On Friday, October 25, 2018, “Day of Remembrance” events were held to commemorate the 75th anniversary of internment of German Americans during WW II in Chicago and around the country. Organized by student groups from St. Mary’s University, in San Antonio, students, supporters, and former internees attended. They call for Congress to officially recognize German […]
The War Outside, by Monica Hesse, is set in the confines of the Crystal City, Texas Family Internment Camp during WW II. Teenagers Haruko, a Japanese American from Colorado, and Margot, whose German American family are from Iowa, form a friendship, even as life in the camp shifts and changes their perceptions. “…an extraordinary novel […]
Mc Conahay, Mary Jo. The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds, and Riches of Latin America during World War II. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018. The author is a reporter who has covered wars in Central America and economics in the Middle East. She details efforts of the U.S. to influence and shape […]
The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds, and Riches of Latin America during World War II, written by Mary Jo McConahay, is now available. The author is a reporter who has covered wars in Central America and economics in the Middle East. She details efforts of the U.S. to influence and shape events […]
Crystal City, Texas Family Internment Camp map (2018) annotated by former internee Werner Ulrich—includes plot plans, drawings of building types, and location of work areas, as well as lists of internees held in the camp, births, and deaths. Staff, including teachers and medical personnel, are listed. Which cottage each interned family lived in is also shown.
Michael Murphy contacted us recently, sharing the World War II internment reminiscences of his grandparents, Hans and Ella Herrmann, and giving us a bit of their history. His mother, Barbara, was twelve at the time. Placed in a temporary holding facility in Chicago, Hans was moved to Camp McCoy, in Wisconsin, then on to Ft. […]
Max Ebel, a German Immigrant’s Story Max Ebel, a U.S. resident German alien, was interned from September 1942 until June 1944. The reason for his internment was never explained to him. During the time he was interned, he was in five different internment facilities and worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad in North Dakota. This […]
“The Hard Way to Become a Citizen” As told to grandson, Michael Murphy The reality of World War II came knocking on the door of the Herrmann’s home in Chicago on August 6, 1942. The United States had declared war in December of the prior year but the impact on certain US residents of German […]
Tommy Dyo recently offered us photographs of Annie Kaiser, Hildegard Voelker, and Betty, women who worked with his father, Ken, in the hospital at the Crystal City, TX Internment Camp. Interned with his father, Tsutomu Dyo, Ken was not a doctor, probably serving as a medical assistant. The first two women were probably deported to […]
A piece of WW II history, a former barrack building, “T-23,” used to house male internees from the U.S. and Latin America at the Fort Lincoln, Bismarck, ND Internment Camp, is being reassembled. The Missouri Valley Historical Society has a $2,000 grant from Preservation North Dakota to help with the renovation. Volunteer Mike Beck, working […]