Kur Binyamin Khaimovich (1908-1942)

Kur Binyamin (Binjamin) Khaimovich (Khatskelevich) (April 1, 1908 [or 1910?], Dvinsk — January 13, 1942, Luchino) — participant in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, public figure.

Binyamin Kur was born into the family of a drayman. His mother died when he was eight years old, and he was placed in an orphanage, where he spent four years and attended school. In 1923, by decision of the guardianship council, he was sent to Riga to attend secondary school. During the day, Kur studied; at night, he worked as a proofreader in a printing house.

In 1928, he joined the Latvian Working Youth Union, becoming a member of the illegal district committee and later the Riga branch of the Komsomol. In January 1930, he joined the Communist Party of Latvia. In December 1930, he was convicted for illegal political activity and spent more than three years in the Central Riga Prison.

After his release, he returned to Daugavpils. In August 1934, he was drafted into the Latgalian Artillery Regiment (Krustpils, Rēzekne). He engaged in communist agitation and was due to be arrested and court-martialed, but he escaped, hid in Daugavpils, and in 1935 fled illegally to Brno (Czechoslovakia), where he spent three months in a Prague prison.

In early 1937, Kur moved to Paris, and from there to Spain aboard a ship that was torpedoed by an Italian submarine near Barcelona. He survived and, on June 1, 1937, joined the International Brigade as a soldier. From July 15, 1937, he served in the Slavic Division of Heavy Artillery — two weeks on the Central Front and fourteen months on the Extremadura Front (western Spain).

He served at divisional headquarters as secretary, paymaster, quartermaster, assistant and interpreter to the divisional commissar, and later as a gun commander, achieving the rank of senior sergeant. In September 1938, his artillery division was transferred to Valencia, and in October 1938, he joined the staff of the advisory group of the Levant Army and became a member of the Communist Party of Spain.

In October 1938, along with other volunteers, Binyamin Kur moved to Palafrugell (Spain) as the International Brigades were being withdrawn from the front; his division was disbanded. On February 6, 1939, he left Spain with other international volunteers. From February 8, 1939, to March 1940, he was interned in the Gurs concentration camp for Spanish refugees in southern France, from which he escaped to Denmark.

At that time, Denmark was under Nazi occupation, so Kur fled to Ireland and later returned to Latvia.

From February 1941, he worked as an instructor for the Daugavpils City Party Committee. At the beginning of the Second World War in Latvia, he was evacuated, volunteered for the front, and served in the Red Army in the 201st Latvian Rifle Division.

Binyamin Kur was killed in battle at Luchino near Borovsk. After this engagement, the soldiers of the 201st Division were honored with the title “The Defenders” for their bravery.

Sourse: Latvian Fighters in Spain 1936-1939. Memoirs and Documents (Борцы Латвии в Испании. 1936―1939. Воспоминания и документы). Riga: Liesma, 1970.