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Researcher: Ada Gordon, Stuyvesant '26

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When Milton Burdick was 23 years old, he left his life-long home in Canarsie, a working class neighborhood in deep Brooklyn, for a world completely different from his own: Spain. On February 5th, 1937, he set sail aboard the Berengaria, a famous German ocean liner built in 1912 that had been seized as war reparations after World War I. In the post-war years, the Berengaria traveled between America and Europe, transporting Burdick and fellow volunteers to Spain. The ship docked nearly 2 weeks later on February 17th, 1937, during one of Franco’s attempts to take Madrid from the Republicans. In the midst of the Battle of the Jarama ten days later, on February 27th, 1937, Burdick was killed in action, like many of his fellow comrades in the Lincoln Brigades.

Burdick was born in the early 1910s to a Jewish household—located at 915 East 88th St—in Canarsie, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with then a predominantly middle and working class Jewish population. Before he went to Spain, he didn’t speak any Spanish; the only two languages he spoke were English and Yiddish. He lived in a small, tight-knit family, with only one sister named Sylvia Burdick. Although his high school alma mater is not known, based on the nearby schools of the era it is likely that he was zoned to either Erasmus Hall High School, Samuel J. Tilden High School, or Thomas Jefferson High School, if he didn’t attend a specialized high school. It’s also possible that he attended a school like Townsend Harris, known for its high number of communist students. His father, Al Burdick, was a part of the Communist party, even giving speeches at rallies. Milton Burdick himself became a card-carrying member of the Communist party, which serves to explain his future interest and involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

Indeed, when the war did begin, Burdick did join the volunteer effort quite quickly, just about a month after the first group of the Lincoln Brigade arrived. However, the month he lost was crucial; during this time, volunteers were trained at Albacete, giving them important preparation for the battles they would be fighting. Burdick and his fellow volunteers aboard the Berengaria only had minimal training before being ordered to make their first attack on 23rd February. Although Burdick had unspecified prior military experience, he was not prepared for what he would face when he did arrive: The Battle of the Jarama Valley.

The Battle of the Jarama was one of Franco’s major offensives against Madrid, lasting from February 6th to 27th, 1937. Burdick was the group leader of Section 1 Group 2 of the XV BDE, Lincoln BN, Company 2, where he organized and commanded a group of about 11 men. Unfortunately, the 2nd Company was likely well under strength—according to various rosters, the formations were at less than half strength of the Lincoln Brigade’s projected figures, at only roughly 60 men. This had major effects: while it was estimated that the Nationalist forces only lost around 5,000 men, the Republicans lost about double the number at a staggering 10,000, making it one of the bloodiest battles of the war and severely depleting the Republican forces.

On the final day of the Battle of the Jarama, the Lincoln Brigaders were ordered to launch one of their several counter-attacks and advance again towards Nationalist-held positions—an almost certainly suicidal mission. Though it was a difficult choice to make for army leaders, it proved to be an important one: Republican counter-attacks like this one were a large part of the reason that they were able to maintain control of Madrid and the precious lifeline between Madrid and Valencia. However, more than 100 Americans died on February 27th, in addition to the hundreds of those killed in the British and Irish Battalions. One of these, sadly, was Burdick.

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Sources

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“Battle of Jarama, February 1937.” n.d. Porta de la Historia's blog. https://pdlhistoria.wordpress.com/battle-of-jarama/
Brooks, Chris. 2016. “Jarama Series: Organization of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.” The Volunteer, February 12. https://albavolunteer.org/2016/02/jarama-series-organization-of-the-abraham-lincoln-battalion/
“Burdick, Milton.” The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, accessed 30 Apr. 2026. https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/milton-burdick/.
Convery, David. 2013. “There’s a valley in Spain… Commemorating the Battle of Jarama.” The Dustbin of History, February 20. https://thedustbinofhistory.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/theres-a-valley-in-spain-commemorating-the-battle-of-jarama/
Pattem, Leah. 2021. “Discover bunkers, trenches and one man’s life-long collection of wartime objects from the Jarama Valley.” Madrid No Frills, September 6. https://madridnofrills.com/jarama/#:~:text=The%20battle%20resulted%20in%20an%20estimated:%20*,*%20Historical%20walks%20through%20the%20Jarama%20Valley.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2026. “SS Imperator.” Last modified April 24, at 18:26 (UTC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Imperator.