In 1936 the European situation worsened with the outbreak of civil war in Spain. On one side was the republican government which enjoyed the support of Spanish democratic parties of the centre and left, and of the communists; on the other side were the fascists (falangists) who had the support of most of the army. The Spanish civil war came to symbolize the ideological cleavage that was dividing western society, with citizens in every country favouring one side or the other. Twelve hundred Canadian supporters of the republican cause went to the extent of going to Spain where many fought under the banner of what one historian has called "the most unique military unit" in Canadian history the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of the XVth International Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army. The volunteer who would gain the widest notice, however, was not a soldier, but a communist doctor from Montreal, Norman Bethune, who organized the Servicio Canadiense de Transfusion de Sangre. Here Bethune, on the right, performs a transfusion with the assistance of Henning Sorenson, who was one of the first two Canadian volunteers to arrive in Spain. Bethune subsequently went on to China where he performed similar services for the communist army fighting the Japanese and where he died in 1939 at the age of 49.
