Joseph O’Rourke, who commanded the Crystal City, TX Family Internment Camp, wrote this “Historical Narrative of the Crystal City Internment Camp” in 1945, as the facility was slowly being emptied. The report detailed its establishment, construction, organization and administration, as well internee populations and census numbers, camp life, education and activities, procurement and supply, problems […]
Crystal City, Texas Family Internment Camp map (2018) annotated by former internee Werner Ulrich—includes plot plans, drawings of building types, and location of work areas, as well as lists of internees held in the camp, births, and deaths. Staff, including teachers and medical personnel, are listed. Which cottage each interned family lived in is also shown.
Have you ever wondered what daily life was like for internees held in a WWII internment camp in the U.S.? Caitlin T. Dietze’s thesis, “Daily Life at Crystal City Internment Camp 1942-1945” (2016), was recently published on-line by the University of New Orleans. She relates the experiences of Crystal City Internment Camp residents through oral histories […]
The headstones from four internee graves were photographed by Werner Ulrich, a former internee, at the Edgewood Cemetery, Crystal City, Texas. He found no others. All of these internee families were from Latin America. (An earlier article mis-identified the cemetery as Benito Juarez.) The Schuster Medina family Ludwig Schuster Medina was born and died on June 16, 1945. His […]
Crystal City, Texas Internment Camp list of deaths—from information provided by Carmen Sanchez Diaz and Jose F. Cazares, residents of Crystal City, Texas. List courtesy of Werner Ulrich, a former internee. (2016)
This 1947 letter to an internee held at Crystal City, TX, offers a thirty day parole from the Camp to prepare to depart the United States.
Report on traveling conditions of group of German citizens from Costa Rica, 22 Feb 1943: from folder 383.7, Camp Crystal City, NARA (exact location is being investigated) — Mention is made of “Negro members of the ship’s personnel” on page 2; that description was not considered a racial slur at the time. (provided by Frances […]
Crystal City, Texas Internment Camp List of Births—courtesy Anita O’Brien, whose parents Johann and Hilda Schmeelk, had a daughter, Evelyn, while interned there. In addition, Dilys Neugebauer was born in the camp on March 5, 1946.