Stanley Postek Spanish Civil War Papers
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Abstract
Stanley Postek (1912-1991) was a sailor, prizefighter and union organizer who went to Spain in 1938 to fight in the Spanish Civil War. After being seriously injured, Postek was detained in a concentration camp in France before returning to New York. Postek later served in World War II as a merchant seaman. The collection consists of materials, including personal journals, from Postek's time in Spain and afterward and from his period of service as a merchant marine in World War II. Later papers include newspaper articles and other writings about aspects of the Spanish Civil War, memorial items about veterans, and material documenting Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) activities.
Historical/Biographical Note
Born Ladislaus Ferdinand Szeliga in 1912 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Stanley Postek adopted his cousin's name when he ran away from home as a teenager. He left school in the mid-thirties to become a sailor and union organizer for the International Seamen's Union of America, and a founding member of the breakaway National Maritime Union. In 1937 Postek became a light heavyweight boxing champion. In May 1938, he sailed to Europe to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
In Spain Postek was initially assigned to the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, and subsequently transferred to a machine-gun company of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. He was seriously injured in August 1938. When the International Brigades were evacuated that November, Postek, who was in a hospital, was left behind. In January 1939, he walked over the border into France and was immediately detained in the Argeles-sur-Mer concentration camp, where he almost died of septicemia. A week later, Postek managed to escape from the camp with the help of a journalist from the Paris Herald Tribune. Without a passport or any identification, Postek spent a period of rehabilitation in a Paris hospital, and finally returned to New York as a stowaway in May 1939.
Postek served in World War II as a merchant seaman, where he sailed on the Murmansk Run. After the war, he joined the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. He was one of 2,000 seamen barred from employment by the Coast Guard during the Korean War for his association with the Communist Party. Postek later worked as an extra in the entertainment business, including a role as a longshoreman in the Elia Kazan film, "On the Waterfront." After he retired, Postek worked with the Marine Worker's Historical Association, as well as teaching several college courses. In the 1960s he ran a macramé shop in Greenwich Village, the Rope Gallery, adapting his sailor's knot-tying expertise to a new craft.
Postek died in 1991 at his home in San Diego, California.
Arrangement
Series I and III are arranged alphabetically. Series II is arranged chronologically.
The files are grouped into three series:
Missing Title
- I, Spanish Civil War Era and World War II, 1934-1946
- II, Journals, 1939-1988
- III, Subject Files, 1952-1989
Scope and Content Note
Series I: Spanish Civil War Era and World War II, 1934-1946contains materials from Postek's time in Spain and afterward, as well as from his period of service as a merchant marine in World War II. Includes military and political identification cards and books, stamps and other memorabilia from Spain, and a letter of permission to leave the Argeles-sur-mer concentration camp.
Series II: Journals, 1939-1988, consists of Postek's handwritten "Memoirs of Spain" begun in March 1939 while recuperating in a hospital in Paris. The journal, which includes a sketch Postek made of himself in a torso cast, begins as an attempt to give a detailed account of his experiences in Spain, and evolves into a journal of his encounters with women and life aboard various ships on which he was working. Also noteworthy in this series is a journal Postek kept during his service on the Murmansk Run during World War II.
Series III: Subject Files, 1952-1989, consists of newspaper articles about Spain and Spanish Civil War veterans, and scholarly and other writings about aspects of the Spanish Civil War; poetry and memorial items about veterans; lists of maritime members of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB), as well as other VALB documents, ephemera and correspondence.
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Access Restrictions
Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives for more information and to schedule an appointment, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu or 212-998-2630.
Use Restrictions
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), were transferred to New York University in November 2000 by the ALBA Board of Governors. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. For more information, contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu or 212-998-2630.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Provenance
The Stanley Postek Collection was donated to Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in the early 1990s by Postek's daughter, Judi Darnell. This collection came to New York University in January 2001 as part of the original acquisition of ALBA collections, formerly housed at Brandeis University.
Separated Material
Photographs from the Spanish Civil War and later, as well as videotapes of a memorial service for Spanish Civil War veteran Eliseo Del Rio from the Stanley Postek Collection have been transferred to the non-print section of the ALBA collection at the Tamiment Library.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In 2013, the name of the collection was changed from Stanley Postek Papers to differentiate it from another collection called the Stanley Poster Papers (WAG.080).
