report44Holian8198 .pdf

FRAGILEANDBELEAGUEREDARETHEMANY

THERECURRENCEOFANTI

-GERMANACTIVITIES

DURINGWORLDWARII

he manner in which the German-

American community suffered as a

result of nativist hostility during the

World War I era is a well-documented

aspect of American history. War-engendered

hysteria against all visible signs of

German culture led to the renaming of

streets and even certain foods, the abolition

of German-American social organizations,

suppression of the German-language press,

and prohibition of the instruction of the

German language in numerous school systems.

Less known is the story of the internment

of approximately 6,500 members of

the German-American community during

World War II for fear of subversive activities

against the United States.¹ By submerging its

identity during the postwar years and

understating many traditional aspects of

German culture in America, the German-

American community had hoped to prevent a

recurrence of the nativism which imperiled

its standing during the 1910s. In fact, a

second war-engendered movement against

the German element in America occasioned a

new wave of anti-German discrimination,

culminating in the arrest and internment of

thousands of members of the German-

American community, against whom there

often was little or no hard evidence. Unlike

the experience of World War I, the selective

persecution of legal resident aliens from

Germany during the period of the Second

World War has gone largely undocumented

in the half-century since its occurrence.²

Attempts to bring this unique aspect of

American history to light have generated

controversy among some members of the

scholarly community, including accusations of

ethnic chauvinism. There have even been

unsubstantiated insinuations that research

into the internment of German-Americans is

part of an organized movement to alter history

through publications "doubtless ...

planted by the campaign" in reputable magazines,

newspapers, and academic journals.³

Such contentions notwithstanding, there is

considerable evidence that numerous members

of the German-American community

were afforded unduly harsh treatment as a

result of wartime animosities. Further, many

of these measures have yet to be fully

explained or acknowledged by the United

States government despite the enactment of

legislation designed to apologize to, and

even compensate, other victims of ethnic

mistreatment during the period.

With the outbreak of war in Europe in

September 1939, and mindful of its experience

during World War I, the German-

American community went to considerable

lengths to avoid a repetition of the hysteria it

had encountered scarcely a quarter-century

earlier. On September 18 the Cincin-natier

Freie Presse published its platform for

German-Americans, in which it clearly

advocated a pro-American stance among its

admonishments:

1. Absolute and unswerving loyalty

to American Ideals and Principles;

2. Continued and consistent effort

to inculcate that spirit in the

mind and heart of every citizen

of German extraction; and

3. Strict obedience to American

laws and customs.4

A similar perspective was voiced in

New York in December 1939 by Youth

Outlook, a monthly publication of the

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German American League for Culture

(Youth Federation), in which unity was seen

as the key to preventing a recurrence of anti-

German sentiment:

We do not stand alone in our desire

to prevent the return of the pogromlike

atmosphere which, in 1917,

made life miserable for loyal and

democratic citizens of German

descent. ...The young people of this

country will never sacrifice a constitution

and Bill of Rights for the

"right" to participate in the war

whose only issue is the domination

of the world—certainly no cause to

die for. The German-American

Youth Federation fights all attempts

of reaction to create another "liberty

cabbage" hysteria. It does this by

proving that we German-Americans

are loyal Americans.5

In spite of widespread efforts by the

German-American community to distance

itself from the strains of Nazism emanating

from Germany during the 1930s, considerably

more attention was generated by a relative

few organizations such as the German-

American Bund, consisting of a small but

vocal minority of fascist sympathizers who

openly expressed support for Adolf Hitler

and the Third Reich. Shortly after American

entry into World War II on the side of the

Allies, prominent German-American scholar

Carl Wittke warned against the effect of

such rabble-rousers in the fear that their

activities would undermine the pro-

American stance of a large majority of

German-American organizations:

Like those who belonged to other

racial strains and were intrigued by

the alleged virtues of fascism, a relatively

small number of German-born

and native Americans of German

stock, were attracted, before Pearl

Harbor, by the swastika and

[German-American Bund leader]

Fritz Kuhn's aping of gangster meth-

ods, storm trooper camps, parades,

and uniforms in the United States.

But anti-Nazi leagues were also

organized among German stock to

combat Nazi influences, and many

German societies were slit into violently

hostile groups. In the nationwide

debate over isolationism, the

majority of the German element

probably agreed, for the most art,

with that 75 percent American

majority whom the various polls of

public opinion reported as opposed

to American intervention in Europe.6

But such pleas fell upon deaf ears in a

number of quarters. During the late 1930s

and early 1940s numerous sensational

reports circulated, particularly along the

east coast, about Bund activities real and

imagined. Far from being fodder for disreputable

publications, the notices often were

given added credence by their appearance in

some of the most respected newspapers in

America: in October 1940 the New York

Times published an Associated Press dispatch

on the testimony of a former member

of the German-American Bund before the

House Un-American Activities Committee.

Despite a lack of corroboration for the

account, the organization dutifully reported

that the Bund had planned to march on Wall

Street and hang "some big bankers," with

the inference that Adolf Hitler might personally

select the date for the action. Further

accounts maintained that a "few hundred"

members of the New York City police force

were sympathetic to the activities of the

Bund, and that the organization sponsored a

German-language school in the Yorkville

section of town, with the specific aim of

indoctrinating sons and daughters of

German immigrants in Nazi ideology.7

Invariably, such reports colored the perception

of the German-American community as a

whole and contributed to a changing per-

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ception of German legal residents aliens

from that of a benign presence to a possible

threat to national security interests upon

American entry into the war.

In June 1942 a confidential memorandum

from the Bureau of Intelligence summarized

the public mood relative to German

and Italian aliens in the eastern United

States based on a survey of residents of

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and New

Haven. Forty-seven percent of respondents

believed Italians to be loyal to the American

cause, while forty-three percent felt that few

or no Germans were so. Only one percent of

those polled opined that Italians were the

most dangerous of alien groups, compared

to forty percent who selected the Germans.

Most importantly, while as much as sixty

percent of respondents believed the treatment

of Italian legal resident aliens by the

United States government had been "about

right," sixty-three percent felt that government

treatment of German aliens had not

been strict enough. Further according to the

poll, Philadelphia was the east coast city

most suspicious of German legal resident

aliens and most anxious to take strict actions

to curtail their liberties; New York and

Boston were seen as similarly inclined "to

be drastic with Germans." In support of the

findings, the Bureau of Intelligence maintained

that the number of ideological fascists

within the German-American community

was "considerably higher than that

among the Italian-Americans and may be

regarded as a significantly high minority,"

although the concession was made that there

was "obviously no way of knowing exactly

what proportion of German-Americans may

be so described."8

As early as September 6, 1939, in an

effort to identify which German aliens

might be considered subversive, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the Federal

Bureau of Investigation to compile a roster

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 safety of the United

States."9 As a result, the so-called "ABC

List" was generated which prioritized members

of the German-American community

from most to least likely to commit subversive

activity. The master list was compiled

primarily from the membership rosters of

German-American societies, particularly

those such as the German-American Bund

known to have direct ties to Germany, subscription

lists from German-language magazines

and newspapers and German-

American newsletters, and reports from

confidential informants who often had no

direct evidence of wrongdoing by members of

the German-American community.10

Identification of potentially troublesome

aliens was made simpler in the summer

of 1940, when the Alien Registration

Act of 1940 was enacted. Although the

measure was introduced under the premise

that it would safeguard German and selected

other legal resident aliens from undue

hardship or persecution, the government

reserved the right to punish aliens who did

not comply fully with the letter of the law;

violation of the restrictions listed on the

reverse of each alien identification card subjected

offenders to possible detention and

even internment. Clearly public opinion was

on the side of the government. In response

to a Gallup poll of June 10, 1940, in which

those surveyed were asked if individuals

who were not citizens of the United States

should register with the government, ninetyfive

percent of respondents answered "yes."

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As of late December 1940 roughly

5,000,000 aliens had filed the appropriate

registration papers, and before the end of

May 1941 over 950,000 aliens in New York

City alone had undergone the process."

The ultimate benefit of alien registration

to the federal government became evident in

the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing

on December 7, 1941. Faced with the

prospect of American entry into an

increasingly global, armed conflict, authorities

quickly moved to detain aliens from Axis

nations as a first strike against potential

sabotage and treasonous activity. Although

the United States did not formally enter into

war with Germany until December 11, the

first arrests and detention of German legal

resident aliens deemed a security risk took

place on December 7 and 8; as of 12:30 p.m.

on December 9, a total of 620 German aliens

had been taken into custody by agents of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, including 47

by the New York field division district, 27

by the Newark branch, 23 by Philadelphia,

17 by Boston, 15 by New Haven, and 10 by

Baltimore.12 That the United States had

formulated specific plans as to how to handle

German legal resident aliens and suspicious

Americans of German extraction was

demonstrated by former Assistant Attorney

General James Rowe, in testimony before the

Commission on Wartime Relocation and

Internment of Civilians during the early

1980s:

I found at the time [December 7,

1941] that there had been a planning

commission at the Department of

Justice, a war planning committee,

whatever you wish to call it, that had

been operating for about a year or six

months on the theory that we might

get into war. Also on the theory

which proved correct that our enemies

would be the Japanese, the

Germans, and the Italians. And what

they were doing was trying to make a

selection of the German, Italian, and

Japanese aliens, enemy aliens we

might have thought were dangerous.

.... The program worked quite well;

we picked up right after Pearl Harbor

about 60,000 enemy aliens— I think

mostly German, a large number of

Italians, and a large number of

Japanese. And we thought we were

off to a pretty good run.13

For the duration of the war, the east

coast provided the area with the greatest

number of apprehensions of German legal

resident aliens; between December 7, 1941

and June 30, 1945, New York led the list of

arrests by state with 2,291, followed at a

considerable distance by New Jersey (756);

Pennsylvania (388); Connecticut (92);

Massachusetts (58); and Maryland (56).l4 A

memorandum dated December 8, 1941,

from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover made

clear that preparations for the detention and

possible internment of German legal resident

aliens had been made well in advance

of the Pearl Harbor bombing; among individuals

"considered for custodial detention"

were 636 German aliens, 1,694 individuals

of German descent whose citizenship was

unknown, and 1,393 American citizens considered

sympathetic to Germany—a clear

indication that the prospect of arrest and

internment of German-Americans extended

to the American-born as well as the Germanborn.

In the aftermath of American entry into

World War II, numerous measures were

undertaken in traditional German-American

communities to safeguard against the

prospect of sabotage. In Ohio, officials in

Cincinnati placed barbed wire around the

main city water works building in January

1942, and Cleveland authorities instituted

an ordinance forbidding the use of bright

lights between midnight and 6:00 a.m.16 As

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____________________________HOLIAN

early as January 5 aliens nationwide were

required to turn in all firearms, radio transmitters,

short wave radio receivers, and

cameras to local police; the list was quickly

amended to include weapons or implements

of war such as: bombs; ammunition; signal

devices; codes or ciphers; sketches and photographs

of military installations; and

papers, documents or books in which there

might be invisible writing.17 The spontaneity

of the additional measure became evident

in short order, when authorities were forced

to concede that there was no practical way to

determine whether or not there was

invisible writing in a given book, as well as

that no sane-thinking alien was likely to

enter a police headquarters with a bomb to

turn in.

The formation of alien hearing boards

added a new dimension to the fate of

German legal resident aliens. Formed in the

immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor

bombing and the early detention of enemy

aliens, the boards were established in all

ninety-four federal judicial districts and

were composed of five citizens—only three

of whom presided over a given hearing—

from lists submitted by local district attorneys

to the Department of Justice. In hearing

the case of a given alien, the board was

empowered to recommend one of three possible

outcomes: 1) outright release of the

alien, due to a lack of evidence of wrongdoing;

2) conditional parole, in cases where

sufficient doubt remained regarding the

trustworthiness of the alien that the individual

would be required to check in with

authorities on a regular basis; and 3) internment

at a designated center for the duration

of the war due to a perceived security risk.

Although federal authorities maintained that

the purpose of the boards was for aliens to

have the opportunity to present their case

for release or parole, the hearing process

was heavily slanted in favor of the government.

Although aliens could have friends or

family members vouch for their character,

they were allowed neither to argue the particulars

of the case against them nor to

object to lines of questioning and evidence

presented. Aliens were not allowed to retain

legal counsel to argue on their behalf. The

government, on the other hand, was able to

present its accusations against a given alien

without revealing the source; at no point

were aliens allowed to confront their accuser.

The internment of German legal resident

aliens and selected American-born

members of the German-American community

remains to this day the most problematic

issue with regard to the treatment of ethnic

Germans in the United States during the

1940s. While only a small minority of all

German legal resident aliens and other

German-Americans were targeted specifically

for custodial detention, wartime

internment, and eventual deportation to

Germany, the number of individuals affected

by such action remains considerably higher

than most estimates have provided during

subsequent decades. In 1991, on the fiftieth

anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing,

widely respected newsmen, such as

Clarence Page of the "McNeil-Lehrer

News Hour" and John Chancellor of NBC

News, reported that no European-

Americans—German, Italian, or otherwise

—were interned during World War II.

Such assertions are far from the truth.

According to an Immigration and Naturalization

letter of August 9, 1948, 10,906

Germans were received by the INS under

the enemy alien program, including those

from outside of the continental United

States and those who were voluntarily

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interned in order to join families already in

internment centers. Furthermore, although

native Japanese and American-born

Japanese-Americans were out of internment

camps by the end of June 1946, the last

group of German legal resident aliens,

roughly 100 in number, was finally released

in June 1948—over three years after the end

of World War II in Europe; authorities have

yet to explain why it took so long to conclude

the internment of ethnic Germans to a

close.19

To facilitate the incarceration process,

detention and internment centers were

established in various parts of the United

States, in each case under the jurisdiction of

one of three separate authorities: 1) military

forces; 2) the Immigration and

Naturalization Service; and 3) the

Department of Justice. Along the eastern

seaboard several camps were under the

authority of the military, including Fort

Howard and Fort Meade in Maryland and

Camp Upton in New York. But the most

famous of such centers, Ellis Island, was

maintained by the INS and proved to be the

last facility to hold alien enemies, until June

1948. Long known as a beacon for immigrants,

Ellis Island served as a multipurpose

facility during the World War II era, when it

was used as a processing center for new

internees from the east coast, as a collection

point for internees waiting to be reassigned

after the closure of another internment center,

and as a last stop for those aliens designated

for repatriation or deportation. Despite the

historic nature of the Ellis Island facility,

many individuals directly affected by such

actions found the environs less than

hospitable, as demonstrated by the account

of one former internee:

At Ellis Island you were confined to

this big room. It was a real, total

bore. We did a lot of talking and a lot

of card playing and a lot of waiting. I

painted for ten cents an hour

because I needed that for cigarettes,

but above all because you needed to

keep yourself busy. Otherwise you'd

go daffy.20

For a variety of practical reasons,

including the minimal possibility of successful

escape, the larger internment centers

were located in geographically barren areas.

In terms of size the preeminent internment

facility was located outside Crystal City,

Texas, serving as a family camp from

December 12, 1942, until 1947. Located

110 miles southwest of San Antonio, the

camp was heavily fortified with fencing and

guard towers. Armed guards were on patrol

twenty-four hours per day. By night, floodlights

illuminating the perimeter of the

camp were bright enough to be seen almost

to the Mexican border. Escape from the center

was highly unlikely, especially in the

summer months. The camp was located "in

an extremely isolated spot," and temperatures

in the vicinity often climbed to well

over 100 degrees Fahrenheit from June into

September.21

While most men in the Crystal City

camp were forcibly interned, many of the

women and children were classified as "voluntary"

internees, joining the men due to

family and economic hardship. Though

many of the adult males were foreign-born,

mostly in Germany and Japan, "practically

all children and many women" internees

were American born and raised.22 Families

often had individual cottages, but privacy

was otherwise very limited; only a few cottages

had private bathrooms, with the

majority of people using public showers and

latrines. The camp laundry handled the

clothing of over 4,000 internees, with a

sewing shop and tailoring shop providing

additional services; the tailoring shop alone

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was permitted to charge a nominal fee for its

services. For those not eating in their own

cottage, a chow line was used to feed

internees in a cafeteria setting. Regarding

postal matters, there were few restrictions

placed on the number of letters an internee

could send or receive; however, censors fluent

in English, German, and Spanish monitored

all letters and packages, altering any

correspondence deemed unacceptable

before mail was passed along. Restrictions

on personal property also were common.

Foodstuffs were rationed at a general store,

depending on the size of the family. New

arrivals to the camp had their valuables

placed in a safe in exchange for a receipt.

Living quarters were assigned in advance of

arrival.

A "very restricted variety" of clothing

could be bought at Crystal City, by using

rationing cards or, on rare occasions, plastic

money which also was used at the camp.23

From the beginning of their internment,

detainees were placed in charge of maintaining

their own homes; internees were

obliged to use personal funds to beautify

their cottages and allotted property, with

flowers and other home improvements.

Called "morale builders" by federal officials,

beautification was undertaken by

many internees, particularly among those of

German stock; a Japanese gardener cared

for the public grounds, at government

expense. Chores assigned to internees were

divided by ethnic groups in many cases:

Japanese internees did most of the farming,

as "the Germans did not like farming;"

German males were given primary responsibility

for doing machine work, as well as

repair work on machinery and motor vehicles

at the camp. While Japanese women

often handled cooking and medicinal matters

in a public setting, German women

were often left to their own devices, as

"generally speaking, the German women

declined to work outside of the home."24

Many other everyday chores, such as

hauling garbage and delivering ice, were

done on a rotation basis, with internees of

all backgrounds working a minimum number

of hours each month. Internees wanting

regular jobs often received them, at the rate

of ten cents per hour, for twenty to thirty

hours per week. Young internees tended to

use such earnings as pocket money with

which they could buy cigarettes and drinks

or pay for an evening out. Aliens also procured

and prepared some of their own food;

numerous internees maintained small gardens

at their cottages where they grew their

own fresh vegetables. A portion of Crystal

City's meat, dairy, and produce came from a

farm located outside of the camp and maintained

by aliens under the direction of the

government and the guidance of a Texas

rancher. Government authorities placed

great importance on providing internees

with meals of high nutritional value, claiming

that quality food also was "good for

morale." The farm's cows provided some of

the 2,500 quarts of milk needed per day in

the camp, particularly for children, who

numbered approximately 1,600 at one point.25

Recreational activities helped internees

to take their minds off their plight and, in

addition, provided camp residents with the

opportunity to indulge some of their cultural,

athletic, and hobby interests. In Crystal

City, a camp orchestra was staffed largely

by those of German stock, providing a

chance to play and hear German classical

music. Lectures provided educational, cultural,

and occasionally political viewpoints.

Many German detainees took up soccer for

athletic competition and exercise, while oth-

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ers also played basketball and softball.

Japanese internees not otherwise involved

in those sports took turns at wrestling and a

sort of horseless jousting as a means of

physical exercise. A large swimming pool

which had previously been used as a tank

for irrigating the nearby farm helped make

summer heat more bearable for all.

Unfortunately, seepage problems caused

mud holes and unsanitary conditions, forcing

the pool to close until internees could fix it

with concrete at a cost of $2,500.00 to the

government.26 The International Red Cross, as

well as Swiss and Spanish legations, regularly

inspected the camp, among other things

making sure that internees had adequate

access to sports equipment, radios,

newspapers, and books.27 Inside the camp

German internees published a news page,

the Lager-Nachrichten, on a weekly basis.

The paper provided information of interest, in

German, such as camp concerns, recommendations

on matters including how to

send Christmas greetings (and comply with

censorship regulations), dates and times of

parties given for those departing the camp,

library news, and dates and times of camp

soccer matches, including starting lineups

and names of players designated to be substitutes.

In addition to parties, dances were

held regularly for young people and school

children as a way of maintaining a social

life within the camp. Dances were held regularly

on Friday and Saturday nights, with

big band records by Tommy and Jimmy

Dorsey, among others, providing the beat.

However, not all German internees took

kindly to dances at the camp. According to

one camp resident, "that was kind of

frowned on. Because the folks would say,

'You're dancing—and the boys are dying?'

They meant the German boys."29

Some former internees have provided

insight into life within World War II internment

facilities through personal accounts of

their experiences. Many of those who were

interned during the 1940s have gone to their

graves in silence, unwilling or afraid to

speak of the ordeal out of feelings of shame

and disgrace. Still others have spoken of

their experiences, but only under the condition

that their last names not be revealed.

One such individual, known simply as John,

was born in Philadelphia in 1932 to German

parents who had emigrated to the United

States.30 Although he shared a typically

American interest in baseball and flying

with his friends from his earliest days, during

the war years John and his siblings were

taunted by other children for their German

heritage. His father was arrested after neighbors

accused him of building bombs in the

basement of the family home. Although

John's father was never convicted of any

crime, he was sent initially to a holding

facility in New Jersey and later to the

Crystal City internment camp, where his

family chose to join him for the duration of

the war rather than live without him. After

hostilities with Germany ceased, John and

his family were faced with a most difficult

choice: if the entire family—even those

members born in America—did not accept

deportation to Germany, the father would be

imprisoned for evading the draft during the

war. Before the end of 1945 John's family

thus found itself in Nuremberg, hardly welcome

among Germans who saw the new

arrivals more as conquering enemies than

friends. Later John would join the U.S.

Army in Germany and serve in the Korean

War, before eventually returning to the

United States to stay in 1967. But the scars

of the internment experience were slow to

fade, and when John later sought counseling

at a veterans' hospital, he received a stun-

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ning reply: "I told the shrinks that I'd been

in a U.S. internment camp. They called me a

liar. They said 1 was making it up." Many

former internees encountered such disbelief

Figure 1: Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 March 1943

Note next to last paragraph: "They will be

given ...then transferred...."

when they attempted to tell their story, leading

to many cases of fear and guilt that often have

taken years, even decades, to resolve. "We

[children] always felt guilty for what

happened in Germany," said John. "We felt

like we deserved this punishment because

our parents were German. Looking back on

it now, that bothers me. My parents were

good, simple people."31

Another former internee who in recent

years has spoken freely of his wartime experience

is Eberhard Fuhr. Born in Germany

in 1925, Eberhard emigrated with his family

to the United States in 1927. Despite a

growing anti-German sentiment during the

1930s, the Fuhrs chose not to seek citizenship.

In 1940 the Fuhr family complied with

the Alien Registration Act and continued to

abide by restrictions placed on enemy aliens

after the outbreak of war in December 1941. In

August 1942, Carl and Anna Fuhr were

arrested without warning as enemy aliens

and sent to the Seagoville, Texas, internment

facility soon thereafter, before being

transferred to the Crystal City camp. A

younger brother of Eberhard, Gerhard, at

the time twelve years old, went into internment

with his parents and was classified as a

"voluntary" internee. Had he chosen not to go

with them, he would have been sent to an

orphanage. The internment of his parents

and younger brother came as a complete

surprise to Eberhard, who found out the

news upon returning from summer camp in

North Carolina: "I didn't know about this

until 1 walked in the door and said,

"Where's Mom and Pop?" Julius said,

"They were interned two weeks ago. We

didn't want to get you upset, because you

couldn't do anything about it anyway."32

When Julius went away to college in

the fall, with a football scholarship,

Eberhard was left alone at home, paying for

groceries with money earned from a paper

route. After the football season, Julius

returned home to help maintain the family

home, taking a job in a local brewery to pay

the bills. Eberhard had his first encounter

with federal authorities in November 1942.

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They asked him to come downtown with

them late at night to answer questions about

his family and his loyalties in the event that

he would be drafted at age eighteen. In the

course of the interrogation, Fuhr was repeatedly

confronted with "evidence," preceded

with phrases such as "Somebody said that

..." and "Some neighbors said ..."33 On

March 23, 1943, Eberhard was taken out of

his English class at Woodward High School

by his principal without warning and was

apprehended by two federal authorities. The

seventeen-year-old high school senior was

handcuffed outside the building. The

authorities then took him to the brewery,

where Julius also was apprehended, and

then to the police station for booking on suspicion.

The next morning federal authorities

questioned the brothers at the federal building

in downtown Cincinnati. The interrogation

touched upon aspects of the family's life as

German legal resident aliens and members

of the German-American community,

including questions such as: "Five years

ago did you say that Hitler was good for

Germany?;" "Did you go to a German

American Day at Coney Island?;" and

"Your cousin from Germany ... just came

up the Ohio River in a submarine and wants

you to put him up. What are you going to

tell him?"34

Although the stated purposes of the

interrogation was to determine if sufficient

reason existed for arrest and possible internment,

the Fuhr brothers soon found out that

the outcome was predetermined:

They call[ed] my brother in for his

hearing, and while he's in there I'm

reading the paper. And it says, "Two

brothers arrested. They will have a

hearing, and then they will be

interned." I said to this FBI agent: "It

says right here were going to have the

hearing—I haven't even had my

hearing yet, but it says 'They will be

interned'." ...I was kind of numb.35

After the hearing the brothers were

driven home, told to pick up two changes of

clothes, and then driven back to jail. The

next morning, they were driven to Chicago

to a detention center there without the

opportunity to secure their home in

Cincinnati or take personal possessions with

them. The sudden upheaval in an otherwise

routine life left Eberhard shaken; the

German enemy alien considered himself far

more American than German:

Up to that point I was a happy-golucky

high school jock. I didn't do

too well in school with my grades. I

just played football, baseball, and

had a lot of fun. I wanted to be a professional

baseball player. I wanted to

be the best catcher that ever played

for the Cincinnati Reds.36

As boys growing up in America, Julius

and Eberhard always regarded themselves

as Americans, even though others pointed

out that they were German by birth and citizenship.

According to Eberhard, "I grew up

knowing 1 was a German, because everybody

in the neighborhood reminded me of

it. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even speak

German."37

In July 1943 Julius and Eberhard were

sent by train to join their parents and their

brother Gerhard at the INS family camp in

Crystal City. The Fuhr family resided there

until April 1947, when they were sent back

to Cincinnati to prepare for possible deportation.

At the time some of the Crystal City

internees were being repatriated to

Germany. By the end of the war, approximately

4,450 Germans and their families

had been deported. Though Eberhard was

largely unfamiliar with Germany, he signed

up to be repatriated in 1944; his then-girlfriend

Millie and her family were being

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deported, and he wanted to follow them.

Like many people, Fuhr had had enough,

and saw repatriation as the best way to get

away from internment life: "[Officials

asked,] 'why did I really want to go back?

Did I want to kill Americans, or did I just

want some freedom?' I was military age,

but then they sent some other guys there that

were military age too. I just wanted to get

out."38 After his internment ended in 1947,

Eberhard went to college and eventually

took a job as a salesman for Shell Oil. After

becoming a student at Ohio University in

1949, he applied to become a United States

citizen and was naturalized in 1955.39

In recent years some former internees

have shown a greater willingness to speak

of their wartime experience, in an effort to

make their story known and correct inaccuracies

which have plagued scholarship in

this area. At the forefront is the widely held

but mistaken viewpoint that only ethnic

Japanese were interned during World War

II. In fact, according to documentation compiled

by two contemporary scholars of the

internment issue, out of 25,655 individuals

interned during the war era, 14,426, or 56.6

percent, were European and European-

American, the largest concentration of

whom were German.40 In an effort to create a

record of wartime internment in the United

States, the Commission on Wartime

Relocation and Internment of Civilians was

created in July 1980, with the stated purpose

of reviewing the relocation and internment

of American citizens. Operating under the

widely held presumption that other ethnic

groups were not subjected to wartime

internment or relocation, the committee did

not seek, hear, or permit testimony from

German-Americans; according to Committee

chairwoman Joan Z. Bernstein, the

group was "charged with documenting the

record of the internment of Japanese

Americans ... Peripherally the Commission

has touched on the German-American experience

during the war but has not by any

means focused on the issue."41

With input nonexistent from European-

American individuals, it came as little surprise

that when the official report of the

Commission, "Personal Justice Denied,"

was released in December 1982, it maintained

that only Japanese-Americans had

been the victims of wartime internment. In

fairness to the Commission, the vast majority

of non-voluntary ethnic Germans interned

during the war years were, strictly speaking,

legal resident aliens rather than American

citizens. Yet the use of citizenship as the sole

barometer of whether one could be

considered "German" or "American,"

while practical from a legal standpoint, fails

to distinguish between individuals with firm

roots in the German homeland and those

who, despite their birth abroad, maintained

few if any connections there, linguistically

or culturally, a circumstance made clear by

the case of Julius and Eberhard Fuhr as well

as hundreds of other, similarly affected individuals.

Further, while there is no question

that members of the Japanese-American

community were subjected to inappropriate

detention and internment during the period,

longstanding reports of wholesale arrest and

internment of Japanese aliens does not withstand

the scrutiny of statistical evidence:

only 5,428, or six percent, of the 90,000 registered

aliens of Japanese origin were arrested,

and only 11,229, or nine percent, of all

individuals of Japanese ancestry—both

legal resident aliens and United States citizens

—were interned.42

The most controversial aspect of the

internment question has been the issue of

apologies given by the government, and

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reparation payments made to former

internees and their families. From July 1948

through September 1992, a total of nine

laws were passed with the purpose of providing

formal apologies and financial compensation

to former Japanese-American

internees. The most significant of the nine

measures was Public Law 100-383, the

Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which acknowledged

the unjust nature of Japanese-

American evacuation, relocation, and

internment. The legislation offered a public

apology on behalf of the people of the

United States; and provided for restitution to

individuals of Japanese ancestry who had

been interned. In sum approximately 60,000

former Japanese-American internees and

their dependents were empowered to

receive payments of $20,000 per person

from a total pool of $1.25 billion. Given that

the legislation was based largely on findings

presented in "Personal Justice Denied,"

most notably that members of the Japanese-

American community had been singled out

for custodial detention and internment, ethnic

Germans and other European-Americans

were excluded from the action. While there

are many who seek compensation along the

lines of that granted to members of the

Japanese-American community, there are

others who simply wish to see the historical

record set straight, to gain official

acknowledgment of the fact that ethnic

Germans and others were also persecuted

during the World War II era. Years after his

internment, Eberhard Fuhr insisted that he

sought neither monetary compensation nor

an apology for his internment as a German

legal resident alien; his goal was formal

recognition of the internment of members of

the German-American community, particularly

after the war had ended:

I don't think [German legal resident

aliens] necessarily should be compensated,

[though] ... guys like [my

brother Gerhard] should be compensated.

He's a native; because his parents

are considered dangerous

enemy aliens, and his brothers are

considered dangerous enemy aliens,

he's bearing this terrible guilt and he

shouldn't have to ... I do think there

should be recognition that the

Germans were indeed interned, and

it really wasn't necessary to have

these phony hearings where no witnesses

were permitted and counsel

was denied ... They really didn't

have a right to keep us interned after

the war was over.43

The sentiments expressed by Fuhr

reflect not only a personal concern, but also

an awareness that a fundamental ignorance

of the events of the past can lead to their

repetition. The increasing willingness of

Fuhr and others to speak out about their

past, despite a longstanding fear of intimidation

or ridicule, has been the first step in

the effort by victims of World War II-era

persecution to present the other side of the

story, one which for over fifty years has

gone largely unnoticed and unreported.

Through continued efforts to bring these

accounts to light, and ongoing scholarly

research into the events of the past, it has

become more likely that the full story of

ethnic intimidation, up to and including the

arrest and internment of enemy aliens, will

become a well-known matter of historical

record, allowing for a fuller account of the

German-American experience during one of

its most turbulent periods.

— Timothy J. Holian

Missouri Western State College

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____________________________HOLIAN

Figure 2: Newspaper published in the Crystal City camp six months after the

end of the war in Europa

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Figure 3: Camp Entertainment

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For a detailed overview of the World War I internment

of members of the German-American

community, see Gerald H. Davis, "'Orgelsdorf':

A World War I Internment Camp in

America," Yearbook of German-American

Studies 26 ( 1 9 9 1 ) : 249-265.

In recent years there has been an increase in the

amount of scholarship performed in this area.

For examples of such research work in book

form, see Timothy J. Holian, The German-

Americans and World War II: An Ethnic

Experience (New York: Peter Lang, 1996);

Don Heinrich Tolzmann, ed., German-

Americans in the World Wars (Munich: K.G

Saur, 1995); and Arnold Krammer, Undue

Process: The Untold Story of America's

German Alien Internees (Lanham, Md.:

Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).

See Jeffrey J. Sammons, "Were German-Americans

Interned During World War II? A Question

concerning Scholarly Standards and Integrity,"

The German Quarterly 71.1 (1998) 77. Sammons

criticizes recent scholarship in this area

as a "campaign" by German-Americans to

receive the same compensatory treatment

afforded the Japanese-American community in

1988, and notes his fear that such an effort,

"were [it] to be made public, might bring

ridicule or worse on our fragile and beleaguered

discipline." (73)

"Our Platform," Cincinnatier Freie Presse, 18

September 1939.

"No More 'Liberty Cabbage'," Youth Outlook

German-American Monthly 2 (1939): 1. An

editorial in the same publication reinforced the

viewpoint that a large base of support existed

for American interests within the German-

American community: "Hitler's oppressive

rule can only be permanently abolished by the

oppressed themselves. We support the fight of

the German people for their liberation and we

regard it as our duty to preserve the real

German culture and the traditional democracy

of the United States. We must prevent a repetition

of the chauvinism of the last war. We must not

fall again into the trap of war propaganda. That

is why we celebrate the German Day. It will

be a demonstration against fascism and for peace

and liberty." (4)

Carl Wittke, "German Immigrants and Their

Children," The Annals of the American

Academy of Political and Social Science 223

(Sep. 1942): 90. For a detailed discussion of

the German-American Bund and its impact

upon the perception of the German-American

community, see Susan Canedy, America's

Nazis: A Democratic Dilemma (Menlo Park,

CA: Markgraf Publications Group, 1990); and

Leland V. Bell, "The Failure of Nazism in

America: The German-American Bund, 1936-

1941," Political Science Quarterly 85.4

(1970): 585599.

"Says Bund Mapped Wall St. Hangings," New York

Times, 5 October 1940.

Office of War Information, Bureau of Intelligence,

"Enemy Alien Minorities in Eastern Cities,"

Special Report Number 15, Division of

Surveys, 22 June 1942. A copy of this memorandum

is in the possession of the author.

J. Edgar Hoover, memorandum to Special Agents in

Charge, 6 December 1939, as cited in Arthur

Jacobs, "Fifty Years of Silence," Society for

German-American Studies Newsletter 12.2

(1991): 10-11.

Stephen R. Fox, The Unknown Internment: An Oral

History of the Relocation of Italian Americans

During World War II (Boston: Twayne

Publishers, 1990) 152.

"10,200 Aliens Estimated To Have Registered

Here," Cincinnati Enquirer, 27 December

1940; "Aliens Total 12,271," Cincinnati

Enquirer, 1 March 1941.

Information on the number of German legal resident

aliens arrested by the FBI as of December

9, 1941 is taken from an unpublished graphic

illustration, based on figures gleaned from

declassified federal documentation and in the

possession of the author.

Personal Justice Denied, as cited in an unpublished

paper by Arthur D. Jacobs and Joseph E.

Fallon, "History Denied: The Internment of

European-Americans": 8.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of

Justice, "Apprehensions, December 7, 1941 to

June 30, 1945," Reference Document 100-2-

4014, as prepared by Arthur D. Jacobs, 15

November 1990. According to Jacobs, the

original document was declassified on August

17, 1990 and obtained via the Freedom of

Notes

Fragile and Beleaguered, Notes________

Information and Privacy Act. With regard to

specific eastern cities, the following number of

apprehensions of German aliens were noted

per FBI field office: Albany (77); Baltimore

(53); Boston (57); Buffalo (48); New York

(2,159); and Newark (756).

John Edgar Hoover, "Memorandum for Major

Lemuel B. Schofield, Immigration and

Naturalization Service," 8 December 1941.

"Barbed Wire To Be Placed About Units of

Waterworks To Guard Against Sabotage,"

Cincinnati Enquirer, 1 Jan. 1942; "Blackout

Fine $100; First in Cleveland," Cincinnati

Enquirer. 5 June 1942. An interesting footnote

was added to the Cincinnati experience when a

WPA crew attempted to photograph the water

works installation in June 1942. The men, said to

"look Japanese" by some observers, were

threatened with a hose by an overzealoits engineer

and investigated thoroughly by the FBI

before being cleared; shortly after the incident

Cincinnati police chief Eugene T. Weatherly

stated, "They were very lucky that they were

not shot." See "'Twas WPA, Not Japanese,

Tried To Photograph Pumps," Cincinnati

Enquirer, 5 June 1942.

"Cameras and Radios Called In," Cincinnati

Enquirer, 1January 1942; "Bombs Are Added

To Lists of Contraband As Aliens Relinquish

Radios and Camera," Cincinnati Enquirer, 1

January 1942.

W. P. Kelly, Assistant Commissioner, Immigration

and Naturalization Service, letter to Mr. A.

Vulliet, 9 August 1948. A copy of this letter

may be found in Don Heinrich Tolzmann, ed.,

German-Americans in the World Wars 4

(Munich: K.G. Saur, 1995) 1513.

According to documents prepared by the

Department of Justice, 118 ethnic Germans

continued to reside in the Crystal City, Texas

internment camp as of December 31, 1946-

more than a year and a half after World War II

had ceased in Europe. Among the 118 individuals

were fourteen native-born Americans,

children of internees who were forced to go

into internment with one or more of their parents.

Five others were brought from Latin

American nations. For representative paperwork

on enemy aliens held at Crystal City,

Ellis Island, and other internment centers, see

German-Americans in the World Wars 4:

2089-2253.

quoted in Kitry Krause, "Dangerous Enemy Alien,"

Reader 22, 48 (3 September 1993).

Alien Enemy Detention Facility, film, United

States Immigration and Naturalization Service,

1947. Produced by the Department of Justice,

the film focused on the Crystal City camp as a

representative internment center. The purpose

of the production was to show that the government

treated aliens in a decent and humane

way, providing for a reasonable standard of living

according to the conventions of the day. A

confidential memorandum of April 28, 1943

demonstrates a commitment by the Department

of Justice to the rights and privileges of

the internees, in stressing that all were to be

given a voice in internee affairs and allowed to

make suggestions for improvements. See Don

Heinrich Tolzmann, ed., German-Americans in

the World Wars 4 (Munich: K.G. Saur, 1995)

1667-1670. Former internees with whom I have

spoken are united in their viewpoint that they

were treated well during their time in Crystal

City, and that the facility offered a reasonable

level of comfort given the circumstances.

According to one former internee, "I think you

have to separate the living conditions from the

other things that make it a place of prison.

From a standpoint of living conditions, you

couldn't really get better. ...At Crystal City,

you could get out, you could see the sun shine,

you were with your family. We had movies

twice a week, there were dances there."

(Eberhard Fuhr, personal interview, 27 March

1993)

Alien Enemy Detention Facility film.

Alien Enemy Detention Facility film. While selected

items could be purchased by internees at the

camps, many preferred to bring personal property

from home where possible. Included in the list of

materials deemed acceptable for internees to

take into the camps from outside were clothing

items, toiletries, handicrafts, small toys, and

photographs. Items which internees were not

allowed to bring were pets of any type,

household decorations, and any type of

transportation. See German-Americans in the

World Wars 4: 1864, 1980.

Alien Enemy Detention Facility film. For a list of

specific kitchen and housekeeping chores performed

by German internees as of October

1943, as well as general household rules, see

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____________________________HOLIAN

German-Americans in the World Wars 4: 1914-

1916.

Alien Enemy Detention Facility film. Food

requirements varied between German and

Japanese internees, based on longstanding social

customs as well as personal preferences. Some

Japanese internees requested that less meat and

more fish be served, in addition to regular

portions of rice and vegetables. On the other

hand, German complaints of inferior-quality

meat (particularly in the case of lamb) were

frequently heard, along with requests for at least

one hot meal per day, chicken and bread on a

regular basis, and more fresh vegetables and

milk in the daily ration. See German-Americans

in the World Wars 4: 1903. Copies of menus for

internees at the Seagoville, Texas internment

center are reproduced in German-Americans in

the World Wars 4: 1905-1906, 1982-1984.

Alien Enemy Detention Facility film.

Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien." Camp inspections

were a regular component of ensuring

that living conditions were adequate in the

internment facilities. Primary areas of focus

included general housing, washing and toilet

areas, food preparation and cooking procedures,

medical facilities, the canteen, and

recreational and educational institutions.

Several inspection reports have been preserved;

copies of extant forms may be found in

German-Americans in the World Wars 4: 2045-

2076.

Lager-Nachrichten: Wöchentliches Mitteilungsblatt

der Deutschen Gruppe, Crystal City, Texas

42, 24 November 1945. A copy of this

publication was provided to the author by former

internee Eberhard Fuhr.

quoted in Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien."

In recent years John has opted to use his full name—

John Voclkel, Jr.—in discussing his World

War II-era internment and deportation

experience. Among the ways in which he

recently has made known his background is

through Recognition & Reparations, an organization

which endeavors to foster an awareness

of national origin bigotry.

Alan Gathright, "Memories of Injustice," San Jose

Mercury News, 2 January 1991.

Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien."

Eberhard Fuhr, personal interview, 27 March 1993.

The account Fuhr provides of his interrogation is

consistent with that of other former detainees,

according to Arthur Jacobs, a former internee

who has compiled extensive documentation of

the wartime internment of members of the

German-American community.

quoted in Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien."

quoted in Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien." Proof of

the allegation made by Fuhr is available in the

article "Brothers Want To Help Hitler,"

Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 March 1943. The specific

passage referred to by Fuhr reads as follows:

"[The Fuhr brothers] will be given a

hearing today before the Civilian Alien Hearing

Board, then transferred to a temporary

internment center at Chicago until action is

taken by the United States Attorney General's

Office." Based on the article and its wording, it is

apparent that the case of the Fuhr brothers was

determined in advance of their arrest and

hearing date, and that federal officials viewed

their hearing simply as a formality before a

final decision of internment was rendered.

quoted in Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien."

Eberhard Fuhr, personal interview, 27 March 1993.

quoted in Krause "Dangerous Enemy Alien."

Eberhard Fuhr, personal interview, 27 March 1993.

cited in Jacobs and Fallon, "History Denied: The

Internment of European-Americans," 1.

cited in Jacobs and Fallon, "History Denied: The

Internment of European-Americans," 2.

cited in Jacobs and Fallon, "History Denied: The

Internment of European-Americans," 3.

Eberhard Fuhr, personal interview, 27 March 1993.

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