Heidi Gurcke Donald and her family were expelled from their home in San José, Costa Rica and interned in Crystal City, Texas, for fifteen months, before her father was released on parole. A graduate of the University of California in San Francisco, she is a retired public health nurse living in California. She is actively […]
The Grabers, two young boys and their German-born parents, lived in New Jersey in an apartment building owned by a Polish landlord. When Hitler invaded Poland, the relationship became strained, so the Grabers moved. The landlord contacted the FBI. Mr. Graber worked on “war sensitive technology” for the International Nickel Company. The FBI began to […]
Ursula Vogt Potter, a retired educator and Washington State native, is the daughter of a former German internee.
John Christgau, a California resident, is the author of nine books. His novel Spoon won the Society of Midland Authors prize for “Best Fiction.” ENEMIES, this country’s first book on the World War II Alien Enemy Control Program (AECP), was published by the Iowa State University Press in 1983, and republished by the University of […]
Lothar Eiserloh and his family experienced major upheaval with the advent of WW II. His father, Mathias, was arrested the day after the Pearl Harbor bombing. For two years his mother, Johanna, struggled daily to feed, clothe, and house her children, before the family was reunited in the Crystal City, TX Internment Camp. Two years […]
Robyn Ross’s 2014 article for the Texas Observer, “Legacy of Crystal City’s Internment Camps,” discusses the Crystal City, Texas, Family Internment Camp of WW II, which provided much needed work for many Crystal City residents. The article outlines the history of the Enemy Alien Control Program and interviews former internees, as well as discussing the balance between national […]
Author and historian, John Christgau wrote the first book published in the United States about the Enemy Alien Control Program, Enemies.
Author and German internment researcher Stephen Fox’s website; his blog