Liesel Carritt

Liesel Carritt (née Mottek; 20 October 1913 – 13 September 1982) was a German teacher, translator, refugee, and later a communist revolutionary who fought against fascism alongside the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. As a teenager, Liesel and her German-Jewish family fled the Nazis and came to Oxford, England, where local people rescued them by providing them with the necessary financial security to ensure that the British government would not deport them back into the hands of the Nazis.

In 1933 Liesel entered into a marriage of convenience with a fellow communist activist called Noel Carritt. Noel was the son of the Oxford University professor Edgar Carritt and a member of the famous Oxford based Carritt family, notable for its Marxist and anti-fascist politics. To avoid being deported to Nazi Germany, Liesel Carritt married another young communist activist called Noel Carritt, who also belonged to the same family that had been financially supporting Liesel and her relatives. After the International Brigades were founded it was decided by the Spanish government that women should not fight on the frontlines, so Liesel instead became a translator and worked in various administrator roles.

Later Liesel's husband Noel and his brother Anthony Carritt would join them, although Anthony would not survive the war. Liesel and Noel would not often cross paths during the war and their relationship drifted apart while remaining on friendly terms. During the war Liesel begun a romantic affair with commander Dave Springhall, who was later arrested by the British and charged with espionage. When Liesel went on leave to Barcelona without permission, Noel wrote to International Brigade authorities asking for leniency, which appears to have worked as Liesel was not punished.

Later life Liesel returned to Britain after serving the International Brigades in Spain, although the exact details of her life after the war are not as well documented. In 1941 Liesel and Noel Carritt divorced each other, and Noel who went onto marry another woman later the same year. In 1947 Liesel married Norman Hidden; the relationship failed to last.

After the end of the Second World War, Liesel moved to Leipzig in East Germany where she would spend the rest of her life working as an interpreter and a teacher. For unknown reasons, she was barred from joining the East German communist party, something which greatly disappointed her. Evidence also suggests that she suffered from multiple episodes of mental illness.

Legacy

During the early 2010s historians attempted to identify as many people as they could with links to Oxfordshire who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. The result was the book No Other Way which identified 31 such people with links to Oxfordshire, and the profits of the book went towards funding the creation of the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial. The campaign was led by Noel Carritt's son Collin Carritt. However Liesel Carritt was not among the 31 identified volunteers. A correction was then uploaded to the website of the Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee which included a small biography of Liesel among the other known volunteers.