Carles Brasó Broggi, author of the book ‘The wandering doctors. From the International Brigades and the Chinese Civil War to the Second World War’.
The wandering doctors worked in the front line of battle of the spanish civil war and the conflict between China and Japan, however, its history has fallen into oblivion. For this reason, the researcher Carles Brasó Broggi wanted to give them a voice in his book ‘The wandering doctors. From the International Brigades and the Chinese Civil War to the Second World War’. A work that he himself describes as a “group biography” and in which the role of these health professionals is told both in the battalions and in society, where “hygienic conditions improved of the cities and eradicated epidemics.
In addition, Brasó details how medicine was used to exercise discrimination in some groups such as the Jews during the Holocaust and the internalization of the conflicts of the 20th century.
Who were these wandering doctors?
They are a group of 17 doctors and 2 nurses who share the fact that participated in the Spanish civil war, in the medical service of the International Brigades, and, later, in the war between China and Japan. This does not mean that the group was always together, but rather that they shared this journey between 1936-1937 when they arrived in Spain and in 1939-1940 when they went to China. The book is a kind group biography of healthcare professionals who went to Spain and China and who shared a nomadic, international character and cosmopolitan.
Why did they decide to participate in these conflicts?
Most of them were born in central Europe and belonged to families of Jewish origin. During the 1930s they saw how anti-Semitic policies in Europe affected them directly and threatened their existence. Hence, the idea of going to Spain and participating in the conflict with the International Brigades.
Likewise, not all but almost the majority, They joined various communist parties. But throughout their lives they had a very different relationship with ideology: there were those who participated in communist governments in the Cold War and others who were critical, turned away from communism and went to other countries. Almost all lived in many different countries throughout their lives and had various nationalities. It is a global history because the book passes through various conflicts and countries.
Were there no Spanish doctors in this group?
There were no Spanish doctors, although there may be confusion in this. When they arrived in China, since they had different nationalities, they were called ‘the Spanish doctors’, because they came from the Spanish civil war. When most of them were born, the Astro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire still existed. That is, they come from the countries that would be created later: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, etc. Nevertheless, some of them lost their nationality when they came to Spain and some even tried to get Spanish nationality even though they were not born in Spain.
But their nationalities are not a very definitive element to understand these people, they were wandering doctors, nomads, cosmopolitan and their origins are quite complex.
What was the day-to-day life of these doctors like?
These doctors in their countries of origin they did not practice military medicineThey were civil doctors. Some did participate in the First World War, but most were civilian doctors who came to Spain as volunteers. This is a general aspect of the entire medical service of the International Brigades, since it was a medical service made up of volunteers from all over the world who immediately went to the front and they had to learn military medicine.
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“Having doctors from different countries favored the arrival of medical innovations” |
They were on the front lines with the battalions and learned this military medical practice. The fact also that there were many doctors from different countries promoted medical innovations, brought by American, French, German, and Austrian doctors, and who joined together. These doctors when they went to their home countries or to China, in the case of this group, they also took this medical knowledge with them.
In China, this group helped renew and apply military medicine techniques to the Chinese army that at that time was in great need of this knowledge. China was still a very poor country, there were very few doctors and the army was in a very precarious state in terms of hygiene, first care, etc. His arrival helped the conditions of the troops improve already eradicate cholera epidemics and typhus there was.
How did most of them end their lives?
They returned in the years 1945-1947 to a Europe devastated by WWII. Their places of origin had completely changed following the conflict, their families had been annihilated by the Holocaust and the countries entered a different dynamic, in the Cold War. Some of these doctors continued to practice medicine and adopted a discreet profile in their countries of origin, others emigrated to other countries like the United States or Canada; and others assumed a political role in these new socialist countries.
The most historically relevant chapter of the entire book is when I talk regarding May 68 in Czechoslovakia, Prague Spring. There, one of these doctors, František Kriegel, had a very important role in the country in the attempt to introduce democratic measures and fight once morest censorship.
Were the survivors compensated in life following the arrival of democracies?
Most of them died before the wall was destroyed, that is, they lived through the Cold War and died ignored by the press and public opinion. The only one who had a more leading role as I have named was Kriegel. When the reform was annihilated in Czechoslovakia he was arrested and kept under house arrest for the rest of his life, but he was claimed by many people. He was marginalized from political life for having participated in the reform attempt, but at the same time many were interested in his career. From opponents from around the world to the Spanish Communist Party, which decided to honor him just as the transition began in Spain and democracy began.
Kriegel was a person who might be vindicated by both characters and Carrillo as by Adolfo Suárez, which came from another tradition. One because he had opposed the Soviet Union and the other because he was a brigade member of the civil war. This was not known and I uncover it in the book.
In the book he also talks regarding how medicine was used to exercise racism and discrimination once morest some groups. How it was made?
I not only limit myself to Nazism and the Holocaust but I address social hygiene which was launched following the First World War in Europe. In some countries they had the idea that medicine should intervene in social issues and they wanted increase public spending on health and to ensure that the population had public or free health care or that it was as accessible as possible. But there was also another less positive aspect, which was the state’s attempt to control and exercise eugenic measures for population control and to prevent families that were considered minorities such as gypsies or Jews from reproducing.
This is something that now seems totally repulsive to us, but at the time it seemed almost scientific and ended with the most extreme experience: the Holocaust. The annihilation of an entire people was proposed and a whole debate was generated following the Second World War, what are the Nuremberg judgments on scientific ethics. The involvement of many physicians in the Holocaust led to questioning of scientific and medical practice. For example, it was discussed whether any medical experiment needs the approval of the patient. Now we know that you can’t force anyone, but at that time experimented with vaccines in Nazi concentration camps.
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“The most striking thing is the relationship between the histories of countries like Spain and China. The conflicts of the 20th century are internationalized” |
Why did you decide to write this book?
My grandfather was a doctor in the International Brigades and everyone knows the participation of foreign doctors in them. He was a surgeon in a brigade and although he did not know these doctors that I have studied, he did tell me regarding others. From there my curiosity was aroused.
Also, I lived in China for a few years and there I realized the importance given to these doctors that here in Spain they were hardly known. I was lucky to meet relatives who gave me files and information and from there I investigated their lives. Has been a lengthy research assignment and has been affected by the pandemic. I had planned to travel to the Czech Republic and Poland and I mightn’t do it.
Is there anything that has particularly surprised you regarding your research?
The most striking thing is to what extent the stories of countries like Spain, Eastern countries and China are related. In the history of the 20th century conflicts are internationalized, none of these conflicts can be understood without taking into account the global vision and this is what I have tried to capture in the book.
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