Researcher: Daniel Berkovich, Stuyvesant '27

Bernard (Barney) B Brostoff was born in 1908 in Podlaskie, Poland - then part of the Russian Empire - and immigrated to the United States in 1914. A Yiddish-speaking Jewish boy, he grew up in New York during a time when many Eastern European immigrants struggled to find economic stability and acceptance. Barney never went to college but attended a small art high school in Brownsville, developing talents that ranged from illustration to electrical work. For several years, he worked as a radio technician, designing schematics and repairing units—an early testament to his technical creativity.

Though he believed in the American Dream like many of his generation, reality proved more difficult. Jobs were scarce for working-class immigrants, and Barney’s prospects dimmed further with the onset of the Great Depression. By 1930, at age 22, he was working as a freighter, but recently unemployed - physically demanding, low-paying work involving the manual loading and unloading of cargo. He had training in electronics and art, but the economic collapse rendered those skills nearly useless in a job market overwhelmed with desperation. This era raised hard questions: why had all his work and preparation amounted to so little? Why were educated people reduced to unskilled labor? For Barney, and many others, the economic crisis discredited aspects of the American system and spurred interest in alternative ideologies. Reports from the Soviet Union painted a picture of resilience, and while later history complicates those accounts, in the 1930s the USSR appeared, to some, as a system that weathered the storm better than capitalist democracies (The part of this that really happened occurred only because of an underdeveloped banking system in the USSR). These ideas, coupled with the rise of fascism abroad, especially in Germany and Italy, began to shift Barney’s worldview.

In 1936, disillusioned but idealistic, Barney made a choice. He could remain in New York, enduring economic hardship, or take action. He chose the latter. In early 1938, at age 28, he sailed aboard the Île de France to join the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, becoming part of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade - an international volunteer force aligned with the Spanish Republic. Barney brought his radio skills to the battlefield.

Arriving later than the first wave of American volunteers, he benefited from improved training. He saw action at the Battle of Teruel, where many of his closest friends died, and later at the Ebro, one of the most brutal and significant battles of the war. At Teruel which was a massive battle in a city where 110,000 people died (that's like 1/5th of the whole war). Bernard and his force were tasked with taking the city. This order of attacking was give by the new minister of war for the republic who wanted to prove himself with a swift victory at Teruel. Soon after spies reported that Franco was ordering an attack at Guadalajara near Madrid, a key position. As a result, in order to divert Franco's attention, the republicans attacked the city. Trenches were put up and machine guns put in every building. After initial successes in taking the city, nationalist reinforcements arrived. This made it devolved into a huge and bloody battle where the nationalists counter-struck the republican forces in the city. To add to the suffering, the battle occurred n December in one of the coldest regions of Spain. In the end, the nationalists retook the city and took over some rural mountainous land. Bernard was lucky to know how to operate a radio as this may very well have saved him by making him more valuable and not sent straight to the front but instead near it.

The battle of the Ebro was not much better. Likewise to the Battle of Teruel, it started with a republican offensive that surrounded a small town just off the Ebro river. The International Brigades were in charge of taking this town and bravely crossed the river. Here, due to a shortage of men, Bernard had to charge with the rest. The bravery of all that were there was immense. Charging across a river straight into enemy territory and continuing despite heavy bombing from the sky would be unthinkable to any normal person. Although the attack failed, he still made it back to safety alive. The battle was a defeat for the republic. During the days before Barcelona was taken, a small parade was held to say goodbye to the International Brigadiers. They all left back to France and went home.

Bernard returned to New York in December 1938 aboard the Ausonia, sailing from Le Havre. Fighting in the war was like a new chance to live again. Bernard fought alongside some of the bravest and fearless people from New York who were now a small community. Some, including Bernard would remain close long after the war.

Coming home felt like getting a second chance. The world was on edge, hurtling toward World War II, but Barney took time to travel: to South Africa, Maine, Oregon, Bristol, Cuba, Liverpool, Boston, Belfast, and later (after WW2) to Bremerhaven, Germany. His travels - partly during and after the war, suggest involvement in wartime logistics or postwar reconstruction, though exact details are lost to time (this is unlikely though because he was a communist meaning that during the red scare he would have been investigated for both going to Spain and being a member of the communist party). He would never come back to Spain though, as Franco ruled it until 1975 by which time Barney was too old to travel. His brother ended up serving in the Pacific Theater of WWII, drawing inspiration from Barney’s earlier service in Spain. Barney eventually settled down. In the mid-1940s he married Rosalind, and they had a daughter, Ivy. He spent the rest of his life in Brooklyn, having lived through empire, migration, economic collapse, global war, and ideological struggle. A man of art, technology, and conviction, he never stopped adapting, whether through work, war, or travel.

Sources

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. "Bernard Brostoff." ALBA. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/bernard-brostoff/.

Find a Grave. "Barney Brostoff." Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151706065/barney-brostoff.

Newspapers.com. Search results for “Brostoff,” Brooklyn, Kings County, 1925. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?city=Brooklyn&county=Kings&date=1925&keyword=%22Brostoff%22®ion=us-ny.

U.S. Census Bureau. Alphabetical Index of Occupations: 1930 Census. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1930. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/occupation-indexes/occupation-index-alpha.pdf.

National Archives Catalog. "Brostoff, Joseph Poland." Accessed May 1, 2025. https://catalog.archives.gov/search?page=1&q=Brostoff%2C%20Joseph%20poland.

Ancestry.com. "U.S., Naturalization Records, 1840–1957," entry for Bernard Brostoff. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2704/records/19309086.

Ancestry.com. "U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995," entry for Bernard Brostoff. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1265/records/192494042.

Ancestry.com. "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947," entry for Bernard Brostoff. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3693/records/7131736?tid=&pid=&queryId=9ecb3bc9-64e0-4654-a8bd-9a763de0b155&_phsrc=ZwA53&_phstart=successSource.

Ancestry.com. "Family Tree of Bernard Brostoff." Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/55886925/family?cfpid=40011888323&invitetoken=8BtWwTqGLWZfcw8KajKvMO2Do_FwyGMnMS6-Idy5YdU%3D.

Ancestry.com. "U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014," entry for Bernard Brostoff. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/records/30821524.

Ancestry.com. General search for Bernard Brostoff travel records. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/40/?name=Bernard_Brostoff&birth=1908&searchMode=advanced.

Spartacus Educational. "Battle of Teruel." Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.spartacus-educational.com/SPebro.htm.

Wikipedia. "Battle of Teruel – External Links." Last modified March 2025. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Teruel.