Enemies are Human a paper presented to the the Dayton Christian-Jewish Dialogue on May 10,1998, by John A. Heitmann, Ph.D., Professor of History, Department of History, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-1540
"Enemies are Human" the title for tonight's presentation, was not new to me, but rather taken from a 1955 book title by author and former German POW Reinhold Pabel. It just so happened that I was reading this book related to my study of the WWII internment of German enemy aliens in the U.S. when Ken Rosensweig contacted me for the first time concerning the possibility of speaking before you. As I connected the present with the then future, I thought that the central idea of the author — the notion of looking at people as individuals and not as stereotyped members of a broadly constructed social group — might be an appropriate focal point for discussion. For what we are dealing with tonight is a little known, often misunderstood, and for some highly emotional largely "lost episode" in history, namely the internment of some 10,905 German enemy aliens between 1941 and 1945 in the U.S. who "were considered dangerous, and ... whose removal from society ...[was] required by the public interest."1 While the 10,000+ in no way rivals the more than 100,000 displaced West Coast Japanese Americans or the more than 6 million Jews of the Holocaust whose lives were also inexorably linked to WWII, I would argue that issues of humanity must be considered apart from scale, for small groups and relatively isolated individuals are most vulnerable to the abuses of bureaucracies and those in power, and these directed hostile actions can mark the beginning of more widespread intrusions upon personal liberties.
While I have several points to make during the course of the evening, if there is one that I wish to emphasize it is that during the press, urgency and hysteria of war, particularly at its outset, individual freedoms can easily be lost. Indeed, the very bureaucracies that are in place in a democracy to ensure these freedoms can be their greatest enemies, thereby biting back inconsistently and at times illogically with devastating personal consequences. And once someone is caught in a bureaucratic web often fabricated by highly questionable or hearsay evidence, extrication never came easy.
For most Americans, including the majority of the scholarly community, the internment of WWII German enemy aliens never happened. In the words of Stephen Fox, it continues to be the "unknown internment," totally overshadowed by the Japanese experience.2 Standard upper level American history texts perpetuate this historical injustice and ignorance. For example, in Allan M. Winkler's Home Front U.S.A.: America During World War II, the author denies the German internment experience by stating that
Some ethnic or racial groups had especially severe problems that were unique to the war. Those from nations which the United States was fighting had the worst time. German Americans, who had been treated poorly in the First World War, were now more fully assimilated into American life and thus left alone. Italians and Japanese found themselves targeted this time.3
Contrary to Winkler and the others who have taken a similar superficial and politically correct stance, recent scholarship has pointed to a clear continuity connecting WWI and WWII anti-German war hysteria. This "hysteria," for want of a better term, was expressed in numerous ways between 1941 and 1947, including the following: harassment, violence and vigilante actions directed towards German aliens and German Americans, especially during the first year of the war. Under the rhetoric of pursuing selective detention only for cause, numerous unwarranted apprehensions and unjustified internments occurred capriciously throughout the war years, and not only in the weeks immediately after Pearl Harbor. For example, beginning in early 1942 but not ending until May of 1945, the wholesale internment in the U.S. of Latin American Germans took place under the guise of hemispherical security. Ironically, and to their dismay, these aliens were subsequently charged with illegal entry once the war was concluded. Finally, and perhaps most puzzling and troubling, was the continued internment of a large group of hapless internees until 1948, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and INS providing no real reason for this psychologically brutal action.4
Despite the recent publication of Arnold Krammer's Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's German Alien Internees, much related to the internment of Germans remains to be fully examined and explored, and given the amount of documents that continue to be rendered inaccessible and classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice, it is doubtful that the entire story will be forthcoming in the near future.5 Rather, it is my opinion that this tragic episode will appear in incomplete trickles over time, and unfortunately, as the key actors and former internees gradually die off, pieces of the puzzle will be invariably lost in the mists of time.
One area of this most complex topic, namely camp life under military authority, is the handle which will be used to explore the at times capricious policies surrounding internment. For many of the male internees, it is their internment story during the first year and a half of the war, a time during which war hysteria peaked, the outcome of the war was still in doubt, and policies concerning the political and diplomatic value of interned enemy aliens remained in flux. It is also a part of the tale that we know very little about, as textual records are scant, and participants memories are more clouded than usual. When the American internment program was finally publicized in the press in 1944 and in film in 1945, it was INS camps and not those run by the military that were brought into the light, although even in these facilities, unrevealed shadows certainly existed.
To add light to those shadows and thus better understand the internment experience, the following questions are addressed: 1) How did civilians, placed under military confinement and dealt with as POWs, handle the external and internal pressures placed upon them?; 2) What forms of coercion were placed on these people, by whom, and for what purpose?; and finally 3) How were their anger, anxiety, confusion and continued hopes expressed in an everyday camp life physically delineated by barbed wire and limed white lines?6
In order to escape the trap of broad generalizations, my study will focus on only two representative camps in detail -- Fort Meade (MD) and Camp Forrest (TN), under the authority of the Department of the Army between 1942 and 1943. Certainly for a comprehensive study of internee camp life other sites should be included, since minimally 53 military and INS facilities were used to house internees during WWII.7 Time, readily available sources and personal factors, however, have dictated to this scholar a starting point for a narrative that is admittedly far from complete, but hopefully penetrating in depth and scope, and provocative to the degree that others will follow.
Strictly speaking, the United States military, and the INS were committed to following the provisions of the 1929 Geneva Convention, but given the fact that civilians were mentioned only once in that document -- "individuals who follow armed forces without directly belonging to thereto, such as newspaper correspondents and reporters, settlers, contractors" -- shall be treated as prisoners of war, much was left to interpretation. That interpretation, in terms of the United States, was made largely by the State Department, whose officials accompanied protecting powers' representatives during camp inspections. Strict and careful reciprocity was to be followed to avoid retribution levied on Americans caught overseas. Further, in the words of Lemuel B. Schofield, Special Assistant to the Attorney General responsible for the INS in early 1942 and later romantically involved with one of the most celebrated of all female internees -- Stephanie von Hohnelohe -- was the "obligation to treat them [enemy aliens] fairly and humanely...."8
For many of the alien enemy males living on the East Coast who were apprehended during 1942, the pattern of movement from camp to camp followed rather predictably. Undoubtedly more traumatic than any camp experience was for many the surprise FBI apprehension, at times at gunpoint, involving anywhere from three to seven agents. As Franz Hohenlohe would later recall: " When people say 'the blood froze in their veins,' I know exactly what they mean. It speaks volumes for my constitution that I did not drop dead right there from the shock and humiliation...Without doubt, my arrest by the FBI on February 16, 1942, was the lowest ebb in a life replete with many other low water marks."9 Anxiety was compounded by the knowledge that personal property left behind was invariably lost, as scavengers quickly followed to steal anything unsecured of value belonging to those taken away.10 After spending some time at Ellis Island and awaiting the results of the Hearing Board, aliens deemed "potentially dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States" during the Spring and Early Summer of 1942 were typically sent in a sealed off train with all windows shuttered to Ft. George G. Meade, MD.11 Only after Ft. Meade was subsequently filled with POWs captured during the successful campaigns in North Africa were arrangements made to send these civilians to another facility under the control of the Army, Camp Forrest. By mid-1943 responsibility for alien detention reverted to the INS, and many were sent to family camps like Seagoville or Crystal City in Texas.12
Any way you look at it, the welcoming committee at Ft. Meade was far from hospitable to many of the internees, particularly those who had a loyalty to the United States and who had decided not to elect for a speedy repatriation to Germany. The military viewed these civilians as Prisoners of War, ordering all internees by the summer of 1942 to don green government issue khaki. Internees were housed in four-man tents, several of which routinely flooded after heavy rains, as a group of hapless and angry Italians quickly discovered.13 Barbed wire, "off limits" signs, and machine guns surrounding the prisoners completed the scene, along with guards who viewed these men as potentially dangerous, rather than the typical butchers, bakers, mechanics, and common folk that most of them were. As one former army guard of alien internees later recalled:
...at the time I never even thought of these people as having families. They were enemy aliens and they were packed up because they were potentially subversive people. They were isolated and put into this camp. As far as we were concerned, they were enemies of the American people.14
To intensify the fear, at least one incident of gun shots directed at the internees from soldiers' barracks immediately adjacent to the compound was reported at Meade. FBI presence at Meade, both visible and behind the scenes, was aimed at interrogating numerous internees, sequestering a few to unknown locations, and carefully watching suspected pro-Nazi ringleaders with the purpose of listing all personal contacts made on a daily basis. Especially at Ft. Meade, but to some degree at Camp Forrest as well, incoming mail was months late, with the claim made that postal censors in New York were understaffed and overwhelmed with the sheer number of internee letters in and out of the confinement facilities. In reality, one reason for the long delay had to be the scrutiny under which each piece of mail was placed, as letters clearly became the central instrument of intelligence gathering by authorities.
And then perhaps the biggest challenge awaiting the internees came from other Germans already at Ft. Meade. Since the early Spring, seamen captured and interned first at Camp Upton, N.Y. and then transferred to Maryland had already shaped a camp culture that was aggressively pro-Nazi and intensely nationalistic. These sailors, from the ship the S.S.Odenwald, had placed swastikas and pictures of Hitler in various camp facilities and living quarters, had elected one of their own, a former ships' cook, to be a leader, had organized mass gatherings, and had used intimidation and violence to insure ideological conformity.15
By July of 1942, according to Dr. Heinz Luedicke, an internee who, upon his release, was interrogated about the loyalties within the camp, three broad categories could be discerned, namely: Old German(having nothing to do with the traditions of Nazism); anti-Nazi; and pro-Nazi. Luedicke claimed that area "B" contained individuals with the following leanings, although this assessment must be dealt with some circumspection, given the personal Leudicke's motives, his often incomplete knowledge about other internees, and the ever present occurrence of deception that had to be practiced among those interned:
While Leudicke's assessments are suggestive, one public affirmation of loyalty to Germany that left little room for interpretation was the internees declaration of intent concerning repatriation, and the validity and significance of this "test," was reflected in a September 10, 1942 letter from an loyal-to-America internee to a military officer at Fort Meade:
...there are people in this area who neither appreciate kindness, privileges, and fair treatment, nor are they willing to submit to given rules and regulations. They constantly seek to point out 'traitors,' 'squealers,' etc. Anyone who does not subscribe to their line of thinking or refuses to mutter their ideology is branded such.... For an example of the above they are distinguishing between people who have asked for repatriation and those who declared themselves for America. Needless to say that the latter are looked upon with dismay and downright hatred which is not always being kept hidden. This situation tends to establish a reign of terror amongst the internees....16
Thus, in the early months of internment, repatriation served to create fissures within the internee community, as groups kept tab on who made what decision, with subsequent derision and violence heaped upon those who were seen as traitors to the Fatherland.17 Given the promise of speedy exchange, and thus an end to confinement, the pressure to remain loyal to the U.S., given the circumstances surrounding their apprehension and initial detention, must of been intense. At least one despondent and desperate man initially elected for repatriation, only to be persuaded otherwise by a wife committed to remaining in the United States.18
Perhaps the most unusual case at Meade during the summer of 1942, but also one that tells us much about this entire episode, was that of internee Kurt Sanger. Sanger, unabashedly Jewish in faith and thus singled out in this camp full of Aryans, nonetheless came to the camp under circumstances that likely were shared by others whom he had ironically on one level little in common with. Sanger, born in Vienna in 1920, left Austria in May of 1939 to escape racial persecution, and after spending the period from May, 1939 to April of 1940 in a transient camp for male Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, he received a visa to the U.S. and arrived in New York City. Living with his mother's cousin in Bayonne, NJ for a time before finding his own housing, Sanger held a succession of jobs that increased in pay, beginning as a laundry worker, before finding work as a pool life guard, then box cutter, followed by service as a clerk delivery man, and then eventually finding employment as a $24.50 elastics cutter at the Maidenform Brassiere Company. Without warning, Sanger was arrested on January 3, 1942, and was given no real sense of the reason for his apprehension until coming before his Hearing Board later in January, where he was accused by a William Smith that Sanger had
...made inquiries from sailors as to the sailing dates of ships;...had tried to get a job at Bayonne Naval Base; ...[had] caused a marine to get intoxicated...had been a major(later he seems to have said a captain) in the German Army during the Polish campaign...[and] had been a leader in a strike at Maidenform.19
Was it possible, that Kurt Sanger was a Jewish Nazi spy, as some Northern New Jersey newspapers suggested after his hearing? In his defense, Sanger claimed that Smith was saying these things about him for no other reason than the latter "was trying to look important and to secure advancement." And in a more detailed explanation, Sanger gave a detailed rebuttal in a petition for release that asserted that his current events discussions with others never contained answers that would benefit the enemy; that it was Smith who asked him about the possibility of working at the naval base and not the other way around, and that he had answered that as an alien he was ineligible for employment there; that only to help out an intoxicated Marine did he take this individual to the YMCA for a few minutes to ensure that this person would find his way home, for in no way was he motivated to take advantage of the situation to inquire about secrets; that his age made the assertion that he was a major or captain in 1939 highly implausible, and that indeed at the time of the Polish invasion he was in England; and that finally he was not an organizer of the strike at Maidenform, although he did not deny that he supported it with his vote.
What has relevance not only for Kurt Sanger but for others who also were interned by hearsay is a quote taken from his "Petition for Release" that on a deeper level explains the circumstances that contributed to the decision to intern him and is also suggestive in a far broader sense:
Surely it is not necessary to stress that I am not a Nazi or a sympathizer with Nazi ideas, and that to arrive in America was to me like heaven. Like everybody who came from Europe during the past few years I was asked by a number of people how things were on the other side. It would have been, perhaps, more politic, but certainly dishonest, if I had told them simply what they wanted to hear. Instead, I tried to give those who asked me as good an idea of conditions as I could. For instance, when people asked me about the Anschluss I explained that the great majority of non-Jews I had spoken to in Austria did not like it, many of them for religious reasons. But with the exaggerated ideas of starvation, disorganization etc. which some people expressed I have no patience. It is foolish to underestimate an enemy. ...I was not extolling the German Army, but trying to awaken them .... As a statement of opinion I remember saying that the Versailles Treaty was unjust and that Hitler was a consequence of that mistake.20
Despite Sanger's obvious loyalties, the directed hostilities of the pro-Nazis in camp towards him that eventually lead top at least one serious beating, and the sustained efforts of the New York Jewish Community including Mrs. H. Field of the Jewish Community Council, it took until the Fall of 1942 for Sanger to gain his release. Indeed, according to Jewish studies scholar Harvey Strum, given the fate of other Jewish internees interned At Camp Forrest and the Algiers Naval Station, Sanger should have considered himself the fortunate exception.
Was Sanger the only Jew to be interned at Meade, and thus perhaps the exception to my story? After reviewing numerous internee case files, I wonder. Every internee had a Basic Personnel Record, and one entry on that form was "Religious Preference." Sanger's file had this line left blank, and this was uncommon. Another internee who also left this blank was Richard Haeberle, and at first one might think that Haeberle was either negligent or a non-believer. But his file also contains letters to and from family written during 1942, and one segment from one letter from his wife is rather suggestive: "The last few weeks have brought me, physically and spiritually, so that I felt almost like 1938, I would rather not live any longer is that should repeat itself....I even believe that your applications don't mean anything."21 While I rarely deal in speculation, the Haeberle file bears further scrutiny, for if Haeberle were to be subsequently discovered as having a Jewish background, it would bring even more complexity to this story, for Haeberle was regarded as a pro-Nazi in Leudicke's above evaluations of internee attitudes discussed above, and thus the notion of deception as being at the heart of camp life and the difficulty in assigning ideological stances to those interned would be further reinforced.
The letters and other documents contained in the Sanger and Haeberle files reflect the ever present uncertainty that was the inherent paradox of a physically static camp life. Hope for a re-hearing and lingering doubts of why the internment took place to begin with filled the minds of many of the internees during those first anxious months of incarceration, as reflected in the following internee letter to a U.S. District Attorney:
Permit me to state, Sir, my firm belief that if I had been given the opportunity at my first hearing to submit letters of recommendation, to counteract denunciations, and if I had been given a chance to explain fully, I would -- instead of getting interned -- have done useful work for the United States. And such preferably in the armed forces since I was not only willing but most anxious to fight for this country. For that matter I still am. So help me God! 22
And just as routines became established and outside mail began to arrive in November of 1942, the internees at Ft. Meade were told to pack up for parts West, and many of the group were sent to Camp Forrest, Tennessee.
Since its opening as an Alien Enemy Internment Camp in May of 1942, Camp Forrest had an average population of about 200 internees per month until November, when 600 new faces from Meade arrived. As one former internee recalled "We were met...when we got to Camp Forrest, the troops had cordoned off the train station and when we got off, we had a lineup and all that...they had troops on trucks with mounted machine guns on them. I mean, we were really dangerous men...."23 With a camp infrastructure and culture already in place and shaped by both the authorities and particularly Italian internees, who had been there from the beginning, Forrest had its own distinctive character.24 Life at Forrest included green wood huts with large gaps in the wood that led internees simultaneously to freeze their backsides while roasting their fronts as they huddled around red-hot hut stoves; the ever-present green apparel to be worn at all times; work details outside the confinement area that included constructing targets for military gunnery practice and the movement of supplies using coolie-like carts by which internees hauled goods from point to point; school, crafts, sports, and as at Meade, the ever present tensions among those living behind the barbed wire. And we know much more about life at Camp Forrest as opposed to Ft. Meade because of the regular publication of a camp newspaper, "The Latrine," an internee authored news sheet written in English due to the insistence of camp authorities despite 1929 Geneva Convention accords that stipulated native tongue publications. By the New Year of 1943, the population consisted of approximately 700 Germans, 1 Italian, 2 Japanese, and one lone soul labeled as "miscellaneous." Divided into three companies of approximately 225 men each, internees shared with three other comrades living quarters, inadequate washing and toilet facilities, and a common interest in looking out for the ever present black widow spiders known to frequent the camp.
And make no mistake, Forrest was a military camp like Ft. Meade, where inmates were seen far more as prisoners of war than civilian internees, as reflected in a internee letter to the Swiss legation dated July 23, 1942, where it is stated that "Furthermore, we live under the painful impression that the Command of this Camp considers us as persons detained here in punishment, rather than persons of foreign nationality who had the misfortune of being in this country at the outbreak of a war which they cannot be held responsible."25 And this sense was conveyed to internees immediately upon their arrival, when they were issued a set of camp regulations that included the following "courtesies:"
a. When the national Anthem is played, or "To the Colors" is sounded, internees will uncover, stand at attention and face the music or colors. b. An internee, if seated out of doors, will rise upon the approach of an officer, face toward him, and stand at attention. Internees actually at work will not cease work upon the approach of an officer, unless the officer actually addresses him. c. When an officer enters a room in which there are internees, he latter will stand at "attention" and uncover until the officer indicates otherwise, or leaves the room.... e. An internee will stand at attention while addressing or being addressed by an officer.26 Tensions similar to those at Ft. Meade over leadership apparently did not follow the group who settled in at Forrest. What was perhaps even more astonishing was the presence of several Panamanian Jews at Forrest, who apparently got along well with the political middle of the road and regularly frustrated the Germans at Chess!27 From the start a smoother political organization existed, although there was much loose talk about the leadership principle, and unthinking persons in our midst have repeatedly suggested that this should be applied to our camp organization. Laudable as the intentions of such men may be, they are not applicable to our status, since the military authorities from the very beginning have made it clear that they wish us to select and elect a spokesman by universal ballot. The understanding was and is that this trusted comrade or anyone else appointed or elected by us, should always make sure of OUR WILL and WISHES.... It must be taken for granted that we cannot be expected to accept without protest the imposition of high handed methods in dealing with matters that have not been submitted to us.28
With the effective leadership of Karl Mathey, who somehow gained the confidence of the small but influential pro-Nazi group while maintaining the support of moderates, major frictions amongst the various constituencies were minimized.29 To be sure, there were a stream of minor complaints concerning petty thefts, hoarding of materials, noise late at night, lack of community housekeeping, and the presence of a "peeping tom." And undoubtedly there was community discipline administered from time to time, as the camp newspaper, "The Latrine," asserted in the case of one thief that "A Mississippi hanging is too good for him."30 But life went on through the Winter and Spring of 1943, as internees played with a host of domestic and wild pets, tinkered with arts and crafts, played soccer, and enrolled in courses ranging from physics to painting to Russian, where here "everything is free." Internee Wolfgang Jung, commenting on the University at Camp Forrest, remarked that "Think of all the money you would have spent by taking lessons, visiting a school, college or university in the outside world."31 Rumors about breaking camp, or transferring to a family camp, came and went, along with the occasional news of a few lucky internees released on parole. When in May 1943 the announcement of breaking camp did come, editors of the camp newspaper concluded
Our self-made organizations and institutions for sport and music, study and entertainment, including this voice of public opinions -- a purgative for ill humors -- will and must definitely not die with our departure from the oaks of Tennessee! Furniture and home decorations, flower gardens, the menagerie of reptiles, birds and squirrels, together with our well trained dogs and cats, will stay behind -- bearing much testimony to endless hours of handicraft labors and fun. But more valuable than these self-made implements and toys, of which we shall soon be deprived, are those priceless possessions of idealism, our friendships and associations, our uplifting school and lecture, music and theater performances, and last but not least, the publication of our own newssheet,....32
But were they all happy campers? Evidence suggests that not all were content with what had happened to them, although it is unclear to what degree their feelings were shaped by German nationalism, pro-Nazi convictions, or just plain resentment for being given what some had considered a very raw deal. Thus what the civilians left behind also included were scavenged gun barrels, compressed air cylinders fashioned into grenades glued with pitch to unfired ammunition discovered during internee work details, hidden with instructions for the German Troops who followed to find them.33 Clearly, camp life had not led all to become new friends for the democratic, American way.
From Camp Forrest internees were either reunited with wives and children at Seagoville or Crystal City, or if not married, sent to Ft. Lincoln in North Dakota for the duration of the war. For many repatriation -- elected or forced -- would be in their future, while for a goodly number, life in limbo continued on Ellis Island until 1947/48, well after the war had ended. For those who declined repatriation, and who were lucky enough not to be on INS blacklists, life in post-war America followed. But of course the war years had inexorably reshaped these survivors' fortunes, careers and inner psychological states. The very fact that these former internees had been singled out as being the 1/2 of 1% of German aliens potentially dangerous to the interests of the United States stayed with them long after 1945, as confusion remained about "why me?" and for many became internalized as guilt. After all, from the perspective of American values, internment had to mean somehow that they had done something wrong. And the question remained -- what was this "wrong doing?" It is a question that continues to nag those who remain alive, and inadvertently perhaps their children as well.
In conclusion, in no way was the experience for those Germans interned in American military operated camps even close to that experienced by Americans in Japanese facilities, if such works as Anges Keith's Three Came Home are at all representative how brutal the latter actually were.34 But that said, it can be asserted that nevertheless the challenge certainly could have been formidable, depending on the internee's constitution, age, health, and the circumstances surrounding apprehension and detainment. In some respects perhaps internment the "American way" was unique, for in the words of one former internee "we were treated so well at Camp Forrest because the authorities knew too well, that at least 50% of the internees would return to life in the US and would become citizens; they knew the whole internment was a political humbug only; none of the internees had ever the intention to harm our country, not the interned Japanese, Italians or Germans."35
Endnotes
1 Reinhold Pabel, Enemies are Human. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1955; According to the source W.F. Kelly, Assistant Commissioner, Immigration & Naturalization Service(INS) to A. Vuilliet, August 9, 1948, then numbers of internees processed by the INS were: 10,905 Germans; 16,849 Japanese; 3,278 Italians; 53 Hungarians; 25 Romanians; 5 Bulgarians; and 161 others. In German-Americans in the World Wars, Don Heinrich Tolzmann, ed. Vol IV The World War Two Experience The Internment of German-Americans, Arthur D. Jacobs and Joseph E. Fallon, ed. Munich: K.G. Saur, 1995, p.1513; "Joint Agreement of the Secretary of War and the Attorney General Respecting Internment of Enemy Aliens," July 18, 1941, p.1540.
2 Stephen Fox, The Unknown Internment: An Oral History of the Relocation of Italian Americans during World War II(Boston, Twayne, 1990). Professor Fox has been conducting interviews of internee German enemy aliens, and an unpublished manuscript based on these interviews and textual sources has been completed. See Fox's home page at http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~scf1.
3 Allan M. Winkler, Home Front U.S.A.: America during World War II(Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1986), p.70. Reflected in this quote is the commonly held assertion that race played a central role in WWII internment; the Japanese are not a race, but rather in the group of peoples classified racially as Asians or Oriental, the latter so designated in Selective Service documents of the 1940s. More useful in characterizing the home front is Ronald Bailey, The Home Front USA(Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1977).
4 On this matter of confinement long after V-E Day, Taped interview with Mrs. Elena Hackenberg, September 1996(in possession of author); interview with Alfred Krakau; Rudolf Hackenberg and Helene Hackenberg v. W.F. Watkins, "Petition for Habeas Corpus," U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, July 23, 1947; 80th Congress 1st Session S. 1749, July 26, 1947, "A Bill for the Relief of All Persons Detained as Enemy Aliens"; Agnes Geelan, The Dakota Maverick: The Political Life of William Langer also known as "Wild Bill" Langer(Bismarck, N.D., 1983), p.113ff; Kitty Krause, "Dangerous Enemy Alien," The Reader(Chicago), September 3, 1993. For several internees, the ordeal did not end in 1947 but rather in 1948; personal communication with former internee Alfred Krakau.
5Arnold Krammer, Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's German Alien Internees. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.
6 For a general discussion of camp life written immediately after WWII, see Elizabeth Head Vaughan, Community Under Stress: Internment Camp Culture(Princeton, 1949).
7 Tolzmann(ed.), IV, 1518-1519. The following facilities compiled by Arthur Jacobs were employed for varying lengths of time during WWII as Internment/Detention facilities: San Juan(P.R.); Pine Island(Cuba); Angel Island(Ca.); Sharp Park(Ca.); Tujunga(Ca.); Fort Logan(Colo); Fort Barrabcas(Fla.); Miami(Fla.); Fort Ogelthorpe(Ga.); Fort Screven(Ga.); Fort McPherson(Ga.); Sand Island(T.H.); 4800 Ellis, Chicago(Il.); Home of the Good Shepherd, Chicago(Il.); Jung Hotel, New Orleans (La.); East Boston(Ma.); Fort Howard(Md.); Fort Meade(Md.); Detroit(Mi.); Kansas City(Mo.); Fort Missoula(Mont.); Grove Park Inn, Ashville(N.C.); Fort Lincoln(N.D.); Good Shepherd Convent, Omaha(Neb.); Glouster City(N.J.); Fort Stanton(N.M.); Lordsburg(N.M.); Camp Upton(N.Y.); Home of Good Shepherd, Buffalo(N.Y.); Ellis Island(N.Y.); Niagara Falls(N.Y.); Home of Good Shepherd, Cleveland(OH.); Hotel Gibson, Cincinnati.(OH.); McAlester(Ok.); Fort Sill(Ok.); Stringtown(Ok.); Portland(Or.); Home of Good Shepherd, Philadelphia(Pa.); Camp Forrest(Tn.); Fort Sam Houston(Tx); Fort Bliss(Tx.); Seagoville(Tx.); Kenedy(Tx.); Crystal City(Tx.); Laredo(Tx.); Salt Lake City(Ut); Sullivan Lake(Wa); Seattle(Wa); Spokane County Jail(Wa.); Camp McCoy(Wi.); Home of the Good Shepherd, Milwaukee(Wi.); Milwaukee Barracks(Wi.); Greenbrier Hotel(W.Va.). On additional sites, see Arthur Jacobs Homepage, http://www.netzone.com/~adjacobs.
8 Tolzmann, IV Sec. 1, Pt. 1, Jacobs and Fallon(eds.) pp.1580-1590. INS, "Instruction No. 58, Subject: Instructions Concerning the Treatment of Alien Enemy Detainees." RG 59, NA, Special War Problems Division, Department of State.
9 Franz Hohenlohe, The G.I. Prince(Hot Springs, CA, 1995), p.159. 10For example, see W.F. Kelly to Edward J. Ennis, July 22, 1942, Censorship Office Material, letter of Peter Theberath, quoted in John Eric Schmitz, "," M.A. Thesis, NC State University, 1993, p.239. Despite efforts to safeguard alien property, in many of my interviews with former internees the claim that significant property loss without compensation took place. In the case of my parents, it was among other things lost, U.S. Government Savings Bonds.
11Department of Justice Order signed by Francis Biddle, August 5, 1942, In RG 389, Records of the Office of Provost Martial, file of Alfred H.R. Heitmann; Hohenlohe, G.I. Prince, p.166; In the first seven months after Pearl Harbor, approximately 4,500 cases went before the Hearing Boards and Attorney General, internment was ordered in 2235 of those(50%), parole in 1,655(37%), and release in 610(13%). Given these statistics, we do not know how many Board rulings were overturned by the Attorney General, and the recommendations made by Alien Control Unit Director Edward J. Ennis. U.S. Department of Justice, "Annual Report of the Attorney General of The United States," For Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1942, Typescript.
12The historical literature on POW camps for Germans in the U.S. includes Hermann Jung, Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in amerikanischer Hand USA(Munich, 1972); John Joseph Kelly, "Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence in German Prisoner of War Camps in Canada During World War II," The Dalhousie Review, 58(1978), 285-294; Jake W. Spidle, Jr., "Axis Prisoners of War in the United States 1942-1946: A Bibliographical Essay," Military Affairs, 39(1975), 61-66; Arnold Krammer, "When the Afrika Korps Came to Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, (1977), 247-282.
13 RG 389, Hans Huettler file, translated diary, June 26, 1942; June 28, 1942.
14 Paul Frederick Clark, "Those Other Camps: An Oral History Analysis of Japanese Alien Enemy Internment During World War II," M.A. Thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 1980, taken from oral interview with Dockum, p.31.
15 RG 389, Huettler Diary, May 1, 1942 describes a May Day rally as follows: " The halls were decorated with fresh green and upon a white background a huge Workers' Front Symbol was placed. Posted an honor guard of 4 men...addresses were delivered on the significance of the day as well as impressions of the German laborer. In between we sang national songs. For a close we sang two national hymns and Mr. Piest led a hoch to our Fuehrer. Collective marching away in ranks under my leadership with a song on our lips, we marched back to our tents and brought satisfaction to us, even here, in spite of barbed wire and watch towers, to have proved top the enemy that our faith in Germany, in our Fuehrer, and in Victory, is now as before, unshakeable[sic]."
16 Frederick Karl Nagel to Lt. Ernest G. Butler, September 11, 1942, in Huettler file, RG 389.
17 F.A. Schleindl to Lt. Butler, September 11, 1942; Col. Ralph Hutchins to the Provost Marshall General, September 17, 1942, both in Huettler file, RG 389.
18 Caroline Heitmann to Alfred Heitmann, August 26, 1942; Caroline Heitmann to Commanding Officer, 1343rd Unit Service, September 12, 1942; both in Heitmann file, RG 389.
19 Kurt Sanger file, RG 389.
20 ibid., p.4 of "Petition for Re-classification as a Non-Enemy Alien and for Release fro Internment of Kurt Sanger," August 8, 1942.
21 Richard Haeberle file, RG 389, Gretchen to Richard Haeberle, n.d.
22 John Kandert to Ralph E. Emmons, October 29, 1942, RG 389, Box 39, file Kandert, John.
23 Personal communication with Alfred Krakau, September, 1996.
24 Camp Forrest Tullahoma, Tennessee 1941-1946(Tullahoma, n.d.[1990?]), pp.1,14. Average number of civilian aliens interned at Camp Forrest per month was as follows: 1942 -- May, 124; June, 254; July, 200; August, 227; September, 211; October, 191; November, 731; December, 790. 1943 --January, 716; February, 730; March 868; April, 850;; May, 654. The last group of internees to depart from Camp Forrest was on May 23, 1943.
25 Eduaro Dinucci to Swiss Legation, Department of Italian Interests, July 23, 1942, RG 389, Box 3, File, Camp Forrest, Tenn.
26 "The Following Regulations are Published for the Information, Guidance and Strict Compliance of All Persons Concerned." May 23, 1942. RG 389, file, Alien Internment Camp, Camp Forrest, Tennessee.
27 See Strum, pp.31-36; Personal communication with Alfred Krakau, September, 1996.
28 "The Latrine," November 7, 1942.
29 "Alien Enemy Internment Camp Forrest, Tullahoma, Tennessee, January 19-20, 1943." RG 59, Box 27, file no. 2, Forrest.
30 "The Latrine," March 6, 1943, p.4.
31 "The Latrine," November 14, 1942.
32 "The Latrine," May 15, 1943.
33 Communication with Alfred Krakau, September, 1996.
34 Agnes Newton Keith, Three Came Home(Little, Brown and Company, 1947). A comparative analysis of three U.S. sites versus the Japanese internment camp at Weihsien, China was written by Augusta Wagner, a former internee at Weihsien who concluded the difference was one "between light and darkness." Further, "The authorities seem never to have heard of the Geneva Convention....The treatment of internees was 'correct' but never friendly or humane....The internees were not people with rights, but had to sue for favors." Wagner's report can be found in RG 59, State Department, Special War Problems Division. An art exhibit depicting conditions in a WWII Japanese internment camp in Java based on internee drawings can be found at http://museon.nl/objextra.eng/interner.html.
35 Letter from Otto T. Trott, M.D. to author, February 8, 1997.