Spanish Civil War

There was a piece of living history in San Fran on Sunday when a war memorial was dedicated to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought in the Spanish Civil War.

It is the first memorial of its kind in America even though the war was between 1936 - 1939 and was before the Second World War.

A member of the Brigade association said there are now only 39 veterans alive, five or six of whom live in the Bay Area. It was fitting that the memorial was in San Fran given the leftist politics of the city, he added with a wry smile, referring to the republican versus nationalist cause of the war.

The monument is composed of panels that show scenes from the war and faces of soldiers. It is at the Justin Herman plaza opposite the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero.

Pictured are two of the guest veterans, both in their nineties, beneath the memorial. They beamed with pride as they sat in the sun during the afternoon after the ceremony with the public milling around taking photographs.