There’s already about 10,000 people on the docks, screamin’ and hollerin’, and carrying swastikas, “Free Ernst Thälmann”, “Down with Hitlerism”, and such and such and such. The demonstration’s already really in progress.

The twenty minute whistle blew. So we had to make a break for it then or never. Here they got guys all blockin’ everybody from going forward, standing there. Soon we got down there, we pushed the officer—one of the guys—out of the way. And the guy says, “Was ist loss!” You know, one of the officers, “What’s the matter!” And one fella, who led the way, we called him “Low-life” McCormick, that was his nickname, “Low-life” McCormick—wonderful guy—he didn’t waste no time in explaining “was ist loss”. He belted the officer one, rolled ‘im over, so he hollered to me “Keep goin’, keep goin’, keep goin’! Get up there! Get up there!” That’s the way it was. So I was young enough to hurdle these big sea-breakers and I got up to the bow… Anyhow, there I was with this flag and I thought it’d be an easy deal, and I remember yankin’ it and the first—part of the halyard ripped. Rrrip! And I thought it was home free, all I had to do was give it another yank—but it would not give. And I gave it a third

On ripping the swastika off the SS Bremen, The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War (1984).