31 Aug 1942, 30 Sept 1942, and 1 Dec 1942 rosters of Stringtown internees are now available online, as well as two inspection reports. The first report, dated 25-28 June 1942, was highly critical of the facility and the care inmates were receiving. By 21-23 September, 1942, inspectors report much improvement. The German American Internee Coalition board wants to thank […]
During WWII, internment camps in the U.S. were visited periodically by neutral representatives, usually from the International Red Cross, or from Switzerland, acting for German interests, or Spain, overseeing Japanese interests. These representatives were generally accompanied by a State Department official, since a number of internees were from Latin America, imprisoned by the State Department’s Special War Problems Division. These Seagoville, Texas […]
On October 24-25, 1945, Ft. Lincoln was inspected by Dr. Rudolph Fischer, Swiss Legation representative, and Van Arsdale Turner, Department of State. Activated in 1942 as an internment camp for civilians of Japanese ethnicity, it later became exclusively a camp for German American and Latin American civilians until February 1945. At the time of this report, the facilities […]
In 1942, the facilities of Seagoville, formerly a prison, were converted into an internment facility to hold German, Japanese and Italian U.S. resident and Latin American internees. Although it was intended to serve primarily as a facility for families in which both adults had been interned, many families were held there en route to the other […]
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 […]
Three inspection reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross delegates describe facilities and chronicle life in internment on Ellis Island during 1943-1946. (The last internees, of German ethnicity, were released in 1948.) Although the National Park Service’s highly regarded manuscript, Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, by […]
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 […]