Draft:Fredericka Martin

Fredericka Martin (c. June 2, 1905 - October 4, 1992) was a writer, historian, environmentalist, photographer, and administrator/chief nurse of American volunteers during the Spanish Civil War. After the war, Martin became dedicated to documenting the role of American medical volunteers through various mediums amassed by her and sent to her, including photographs, newspaper clippings, journals, diaries, and leaflets. Martin corresponded through letters with hundreds of combat medics, volunteers, soldiers, and nurses from around the world, all of which are still preserved in the Fredericka Martin papers..

Martin also spent many years post-war researching and advocating for the Aleut, an indigenous sealing community in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. She wrote books and articles on their culture and sealing practices including Before the Storm about her year living on the islands as well as an Aleut language dictionary.

Early Life and Career
Fredericka Martin was born in Cooperstown NY on June 2, 1905 to Frederick and Lydia Martin. Her biological father, Fred, who worked for the railroads as a fireman, died in a railroad accident before she was born. The Martin side of the family had an interesting religious background, as her grandfather William was an Irish Protestant while her grandmother Alice was an Irish Catholic. Some conflict over religious differences resulted, and they decided that birth order would determine the children’s religious assignment (oldest child Catholic, younger Protestant, etc). Fredericka was very tolerant of cultural and religious differences later in life, which her background may have contributed to.

When Fredericka was five, her mother remarried to a George Wilbur who had similarly been widowed and worked for the same railroad company as Fred Martin had. Her whole family moved to Oneonta, a small city in New York, where she grew up in a warm environment with a half sibling George Jr. and a step sibling from George Sr’s previous marriage. According to her own account, Fredericka had been a “tomboy” as a child. She enjoyed nature and climbing trees, and often did so in the mountains behind her Aunt’s home. Fredericka remembered once finding an unearthed pig corpse which for some reason had become iridescent and sharing it with her horrified cousins.

After graduating from high school, which was true for only around 50% of women in the US during that time, she moved to Jersey City, New Jersey where she worked for the St. Margaret Episcopalian Order of Nuns. She briefly considered becoming a nun, but decided to become a nurse instead, inspired by her Aunt Nellie who had served as a nurse in WWI. After graduating with honors from nursing school at Christ Hospital, Fredericka worked for various hospitals around New York City, such as Bellevue, Fordham, Lying-In Hospital, and Crotona Park Hospital as a supervisor and head nurse. In 1929, Freddie married Alexander Cohen, a Jewish man from England.

In the early 1930s, Freddie became involved in the Labor movement. She joined the nurse’s union and participated in classes at the Labor Temple which focused on allowing working class people from all religious backgrounds to express their opinions. She attended political science classes as well as learned Russian and Yiddish.

Involvement in Spanish Civil War
In 1935, Freddie toured Europe with her husband Alexander, spending time in Germany and Russia. Based on her experience, Freddie became convinced of the growing danger of Fascism in Europe. After returning to the US and divorcing amicably with Alexander, Freddie joined the Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, an organization created by doctors and citizens to gather medical supplies and necessities for the democratically elected Spanish Republic. Recruited by Dr. Edward Barsky for her leadership and organizational skills, Eddie became the chief nurse and administrator of the American Hospital division in Spain. Freddie boarded the S.S. Parisas on January 12, 1937 as one of the first American medical personnel to Spain. Martin took charge of forty four nurses; helped organize six American hospitals on the front, a mobile operating unit, and literacy classes; trained Spanish women in nursing; all while supervising four ambulances, 12 tons of medical supplies, and a 50 bed hospital. The first hospital Freddie worked at located in El Romeral opened on February 21, 1937, and they received their first wounded from the bloody battle of Jarama. Freddie was affectionately dubbed “Ma” by those at the hospital due to her nurturing but authoritative presence. She would often give out little candies and cakes to cheer up her fellow volunteers who endured grueling and heartbreaking work. Supplies were short, so the nurses made do with open fires for sterilization and anything they could find. In the first part of April, the volunteers opened their own American Base Hospital, located in the summer home of the daughter of Queen Isabella II. Freddie worked to relieve the short staffed hospital by training 400 Spanish women to take over nursing roles. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, many of these nurses on the Republican side were punished or forced into exile.

In February 1938, Martin returned to the United States to raise funds for the volunteers still in Spain and to recruit personnel. She toured around the country and told stories of her own experience, like how she no longer liked moonlight because it illuminated their hospital to enemy bombers. After the tour, Martin, who was famous for her hospital organization abilities, was invited to Greenbelt, Maryland to serve as superintendent at a hospital there, part of a housing initiative created for the Depression. There, she met Dr. Samuel Berenberg, the Director of Public Health in Greenbelt, and they got married in 1940.

Post War Work
Shortly after, Berenberg received an offer to work on a medical assignment on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. Both Freddie and her husband were enthusiastic about the chance to connect with the locals and interact with the nature that they had been told they would see including sea lions, seals, blue foxes, reindeer, and sea birds. While there, Freddie enjoyed observing sealers and learning about the culture of the indigenous Aleuts, who were looked down upon by the “official” residents of St. Paul who viewed them as lesser than. After Pearl Harbor, Freddie moved away from the Pribilof Islands, as they were at risk of Japanese invasion. The US government forcibly interned the Aleut indigenous population at “relocation camps” under dismal conditions including lack of sanitation, food, and medical care. Ten percent of internees died at the camps, and the culture of the Aleut people was impacted in the long term due to limitations on practicing traditions. In her book Before the Storm: A Year in the Pribilof Islands, Fredericka writes about her personal accounts in which she saw the people facing radical change and the US government forcibly evacuating the Aleut

Fredericka resolved to learn more about the Aleut people and their language and to show the rest of the world what they really were. She worked with R. H. Geoghan on an Aleut language dictionary. She then went on to write Sea Bears: the Story of the Fur Seal and The Hunting of the Silver Fleece about seals and sealers as well as an article “Wanted: A Pribilof Bill of Rights” advocating for reforms on their treatment. She testified against legislation which would reduce federal support for the Pribilof Islands.

Due to interaction with communists during the Civil War, many members of the Medical Brigade eventually came under scrutiny. Dr. Barsky, who had recruited Martin to the Brigade, spent time in jail and lost his medical license. As a result of this and her work as an advocate for the Aleut, Fredericka was visited by the FBI and suspected of communist ties during the Red Scare.

Fredericka spent the latter part of her life collecting information for a book on the Medical Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. She received a grant for her research in which she had the opportunity to revisit Spain. She documented the actions of American medical volunteers extensively.