The last survivor of the International Brigades, which recruited volunteers from all over the world to fight against fascist forces in France, has died at the age of 101. Civil war of Spain (1936-39).
Josep Almoudever Mateu was born in Marseille and had dual French and Spanish citizenship. He joined the Democratic Army in 1936 at the age of 17 and fought in Teruel before being wounded.
After recovering, he enlisted in the International Brigades, whose work was captured in the works of important writers and directors such as Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, George Orwell and Andre Malraux.
Mateu was captured in Alicante in 1939, when the Democrats lost the war, and spent some time in prisons and concentration camps. When he was released from prison, he fought against the fascist regime between 1944-47 and then went into exile in France.
The Spanish Association of Friends of International Brigades has confirmed his death. “But with a heavy heart we say goodbye to Joseph, the last of our wonderful brigadiers who was still alive,” its president, Almoudena Cross, said on his website today.
His story was captured in a documentary, The Last Brigadier, in 2018, while a few years earlier, in 2014, he had published his memoirs entitled “The Non-Intervention Pact. Poor Democracy “.
The International Brigades were established three months after the start of the Civil War and recruited about 35,000 volunteers from 53 countries. Their losses in the war are estimated at 10,000 men.
* File photo
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