being a fascist, and then an imperialist agent, as well as a “Trockyist”, just like the twenty other Hungarian Brigadists. The background of the trial has been thoroughly analysed in Hungarian historiography, but the accusation connected to the Spanish period has not been examined or criticized. The present study, based on new sources, such as the reports of the Hungarian Communist Secret Service, the papers of the KGB Archives in Moscow, and the Comintern, raises the issue emphasizing the negative role of Ernő Gerő (“Pedro”), who was the representative of the Comintern and the PCIA (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), in the process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document