During this visit I read the Jacob (Jack) Shafran Papers, specifically Jack’s letters to his girlfriend Ruth Goldstein in New York City. Jack served with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from July 1937 to October 1938, and came home in December 1938.
Like many of his comrades, Jacks letters started off confident and cheery. Ironically this is around the same time that George Boehm’s writing grew trepidatious and he soon died in a battle that Jack survived. Like George, Jack wrote about the war frequently and in detail. Unlike George, Jack usually received regular mail from his significant other. Interestingly, the correspondence seemed to instill more homesickness than confidence in Jack. Also, from George and Jack’s descriptions of war, and from my general historical knowledge, I get the impression that nonintervention hurt the morale of those fighting for the Republic, and I also get the impression that the Republic could have won a resounding victory if it had received international help [studying the rationale for and reactions to American nonintervention might make an interesting final project].
By December 1937 Jack’s tone has changed from confident to world-weary. “Did you ever get to feeling where the important and big things seemed small and trivial, and you just couldn’t bring yourself to do anything?”[1] he asks Ruth dismally. Aside from battle scenarios, Jack sinks even deeper into weariness and even boredom, often complaining about seemingly petty details. But I suppose the little annoyances can add up, especially at war in a foreign country. He does have some serious complaints as well, including a bad hand injury in August 1938 that incapacitated him for several weeks. By October 1938 Jack implies that he used prostitutes during his free time (specifically in July 1938), he mentions drinking and gambling to kill time, and he cannot wait to go home. This makes me wonder: How common was the use of prostitutes, drinking, and gambling? Peter Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade makes it sound like drinking was not much of an issue, with a few isolated exceptions, but does not address prostitution or gambling. Anyhow, Jack’s feelings of homesickness apparently dwarf whatever upset he felt about the ALB withdrawing and the Republic losing the war. I wonder if George Boehm would have developed similar feelings had he outlived the fighting. I’d like to think that George would have maintained a more selfless tone to the very end.
Citations
1. Letter from Jacob Shafran, Dec 14, 1937; Jacob (Jack) Shafran Papers; ALBA 215; box 1; folder 6
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
judging by the number of posters warning against venereal diseases, frequenting prostitutes was a not uncommon activity. We should take a look at those posters; Harold Melofski (whose papers are in the Miriam Sigel Friedlander collection, and available on-line) is the only other explicit reference I know of in ALBA. In Hemingway's play, "The Fifth Column" there's a character that is a Spanish prostitute.
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