Biography
Kaufman, Sidney b. April 8 (28), 1914, NYC; father Louis Kaufman (1886-?), mother Sarah Miller (1887-?); Single; Seaman; CP April 1936; Received Passport# 449767 on June 23, 1927 which listed his address as 314 East 11th Street, NYC; Alternate Domicile 300 Paratnia Avenue (?), Jersey City, New Jersey; Sailed July 3, 1937 aboard the De Grasse; Arrived in Spain via Setcases on July 18, 1937; Served with the XV BDE, British BN, Runner; Later served with the 4th Group, 35th Battery and remained with the unit after it switched over to an Anti-Tank battery attached to the 129th International Brigade; Interred in a French Concentration Camp after the war; Returned to the US on February 16, 1939 aboard the President Roosevelt; (address on return 192 E. 3rd Street, NYC); Later sailed for the West Coast aboard the Monroe and arrived in San Francisco in September 1939; WWII Seaman, sailed aboard the Lurliner, later Business Agent, Marine Cooks and Stewards Union; Wife Lillian Kaufman (1919-1997), sons David Kaufman, Alan Kaufman, daughter Laura Kaufman; d. August 7, 1994, Los Angeles, California.Sibling: sister Ida Kaufman (1914-?).
Source: Sail; Scope of Soviet Activity; Cadre; Figueres List; Mac-Paps; RGASPI; ALBA 058 Sidney Kaufman Papers; ALBA AUDIO 058 Sidney Kaufman Audio Collection; Good Fight C; ALBA 048 Manny Harriman Video Collection; Elizabeth C. Compa, “Sid Kaufman’s Odyssey Out of Spain,” The Volunteer, Volume 27, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 11-14; (obituary) San Pedro, California News Pilot, August 13, 1994. Code A
Biography: Sidney Kaufman was born in 1914. He was a merchant seaman working out of New York when he decided to volunteer for the International Brigades in Spain. Arriving in Spain in July 1937, Kaufman served as a runner with the British battalion, spent several months in the 35th artillery battery, and was commissar of an anti-tank battery attached to the Slavic battalion [CXXIX IB] on the Aragon Front. In January 1939, when most International Brigaders were making their way out of the country, Kaufman was trapped in Barcelona as Franco's forces prepared to enter the city. Kaufman spent the following three weeks traveling the countryside, searching for a means of escape. In February, he finally made it over the border into France, only to be held in a French detention camp for several days before being granted passage home. Kaufman later served in World War II transporting troops in the South Pacific. A lifelong member of the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, Kaufman retired in 1979.- Courtesy of Tamiment Library, NYU.
The Flight by Sidney Kaufman, reprint, The Volunteer Blog, posted April 10, 2020.
Sidney Kaufman Interview, ALBA V 48-091, undated, Manny Harriman Video Oral History Collection; ALBA VIDEO 048; box number 8; folder number 24; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Photographs: Sidney Kaufman from his Seaman’s Protection Certificate application, August 28, 1934, L-W Tree Ancestry; and Kaufman screenshot from Harriman Interview.
