Stekol Zalman (Solomon) (26 August 1914, Dvinsk — 1940, Paris) — participant in the revolutionary movement, fighter in the Spanish Civil War.

Zalman’s father was Mordechai (Mordukh) Stekol (b. 1882). Zalman Stekol lived in Riga and was a member of the Union of Workers and Lower-Income Latvians (Savienība strādnieku un mazturīgo latviešu). In 1932, after graduating from a Jewish gymnasium, he enrolled in the mechanical faculty of the University of Grenoble.

In 1937, he joined the Spanish International Brigades. He fought on the Madrid Front as part of the 14th International Brigade. He became a member of the Communist Party of Spain and was appointed commander of an anti-tank battery, where he was wounded.

From February 1939, he was interned in the Saint-Cyprien refugee camp in France, and later in the Gurs camp. In August 1940, he received permission to enter Latvia but did not return, having escaped from the camp and gone into hiding in Bordeaux and Paris.

During the Nazi occupation of Paris, he was captured and tortured to death.

Literature:

E. Vater, Jews of Latvia in the Struggle against Nazism, Tel Aviv, 2004;

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