Mujer Republicanista

Weil was a pacifist. The Spanish-Civil War changed that -- then changed it back again.

Incensed that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were assisting in the Nationalist attack on Spain's democratically elected Popular Front government, Weil travelled to Barcelona.

Here is Joshua Glenn on Weil's participation:

"The frail, near-sighted intellectual joined a unit of anarchists, was issued a rifle and almost immediately put her foot into a pan of boiling oil. Her ever-protective parents, lurking just over the border, yanked her to safety. Dismayed by the atrocities she'd seen her own side commit, Weil was confirmed in her pacifism."

Here is du Plessix Gray:

"Noting her awkwardness, her fellow volunteers immediately decided to avoid walking anywhere near her rifle's line of fire. They were also reluctant to let her join in commando missions. But she made such a scene, pleading to be included in all such operations, that she was allowed to join a group that planned to cross the right bank of the Elbo River in order to blow up an enemy railroad line."(112)

With a based camp established, Weil and a young German cook were ordered to guard the larder while the remainder of the unit pushed ahead.

Weil writes in her journal:

"From time to time, the young German lets out a sigh. He is frightened, visibly. Not me. But how intensely everything around me seems to exist!"

Later:

"If I'm captured, I'll be executed. But that is what we all deserve. Our troops have shed a lot of blood. I am morally an accomplice."