A Chance to Fight Hitler: A Canadian Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War

Written by David Goutor

Narrated by Braden Wright

In late 1936, as Franco’s armies stormed toward Madrid, Stalin famously termed the defence of Spain “the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.” As a German emigrant to Winnipeg, Hans Ibing recognized the importance of the Spanish Civil War to the struggle against worldwide fascism in a way that most people in Canada did not—joining the International Brigades in their fight to defend the Spanish Republic was his “chance to fight Hitler.”

Drawing on interviews, Ibing’s personal papers, and archival material, David Goutor recounts the powerful story of an ordinary man’s response to extraordinary times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ECW
• Release date: Aug 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781771135351

David Goutor

David Goutor is assistant professor in the School of Labour Studies, McMaster University. He researches and teaches about working-class formation, union and leftist movements, immigration, and transnational migratory labour systems.

Reviews for A Chance to Fight Hitler

[Patricia1899 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio version and thought the story itself was nice enough. However, there were a billion footnotes interspersed in the text. Almost every other paragraph the narrator would read those numbers out loud which seriously tarnished the experience to me. It was very distracting to hear all those random numbers in the narration. There is very long appendix in the end with all the footnotes... but who would ever search out footnote number 128 in the third appendix which is like five minutes long? I think it's very strange to include footnotes in an audiobook...