Delmer Berg, who left a dishwashing job in California to join the Republican forces fighting Gen. Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, a bloody struggle of which Berg was the last known American veteran, died Feb. 28. He was 100.
Family said he died at his home in Columbia, Calif., after a fall.
His death was announced by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, an organization that honors the 2,800 American volunteers who, despite official U.S. neutrality in the conflict, fought to defend Spain’s elected government against Franco’s fascist insurrection.
The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 and pitted Franco’s Nationalists, backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, against the Republicans, or Loyalists, supported by the Soviet Union, in a conflict that presaged World War II.
Also supporting the Republicans were 40,000 members of the International Brigades. The Americans among them, a group that included Berg, made up the unit named in honor of the 16th president.
Franco defeated his outgunned opponents in 1939 and established a dictatorship that would last until his death in 1975. Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards, and a third of the Americans who participated in the conflict, lost their lives.
Like many of his compatriots, Berg was a communist and lifelong defender of progressive causes, including civil rights and organized labor.
He was employed at a hotel in Los Angeles when he noticed a billboard calling for volunteers to support the anti-fascist cause. He expressed interest and helped collect clothing for the Spanish before being selected to go to the front.
Berg took a bus to New York and then sailed to France, traversing the Pyrenees Mountains to enter Spain in early 1938. He served in field artillery and antiaircraft units.
Berg also served in the U.S. military in the Pacific during World War II.
Berg, a son of farmworkers, was born in Anaheim, Calif., on Dec. 20, 1915. He was married several times. Survivors include two children.
