Biography
Charles Krumbein was the New York district organizer of the Communist Party. Convicted of passport fraud, he entered the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on February 8, 1935, to serve an eighteen-month sentence. His imprisonment prompted a defense campaign, including protests after prison authorities stopped delivery of the Daily Worker. The Bureau of Prisons restored the newspaper in June. Krumbein was released on April 17, 1936, after 434 days at Lewisburg. Supporters met his train at Pennsylvania Station in New York and held a welcome meeting at the Bronx Coliseum that evening.
The Daily Worker of February 5, 1935, page 1, described Krumbein as a steamfitter who joined the Socialist Party in 1912 and helped found the Communist Party in 1919. It reported his arrest with C. E. Ruthenberg and William Z. Foster in the 1922 Bridgeman, Michigan raid and the subsequent dropping of the indictment. It also recalled an earlier Chicago criminal-syndicalism conviction, a ten-year sentence and an Illinois gubernatorial pardon after protests. These are distinct earlier proceedings; the report gives neither exact custody endpoints nor completed service for them. Its stated age of 45 is not used to calculate a birthdate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n031-Nat-feb-05-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, February 18, 1936, page 3: Branch 519 of the International Workers Order sent birthday greetings to Krumbein while he was imprisoned at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The message expresses hope for his return and reports the branch’s organizational growth. This corroborates continuing confinement at the already identified institution, without a new admission or release date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n042-NY-feb-18-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935: Page 1 reports a protest campaign against denial of the Daily Worker, Labor Defender and other labor publications at Lewisburg. It says the ban began eight days after his arrival and affected four other unnamed prisoners. The article calls February 4 the start of his sentence at Lewisburg, conflicting with the established February 8 institutional admission and February 4 sentencing/local-jail distinction. This discrepancy is preserved without replacing the existing admission date or measured custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n124-NAT-may-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The May 7 Daily Worker reports that Department of Justice agents arrested him Friday, May 4, following his prominent role in the New York May Day demonstration, and that he had been released on $5,000 bail. It does not specify the statutory charge, exact bail-release day or complete custody interval. This adds the reported bail disposition to the established May 4 case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n109-sect-one-may-07-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Pages 1–2, 4 and 8 report that the Bureau of Prisons barred the Daily Worker, Labor Defender and other working-class publications after his imprisonment at Northeastern Penitentiary, Lewisburg. ILD and National Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners protested to Sanford Bates. Allan Taub recounts a delegation asking Bates to reverse censorship; he says it was passed for consideration, not actually lifted. This is prison-condition evidence, not a new sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1 quotes Chicago’s Polish ILD branch demanding reversal of the ban on working-class publications at Lewisburg. The letter gives June 4, 1934 as the earlier arrest for his passport application, whereas the existing case records May 4; the conflict is retained as the letter’s date, not used to overwrite the case. It reports his February 8, 1935 prison entry and demand that officials stop discriminating against him. This does not establish restoration of his publications. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n133-NAT-jun-04-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 explicitly corrects the June 25 story: the ILD tenth-anniversary greeting WAS received by Krumbein, contrary to the claim it had been withheld. His parole application was under consideration; appeals for freedom do not establish parole approval. Page 5 further says he now received the Daily Worker and Labor Defender regularly after earlier denial. These are corrections and changed prison conditions, not proof of release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n153-NAT-jun-27-DW-Q.pdf
Page 3 prints Osmond K. Fraenkel’s letter to the Federal Parole Board supporting parole eligibility in August. It describes the eighteen-month passport-fraud sentence, political persecution and his careful former municipal service; it claims he had only eight months remaining. The rounded remaining-term claim and expected eligibility are retained as letter statements, not an exact actual-release date or proof parole was granted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n156-NAT-jul-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Anna Damon’s page 2 appeal calls for parole petitions before the Federal Parole Board meets August 3. It describes six months served of an eighteen-month sentence and argues that prosecution of the technical passport violation punished his political activity. The rounded six-month interval and announced meeting do not establish exact custody endpoints or that parole was granted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n181-NAT-jul-30-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 5 reports that, despite parole eligibility the preceding Saturday, August 3, no definite hearing date had been fixed. Chairman Arthur D. Wood’s letter merely docketed the application for the next Northeastern Penitentiary hearing; the article warns a meeting might take ninety days and urges immediate Washington consideration. This corrects any inference that the previously announced August 3 board meeting produced parole; the application remained pending, with no release endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n189-NAT-aug-08-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The paper describes Krumbein in the ninth month of his eighteen-month Lewisburg sentence. This is a partial-service observation, not eighteen months completed; the independently documented later release remains unchanged. Daily Worker, October 1, 1935, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n235-NAT-oct-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=2
Pages 1 and 8 print Parole Examiner Ray L. Huff’s assurance that the United States Board of Parole would consider Krumbein’s case at Lewisburg during August, while explicitly giving no assurance of favorable action. This advances the hearing-campaign record after earlier uncertainty but remains a prospective hearing, not granted parole or a physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n203-NAT-aug-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, May 31, 1935, page 1: Robert Morse Lovett wrote Sanford Bates of the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking that Charles Krumbein be allowed the Daily Worker, New Masses and other publications expressing his political beliefs. The paper places him under an eighteen-month passport-law sentence at Northeastern Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Lovett's demand documents the censorship campaign, not restoration of the publications, a transfer to Atlanta or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n130-NAT-may-31-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Sentence and parole eligibility
The July 1, 1935 Daily Worker, page 3, prints Osmond K. Fraenkel’s letter describing Krumbein’s eighteen-month passport sentence and four years of probation. The letter says he would become eligible for parole in August 1935; this is an eligibility forecast, not evidence that he was then released. The separately documented physical custody dates are unchanged.
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 1, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 30, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 8, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The front-page notice reports his actual arrest by federal agents on Friday, May 4, three days after May Day, and attributes to the capitalist press an indictment alleging possession and use of fraudulent passports. It promises fuller details Monday. This is contemporary confirmation of the already recorded initial arrest, not another detention, a conviction or a completed prison term.
Daily Worker, May 31, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The banquet announcement describes Krumbein recently released from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. This corroborates the independently recorded release; the future May 15 banquet is not his prison discharge day.
