Milton Wolff

Milton Wolff (October 7, 1915 – January 14, 2008) was an American writer and activist who served as the last commander of the Lincoln Battalion during the Spanish Civil War and as an Allied intelligence operative during World War II.

Early life Wolff was born into a working class Jewish immigrant family in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on October 7, 1915. His parents originally came from Lithuania and Hungary. He attended the New York School of Commercial Art but dropped out to join the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. He joined the Young Communist League on returning to Brooklyn from the CCC. It was there that he volunteered to go to Spain to fight fascism. He "detested elegant uniforms", customarily wearing "baggy trousers, a stained leather jacket" and, in wet weather, a "woolly poncho".

World War II

In 1940, Wolff volunteered for the British Special Operations Executive, and arranged arms for the European resistance organizations. After the United States' entry into World War II, Wolff volunteered for the U.S. Army infantry in June 1942.

He saw action at the end of 1943 in Burma, where he earned a field commission as a lieutenant.

In 1945, Wolff was one of 16 Army officers and enlisted men singled out as alleged Communists by the House Committee on Military Affairs. General Donovan came to their defense, citing their loyalty and effectiveness.

Later life

Wolff appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to defend VALB (Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) from being banned as a Communist front organization. His explanation for his actions owed to his ancestry: "I am Jewish, and knowing that as a Jew we are the first to suffer when fascism does come, I went to Spain to fight against it."

According to historian Peter Carroll:

When Congress passed the McCarran Act in 1950, obliging all designated subversive organizations to register with the federal government and creating heavy penalties for leaders who refused to cooperate, the entire executive committee of the VALB resigned in 1950. In its place, two Lincoln veterans stepped forward: Wolff became the National Commander; Moe Fishman became the Executive Secretary/Treasurer...

However, newspaper accounts indicate Wolff was first elected National Commander in 1939. He was succeeded by fellow Lincoln Battalion commander Steve Nelson in 1963.

Wolff also battled fiercely for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He even offered the services of the aging veterans of the Lincoln Brigade to the North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, who declined them. Later, Wolff campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, and raised money for ambulances in Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s, personally delivering twenty of them. His first marriage ended in divorce. Wolff and his second wife are both buried at the Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito.

Works and features Franco Spain: Menace to World Peace (Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1947). Another Hill: An Autobiographical Novel (1994; University of Illinois Press, 2001). A Member of the Working Class (iUniverse, 2005). Wolff was featured in the film documentary The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War (1984).