Alice Glasnerová
Alice Glasnerová: timeline
Erwin Kohn: timeline
Dora Kleinová: timeline
Helena Petranková: timeline
The Komenský Hospital in the Second World War
The Second World War
The Noel Field connections
The Slánský Trials
Prison regimes
Original documents
Publications
Bibliography
In July 1937 Alice made the decision to join her friend Helena Petrankova in Spain. Comrades in Paris arranged the journey into Spain. She took the train to Perpignan and from there was transferred by boat from Cerbere to Port Bou, the two villages on either side of the French/Spanish border. Her first destination was Figueres, from where she sent a telegram to Erwin explaining where she was. The fort in Figueres was a rallying point near the border for all international volunteers who crossed into Spain.
She was then taken via Barcelona to Albacete, which was the centre for the recruitment of the international brigades. She remained there for a few days before being sent on to Guadalajara where the Czech volunteers for the international brigade hospital were situated. The Czech hospital was named after Jan Amos Komensky (aka Johannes Amos Comenius), the famous Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian.
In Albacete Alice met Dora Kleinova for the first time and they were to remain friends for the rest of their lives. Dora was a Polish doctor, who had trained in Prague and become a Czechoslovak citizen in order to be able to work at the Czech hospital in Spain.
The Komensky Hospital in the Second World War:
Alice in Spain
In Guadalajara the hospital was situated in a convent. The town had been badly damaged by the Battle of Guadalajara, which had finally been won by the Republicans. In August, Alice and Dora joined Helena Petrankova and Vlasta Vesela who had been working there since it had opened. Helena and Vlasta had travelled to Spain in May 1937, a few months before Alice. Vlasta was a Czech doctor, who had studied in Brno and whose fiancé had been killed while fighting in Spain.
The head of the Komensky Hospital was Bedrich Kisch, brother of Egon Ervin Kisch. By the time Alice arrived in Guadalajara, the hospital already needed to move as it was considered to be too near to the Nationalist front line. Alice did not stay there for long as she was sent back to Albacete to see Otto Šling, who was suffering from typhus and needed to return to Czechoslovakia. When she returned to Guadalajara a few weeks later, the hospital had moved to Benicasim and so she followed it there.
Before the Civil War Benicasim had been a resort for wealthy Spaniards, who owned the brightly painted villas that lined the seashore. There was one hotel (Hotel Voramar) for those not lucky enough to own a villa and which provided entertainment for the summer visitors. In 1937 Benicasim was deep in Republican territory and so had long since been abandoned by the owners of the colourful villas. It proved to be the perfect setting for the international brigade hospital, its seaside location was ideal for convalescence and the train could bring the wounded a few yards from the main part of the little town. The hotel’s garage was used as a triage centre, the hotel became the central canteen and accommodation, but all the villas were also pressed into service.
The villas were re-
By April 1938, the hospital was in danger of being cut off from Barcelona, where the centre for the international brigades was now situated. The Nationalist advance threatened to reach the coast and make transport between Barcelona and Benicasim impossible. The hospital was therefore evacuated north to Mataro. The Czech staff were the last to leave.
By this time, the Republicans knew that their cause was lost, but they had no choice
but to keep fighting, as reprisals by the Nationalists were swift and cruel for any
Republicans or Republican sympathisers. By this stage in the war the Republicans
were entirely in Communist control and the hierarchy searched for scapegoats whom
they could blame for the defeat. Andre Marty, who was in charge of the international
brigades, conducted trials and witch-
After the tribunal and a few days in Barcelona, the women joined the hospital in Mataro. Mataro was not a holiday destination; the coast was lined with small fisherman’s houses, and the hospital, which was situated in a former monastery and school, was outside the house. Unlike in Benicasim, where trains bearing the wounded arrived close to the hospital, in Mataro the wounded needed to be transported by ambulance or truck up to the hospital, where the chapel was used as a triage centre. Alice worked as an administrator, overseeing the catering and logistics of the hospital.
The Czechs did not stay long in Mataro, having to move north once again in the face of the advancing Nationalists. Their final destination was Vic, an old hilltop town away from the coast. Here, once again, the hospital was situated in a convent, but this one was right in the centre of town.
Alice was the first of the four Czech women to leave Spain. In July, she was guided back across the border, over the mountains from Port Bou to Cerbere. On arrival in Cerbere, she and her four companions were arrested for arriving in France without a visa.
They spent the first night in a cell in Cerbere, where Alice was separated from her companions as she was the only woman. The next morning they were all taken to court in Ceret where the judge told them they could be sentenced to between one and six months in prison, but that they would probably only serve eight days as there were mitigating circumstances.
They were then taken by train to Perpignan, to serve their sentence. They were walked
from the station to the prison, where Alice was placed in the women’s section and
the men in the mens’ section. Alice was placed with two other women, one of whom
was also a lawyer and about to be tried for murdering her husband. After a week,
Alice and her co-
Facade of the Palacio del Infantado
The bombed interior of the Palacio del Infantado
Guadalajara: bomb damage
Benecasim: memorial (often defaced)
L to R: Vlasta Vesela, Helena Petrankova and Dora Kleinova.
https://www.uclm.es/global/promotor es/ otros/cedobi/publicaciones-
Alice, Vlasta Vesela and Dora Kleinova in Mataro
This period of Alice’s life is the only one for which we have her direct testimony, included in Tauchmanova’s memoir. She describes this experience and her imprisonment in vivid detail.
See also my blogs: Two Worlds: Meeting Alice for the First Time 26 Nov 2017 and Return to the Land of Milk and Honey 22 April 2018.
Sources:
Broz, Miroslav Soukrome Valky Heleny Petrankove (Nakladelstvi Epocha, Praha 2017)
Casañ, Guillem “Benicàssim, hospital de las brigadas internacionales” in Levante, 7 noviembre 2004.
Casañ, Guillem “Evacuación del Hospital de las Brigadas Internacionales de Benicàssim
a Cataluña.” (Guerra Civil 1936-
Casañ, Guillem “La Represión contra el Trotskismo y la Disidencia dentro del Servicio Sanitario Internacional.” (1)
[Publicado en CELADA, A. et al (Coord.): Las Brigadas Internacionales: 70 años de memoria histórica, Salamanca, Amarú Ediciones, 2007]
Glasner, Alice “Kulturarbeit in Benecasim” (in RGASPI 545-
Kish, Egon Ervin “Soldiers on the Seashore” in Segel, Harold B Egon Ervin Kisch
The Raging Reporter. A Bio-
Kohn, Erwin Response to the Interrogatory to the International Organizations Loyalty Board. April 1954
Preston, Paul The Spanish Civil War (Harper Perennial 2006)
Tauchmanová, Milena Poznamka in Národní Archiv, f. Sbírka pamětí a memoárů, k. 1.
ABS f.MNB sign.ač MNB 40 Dobra Kleinová, sv.č.1-
ABS f.MNB sign.ač MNB 41 Alice Kohnová (Glasnerová), sv.č.1-
(1) Me gustaría agradecer a los traductores que me han ayudado, y también a la AABI, Prof. M. Requena, Dr. J. Mª Massons, Dr. G. Ersler y al Prof. Hans Landauer.
Perpignan railway station
L to R: Vlasti Vesela, Helena Petrankova and Dora Kleinova