Biography
Nels Kjar was a Danish-born carpenter, Communist activist and labor organizer and leader of unemployed workers in Chicago. Immigration officials canceled the bond from an earlier deportation proceeding and rearrested him on June 13, 1932. He was held in Cook County jail while the International Labor Defense sought bail and opposed his deportation. On November 3, officials took him under guard from Chicago’s Dearborn Station on the first stage of his deportation to Denmark. Workers gathered at the station to see him off; Kjar urged them to continue organizing against wage cuts and for unemployment insurance.
The October 1, 1932 editorial states that immigration authorities canceled his earlier bail and rearrested him on June 13, after which he remained in Cook County jail with bail efforts unsuccessful. It describes nearly four months of continuing detention, not a completed term. A hearing before Judge Samuel Alshuler on October 4 was still prospective; deportation to Denmark was being contested rather than reported accomplished. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n235-NY-oct-01-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Randi Storch’s 2013 labor history identifies Kjar as a skilled carpenter and Workers Party member who worked through the Trade Union Education League while retaining his AFL membership. It dates his expulsion from his carpenters’ union to 1928 after agitation that included reducing officials’ salaries. This adds earlier trade-union background, not another arrest or a change to his separately documented immigration custody. Source: https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781118541494.excerpt.pdf#page=25
Printed page 168 names this labor leader among those facing deportation in the Doak campaign, alongside Mills and other organizers. It calls the proposed removals impending and urges defense. This corroborates existing immigration proceedings, without asserting actual deportation, a new arrest or a criminal conviction. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Separate Chicago detention reported in October 1929
A Chicago dispatch dated October 15 in the October 16, 1929 Daily Worker names Nels Kjar, Clarence Hathaway and Irving Herman as arrested at Communist Party headquarters late the preceding night, October 14. The report says the three were still held in jail while the International Labor Defense sought bail. It describes robbery and sedition accusations; an additional attempted-killing accusation was a proposed prosecutorial move, not an established filed charge in this report. The actual jail observation establishes a distinct 1929 episode, not the later 1932 deportation detention already recorded. The arrest day is not assigned as a separately proved physical admission day, and no release, uninterrupted span or numerical time served is inferred.
Daily Worker, October 16, 1929, original page 1, Seek to Frame Six Communist Leaders on Robbery Charge. Political and legal allegations remain attributed to the newspaper.
The following issue, October 17, carries an October 16 Chicago dispatch reporting Monday-night headquarters arrests, approximately 24 hours in jail and completed release on $3,000 bonds. Its heading says Hathaway and four others, while the body says the four mentioned above after naming Hathaway, Nels Kjar, Zinich, Herman and Murphy. This internally inconsistent group count is preserved. It is evidence about the same prosecution, not another detention; no exact physical release day or calendar credit is inferred. Because that group count is inconsistent, its release statement is not assigned as a separately confirmed individual release endpoint for Kjar; the new case keeps release and physical admission blank. The reported 24 hours is not entered as measured calendar credit.
A renewed Chicago arrest after an earlier bail release
A Chicago dispatch dated October 24 in the October 25, 1929 Daily Worker individually names Nels Kjar among the organizers rearrested that day. It distinguishes earlier release on $3,000 bonds from the renewed arrest and increased $15,000 bonds. The main list contains eight names, while a neighboring International Labor Defense report describes six rearrested workers held under $90,000 bail. That count variation is preserved; the source is not used to allocate a numerical custody total. This documents a later arrest in the same Chicago prosecution, not uninterrupted imprisonment since an earlier arrest or a physical admission day. The later bail release and final disposition remain unknown. The separate earlier October 14 episode was published in publication367 with no individually established release day. This proposed October 24 rearrest is a later phase of the same prosecution, not a duplicate of that earlier episode or proof of uninterrupted custody across the reported bail gap.
Daily Worker, October 25, 1929, original pages 1. Contemporary legal allegations and personal reports remain attributed to the newspaper.
An earlier St. Louis eviction-defense case reference
An October 29 St. Louis dispatch in the October 31 issue describes the prosecution of B. Stevens, Owen Lutz and H. Schwartz for protesting Scott Whitley’s eviction. It expressly identifies this as a case in which Nels Kjar was involved and says immigration authorities were trying to deport him. The reported $550 fines or alternative workhouse terms belong to those three named defendants, not automatically to Kjar. This earlier deportation-threat and organizing context is not an actual deportation, a new physical admission or a date for the separate 1932 detention already recorded.
Daily Worker, October 31, 1930, original pages 3. Contemporary allegations and courtroom characterizations are attributed to the newspaper.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
