Each month the German Embassy publishes The Atlantic Times which is available free of charge to anyone living in the United States and Canada. I usually find something of interest in the paper. This month Uwe Siemon-Netto has a nice piece about a German immigrant to the US, Eberhard Fuhr, who, along with 11,000 other German-Americans, spent five years in a US internment camp beginning in 1942. I have written about the fate of these internees previously. Much has been written about the 150,000 Japanese-Americans who were held in camps throughout the Northwest (Read Dave Niewart's excellent Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community). They have received apologies and financial restitution from the US government. But the fate of the German-American and Italian-Americans who spent years in internment camps has largely been forgotten: no apology or financial restitution has been offered thus far.
Siemon-Netto's piece on on Eberhard Fuhr has been published on the Atlantic Times blog:
When Fuhr and his brother were
eventually led away in handcuffs, they were 17 and 18, respectively.
The were first incarcerated in Hamilton County Prison where felons
yelled threats at them from neighboring cells, calling them Nazis,
Krauts and Huns. “Worse than this experience was the humiliating and
painful way by which we were driven from Cincinnati to Chicago – in the
backseat of a car, handcuffed all the way to my belt and to my brother
in a manner forcing us to face each other all the time, even when
nature called,” he recalled. “It was excruciating.”
While interned at the Crystal City camp in Texas, the Fuhr family lost their home to foreclosure, as well as most of their other possession. Nor did their troubles end with the end of the war. When they were finally released the prisoners were forced to take an oath of silence, threatened with immediate deportation if they ever spoke about their experiences in the internment camps:
After their release, most detainees
faced destitution. Their bank accounts were frozen, their properties
gone. Worse still, their wartime experience of humiliation and
stigmatization left them with “deep psychological scars,” said Fuhr.
“This is why we must encourage these people to tell their story without
fear of recrimination. They are not criminals but persons caught in the
web of wartime hysteria.”
Finally there appears to be some effort on the part of Congress to address this shameful chapter in US history. A bill is slowly making its way through the US Senate that would establish a commission to "to review the facts and circumstances surrounding injustices suffered
by European Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees
during World War II." Among other things the bill makes the following finding:
(5) The wartime policies of the United States Government were
devastating to the German American and Italian American communities,
individuals, and their families. The detrimental effects are still
being experienced.
Of course, this action comes many decades too late, as most of the internees direcly affected have long since died. You can follow the progress of the bill, as well as access a good deal more intormation at the Web site of the German American Internee Coalition.
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I read that Germany invaded France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French fortified Maginot Line was circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.