German-born Socialist Paul Niepold was the handyman and groundskeeper at Brookwood Labor College when he volunteered for Spain. Part of the ill-fated Debs Brigade, Niepold became a company leader of the Lincoln Battalion, 15th International Brigade. He fell fighting fascism at Madrid on April 7, 1937.

‘Paul Niepold Died As He Lived–Fighting for His Class’ by Helen Norton Starr from Socialist Call. Vol. 3 No. 109. April 17, 1937.

Paul Niepold of Brookwood Labor College, who was shot by a Fascist marksman in Spain as he ran from a Government trench to rescue a comrade wounded at a suburban barricade near Madrid on April 8, was known to many in the Socialist and labor movement. He was born in Germany 31 years ago and with his wife, Martha, was active in the Socialist Youth Movement there before coming to this country in 1927. They were both students at Brookwood in 1930-31. He worked on the New Yorker Volkszeitung for several years and was active in the Krankenkasse and the Nature Friends and in his Socialist Party branch.

Returning to Germany in the summer of 1932, he wrote a number of articles for the American labor press on affairs there which were then shaping toward the Hitler regime. From the spring of 1933 until January of this year when he went to Spain to join the International Brigade, he was employed at Brookwood as grounds manager.

Went to Spain

Paul Niepold was a keen student of foreign affairs and when the struggle against Fascism developed in Spain, he grew more and more convinced that it was his duty to throw himself into the fight there against the dark tide of reaction that had already engulfed his own country. After some preliminary aviation training here, he went to Spain and, according to letters received from him, had been transferred from a training camp to the front only a few weeks ago.

“It was entirely characteristic of Paul,” said one of his Brookwood teachers, “that he should have dashed out from the shelter of the trench, heedless of his own danger, to rescue a wounded comrade who needed help.

“One cannot–or ought not–grieve for Paul himself; he died as he would have chosen to die, fighting for his own class. And yet those who knew his energy and steadfastness, his humor and kindliness, cannot help but feel deeply grieved over the loss of their young comrade and friend.”

A Paul Niepold Memorial Scholarship at Brookwood is planned by the Brookwood graduates and the ILGWU Student Fellowship, it was announced on Saturday at a luncheon of the latter organization where there were many union members who had come to know him at Brookwood summer institutes.

‘Party Drive to Aid Spain Is Intensified By Niepold’s Death’ by Jack Altman.

Spurred on by the heroic death of Paul Niepold, New York Socialist who died “in action” on the Madrid front, the Socialist Party of New York intensified efforts last week to give concrete aid to the Spanish workers enrolled in the Loyalist armies. Party activity will be concentrated on carrying out money-raising plans for the Debs Column and the North American Committee.

The reports of Paul Niepold’s death came as a shock to many Party members who knew him as a loyal friend and comrade; but it brought home to them in vivid fashion the necessity for aid to Spain TODAY! None of us can serve the great cause for which Paul Niepold gave his life, in a better fashion then by carrying through immediate action to help both, the Debs Column and the North American Committee.

Service For Niepold

A Socialist memorial service will be held for Paul Niepold Thursday afternoon, April 22, 5:30 PM. at the Labor Temple on 14 Street near Second Avenue. Reinhold Neibuhr will officiate at the ceremonies and speakers representing the Party and its Italian, Spanish and German sections will be there as well as a member of Brookwood Labor College. Monday evening, April 26, a mass meeting at the Hippodrome, Sixth Avenue at 43rd Street, will be a memorial to both Niepold and Ben Lieder, New York newspaperman who died fighting for the Loyalists. Tucker Smith, director of Brookwood Labor College, will speak at the Hippodrome meeting.

While awaiting completion of Party plans for the establishment of a suitable permanent memorial to Niepold, the Spanish section of the Socialist Party began the ball rolling with a $500 donation to the Spanish Anti-Fascist Committee in memory of the Socialist hero, the money to be used for the outfitting of two ambulances to be used by the Labor Red Cross. The permanent Niepold Memorial has been established as an annual scholarship for a Socialist at Brookwood. Contributions toward the memorial fund are now being received by S. John Block, treasurer, 21 East 17 Street, New York.

Aid NAC.

All Party branches and YPSL circles were given directive last week to intensify activity in the North American Committee, in line with the decision of the Party national executive committee, printed elsewhere in the CALL. All branches were specifically in- structed to support the borough conference being called by the North American Committee and to join in the establishment of neighborhood branches. If no branch exists, they were instructed to take the initiative in forming such a group, drawing in with them the broad mass organizations in the vicinity.

One of the immediate task before the Party is mobilizing support for the monster mass meeting Sunday afternoon, April 18, 2:30 P.M. at the Hippodrome, sponsored by the North American Committee, and the Italian, Spanish and Irish-American Committee. The speakers will include Fernando de los Rios, Spanish Socialist leader and now Spain’s ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Walter B. Cannon, noted educator of Harvard University, Pietro Allegra of the Italian Anti-Fascist Committee and Chet La More, prominent Baltimore artist Bishop Francis J. McConnell will act as chairman.

The meeting, which will celebrate the recent victories of the Loyalist forces, is called upon the anniversary of the abdication of Alfonso.

Activity in the North American Committee should not in any way stop the continued activity to raise funds for the Friends of the Debs Column, the supporting organization of the Eugene Victor Debs Column of Socialist volunteers for the International Brigade. On the contrary, all Party groups should increase their activity for both groups at all costs; Spain must be supported!

Socialist Call began as a weekly newspaper in New York in early 1935 by supporters of the Socialist Party’s Militant Faction Samuel DeWitt, Herbert Zam, Max Delson, Amicus Most, and Haim Kantorovitch, with others to rival the Old Guard’s ‘New Leader’. The Call Education Institute was also inaugurated as a rival to the right’s Rand School. In 1937, the Call as the Militant voice would fall victim to Party turmoil, becoming a paper of the Socialist Party leading bodies as it moved to Chicago in 1938, to Milwaukee in 1939, where it was renamed “The Call” and back to New York in 1940 where it eventually resumed the “Socialist Call” name and was published until 1954.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%203-109.pdf