Census form

[Judy Harder]

If I remember the chatting of the old-timers. I am almost sure that the airport at Independence was
used for a detainment camp. Jarhead, do you remember that? I am sure that Charlie (my second husband)
talked about that and I am almost that sure that Pope Barnaby did too.

The German detainees were used to work around the county. Need older Elk countians than me.

[larryJ]

From Wikipedia--------

Under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the United States government detained and interned over 11,000 Germans and German Americans at the start of World War II. In many cases, the families of the internees were allowed to remain together at internment camps in the U.S. In other cases, families were separated. Limited due process was allowed for those arrested and detained.

The population of alien Germans in the United States – not to mention American citizens of German birth – was far too large for a general policy of internment comparable to that used in the case of the Japanese in America.[5] Instead, Germans and German Americans in the U.S. were detained and evicted from coastal areas on an individual basis. The War Department considered mass expulsions from coastal areas for reasons of military security, but never executed such plans.[6]

A total of 11,507 people of German ancestry were interned during the war, accounting for 36% of the total internments under the Justice Department's Enemy Alien Control Program.[7] Such internments began with the detention of 1,260 Germans shortly after attack on Pearl Harbor.[8] Of the 254 persons evicted from coastal areas, the majority were German.[9]

In addition, over 4,500 ethnic Germans were brought to the U.S. from Latin America and similarly detained. The Federal Bureau of Investigation drafted a list of Germans in fifteen Latin American states whom it suspected of subversive activities and, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, demanded their eviction to the U.S. for detention.[10] The countries that responded expelled 4,058 people.[11] Some 10% to 15% were Nazi party members, including approximately a dozen who were recruiters for the NSDAP/AO, roughly the overseas arm of the Nazi party. Just eight were people suspected of espionage.[12] Also transferred were some 81 Jewish Germans who had recently fled persecution in Nazi Germany.[12] The bulk of those shipped from Latin America to the U.S. were not objects of suspicion. Many were residents of Latin America for years or, in some cases, decades.[12] In some instances, corrupt Latin American officials took the opportunity to seize their property. Sometimes financial rewards paid by American intelligence led to someone's identification and expulsion.[12] Several countries did not participate in the program, while others operated their own detention facilities.[12][13]

The U.S. internment camps to which Germans from Latin America were directed included:[12]

Texas
Crystal City
Kennedy
Seagoville
Florida
Camp Blanding
Oklahoma
Stringtown
North Dakota
Fort Lincoln
Tennessee
Camp Forrest

[jarhead]

If I remember the chatting of the old-timers. I am almost sure that the airport at Independence was
used for a detainment camp. Jarhead, do you remember that? I am sure that Charlie (my second husband)
talked about that and I am almost that sure that Pope Barnaby did too.

The German detainees were used to work around the county. Need older Elk countians than me.

Holy Moly Judy !! How old do you think I am At the time of WW-II I wasn't nothing but a gleam in my ol Daddies eye !! I have never heard anything about a German camp being down there but that's not to say there wasn't.

[frawin]

Jarhead, I thought you told me you  rode with Custer, and you were the only survivor at Little Bighorn.

[srkruzich]

What we did to the Japanese Americans  was totally wretched and a huge black blot on our history. Notice we didn't round up any German Americans...hit too close to home.

Oh yes they did.  There is one or two concentration camps that were used in ww2 here in kansas to house german, german/americans.   The reason they didn't ahve as many in them as they did japanese, the germans americanized their names.  
some of the fema camps are old concentration camps.

[frawin]

From the KU Continuing Education Website, this is a Seminar coming up on the very subject of German Prison camps in Kansas during WWII

Many people are unaware that there were prisoner of war camps in Kansas during World War II. This course will explain why German prisoners of war were here and discuss the different types of camps, how prisoners were treated, prisoner jobs and prison life in the camp, escapes, reeducation, and going home. The course will also cover the challenges faced by American soldiers at the camps and explore the feelings of the local population.

[Wilma]

Jarhead, I thought you were talking about the Muslim religion and you know our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.  If you mean the terrorists that we are fighting, you can do anything you want to with them, but leave the Muslim religion in America alone.  Perhaps if we would say terrorists when we mean terrorists it would help.  Granted many of the terrorists are Muslim, but not all Muslims are terrorists.  I am sure the Muslim religion would appreciate it, also.

Frank, thanks for mentioning the Seminar.  That might be worth looking into.  I knew about German Prisoner camps in Kansas, but I hadn't heard about the detainee camps.

[W. Gray]

I have been threatening to purchase this book for quite some time. It was put out by Sunflower University Press, which is now KS Publishing.

If you folks don't stop talking about German POWs and whetting my interest, I guess I will 


Info related to the book:

During WWII, there were 155 main and 340 branch POW camps in
the U.S., eight in Kansas. Camp Concordia operated from 1943-
1945 and was the largest Kansas camp, designed to hold over
4,000 prisoners. -- Recollections from former German POWs.

I am assuming that Camp Concordia was in or near Concordia in Cloud County.

[Wilma]

I will be in Wichita Monday.  I wonder if this book can be found at a book store.

[frawin]

More interesting info on Germans in Prisons in US in WWII:
Press release submitted by German American Heritage Center

German American Heritage Center Hosts Traveling Exhibit Telling the Unknown Story of German POWs Held in Midwest Camps during WWII

By the end of World War II some 425,000 German, Italian and Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) found themselves imprisoned in over 660 base and branch POW camps in almost all of the then-48 United States and the territory of Alaska. Millions more Axis and Allied POWs were held in other camps in Europe, the Soviet Union, Canada, Australia and Africa. While Axis and Soviet POWs were both the perpetrators as well as victims of dictatorial governments and state-sponsored violence, POW experiences on all sides embody ageless and timely themes of war and peace, justice under arms and issues regarding human rights, international reconciliation and future conflict avoidance.

The roughly 372,000 German POWs held in U.S Army-operated camps across the United States were sent out to harvest or process crops, build roads and waterways, fell trees, roof barns, erect silos, work in light non-military industry, lay city sewers and construct tract housing, wash U.S. Army laundry and do other practical wartime tasks. With the high rate of 19th-century German immigration to the Midwest, many of those who worked with POWs spoke to them in their native tongue; some even had relatives or former neighbors among them. In the process, they formed significant, often decades-long friendships with "the enemy" and underwent considerable changes as individuals and as a group – thus fundamentally influencing postwar German values and institutions, as well as American-German relations. A number of POWs even chose to immigrate to the United States after the war.

Using ten narrative panels and films about this story, TRACES" mobile museum—a retrofitted school bus called the BUS-eum 3—will tour six Midwest states during fall 2008, reaching schools, libraries and historical societies. TRACES exhibit driver, Irving Kellman, will tour with the exhibit and is available for phone or live interviews as the tour progresses.

The German American Heritage Center will host the Bus in Davenport, IA from 4:00 p.m.to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, the 2nd of April 2009; it will be parked in the German American Heritage Center parking lot, at 712 West Second Street: the local contact person is Schar Blevins, at (563) 322-8844 or sagb@gahc.org. Admission is free to the public

"Few people are aware that we had German Prisoners right here in Iowa during World War II," says Schar Blevins of the German American Heritage Center. "They do not teach this in our schools."

TRACES Center for History and Culture is a Midwest/WWII history museum in downtown Saint Paul/MN"s historic Landmark Center (formerly 1896 Federal Courts Building). Each of its more than two dozen exhibits about Midwesterners" encounters with Germans or Austrians between 1933 and 1948 forms part of a larger mosaic, a fuller image of a war that is often misunderstood or seen in clichés. At TRACES, WWII is a case study to learn from for today and future generations.

To confirm the BUS-eum"s itinerary or learn more about this exhibit, see www.TRACES.org. The exhibit"s texts and photos of the exhibit can be previewed at that web site; reading the narrative in advance facilitates speedier visitor flow in the bus. Educators are welcome to utilize any teacher material on our web site.

The Center is open Tuesday – Sunday 1:00-4:00 p.m.

For further information please call (563) 322-8844




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