World War II Woman

German-Americans During the War

German-Americans during War

In an earlier blog, I stated that German-Americans lived quite unnoticed in our communities, going about their daily business much as any other citizen. This, I said, was quite the opposite of the experience of Japanese-Americans.

The other day, while speaking at a Questers meeting, www.questers1944.org, I learned that I was mistaken. One of the women told me that she grew up in Michigan in a area settled predominantly by Germans. Her grandparents were born in Germany but were naturalized U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, their radios and some other personal belongings were confiscated, and it was necessary for them to report to the county courthouse every month. Furthermore, she told me there were German interment camps similar to the Japanese camps. I had never heard of such a thing.

When I checked it out on the Internet, indeed there were quite a number of these camps. Once again, families were uprooted. In many cases, the husband may have been taken away and then the wife, unable to support herself and children, would voluntarily go with him. In some cases, parents were removed from the home and children were left to fend for themselves. Some ended up with relatives or in orphanages.

For more information on these camps and for Congressional attempts to address these injustices, go to the Freedom of Information Times web site, www.foitimes.com/internment.

I have questioned some friends whose parents were born in Germany in an attempt to understand any problems they may have encountered. So far I have heard of no other problems. One friend did mention that her father had a haberdashery store in  Philadelphia where other Germans would visit on occasion and read the German newspaper, but at the onset of the war, her father cancelled his subscription. He certainly did not want to be considered a Nazi sympathizer.

For more on World War II, go to www.peggeorge.com.

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