Bernard R. Danchik Papers
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Abstract
Bernard R. Danchik was a New York City clerk and gymnast who traveled to Barcelona, Spain in 1936 with eight other American athletes to participate in the People's Olympics, which were being held in protest against the Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany. On July 19, the day the People's Olympics were set to begin, fighting broke out on the streets in Barcelona, marking the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The People's Olympics were canceled, and Danchik returned home with many photographs and souvenirs to commemorate all that he had witnessed.
Historical/Biographical Note
Bernard R. Danchik was born in 1915 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. As a young man Danchik, a clerk and member of the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union, joined the German Labor Lyceum gymnastics team and became captain of the Williamsburg Gymnastic Group.
In 1936, Danchik worked with the group Committee for Fair Play in Sports to assemble a team of amateur athletes to send to the People's Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The People's Olympics were organized by trade union organizations and other political groups to protest the Olympic games to be held in the summer of 1936 in Berlin, Germany, where the Nazi regime had recently passed racially discriminatory laws against Jews and had destroyed all independent trade union organizations. By the time the People's Olympics were set to begin in July, thousands of athletes and supporters from 14 countries had gathered in Barcelona.
Danchik sailed to Spain with a team of eight other American athletes, most sponsored by their trade unions. They arrived in Barcelona on July 15. On July 19, the day the games were to open, the athletes awoke to the sound of gunshots in the Barcelona streets. Rather than competing in their first round of sports events, they became surprise eyewitnesses to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
The American team spent several days holed up in their hotel, venturing out on only a few dangerous forays for provisions and to participate in a parade with other athletes in support of the Loyalists. When the games were officially canceled and athletes began to make their way out of Spain, some 200 remained behind to join workers' militias. The American team arrived back in New York on August 3. Their coach, Alfred "Chick" Chakin, had been so transformed by the experience that he soon returned to Spain to join the International Brigades. He was captured by fascists and executed there in 1938.
All through his journey to the People's Olympics, Danchik kept a journal, and collected mementos, souvenirs and photographs. When he got home, he compiled these into a scrapbook along with letters and news articles about all that he had witnessed.
Arrangement
Series I papers are arranged alphabetically; the related scrapbook is in box 2 and textile items in box 3. Series II (letters) are filed by correspondent and chronologically within each file.
The files are grouped into 2 series:
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- I. People's Olympics
- II. Spanish Civil War Letters
Scope and Content Note
Series I, People's Olympics, includes material produced by the Committee for Fair Play in Sports, a letter from Danchik to his family, a post-Barcelona letter from boxer Charles Burley, congratulatory telegrams from Fiorella LaGuardia and Norman Thomas, and a program from the People's Olympics.
Danchik's scrapbook includes photos, letters home, postcards, ticket stubs, nightclub calling cards, cigarette packets, transatlantic steamer menus and passenger lists. Barcelona photos show street barricades, bombed-out buildings, groups of fighters and athletes marching. Other photos include the American athletes aboard ship to Europe.
Textiles include an Olimpiada Barcelona pennant, armband, uniform tank top and jersey, and an athletic jacket.
Series II, Spanish Civil War Letters, consists of letters Lou Dalton and Jerry Weinberg wrote to Danchik from Spain. Dalton, an ambulance driver, writes about witnessing emergency surgery and describes the International Brigades base at Albacete, while Weinberg conveys his strong anti-Trotsky feelings.
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People
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 Bernard R. Danchik Collection was donated to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in October 1983 by Danchik's wife, Lili Danchik LaRocque. This collection came to New York University in January 2001 as part of the original acquisition of ALBA collections, formerly housed at Brandeis University.
