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?
Una Storia Segreta: the Secret history of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II
DiStasi, Lawrence, ed. Una Storia Segreta: the Secret history of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California, 2001. It is little known that Italian Americans had been interned, evacuated and otherwise restricted...
We Were Not the Enemy: Remembering the United States’ Latin-American Civilian Internment Program of World War II
Donald, Heidi Gurcke. We Were Not the Enemy: Remembering the United States’ Latin-American Civilian Internment Program of World War II. iUniverse.com, 2006. (a family memoir) Visit the Book's Website The United States clandestinely funds the operation of a huge prison...
The Japanese Thread: A Life in the U.S. Foreign Service
Emmerson, John K. The Japanese Thread: A Life in the U.S. Foreign Service. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978. (section on Peru and internment/deportation program-focus is Japanese, but Germans in Peru had similar experiences) Buy Online
Shattered Lives, Shattered Dreams: The Disrupted Lives of Families in America’s Internment Camps
Estlack, Russell. Shattered Lives, Shattered Dreams: The Disrupted Lives of Families in America's Internment Camps. Bonneville Books, Cedar Fort, Inc., Springville, Utah, 2011. Anti-communist paranoia during World War II led to the internment of thousands of...
Ft. Meade guard tower. Image from sketch by German internee Paul Lameyer, courtesy of his grandson, Randy Houser.
History
