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. Lincoln, in Bismarck, ND. There he was offered the possibility of work outside the camp, in a forest service camp near Boise, Idaho. The Japanese sent fire bombs attached to small balloons across the Pacific Ocean into the woods of the Northwest, and Hans was part of a crew that fought the blazes, as well as built bridges, planted trees, and even did lettering for maps. Read more…
