During the early months of World War II, many internees were sent to the prison in Stringtown, Oklahoma, operated by the U.S. Army. The prison started accepting internees on March 30, 1942. Located four miles north of Stringtown, the camp was previously a sub-prison, established in 1933, to relieve overcrowding at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. […]
Three Stringtown, Oklahoma, Alien Internment Camp inspection reports are now online. The first, written by Max Habicht, representing the Swiss Legation in charge of German interests, and Whitney Young, Department of State, described a visit from 25-28 June 1942, shortly after the facility opened. They were highly critical. “The appearance and atmosphere of this camp are […]
On 26 July 1943, Captain Antonio R. Martin, Spanish Vice-Consul at San Francisco, CA, James E. Henderson, representing the Department of State, and A. S. Hudson, Acting District Director of Immigration and Naturalization, San Francisco, CA, visited Sharp Park, CA Alien Detention Camp for an inspection of the facilities. Their findings are summarized here, including a typical […]
Internment camps in the U.S. were periodically inspected by representatives of neutral nations or organizations, to see that facilities were adequate and internees were treated appropriately. In 3 December 1943, Alfred Cardinaux, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, visited the facilities at Ellis Island, following up on a prior visit of 12 […]
John Schmitz, was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 12, 1936 and interned, with his family, in the Crystal City, Texas, Internment Camp between January 1943 and July 1946. He was interviewed at the Institute of Texas Culture, University of Texas San Antonio on November 11, 2002. Mr. Schmitz served in the United States Marine Corp (1959-63) and is […]
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 […]
October 18, 2016—Author Jan Jarboe Russell, whose work “The Train to Crystal City” was selected as the 2016 Gulf Coast Reads featured book, discusses the Enemy Alien Control Program of WW II, the arrests of people from the U.S. and Latin America, the World War II internment camp at Crystal City, Texas, and the prisoner exchanges with […]