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.
In February 2017 we became concerned by the then President and his administration’s actions regarding immigrants. Our concerns have deepened. On March 15, 2025, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, stating that an “invasion” by a Venezuelan gang made it necessary. This allowed the administration to treat some immigrants as alien enemies, stripping them of their rights, rounding them up and deporting them to El Salvador. The Alien Enemies Act, designed for wartime use against foreign adversaries, has no place in modern immigration policy. It is time for it’s repeal. Read our statement of condemnation.
What’s New?
Nazis and Good Neighbors: The US Campaign Against Germans in Latin America during World War II
Friedman, Max Paul. Nazis and Good Neighbors: The US Campaign Against Germans in Latin America during World War II. Cambridge University Press 2003. This book is an exposé of a secret American operation during World War II to seize 4,000 Germans from Latin America and...
Nazis y buenos vecinos: la campaña de los Estado Unidos contra los alemanes de América Latina durante la Segunda guerra Mundial
Freidman, Max Paul; Blasco, Jaime. Nazis y buenos vecinos: la campaña de los Estado Unidos contra los alemanes de América Latina durante la Segunda guerra Mundial. Boadilla del Monte: Antonio Machado Libros, 2008.
Specter of a Nazi Threat: United States-Columbian Relations, 1939-1945
Friedman, Max Paul. Specter of a Nazi Threat: United States-Columbian Relations, 1939-1945. The Americas (April 2000). On 11 September 1941, U..S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took to the airwaves to warn his country that “Hitler's advance guards” were readying...
Private Memory, Public Record, and Contested Terrain: Weighing Oral Testimony in the Deportation of Germans from Latin America During World War II
Friedman, Max Paul. “Private Memory, Public Record, and Contested Terrain: Weighing Oral Testimony in the Deportation of Germans from Latin America During World War II,” Oral History Review 27/1 (Winter/Spring 2000). View/Download from SFU.ca View/Download from...
Ft. Meade guard tower. Image from sketch by German internee Paul Lameyer, courtesy of his grandson, Randy Houser.
History
