Dare to Ask: German-Americans sometimes viewed as enemy in U.S. during WWII

By Phillip Milano

Question

We know how the Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II, but I’ve never heard how German-Americans were viewed and treated. Unfortunately my grandparents are dead, as they would be a perfect source. — D., 52, female, Springtown, Texas

Replies

From what I’ve heard, many German-Americans were indeed looked down upon during World War II. I recently heard that some were treated similarly to the Japanese-Americans. — John S., 23, Lake Charles, La.

German- and Italian-Americans were not treated differently than anyone else, even after some proved to be Nazi sympathizers/stooges. There may have been some name-calling and bottle-throwing, but no one advocated they all be herded into concentration camps. — A., 39, female, Missouri

Expert says

Not to burst any rose-colored bubbles or anything, but many German-Americans actually were herded into camps during the war.

A brief history: Using the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, three proclamations and United States Executive Order 9066, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered detainment and internment of Japanese-, German- and Italian-Americans during World War II – people deemed of “Foreign Enemy Ancestry.”

Result: About 11,000 German-Americans/German Latin Americans, 3,000 Italian-Americans and 10,000 Japanese-Americans were interned under the alien acts and the proclamations. Another 110,000 or so Japanese-Americans were detained in separate West Coast camps under Order 9066.

“It’s wrong to categorize individuals by nationality or race and assume they’re the enemy,” said Karen Ebel, president of the German American Internee Coalition. The group raises awareness of lesser-known U.S. World War II policies that “led to internment, repatriation and exchange of civilians of German ethnicity, both in the United States and Latin America,” according to its Web site at www.gaic.info.

“These people happened to be from countries we were at war with,” she said. “Many were immigrants who’d left Germany because of the Nazis. They come here and are treated as the enemy. Even German Jews who weren’t U.S. citizens were subject to alien enemy laws!”

For Germans, FBI agents might swoop in, turn a house upside down, take the father to a camp in an inhospitable locale and leave the family teetering on financial ruin and homelessness, Ebel said. Single mothers left behind to struggle raising their families were often ostracized by their communities.

Beginning in 1942, Ebel’s father, Max, spent nearly two years in camps, starting at age 22. While he was not physically abused, his life was sent into upheaval, and he never spoke of the ordeal again until in his 80s.

“It was always hard for him to accept he left Germany because of Hitler, then was thrown in a camp because he was German,” she said. “He was made to feel guilty for something he didn’t do. There are so many stories, and we don’t talk about it.”