Career
Born in Anaheim, California, Berg briefly trained with the Oregon National Guard prior to going to Spain in 1937. He served in the United States Army during World World War World War II He remained an interested and active party member up to the time of his last interview in 2014. Berg, who was raised on a farm, worked as a farm worker, cement finisher and landscape gardener, in the years following his demobilization.
He fathered two sons from two different marriages.
He began serving as a union organizer in the 1950s, and, in a 2007 interview, described the steps he took to discourage the attention of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. Berg became an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), when he was elected the Vice President of the Stanislaus County branch.
In a 2007 interview with the Union Democrat Berg described delivering a petition to the racist county sheriff, demanding his resignation. Berg described testifying at a hearing in Washington, District of Columbia on farm conditions as a representative of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.
As his comrades died Berg was sought out for more frequent interviews.
He was interviewed for an episode of the Public Broadcasting Service show History Detectives to provide background about the experience of American volunteers when a segment was focused around an artifact from the Spanish Civil War. As of 2007, Berg lived in Columbia, California. He became a centenarian in December 2015 and died on February 28, 2016, aged 100, in Columbia, Tuolumne County, California.
On March 25, 2016, approximately a month after his death, United States Senator John McCain published an op-ed in the New York Times saluting Berg, and his comrades, who had fought for the good values they believed in, in Spain, and when they returned home to the United States of America.
