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?
Interned: Internment of the SS Columbus crew at Fort Stanton, New Mexico 1941-1945
McBride, James J., 2003—The first residents of the Fort Stanton Internment Camp, New Mexico, were the German crew of the German luxury liner Columbus, who arrived in 1939, after scuttling their ship off the coast of Cuba.
Náufragos en tierra firme: bloqueo comercial, despojo y confinamiento de japoneses de Bolivia durante la Sequnda Guerra Mundial
Mitre, Antonio. Náufragos en tierra firme: bloqueo comercial, despojo y confinamiento de japoneses de Bolivia durante la Sequnda Guerra Mundial. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Editorial El Pais, 2006.
Camp Letters: 1942—1945
Nightingale, Robert, author and editor. Camp Letters: 1942—1945. 2011. (A collection of letters between Bruno and Alice Stiller, the author's grandparents, during Bruno Stiller's internment.) Bruno Stiller was imprisoned shortly after the United States entered World...
The Misplaced American
Potter, Ursula Vogt. The Misplaced American. 1stbooks Library (now Authorhouse), 2003. (a family memoir) On December 9,1941, Karl Vogt, a German national residing in the United States, was abruptly taken from his home near Plaza, Washington by agents of the F.B.I. and...
Ft. Meade guard tower. Image from sketch by German internee Paul Lameyer, courtesy of his grandson, Randy Houser.
History
