International Brigades in Spain 1936

When Spain exploded into civil war in July 1936, a conflict whose roots were deep in the Spanish past became the arena for the violent political passions that divided Europe north of the Pyrenees.

The series contains 37 films and documentaries on the Spanish Civil War from the archives of the Filmoteca Española. TVE broadcasters in Spain, in association with the Spanish Filmoteca has prepared a documental series in eight chapters (each of 55 minutes) with unpublished records of the Civil War that devastated the country between 1936 and 1939.

In late 1936, as Franco's armies stormed toward Madrid, Stalin famously termed the defence of Spain "the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind." As a German emigrant to Winnipeg, Hans Ibing recognized the importance of the Spanish Civil War to the struggle against worldwide fascism in a way that most people in Canada did not—joining the International Brigades in their fight to defend the Spanish Republic was his "chance to fight Hitler."