Delmer Berg

Einsley Delmer Berg
BornDecember 20, 1915
Anaheim, California, U.S.
DiedFebruary 29, 2016(2016-02-29) (aged 100)
Columbia, California, U.S.
Allegiance Spanish Republic
United States of America
Branch Oregon National Guard
International Brigades
 United States Army
Service years1937–1939
1942–1945
Unit76th Field Artillery Regiment
Conflicts
Other work
  • Farmer
  • union organizer
  • cement finisher
  • landscape gardener
  • activist

Einsley Delmer "Del" Berg (December 20, 1915 – February 28, 2016)[1][2] was an American soldier and union organizer who volunteered to serve with the XV International Brigade (nicknamed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) during the Spanish Civil War. He was the last known surviving veteran of the Lincoln Brigade.[3][4]

Early years

Born in Anaheim, California, Berg was raised on a farm near Manteca, and then worked as a teenager on a farm in Oregon.[5] He later said his family's poverty helped radicalize him. At 21, he joined the Young Communist League, which was one of the organizations recruiting volunteers for the Spanish Civil War.[6] He briefly trained with the Oregon National Guard before going to Spain in 1937. In August 1938, after eight months of combat, he was wounded in Valencia when fascist planes bombed a monastery he was staying at. Shrapnel from the explosions penetrated his liver.[7] While convalescing at a Valencia hospital, Berg met a group of Americans who led him to join a newly formed branch of the Communist Party USA.[5] He remained an interested and active Party member up until his last interview in 2014.[4][8] He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was stationed in New Guinea and on Morotai Island.[8][9]

Career

Following his demobilization, Berg returned to Modesto, California and found work where he could. He was a farm laborer for 20 years.[6] He fathered two sons from two different marriages. He began serving as a union organizer in the 1950s, working with the United Farm Workers.[6] He represented the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in Washington, D.C. hearings on farm conditions.[5] He became an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) when he was elected vice president of the Stanislaus County branch. He once delivered a petition to the county's racist sheriff, demanding his resignation.[5] During the Second Red Scare, Berg was often harassed for his political activism. In a 2007 profile in the Union Democrat, he recalled the steps he took to evade and discourage the attention of FBI agents.

As the last survivor of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Berg was sought out frequently for interviews. His decision to volunteer to fight fascism in a foreign country was characterized as inspirational.[6] In an episode of the PBS show History Detectives focused on an artifact from the Spanish Civil War, he provided background about the experience of American volunteers.[10]

In his final decade, Berg lived in Columbia, California.[5] He became a centenarian in December 2015.[11] He died two months later on February 28, 2016.[1][2][12]

On March 25, 2016, approximately a month after Berg's death, U.S. Senator John McCain published an op-ed in The New York Times saluting Berg and his comrades who had fought for the values they believed in, both in Spain and in the U.S. when they returned home.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Death Notices for March 1, 2016". Union Democrat. February 29, 2016. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016. Delmer Berg, 100, died Sunday at home in Columbia.
  2. ^ a b Sam Roberts (March 2, 2016). "Delmer Berg, Last of American Volunteers in Spanish Civil War, Dies at 100". The New York Times. p. A21. Retrieved March 24, 2016. Asked in 2013 about his proudest moments since Spain, Berg told the weekly Anderson Valley Advertiser in Mendocino County: "When I was elected vice president of the local NAACP and when one of my grandsons was valedictorian at his Oregon high school graduation and said in a newspaper interview, 'My grandfather is my inspiration. He's a Communist!'"
  3. ^ Nadya Williams (July 2, 2012). "California Vets: Del Berg and Jim Benét". The Volunteer. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Dan Kaufman (March 13, 2015). "The Last Volunteer". The New York Times Magazine. p. MM38. Retrieved March 16, 2015. Del Berg, 99, is the last known surviving veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a contingent of nearly 3,000 Americans who fought to defend the democratically elected government during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
  5. ^ a b c d e Cat Sieh (May 10, 2007). "Activist remains staunch as ever at 91". Union Democrat. Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d Nadya Connolly Williams (October 9, 2013). "The Lincolns Are Leaving Us". Anderson Valley Advertiser. Retrieved March 16, 2015. So what is the legacy of the Lincolns? Beyond this past history, men like Del Berg guide and inspire us to stand up and take action for what is Just. Around the world today, the sacrifice and courage of the International Brigades are remembered, honored and passed on to the young.
  7. ^ Dan Kaufman (February 24, 2022). "Soldiers of Solidarity". The New York Review.
  8. ^ a b Henry Millstein (January 28, 2014). "Spanish Civil War vet still struggling at 98". People's World. Retrieved March 16, 2015. Del's involvement with the Communist movement goes back to before his time in Spain. After a brief stint in the Oregon National Guard, where he got military experience that served him as a Brigadista, he became involved with the Young Communist League in Los Angeles—in part because the YCL could help him get to Spain.
  9. ^ "Berg, Delmer". Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  10. ^ "PBS's History Detectives: A Father's Forgotten Tribute in a Spanish Civil War Eulogy". YouTube. July 10, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  11. ^ "Feliz 100 cumpleaños, Delmer Berg" (in Spanish). foroporlamemoria.info. December 20, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  12. ^ "Last known American who fought fascists in 1930s Spain dies in California". The Guardian (UK). March 2, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016. He became the last known survivor after John Hovan of Rhode Island died in 2014, according to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.
  13. ^ John McCain (March 25, 2016). "Salute to a Communist". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016.
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