Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [169]
Getafe Air Base
Madrid
August 3, 1936
My Dearest Friend Gideon,
Jeremy and I have made it to Spain, at long last. To get here we had to endure a difficult route through the Pyrenees Mountains from France. I’ll write more about it later. Fliers are desperately needed and we were immediately assigned to the Malraux International Squadron. My plane is a Boeing P-12, an old bird, but she does what I ask. We are up against the Italians and Germans of the Nazi Condor Legion, who are running the latest Fiats and Messerschmitts. The Condors were okay as long as they didn’t have any real opposition, but in our first three patrols we’ve given them flying lessons. Jeremy has shot down his first enemy... .
Norfolk
October 11, 1936
Dear Miss Abigail,
... A crisis is brewing in my house. I am about to reach my thirteenth birthday, when Jewish kids (boys) get confirmed in a ceremony called a bar mitzvah. My grandmother and grandfather are really after me to be confirmed and want me to make a trip to Baltimore next summer and get instructions. But my father says he’d never forgive me, and besides, he’d get into trouble with the Party... .
Getafe Air Base
Madrid
November 15, 1936
My Dearest Friend Gideon,
... You must realize that even though I’m no longer a member of the Communist Party, I believe, very powerfully, about what we are doing here in Spain. When I became a Communist, I honestly thought I could help change some of the injustices in America. But later I watched the Communists devour each other brutally. And while they preached they had created the ultimate democracy in Russia, they showed themselves to be the most undemocratic organization on the planet. They certainly are not the answer for America.
I have come to love Roosevelt and I realize now that a true democracy doesn’t have a patented answer for every ill in its society. We cannot and do not fear our neighbors, our country, and ourselves as the Communists do, in order to exist.
I am in Spain to fight against Hitler and Italian fascism. I wish to God Americans understood that better.
If you are truly to become a writer, then you must have freedom. The Communist writers I’ve followed have either left the party in protest or have become mimeograph machines and bitter automatic liars. Writers cannot flourish in an atmosphere of tyranny. Free yourself, Gideon ... free yourself!
Norfolk
January 25, 1937
Dear Miss Abigail,
... My family is really shaken up by the purges in the Soviet Union. Thousands of Jewish intellectuals, doctors, artists, and politicians have been put on trial and either banished or killed. A lot of Jewish members of the Party here have quit in protest. My father doesn’t allow the subject to be spoken of in the house, but my mother and Molly are having second thoughts.
After four years of being told to hate Roosevelt, the Party is now telling us to support him. They do that on a lot of issues, say one thing one day and the opposite the next... .
Getafe Air Base
March 15, 1937
My Dearest Friend Gideon,
... We have recently fought two huge battles at Jarama and at Guadalajara and it is difficult to tell who won. As you know, Madrid has been under siege from almost the first day of the war and it is still under siege, only now Fascist artillery can reach the city and it is a pity to see the magnificent buildings, centuries old, being demolished. It is more pitiful to see the starvation because of the blockade. I wish to God the democracies would end their terrible boycott. They are helping squeeze a fellow democracy to death.
Our five international brigades have over thirty-five thousand volunteers now, from everywhere in the world, and are holding the republic together while they build up a Spanish home army. You can be proud of our Abraham Lincoln Battalion. They have fought well on every front although they’ve suffered terrible losses... .
Norfolk
June 12, 1937
Dear Miss Abigail,
... I have just read the new book by John Steinbeck. It is called In Dubious Battle and reminds me of your fight in Spain. He is