On July 15, 1942, the S.S. Drottningholm left Pier F, Jersey City, New Jersey bound for Gothenburg, Sweden, where internees were sent on to Germany and Italy, to be exchanged for U.S. citizens. The German American Internee Coalition recently received a number of documents about this particular voyage, thanks to Shelby and Stephen Concepcion, cousins who found […]
WWNO, a radio station in New Orleans, LA, featured the WWII history of Camp Algiers, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, in a two part podcast. During the WWII years, this facility served as a receiving and detention station for Latin Americans, including Jews, brought to the U.S. for internment and exchange. Thanks to producer and presenter […]
Are you looking for a loved one you believe was interned in the United States? Thanks to Martin Huwart, with the help of independent researcher Satu Haase-Webb, we now have the 31 Oct 1942 Camp Kenedy census posted on our website. Most of the men held in this detention center were from Latin America. Many of them were […]
Thanks to Martin Huwart, who contacted GAIC about finding records of his great-uncle, interned in the U.S. from Haiti. He, with the help of independent researcher Satu Haase-Webb, found and shared with us a number of documents and photographs about Camp Kenedy, Texas, one of the two internment camps his great-uncle was in. (Camp Kenedy […]
Yes. In a Feb 1943 letter exchange between Jewish internees being held at Camp Kenedy, Texas and W. Bruppacher, Department of German Interests, Legation of Switzerland, charged with camp inspection and oversight of internees of German ethnicity, they express concerns about finances, censorship, and the difficulties of living “close to our worst enemies.” NARA RG 59, State Dept, Special […]
George Marshall Memo, 12 Dec 1942 Box 71, Subject Files, 1939-1954, Box 7; Accession Job No. N3-59-87-15, Records of the Special War Problems Division, Department of State, NA (?) — shipping of Latin Americans/exchange with Axis nations
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 […]
The Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense, meeting in Montevideo, adopts U.S. Department of Justice/State Department resolutions to allow U.S. to provide detention accommodations and shipping expenses for Latin Axis nationals to the U.S., a process already underway for the past eighteen months.
30 Jan 1946 Memorandum in “Statistics,” Box 70, Special War Problems Division, RG 59, NA — numbers/ethnicities of Latin Americans brought to the U.S. and countries from which they came
This U.S. State Department memorandum requests that Latin American countries with citizens or residents being held as enemy aliens in the United States, let U.S. officials know whether they want to resume responsibility for these individuals, or allow the U.S. to continue the task.