Lawrence Simpson

Lawrence B. Simpson was an American seaman arrested aboard the Manhattan at Hamburg on June 28, 1935, after German police found Communist and anti-Nazi literature in his quarters. He was held in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and later in Berlin’s Moabit prison. On September 28, 1936, the Nazi People’s Court sentenced him to three years in prison, crediting fourteen months already spent in custody. American seamen, the International Labor Defense and other organizations campaigned for his release. After further imprisonment in Bremen, he was handed over to American officials in Hamburg on December 22, 1936, on five-year probation. He returned to the United States aboard the President Roosevelt.

The August 11, 1936 report on the ILD waterfront center named for Simpson states that the original anti-Nazi-sticker accusation had recently been changed to attempting to take money illegally out of Germany. It reports his denial of counsel of choice and continued pretrial confinement for more than a year; the rounded interval is not a precise completed duration. This is a contemporary account of a changed accusation, not proof of guilt. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n192-NY-aug-11-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=4

In the August 17, 1936 interview, recently returned visitor Gifford Cochran said he saw Simpson at Berlin’s Moabit prison after Consul Raymond H. Geist intervened. Cochran reported that Simpson rejected the lawyer offered in a court-official-supervised interview because he could not be assured of ILD approval and feared a trap; he intended to defend himself as a Communist. Cochran described Simpson as pale, weak and thin, and suspected torture without claiming to have witnessed it. He said the July28trial had been postponed and reported treason and espionage accusations; this attributed report does not erase the separately reported currency-removal allegation or establish that the proposed trial occurred. The report identifies his father as John O. Simpson of Seattle and his union as the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n197-NY-aug-17-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1; https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n197-NY-aug-17-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=2

In his first speech after returning to the United States, printed in the February 1937 Labor Defender, Simpson recalled eighteen months in Nazi camps and prisons, including twelve months in solitary confinement. He described a three-year sentence, denial of counsel of his own choice, poor food and intimidation, while expressly distinguishing the torture he witnessed against German prisoners from his own treatment. He said the international protest campaign protected him, and described refusing to work aboard the President Roosevelt after learning the seamen’s strike continued. The twelve months of solitary is a condition within his detention, not an additional term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1937/v13-%5B11%5Dn01-feb-1937-orig-LD.pdf#page=13

Page 1 reports a State Department letter to Anna Damon of the ILD, from James Clement Dunn, promising German inquiries after protest pressure over the June 28 seizure aboard the Manhattan in Hamburg. His locker reportedly contained anti-Nazi stickers and literature. This updates the existing American seaman record with early diplomatic-defense context, without creating another person from the fuller Lawrence B. Simpson name or treating promised inquiry as release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n181-NAT-jul-30-1935-DW-Q.pdf

Pages 1–2 and 4 report the August 7 seamen’s delegation and June Croll’s visit to State Department official James Clement C. Dunn. Dunn cited Consul Yates’s July 19 visit to Simpson at Fuhlsbuttel and said trial was anticipated at an unknown date; he defended Germany’s power to arrest. The delegation demanded safe return, counsel of its choice, and access for an investigating delegation, while Anna Damon offered ILD counsel. This records diplomatic and defense activity and attributed official claims; it does not establish freedom or that a promised trial occurred. Page 4 separately calls a United States Lines picket. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n189-NAT-aug-08-1935-DW-Q.pdf

Pages 1–2 report Nazi secret police refusing an American request to release him and demanding exhaustive examination and trial, after his June 28 seizure from the Manhattan in Hamburg. The headline’s six weeks is a rounded continuing-detention description, not a completed term. This updates the existing American seaman record without converting refusal or prospective trial into a release, verdict or new imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n190-NAT-aug-09-1935-DW-Q.pdf

The article identifies the American seaman in a German concentration camp after seizure from an American ship in June 1935. This corroborates the existing foreign detention of a U.S. worker without changing its later documented release or inventing an additional U.S. arrest. Daily Worker, December 30, 1935, original PDF page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n314-NY-dec-30-DW-Q.pdf#page=5

Page 6 reports Clifford Cochran's return from visiting Simpson at Moabit and the National Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners' demand for an open trial and State Department action. It dates his seizure from the S.S. Manhattan outside Hamburg to June 28, 1935 and describes more than fourteen months incommunicado. Trial on September 28 was prospective; this ongoing rounded interval is not a complete custody total, and German detention is not U.S. imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n211-NY-sep-02-1936-DW-Q.pdf

Gifford Cochran’s firsthand Moabit interview describes permission obtained on August 8, 1936, a secret indictment and restrictions on access to counsel. It reports fourteen months in custody so far, including four months at Moabit. These are intermediate observations in the existing German detention, not a new arrest or its complete duration; August 8 is the permission date, not an established visit or release day. Labor Defender, September 1936, original PDF page 7. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn09-sep-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=7

The October 1936 issue documents a ten-minute Seattle longshore stoppage aboard the German freighter Schwaben at one o’clock on September 10 to demand Simpson’s release. Joseph Curran identifies Simpson as his former shipmate, a Sailors Union of the Pacific member and long-time International Seamen’s Union member. Curran describes the September 28 trial as forthcoming and calls for shipboard protests; that contemporary future notice is not proof of a verdict or release and does not replace the separately established later judgment. The solidarity action adds US defense-campaign context to the existing overseas detention case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=6