Biography
Erich Becker was a Chicago shopkeeper who entered the United States in April 1928. He was arrested on June 11, 1934, during a demonstration at the German consulate in Chicago against the treatment of political prisoners in Nazi Germany. Two of his brothers were held in German concentration camps. On October 8, 1934, immigration authorities detained him for deportation on the basis of alleged Communist Party membership. He was held at Ellis Island, and the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born campaigned for asylum for him and other anti-Nazi refugees. Becker died in Anna, Illinois, on August 17, 1936, from sunstroke suffered while organizing against fascism and for democratic rights. Attorney Irving Krane represented him in his deportation appeal. After Becker died, the Seventh Circuit abated the appeal on September 23, 1936.
An anti-deportation appeal, printing his given name as Eric, included Becker among anti-Nazi immigrants facing removal to Germany. Its collective description of Ellis Island or pretransfer imprisonment does not establish an individual facility or a completed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n071-NAT-mar-23-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=5
Page 6 announces his case was expected to come up April 24 and says authorities sought to send him to Nazi Germany. It contrasts that pending case with Charles Sotis's acquittal. The announced hearing and threatened destination are prospective, not proof that Becker was deported or that detention ended. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n079-Late-Morning-Ed-apr-01-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, April 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The anti-Nazi refugee defense call names this worker among people threatened with deportation to Germany. It specifically describes Alfred Miller as a Montana farm-paper editor and Becker’s two brothers as concentration-camp prisoners; Richter was ordered to surrender May 15 and leave his American-born wife. Inclusion in the appeal alone is not proof that every listed person was then jailed or deported; independently recorded bail and later outcomes are retained.
The review of Charles Recht’s The Right of Asylum names Sallitto and Ferrero as California residents held for deportation to Italy over renting restaurant office space to anarchists. It separately lists Eric Becker, Carl Ohm, Otto Richter, Stella Petrosky and Walter Baer among radical or labor activists held for deportation. These are current detention and threatened removal references, not proof of actual deportation, a new admission or individually measured custody.
