Noachowitz Norman, Irving.

Biography

Noachowitz, Irving (Norman, Irving); b. January 10, 1906, Vilna, Poland, to Canada October 16, 1927; Polish American; Father Yehuda Leib Noachovitch, mother Nechama Anna “Lieba” Kalmanson Noachowitz; No prior military experience; High School education; Single; Barber and Driver; CP January 1938 and YCL, JBIU-AFL, IFTU, and IWO; Received Passport# 32118 San Francisco series on October 23, 1937 which listed his address as 1110 Euclid Avenue, Los Angeles, California, and 1329 Briston Street, Brooklyn, New York; Notes Laguna Beach, California as his home; Sailed January 12, 1938 aboard the Aquitania; Arrived in Spain via Massanet on January 23, 1938; Trained in Tarazona and served as the Political Commissar for Training Co. 1,; Sent to NCO School; Sent to front where he joined the XV BDE on March 10; Served with the XV BDE, Lincoln-Washington BN, MG Co., later to BN HQ (Plaza Mayor); Last unit Machine gun Company (June 1938); Section political delegate, Rank Cabo; Served at the Retreats (Gandesa and Batea), and Ebro Offensive; Returned to the US on December 20, 1938 aboard the Ausonia; Married Hela Bohlen (1928-2010) on January 19, 1955, in Marin County, California; d. July 21, 1989, Half Moon Bay, California, buried in Skylawn Memorial Park, San Mateo County, California; Went to the Soviet Union in November 1933 on a trip sponsored by the Barbers Union; Listed civilian pilot with five hours of solo flying; Was a well known artist in later life under Irving Norman; Was bitter about the way he was portrayed in Alvah Bessie's Men in Battle; Spoke English, Yiddish, and Russian.
Sources: Sail; Scope of Soviet Activity; Figueres List; Pay; RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 945, ll. 1-20; Ray Day and Scott A. Shields, Dark Metropolis, Irving Norman’s Social Surrealism (Crocker Art Museum and Irving Norman Trust); Irving Norman, The Artist and the Human Predicament; L-W Tree Ancestry; Find-a-Grave #176444070.
Photographs: Irving Noachowitz in Spain, RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 955; Irving Noachowitz in 1927. Photograph from Irving Norman, The Artist and the Human Predicament.
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