Volunteer of the Week: Jules Paivio

Our volunteer of the week is Jules Paivio. Born into a socialist Finnish family in Ontario in 1917, Paivio was the last surviving Mac Pap when he died in 2013. Jules' father, Aku Paivio, was a prominent Finnish Canadian socialist journalist and poet who composed the poem "To My Son in Spain" when Jules volunteered. We're happy to host a documentary of the same name about Paivio on our site.

Jules Paivio worked as a clerk and was secretary of his Young Communist League unit in Canada. Paivio arrived in Spain in March 1937 and he served with the Lincoln and the Mackenzie Papineau Battalions. After a promotion to lieutenant, he became the commander of the Non-Commissioned Officer School. He was taken prisoner in April 1938, and later wrote a testimony about his time as a POW. He went on to train Canadian soldiers in map reading during World War II and later became an architect and professor.  See record.