Many Jews fought for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. The Republican Constitution of 1931 authorized freedom of worship, and offered an extensive liberties. In contrast to the rise of antisemitism in Europe, Spanish center-left governments offered asylum to Central European Jews. To the Jews who arrived escaping antisemitism, there were a large number of Jewish volunteers who enlisted in the International Brigades to fight fascism in the peninsula. It is estimated that of the 35,000 foreigners who fought to try to stop the advance of fascism in Europe, nearly 8,000 were Jews. Among them, members of the Botwin Unit, formed by 152 Jewish brigadiers mainly from Poland and Ukraine. It remained in active existence and combat for nine months, until the battle of the Ebro in 1938. Many of its members were killed, and the survivors, a little less than 90 brigadiers, were taken prisoner. Later when it was discovered that they were Jews, they were executed by Franco's army, unlike the Spaniards who were taken to prison camps. While active, the Botwin Jewish Unit published a newspaper in the Yiddish language.  The walls show the scars of a devastating attack of the Civil War in Barcelona. On the morning of January 30, 1938, the Italian fascist air force, allied with Franco, uninterruptedly bombing the city of Barcelona, from 9:00 to 11:20 a.m. The bomb that fell in this plaça caused 42 deaths, most of whom were children taking refuge in the square’s convent.