Permand Khaim (Chaim) Davidovich (1918, Daugavpils – 1985?, Riga) – participant in the underground revolutionary movement, fighter in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

Khaim Permand graduated from the ORT vocational school in Daugavpils and worked as a metalworker. In 1935, he moved to Riga in search of work, where he and his sister became involved in underground political activities. In January 1937, he was arrested and sent to a mental hospital, where he was subjected to regular beatings and torture. He was released in the autumn of the same year as a minor and placed in a private boarding facility under police surveillance.

In January 1938, using a false passport in the name of Bolmat, he left for Paris. On June 1, 1938, he arrived in Spain and joined the civil war. His first combat experience came in early June with the 45th Division at the Battle of the Ebro River. After crossing the river, the 45th took positions in the Gandesa mountains, where fierce fighting took place. Permand was wounded and treated in a hospital in Barcelona. He joined the Communist Party of Spain.

In early 1939, he fought with the 13th International Brigade in Catalonia. On February 9, 1939, he crossed into France, where he was held in refugee camps at Gurs, St. Cyprien, Gursou, and later at Argelès and Lémil. On March 15, 1941, he traveled through Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Western Ukraine, eventually reaching the Soviet border. He arrived in Riga on May 11, 1941.

When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, he volunteered for the Red Army. He was appointed commissar of a battalion in the Separate Latvian Rifle Regiment. In the fall of 1941, he was wounded near Leningrad. After recovery, he fought in the 201st Latvian Rifle Division and was again wounded near Staraya Russa. He became a war invalid.

After the war, Khaim Permand returned to Riga and worked in the system of vocational education. He died in 1984 or 1985 and was buried at the Raiņa Cemetery in Riga.

His sister, Esfir, was also an active participant in the underground revolutionary movement in Latvia. She died in Riga in 1969.

Sources:

E. Vater, The Jews of Latvia in the Struggle Against Nazism (Евреи Латвии в борьбе с нацизмом), Riga, 2004

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