About Us
The German American Internee Coalition (“GAIC”) was formed in 2005 by and for German American and Latin American citizens and legal residents who were interned by the United States during World War II. We are former internees, or their families and friends. We come from all walks of life and from countries around the world. We would like you to know our story. GAIC is a nonprofit corporation registered with the New Hampshire Department of Charitable Trusts.
Our Mission Statement & Goals
GAIC is dedicated to making public the little known United States World War II policies that led to internment, repatriation and exchange of civilians of German ethnicity, both in the United States and Latin America.
- We will educate the general public about the U.S. government’s detention and internment of over 11,000 German American and Latin American citizens and residents during World War II.
- We will reach out to former internees, their families and supporters. We will gather their stories, share information, and support their efforts to make their stories known.
- We will seek full U.S. government review and acknowledgment of the civil rights violations endured by the German American and Latin American communities.
- We will work collaboratively with other internee groups who have similar purposes. As we work toward these goals, we also hope that our efforts result in better protection of the civil liberties of future vulnerable ethnic groups.
The German American Internee Coalition formed in 2005 to educate the public about our experiences, after United States officials declared U.S. and Latin American civilians of German background “enemy aliens” during WWII.
Feared collectively because of our German ethnicity, our civil liberties were abused by the U.S. government. Similar indiscriminate presumptions should not be made today. Ethnicity, religion, nationality or appearance is not enough to declare whole groups of people unwelcome in the United States. February 2017
What’s New?
WWII exchange voyages remembered
Lars Hemingstam, author and founder of a website about the ships of the Swedish American Line, discusses the exchange voyages during World War 2 between the Allies and Axis Powers using the Swedish American Line's chartered ocean liners Gripsholm and Drottningholm....
The Tenement Museum in NYC posts internees’ stories
The Tenement Museum of New York City has an online exhibit highlighting the experiences of some former German American and Latin American internees. These brief accounts were written by students of St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX, as part of a year-long history...
Micro-documentaries about internment
As part of a year-long project (2018-19) highlighting the internment and expatriation of German American and Latin Americans during WWII, history students of St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX, made a number of small documentary films about internment. With the...
Gripsholm event held February 14-15, 2019 in N.Y.C. and New Jersey
Twelve former child internees, as well as families and friends, commemorated the 75th anniversary of German-American prisoner exchange during World War II, hosted by St. Mary's University in New York and New Jersey on Thursday, Feb. 14, and Friday, Feb. 15,...
Ft. Meade guard tower. Image from sketch by German internee Paul Lameyer, courtesy of his grandson, Randy Houser.
History
