About Us



T
he 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.

February 2017

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.             

WHAT’S NEW?

Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition

The Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition formed in 2013 "to preserve the stories of the Japanese, Germans, Italians, Japanese Peruvians and others at the Tuna Canyon Detention Station, which was operated by the U.S. Department of Justice during World War II and was...

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“Real People”—another family

Sigrid Banzhaf Toye shares some of her family's experiences during WW II with us. Her father, Eugen, mother, Emmy, and Sigrid were visiting her grandmother in Germany when war broke out. Scrambling to find passage back to the U.S., where her parents were legal...

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Banzhaf Story

Banzhaf Story

  My parents Emmy Elfriede and Eugen Banzhaf's lives included two world wars, the severe inflation in Europe during the period between the wars, the depression in the United States, and the isolation and marginalization that came with interment during the second...

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Ft. Meade guard tower. Image from sketch by German internee Paul Lameyer, courtesy of his grandson, Randy Houser.