Why have German-, Italian- and Latin American Internment during WWII been kept out of the USA History books?
Why have German-, Italian- and Latin American Internment during WWII been kept out of the USA History books?
By Kevin Anthony Stoda
I have a lot of Germanic blood on both sides of my family. Previously, I have written on the topic of being an American in Germany and being either of German descent (or simply German) in America previously. One writing of mine was a review of the book TEARING THE SILENCE: On Being German in America , a collection of interviews which were conducted, compiled and edited by psychologistUrsula Hegi.
Heggi focused primarily on Germans who were mostly too young to remember WWII (and felt little responsibility for the Hitler era) but who had grown of age in America following WWII.
Recently, I came across another set of historical examples on the perplexing reality of the Germanic peoples in America landscape of the 20th Century. This particular topic encompasses the great internment of the Germans, Japanese, Italians, and many Latin American German and Japanese in the USA during WWII.
http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/camp.html
I had long been familiar with the Japanese internments and believe that the Japanese Stodas were also interned at that time. However, until I came across a series of websites and oral histories on the topic of German internment in WWII, I had had no idea how pervasive internment of potential American enemies had been during the Great War against Fascism.
THE SILENCE IN AMERICA ON GERMAN INTERNMENT
The silence on German, Italian, and Latin American internments is still great in places as hot as Crystal City, Texas (120 degrees at times) and as cold and as snowy as Ft. Missoula, Montana or Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota. One web project that is beginning to tell these imprisoned people’s stories is at the German American Internee Coalition site:
http://www.gaic.info/index.html
The site shares:
“German Americans constitute the largest ethnic group in the US. Approximately 60 million Americans claim German ancestry. German American loyalty to America's promise of freedom traces back to the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, during World War II, the US government and many Americans viewed ethnic Germans and others of ‘enemy ancestry’ as potentially dangerous, particularly recent immigrants. The Japanese American World War II experience is well known. Few, however, know of the European American World War II experience, particularly that of the German Americans and Latin Americans. We also have much to learn about the Japanese and Italian Latin American programs. The focus of this overview is the US resident German experience, however, the programs were applied to all of “enemy ancestry” with varying ramifications. For more information regarding the internment of Germans from Latin America, click here. For more information regarding the related legal framework, click here.
The US government used many interrelated, constitutionally questionable methods to control those of enemy ancestry, including internment, individual and group exclusion from military zones, internee exchanges for Americans held in Germany, deportation, ‘alien enemy’ registration requirements, travel restrictions and property confiscation. The human cost of these civil liberties violations was high. Families were disrupted, reputations destroyed, homes and belongings lost. Meanwhile, untold numbers of German Americans fought for freedom around the world, including their ancestral homelands. Some were the immediate relatives of those subject to oppressive restrictions on the home front. Pressured by the US, Latin American governments arrested at least 8500 German Latin Americans. An unknown number were sent directly to Germany, while 4050 were shipped in dark boat holds to the United States and interned. At least 2,650 US and Latin American resident immigrants of German ethnicity and their native-born children were later exchanged for Americans and Latin Americans held in Germany. Some allege that internees were captured to use as exchange bait.
There is little wonder that so many of our ancestors did not pass down German or other languages to the second and third generations here in the USA.
http://www.gaic.info/camp_doj.html
Most German-Americans only have found out about their ancestors having been interned through accident.
The erasing of memories and the shame that internment had brought has been almost been complete over the last few generations. Deborah McCarty Smith writes of John Heitman’s experience growing up in post-WWII America:
“A German Lutheran catechism and an ashtray, crafted from a rock and painted ‘Seagoville 1943,’ were John Heitmann's first clues to his family's history in the years before his birth. The clues would lead him to FBI files, immigration records and conversations with princes and professors and to the tip of the iceberg of a chapter of U.S. history unknown to most Americans - the internment of German aliens during World War II.”
Smith continues, “Seagoville [in reality an internment camp near Dallas], Heitmann knew, was somewhere his parents lived in Texas during the war, but never spoke of. The catechism, found two years ago while browsing books in his mother's home, was stamped with a German inscription: ‘A gift of the German Red Cross to prisoners of war, 1943.’ A fax from a friend at the National Archives handed Heitmann the missing piece: ‘my father's card file from the Immigration and Naturalization Service in May 1942 with a warrant to arrest my father as a dangerous pro-Nazi. My father was apprehended at his home in Astoria, N.Y., by seven FBI men with machine guns.’”
"We never talked about this. After the war, my father settled into a seemingly normal middle-class existence and lived as if it never happened," Heitmann said.
http://www.foitimes.com/internment/udq.htm
DO WE LEARN FROM OUR PAST?
The story of many of WWII internees of Asian, European, and Latin American descent often shared the same experience—an experience that many Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians have been sharing in too much--after 9-11-2001.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) instituted very limited due process protections for those arrested. Potential internees were held in custody for weeks in temporary detention centers, such as jails and hospitals, prior to their hearings. Frequently, their families had no idea where they were for weeks. The hearings took place before DOJ-constituted civilian hearing boards. Those arrested were subject to hostile questioning by the local prosecuting US Attorney, who was assisted by the investigating FBI agents. The intimidated, frequently semi-fluent accused had no right to counsel, could not contest the proceedings or question their accusers. Hearing board recommendations were forwarded to the DOJ’s Alien Enemy Control Unit (AECU) for a final determination that could take weeks or months.
Internees remained in custody nervously awaiting DOJ's order--unconditional release, parole or internment. Policy dictated that the AECU resolve what it deemed to be questionable hearing board recommendations in favor of internment. Based on AECU recommendations, the Attorney General issued internment orders for the duration of the war. Internees were shipped off to distant camps. Families were torn apart and lives disrupted, many irreparably. Family members left at home were shunned due to fear of the FBI and spite. Newspapers published stories and incriminating lists. Eventually destitute, many families lost their homes and had to apply to the government to join spouses in family camps, apply for welfare and/or rely on other family members who could afford to support them. Eventually, under such duress, hundreds of internees agreed to repatriate to war-torn Germany to be exchanged with their children for Americans. Once there, food was scarce, Allied bombs were falling and their German families could do little to help them. Many regretted their decision. Considering the spurious allegations, which led to the internment of a majority of internees, their treatment by our government was harsh indeed. Their experience provides ample evidence of why our civil liberties are so precious.”
http://www.gaic.info/history.html
John Heitmann, who is mentioned above, is a now professor of history and has often sought to obtain all records on his father’s case with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act, but he has often come up against Walls of Silence over the years.
When discussing his continuing struggle to obtain information, Heitmann recalls “"I've always dealt with the history of institutions and how they can impersonally repress individuals who are perceived as a threat to those institutions. . . .”
“’Do we really learn from our past?’ Heitmann wonders, tracing parallels between the internment of German- Americans in the '40s and government plans to intern suspected communists in the '50s, Iranians in the '70s and Iraqis in the '90s. In the FBI Filegate flap of the Clinton administration, in current anti-immigrant sentiment, in anti-terrorist legislation that circumvents due process, historians hear ominous echoes of earlier times.”
Finally, Heitmann summarizes, "There are some intrinsic flaws in human nature that reappear and are reflected in our institutions. It's a story of how institutions end up biting people . . . . In a world where there are lots of smoke screens and J. Edgar Hoovers, an individual can really be hurt….” He then acknowledged “a professional curiosity that is fueled by a personal quest to discover a part of his family history that is buried under years of silence.”
If this is the case, our endless war on terrorism in the 21st century is going to leave many more generations scarred due to American backlash and internment.
NOTES
Enemy Alien Control Program WWII: An Overview
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/enemy-aliens-overview.html
German American Internee Coalition
http://www.gaic.info/index.html
Internment of German Americans in the United States in World War II
http://www.foitimes.com/
Japanese American Legacy Project
http://www.densho.org/
Japanese Internment: This is the Enemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaQqzumMGE
Japanese Relocation Centers, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
Letters from Japanese Internment
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/japanese_internment/index.html
The Story of Italian American Internment in WWII
http://www.italianhistorical.org/page19a.html
Traces: German-Americans in the United States in WW II
http://www.traces.org/germaninternees.html
World War Two—Japanese Internment Camps in the USA http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/japan_internment_camps.htm
By Kevin Anthony Stoda
I have a lot of Germanic blood on both sides of my family. Previously, I have written on the topic of being an American in Germany and being either of German descent (or simply German) in America previously. One writing of mine was a review of the book TEARING THE SILENCE: On Being German in America , a collection of interviews which were conducted, compiled and edited by psychologistUrsula Hegi.
Heggi focused primarily on Germans who were mostly too young to remember WWII (and felt little responsibility for the Hitler era) but who had grown of age in America following WWII.
Recently, I came across another set of historical examples on the perplexing reality of the Germanic peoples in America landscape of the 20th Century. This particular topic encompasses the great internment of the Germans, Japanese, Italians, and many Latin American German and Japanese in the USA during WWII.
http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/camp.html
I had long been familiar with the Japanese internments and believe that the Japanese Stodas were also interned at that time. However, until I came across a series of websites and oral histories on the topic of German internment in WWII, I had had no idea how pervasive internment of potential American enemies had been during the Great War against Fascism.
THE SILENCE IN AMERICA ON GERMAN INTERNMENT
The silence on German, Italian, and Latin American internments is still great in places as hot as Crystal City, Texas (120 degrees at times) and as cold and as snowy as Ft. Missoula, Montana or Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota. One web project that is beginning to tell these imprisoned people’s stories is at the German American Internee Coalition site:
http://www.gaic.info/index.html
The site shares:
“German Americans constitute the largest ethnic group in the US. Approximately 60 million Americans claim German ancestry. German American loyalty to America's promise of freedom traces back to the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, during World War II, the US government and many Americans viewed ethnic Germans and others of ‘enemy ancestry’ as potentially dangerous, particularly recent immigrants. The Japanese American World War II experience is well known. Few, however, know of the European American World War II experience, particularly that of the German Americans and Latin Americans. We also have much to learn about the Japanese and Italian Latin American programs. The focus of this overview is the US resident German experience, however, the programs were applied to all of “enemy ancestry” with varying ramifications. For more information regarding the internment of Germans from Latin America, click here. For more information regarding the related legal framework, click here.
The US government used many interrelated, constitutionally questionable methods to control those of enemy ancestry, including internment, individual and group exclusion from military zones, internee exchanges for Americans held in Germany, deportation, ‘alien enemy’ registration requirements, travel restrictions and property confiscation. The human cost of these civil liberties violations was high. Families were disrupted, reputations destroyed, homes and belongings lost. Meanwhile, untold numbers of German Americans fought for freedom around the world, including their ancestral homelands. Some were the immediate relatives of those subject to oppressive restrictions on the home front. Pressured by the US, Latin American governments arrested at least 8500 German Latin Americans. An unknown number were sent directly to Germany, while 4050 were shipped in dark boat holds to the United States and interned. At least 2,650 US and Latin American resident immigrants of German ethnicity and their native-born children were later exchanged for Americans and Latin Americans held in Germany. Some allege that internees were captured to use as exchange bait.
There is little wonder that so many of our ancestors did not pass down German or other languages to the second and third generations here in the USA.
http://www.gaic.info/camp_doj.html
Most German-Americans only have found out about their ancestors having been interned through accident.
The erasing of memories and the shame that internment had brought has been almost been complete over the last few generations. Deborah McCarty Smith writes of John Heitman’s experience growing up in post-WWII America:
“A German Lutheran catechism and an ashtray, crafted from a rock and painted ‘Seagoville 1943,’ were John Heitmann's first clues to his family's history in the years before his birth. The clues would lead him to FBI files, immigration records and conversations with princes and professors and to the tip of the iceberg of a chapter of U.S. history unknown to most Americans - the internment of German aliens during World War II.”
Smith continues, “Seagoville [in reality an internment camp near Dallas], Heitmann knew, was somewhere his parents lived in Texas during the war, but never spoke of. The catechism, found two years ago while browsing books in his mother's home, was stamped with a German inscription: ‘A gift of the German Red Cross to prisoners of war, 1943.’ A fax from a friend at the National Archives handed Heitmann the missing piece: ‘my father's card file from the Immigration and Naturalization Service in May 1942 with a warrant to arrest my father as a dangerous pro-Nazi. My father was apprehended at his home in Astoria, N.Y., by seven FBI men with machine guns.’”
"We never talked about this. After the war, my father settled into a seemingly normal middle-class existence and lived as if it never happened," Heitmann said.
http://www.foitimes.com/internment/udq.htm
DO WE LEARN FROM OUR PAST?
The story of many of WWII internees of Asian, European, and Latin American descent often shared the same experience—an experience that many Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians have been sharing in too much--after 9-11-2001.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) instituted very limited due process protections for those arrested. Potential internees were held in custody for weeks in temporary detention centers, such as jails and hospitals, prior to their hearings. Frequently, their families had no idea where they were for weeks. The hearings took place before DOJ-constituted civilian hearing boards. Those arrested were subject to hostile questioning by the local prosecuting US Attorney, who was assisted by the investigating FBI agents. The intimidated, frequently semi-fluent accused had no right to counsel, could not contest the proceedings or question their accusers. Hearing board recommendations were forwarded to the DOJ’s Alien Enemy Control Unit (AECU) for a final determination that could take weeks or months.
Internees remained in custody nervously awaiting DOJ's order--unconditional release, parole or internment. Policy dictated that the AECU resolve what it deemed to be questionable hearing board recommendations in favor of internment. Based on AECU recommendations, the Attorney General issued internment orders for the duration of the war. Internees were shipped off to distant camps. Families were torn apart and lives disrupted, many irreparably. Family members left at home were shunned due to fear of the FBI and spite. Newspapers published stories and incriminating lists. Eventually destitute, many families lost their homes and had to apply to the government to join spouses in family camps, apply for welfare and/or rely on other family members who could afford to support them. Eventually, under such duress, hundreds of internees agreed to repatriate to war-torn Germany to be exchanged with their children for Americans. Once there, food was scarce, Allied bombs were falling and their German families could do little to help them. Many regretted their decision. Considering the spurious allegations, which led to the internment of a majority of internees, their treatment by our government was harsh indeed. Their experience provides ample evidence of why our civil liberties are so precious.”
http://www.gaic.info/history.html
John Heitmann, who is mentioned above, is a now professor of history and has often sought to obtain all records on his father’s case with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act, but he has often come up against Walls of Silence over the years.
When discussing his continuing struggle to obtain information, Heitmann recalls “"I've always dealt with the history of institutions and how they can impersonally repress individuals who are perceived as a threat to those institutions. . . .”
“’Do we really learn from our past?’ Heitmann wonders, tracing parallels between the internment of German- Americans in the '40s and government plans to intern suspected communists in the '50s, Iranians in the '70s and Iraqis in the '90s. In the FBI Filegate flap of the Clinton administration, in current anti-immigrant sentiment, in anti-terrorist legislation that circumvents due process, historians hear ominous echoes of earlier times.”
Finally, Heitmann summarizes, "There are some intrinsic flaws in human nature that reappear and are reflected in our institutions. It's a story of how institutions end up biting people . . . . In a world where there are lots of smoke screens and J. Edgar Hoovers, an individual can really be hurt….” He then acknowledged “a professional curiosity that is fueled by a personal quest to discover a part of his family history that is buried under years of silence.”
If this is the case, our endless war on terrorism in the 21st century is going to leave many more generations scarred due to American backlash and internment.
NOTES
Enemy Alien Control Program WWII: An Overview
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/enemy-aliens-overview.html
German American Internee Coalition
http://www.gaic.info/index.html
Internment of German Americans in the United States in World War II
http://www.foitimes.com/
Japanese American Legacy Project
http://www.densho.org/
Japanese Internment: This is the Enemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaQqzumMGE
Japanese Relocation Centers, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
Letters from Japanese Internment
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/japanese_internment/index.html
The Story of Italian American Internment in WWII
http://www.italianhistorical.org/page19a.html
Traces: German-Americans in the United States in WW II
http://www.traces.org/germaninternees.html
World War Two—Japanese Internment Camps in the USA http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/japan_internment_camps.htm
Labels: Italian- and Latin American Internment during WWII been kept out of the USA History books, Why have German-
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 4:37 PM
2 Comments:
http://everything2.com/title/German+Internment+Camps+in+World+War+II
The eventual internment of over 10,0001 people of German ancestry seems even more surprising given the large portion of the US population that has German ancestry as well as the lack of obvious "German" characteristics of a physical or ethnic nature for the most part (assimilation into American culture was quite smooth, even with newer immigrants who retained certain cultural and language/accent traits)—at least more so than the Japanese Americans2 or those of Italian descent.3
On the other hand, the precedent was there. During the first World War—though the number of internees was much lower—vigilantism, harassment, property damage, and even violence (there were a few lynchings) took place. Of course, when it was reported in the press, it was almost invariably described as actions taken against "anti-Americans," "pro-Germans," (and during the second World War, "pro-nazis")—terms that were essentially synonymous in much the same way "communism" came to be used. This, of course did not reflect the reality that none of these terms were by definition or in practice necessarily mutually exclusive.
There was a legalistic pretense for the internment and relocations.4 The Alien Enemy Act of 1798 (later codified under US Code Title 50 Chapter 3), allows for such things. If the United States declares war or "any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the territory of the United States" (foreign nation/government implied), the president—through proclamation—may make it such that "all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies."
Further:
The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety.
In time of war, this is understandable. But it didn't quite work that way in practice—or, perhaps, it worked all too well.
With a few exceptions (a few seamen on ships in US ports had been arrested as early as April 1941), the arrests started in the wake of the Pearl Harbor bombing (7 December 1941), when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued the necessary proclamations designating German (8 December 1941), Italian (8 December 1941), and Japanese (7 December 1941) nationals as "enemy aliens." This brought restrictions on travel (no air travel of any kind), no entering or leaving the US except under "prescribed regulation," changing residence or "otherwise [traveling] or [moving] from place to place except under regulation), "exclusion" ( military bases, the Panama Canal zone, et cetera), and even possessions.5 It also allowed for internment/relocation.
By 11 AM, 9 December 1941, the FBI had already arrested 497 Germans, 83 Italians, and 1,221 Japanese (of which 376 were arrested in Honolulu). The FBI's swift action, of course, was not so much due to their quick response time and skill at rooting out "subversives," but because they already had lists of names. Two years earlier, in a message from J. Edgar Hoover to all Special Agents in Charge, it was noted that
The Bureau is, at the present time, preparing a list of individuals, both aliens and citizens of the United States, on whom there is information available to indicate that their presence at liberty in this country in time of war or national emergency would be dangerous to the public peace and the safety of the United States Government. The information now available relative to these individuals is, however, incomplete in most instances and it will be necessary to obtain additional information relative to the affiliations, business interests, activities, present address, age, and citizenship status of each." (6 December 1939)
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