The German American Internment
By Bob Small
When we hear about US Internment Camps, we automatically think of the Japanese Internment Camps that occurred during World War 2, both for the massive publicity they have been given and for the public apologies and reparations that have occurred, both of which, in my opinion, were deserved.
Less well-known are the German-American Internment Camps, the only group interned during both World Wars.
A total of 2,048 were incarcerated by 1918 and the Internment of German Americans was coordinated by the Department of Justice Alien Registration Section, headed by the then 23-year-old John Edgar Hoover, the future FBI director.
Prior to that, evacuees from two German Cruisers, Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Kronprinz Wilhelm were moved on Oct 1916 to The Philadelphia Navy Yard where their lodgings became known as “The German Village”.
During World War II, 11,507 persons of German ancestry were interned which was 36.1 percent of the total internments. Approximately 4,500 Germans were deported from 15 Latin American countries and landed in other US Internment camps. Some internees were not released until 1948.
Following the example of the interned Japanese, in 2005, activists formed The German American Internee Coalition: Home. There is also the proposed S.1356 – Wartime Treatment Study Act 107th Congress (2001 … brought up a number of times.
Of course, this history has been denied and distorted. One frequently cited source, Personal Justice Denied lists only four of the 50 internment sites. It should also be noted that 64 percent of those arrested during World II, were either European or European Americans.
For a more thorough review, see Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Americans …
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, issued during the Presidency of John Adams says that all 14 old males and up from the warring nation, “who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.”
According to A History of the Alien Enemies Act, this act was first used during the War of 1812.
See also
WWII: U.S. Germans Were “Enemy Aliens”
How does the Alien Enemies Act work?
