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| Home | The News and Tribune - April 27. 2007
Exhibit reveals German-Americans interned
The Vanished bus tour exhibit which was at the Spooner Memorial Library earlier in June was one of those experiences where you talk with presenters and listens to video programs and during and after the experience find yourself saying, “I had no idea.” American experience.
Internments that history nearly forgot -
The Mining Gazette Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga & Ontonagon Counties, Michigan- June 7, 2007 Traveling back in history By SARA WAISANEN, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — The U.S. government interned 15,000 German-American civilians during World War II, which is a part of history unknown to many. The Portage Lake District Library hosted The BUS-eum 2 Wednesday, which tells the experience of the internees. The Midwest was the site of 18 German-American internment camps and detention centers between 1941 and 1948. The exhibit drew 63 people between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon. “The most common comment is ‘I had no idea this happened,’” said Michael Luick-Thrams, BUS-eum driver and executive director of TRACES, an organization dedicated to preserving unknown Midwest World War II internment camps. The BUS-eum 2, which traveled to Houghton from St. Paul, Minn., has had more than 70,000 people view the exhibit in 700 towns in 12 Midwest states over the past three years, Luick-Thrams said. “These things can happen and do happen,” Luick-Thrams said. The exhibit displayed narrative panels, an NBC “Dateline” documentary and a 1945 U.S. Government color film. Articles of clothing from children who were interned were also among artifacts on the bus. One of the panels displayed on the side of the bus read, “Congress has repeatedly refused to acknowledge German-American internment or to compensate those whom it affected. Unwilling to learn from this tragedy, we easily could repeat it.” Luick-Thrams said not many people have heard about this part of history and those who learn about it for the first time do not doubt that it happened. “We just try to provide information so people can judge for themselves,” Director of Portage Lake District Library Jim Curtis said. The BUS-eum allowed viewers to go into the bus to look at the exhibits. “It’s always disturbing to me when I see items from small children,” onlooker and library worker Chris Alquist said. “It gives me the chills.” The Mining Journal - The Upper Peninsula -Marquette, Michigan - June 3, 4 & 6, 2007 History bus - June 6, 2007 By DILLON THORNE, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — More than 140 people came to learn about a forgotten time in history Tuesday at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette — leaving many in the audience astounded at the stories they heard and read. “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-48,” put on by the Traces Museum in St. Paul, Minn., told the story of 15,000 German-Americans who were forced into internment camps. The exhibits were displayed in one of the museum’s two converted buses, called a “BUS-eum.” The BUS-eum includes exhibits in half of it and a 25-person seating area that shows two videos. A “Dateline NBC” documentary tells the story of more than 5,000 Latin American Germans and Japanese being forced into internment camps; a second film was from 1945 about the internment camps. The day also included a presentation from Traces’ Executive Director Michael Luick-Thrams on POWs during World War II. Luick-Thrams, who has been driving the BUS-eum since March 2006, told the crowd he wanted visitors to make a connection to history. “We made the Upper Midwest our case study and we mainly travel from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana and Missouri. We hope to bring history to you,” Luick-Thrams said. However, he hasn’t limited his WWII presentations to just the Upper Midwest. He has traveled as far as Juiz De Fora, Brazil, in the BUS-eum. “When I was asked to go to Brazil, I didn’t know what to really think; but I’m happy I went,” Luick-Thrams said. “The kids at the school were very captivated with what we had to present.” The BUS-eum has hosted more than 75,000 visitors since it started its journey three years ago. Exhibits from Fort McCoy in Sparta, Wis., and Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, N.D., were included in displays on the Bus-eum. Young and old from the community came to tour the exhibits, including many World War II veterans and D.J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans residents. Chuck Foreman, who helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, came with pictures and stories from his tour. Buchenwald, when liberated, held more than 21,000 prisoners. “I was the historian for my division (87th) and to share my stories and experiences, it’s wonderful,” Foreman said. Ryan Swee, a 19-year-old history enthusiast from Marquette, said he had great interest in the event. Swee had just recently returned from a nearly three-month trip to Europe studying World War II. He visited about 15 concentration camps in his trip. “To have this history brought to my hometown is great. I have nothing but respect for this organization,” Swee said. “What these people went through was different from overseas, but wasn’t that different.” Many who stopped at the exhibit remembered growing up during the war. “My parents told me when I was younger not to tell anyone I was of German decent, afraid we’d be put into camps,” said Lew Peters, who grew up in Chicago during the war. “We were afraid our family might be broken up.” Peter White officials said they were happy with the turnout and the knowledge the exhibits brought to the public. “Most people know about the Japanese internment camps, but not so much about these,” said Bryn Smith, exhibits director for the library. “It’s great to have a traveling exhibit visit our community; it’s not something that you get to see every day.” The BUS-eum makes its next stop today in Houghton at the Portage Lake District Library. It then travels to the Spooner Memorial Library in Spooner, Wis., on Thursday. Touring WWII exhibit is Tuesday at library - June 4, 2007 MARQUETTE — “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948.” a touring exhibit exploring a little-known World War II chapter — the story of 15,000 German-American civilians interned by the U.S. government — will be in Marquette from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Peter White Public Library. A supplementary Power Point presentation will be given at 2:30 p.m. inside the library. Using 10 narrative panels, an NBC “Dateline” documentary and a 1945 U.S. government color film, the exhibit explores a little-known World War II sub-chapter — the story of 15,000 German-American civilians interned by the U.S. government between 1941 and 1948. Some disappeared under the cover of night, while others were taken during raids on their place of employment. About a third were kidnapped by U.S. agents in other countries and brought here by force. None had a lawyer, or were charged with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime. Many were imprisoned for the duration of that global war, and for years after it ended. The exhibition was developed by the non-profit TRACES Center for History and Culture in Saint Paul, Minnesota. For more information, call the library at 228-9510, or visit www.TRACES.org. WWII museum on wheels visits - June 3, 2007 By KIM HOYUM Journal Staff Writer MARQUETTE — Peter White Public Library will play host to a traveling exhibit on World War II civilian internment camps Tuesday. The exhibit, “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-48,” tells the stories of 15,000 German-Americans who were confined to camps during the war. Eighteen of the camps were in the Midwest, including one at Fort McCoy, Wis., according to the Traces Center for History and Culture, a Minnesota museum which created the traveling exhibit. It is displayed inside a refitted schoolbus, named the BUS-eum, which will be in the library parking lot from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. While an important part of national and Midwestern history, the topic stirs anger in some communities, said Mary Jo Cook of the Alger County Historical Society, which is hosting the exhibit Monday in Munising. According to Traces, the story is often ignored because of the uncomfortable cultural legacy it has left, along with similar, and better-known, Japanese-American internment camps on the West Coast. Bryn Smith, exhibits director for Peter White, said the BUS-eum will also be accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation at 2:30 p.m. from its host, Michael Luick-Thrams. “There was an option to have this extra presentation and we wanted to have it,” Smith said. The presentation covers various WWII topics, including the camps and prisoners of war, and is offered for those who may not be able to tour the bus, which is not handicapped-accessible. Smith also encouraged residents to come and share their own WWII experiences. No civilian internment camps were set up in the Upper Peninsula, but the area did see five camps for German POWs. They worked cutting pulpwood for wartime industry at Sidnaw, Au Train, Wetmore, Houghton County and Chippewa County. According to a 1943 Mining Journal article, the captives included many from Irwin Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps, and a few SS soldiers. Volunteers Tuesday will help set up equipment, point visitors in the right direction, and assist elderly visitors. After its Marquette stop, the BUS-eum is headed to the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton, where it will stop Wednesday.
Spooner Advocate - May 30, 2007 German-American internment shown in mobile museum Some disappeared under the cover of night, while others were taken during raids on their place of employment. About a third were kidnapped by U.S. agents in other countries and taken to the States by force. None had a lawyer, or were charged with, tried for, or convicted of a war-related crime. Survivors
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS - May 25, 2007 This year's event is also offering a glimpse into a little-known piece of history, which is that 15,000 German-American civilians were placed in internment camps during World War II. A traveling bus exhibit will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Epley Park. Officials estimate over 5,000 people will gather in the compact settlement of Hartland to watch the parade at noon on Monday and pay their respects to veterans. This is the 72nd Memorial Day celebration. "I think this is small-town Americana," said Dick Krueger, president of the Hartland Area Community Council, noting that Hartland possesses a strong and lengthy heritage. "There are some cultural leanings from a lot of people that not all things from the old times were bad," Krueger said. He said people looking for a "taste of old-time U.S., patriotism and family activities" should stop by Hartland on Monday. Jeanne Smith, head of youth services at Cromaine District Library, said she decided to bring the German-American civilian internment exhibit because it sounded fascinating. "I just think it's important they see things that happened in our country," Smith said. She said there were 18 internment camps for German-Americans across the Midwest, including one in Detroit. The exhibit has 10 narrative panels, an NBC Dateline documentary and a 1945 color film about the camps. For the first time since 1992, Brighton resident Paul Schnarr won't be riding in the Brighton Memorial Day Parade. Schnarr, who is 75 and commander of the American Legion Post 235 in Brighton Township, said his bad back is preventing him from participating in the day's activities. Schnarr, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was stationed in Japan, said he hopes other residents take time to pay homage to veterans. "My thought is if it wasn't for the veterans and those guys marching in the parade and those that will never be marching in a parade, they wouldn't be standing here watching a parade," Schnarr said. Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Jim Totten at (517) 548-7088 or at jtotten@gannett.com Ann Arbor News, MI - May 25, 2007 Roving museum provides insight into internment of Germans during World War II Having often been taught in our schools, the internment of an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans during the second World War is a well-known subject. But the plight of the estimated 15,000 Americans of German ancestry who were interned between 1941 and 1948 is far less prominent. To change that is the aim of the TRACES Museum Center for History and Culture in St. Paul, Minn., and its traveling exhibit, "Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948.'' The mobile museum - one of two retrofitted school buses known as "bus-eums'' - will visit the Hartland Cromaine District Library on Monday. The traveling exhibit includes a 25-seat theater where visitors can watch an NBC "Dateline'' documentary, a 1945 U.S. Government color film and a short film created by the grandson of an internee. The exhibit also includes 10 display panels and four display cases and can accommodate approximately 50 people at a time. TRACES Executive Director Michael Luick-Thrams said visitors can expect to spend about 45 minutes taking in all the exhibit has to offer. "To be honest, the most common comment is incredulity,'' Luick-Thrams said. "It's not that they don't believe us, they say that they didn't know anything about this.'' One of the main reasons this chapter of American history remains under the public's radar is that internees and the U.S. government personnel who interned them were sworn to secrecy. But Luick-Thrams is pleased with the progress the TRACES museum and its traveling exhibits have made. "It's one of the most effective pedagogical tools I've ever seen,'' Luick-Thrams said. "We've had over 70,000 people in 675 towns, in 12 states in the last three years. We've been to Nebraska cow towns, northern Minnesota logging camps and inner-city Chicago. We can go where the people are and we take them unknown histories and aspects of culture that shift their world view.'' As a nonprofit entity, the museum and its staff must contain themselves to events before 1948, but Luick-Thrams says he especially enjoys the power of history to hold up a mirror to present-day society. "People have to know what happened,'' Luick-Thrams said. "If you can intern members of the largest ethnic group in this country during a so-called 'good' war, you can intern any group during any war, or so-called national emergency, and say these people are a threat. "If these 15,000 German Americans had had a lawyer, someone could have said, 'My German or Jewish refugee client is not a Nazi.' But because they didn't have lawyers, they sat and cooked under the North Dakota sun for a couple of months. It's just crazy.'' "Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948'' will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The library is located at 3688 N. Hartland Road. DAILY PRESS & ARGUS - May 22, 2007 This year's event is also offering a glimpse into a little-known piece of history, which is that 15,000 German-American civilians were placed in internment camps during World War II. A traveling bus exhibit will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Epley Park. Officials estimate over 5,000 people will gather in the compact settlement of Hartland to watch the parade at noon on Monday and pay their respects to veterans. This is the 72nd Memorial Day celebration. "I think this is small-town Americana," said Dick Krueger, president of the Hartland Area Community Council, noting that Hartland possesses a strong and lengthy heritage. "There are some cultural leanings from a lot of people that not all things from the old times were bad," Krueger said. He said people looking for a "taste of old-time U.S., patriotism and family activities" should stop by Hartland on Monday. Jeanne Smith, head of youth services at Cromaine District Library, said she decided to bring the German-American civilian internment exhibit because it sounded fascinating. "I just think it's important they see things that happened in our country," Smith said. She said there were 18 internment camps for German-Americans across the Midwest, including one in Detroit. The exhibit has 10 narrative panels, an NBC Dateline documentary and a 1945 color film about the camps. For the first time since 1992, Brighton resident Paul Schnarr won't be riding in the Brighton Memorial Day Parade. Schnarr, who is 75 and commander of the American Legion Post 235 in Brighton Township, said his bad back is preventing him from participating in the day's activities. Schnarr, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was stationed in Japan, said he hopes other residents take time to pay homage to veterans. "My thought is if it wasn't for the veterans and those guys marching in the parade and those that will never be marching in a parade, they wouldn't be standing here watching a parade," Schnarr said. Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Jim Totten at (517) 548-7088 or at jtotten@gannett.com. Ann Arbor News, MI - May 20, 2007 A WWII tale seldom told Many Americans are aware of the internment of Japanese American civilians during World War II, but few know about the similar plight suffered by German Americans. About 15,000 Americans of German ancestry were interned at camps across the country, including the Midwest, between 1941 and 1948. To change that is the aim of the TRACES Museum Center for History and Culture in St. Paul, Minn., and its traveling exhibit, Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948. The mobile museum - one of two retrofitted school buses known as "Bus-eums'' - will visit the Ypsilanti District Library at 5577 Whittaker Road, 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 25. The traveling exhibit includes a 25-seat theater where visitors can watch an NBC "Dateline'' documentary, 1945 U.S. Government color film and a short film created by the grandson of an internee. The exhibit also includes 10 display panels and four display cases and can accommodate approximately 50 people at a time. TRACES Executive Director Michael Luick-Thrams says visitors can expect to spend approximately 45 minutes taking in all the exhibit has to offer. "To be honest, the most common comment is incredulity,'' Luick-Thrams said. "It's not that they don't believe us, they say that they didn't know anything about this.'' One of the main reasons this chapter of American history remains under the public's radar is that internees and the U.S. Government personnel who interned them were sworn to secrecy. But Luick-Thrams is pleased with the progress the TRACES museum and its traveling exhibits have made. "It's one of the most effective pedagogical tools I've ever seen,'' Luick-Thrams said. "We've had over 70,000 people in 675 towns, in 12 states in the last three years. We've been to Nebraska cow towns, northern Minnesota logging camps and inner-city Chicago. We can go where the people are and we take them unknown histories and aspects of culture that shift their world view.'' As a nonprofit entity, the museum and its staff must contain themselves to events before 1948, but Luick-Thrams says he especially enjoys the power of history to hold a mirror up to present-day society. "People have to know what happened,'' Luick-Thrams said. "If you can intern members of the largest ethnic group in this country during a so-called 'good' war, you can intern any group during any war, or so-called national emergency, and say these people are a threat. "If these 15,000 German Americans had had a lawyer, someone could have said, my German or Jewish refugee client is not a Nazi. But because they didn't have lawyers, they sat and cooked under the North Dakota sun for a couple of months. It's just crazy.'' Seth Gordon can be reached at sgordon@annarbornews.com or 734-482-2829. Massillon Independent - Massillon,OH - May 15, 2007 Bus-eum takes uncharted path in WWII history Stephen.Huba@IndeOnline.com At age 82, Eberhard Fuhr belongs to the “greatest generation,” but his story is quite different from the innumerable Americans who gave of themselves during World War II. The sacrifice that Fuhr made was involuntary, at the hands of an American government that was suspicious of all aliens of German or Japanese descent. On Sunday and Monday, Fuhr told his story of internment on American soil to audiences at the Massillon Public Library. “During times of war, a nation will take draconian measures to protect itself, and one of those is internment,” he said. Fuhr was one of 15,000 German-Americans who were held at camps in Texas and California for the duration of World War II. From age 18 to 22, he, along with his family, was interned at a camp in Crystal City, Texas, where he worked for 10 cents an hour, withstood temperatures of 110 degrees and played basketball. “You always knew you were confined,” he said. “It was on the primitive side.” Fuhr’s visit to Massillon was part of the traveling exhibit “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948,” hosted by the library and the Massillon Museum. The exhibit, on the last leg of a three-month tour, was created by the Traces Center for History and Culture, a private non-profit museum based in St. Paul, Minn. Jean Adkins, genealogy specialist at the library, invited Fuhr to be part of the Massillon stop to raise awareness about the internment of German-Americans during World War II. “It hasn’t been exposed the way the Japanese internment was,” she said. “They were arrested for just being German.” Fuhr was born in Cologne, Germany, and came to the United States at age 3 in 1928. He and his family settled in Cincinnati, where his father, Carl, was a baker. A law passed in 1940 required all aliens 14 or older to register with the U.S. government. By the time war broke out with Germany in 1942, Germans living in the United States began to be rounded up, Fuhr said. Fuhr’s parents were taken first in August 1942. Fuhr remembers being arrested by FBI agents at his Cincinnati high school in 1943. He was first taken to Chicago, then to Texas. While at the camp, Fuhr helped dig a lake that was used to irrigate fields in and around the camp. He also played on a basketball team. “We could field only one German team to 10 Japanese teams,” he said. “In soccer, we fielded six German teams and the Japanese fielded one team, all from Peru.” Fuhr was at the Crystal City camp with his family until 1947, two years after the war ended, when they were taken to Ellis Island. He was finally free to go in September 1947. Fuhr got married a year later – he met his wife at the camp – and returned to Cincinnati. He attended Ohio University and took a job with Shell Oil, settling in Akron. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955. “This man is not the least bit bitter for what has happened,” Adkins said. TRACES exhibit tells unknown story of German-American Civilian Internment in the US during April 25, 2007 Richmond, Ind.– Some disappeared under the cover of night, while others were taken during raids on their place of employment. About a third were kidnapped by U.S. agents in other countries and brought here by force. None had a lawyer, or were charged with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime. Many were imprisoned for the duration of the war, and for years after it ended. Suspected terrorists? Inmates at Guantanamo Bay? No. They were 15,000 German-American civilians the U.S. Government interned between 1941 and 1948. Equipped with ten narrative panels, an NBC “Dateline” documentary, and a 1945 U.S. Government film, TRACES’ mobile museum – a retrofitted school bus named the BUS-eum 2 – will visit Indiana University East from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 9. The bus will be parked in front of Whitewater Hall on the IU East campus. The bus-eum will travel to eight Midwest states between mid-March and mid-June 2007, with showings of this innovative exhibit in about 110 communities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. TRACES Center for History and Culture is a Midwest WWII-history museum in downtown Saint Paul Minnesota’s historical Landmark Center (former 1896 Federal Courts Building). Each of it’s 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, World War II is a case study used to gain awareness for modern day issues. The main goals of this mobile exhibit are presenting an unknown piece of history to a wide audience, stimulating penetrating questions on the part of visitors to the exhibit and leading them to open discussion. It explores a virtually unknown yet significant historical event – possibly one of the U.S.’s least-known WWII sub-chapters. [The Midwest was the site of 18 internment camps or detention centers, including: Camp (now Ft.) McCoy near Sparta WI; Home of the Good Shepherd Convents in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cleveland; county or city jails in Milwaukee and St. Louis; detention centers in Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit; and Hotel Gibson and Hamilton County Workhouse in Cincinnati – as well as numerous others.] Communities across the region will have an opportunity – in most cases for the first time – to discuss the legacy as well as implications of the U.S. Government’s WWII “enemy alien” internment program. At select showings, former internees or their children will appear as guest speakers and share what internment meant to them and their families. At all showings, related print and electronic documentation will be available for purchase. A community conversation will follow the Richmond Bus-eum 2 showing at 6:30 p.m. in Vivian Auditorium. Through this project, Midwesterners will see WWII history in a new way, and “re-visit” an event and a period often over-simplified and obscured by bravado. The community conversations are meant to support democratic involvement and processes in modern day society. Early arrival is encouraged, as the tour is tightly scheduled. To learn more about the exhibit, see www.TRACES.org. The exhibit’s texts and photos can be previewed at the web site; reading the narrative in advance facilitates speedier visitor flow in the BUS. Educators are welcome to utilize the teaching materials also posted on the web site. This exhibit is sponsored by the IU East Campus Library, Morrisson-Reeves Public Library and American Democracy Project. For more information, contact Julianne Stout at (756) 973-8411 or by e-mail at jbstout@indiana.edu. The Journal news - May 8, 2007 WW II traveling exhibit sheds light 'sad' times ROSS TWP. — A glimpse of one of America's "little known pieces of history" left students at Ross High School sad and curious, they said. Using 10 narrative panels, an NBC "Dateline" documentary and a 1945 U.S. government color film, the TRACES' mobile museum — which visited the school on Tuesday — tells the story of 15,000 German-American civilians the U.S. government interned between 1941 and 1948. About 2,000 — including Jewish people — were "exchanged" for German-held U.S. nationals in the Third Reich. "It was pretty interesting," said junior Jenny Tumulty. "I just thought it was the Japanese-Americans who were interned. "I think it's sad that our government did that to them." Almost 100 students, teachers and members of the community visited the museum, said Michael Luick-Thrams, curator and executive director of the TRACES Center for History and Culture in St. Paul, Minn. The main goals of the mobile exhibit — a retrofitted school bus called the BUS-eum 2 — "include presenting an unknown history to a wide audience, stimulating penetrating questions on the part of visitors to the exhibit and then leading them to open discussions," Luick-Thrams said. Each year the bus travels five months. It has visited more than 650 towns in the past three years with more than 70,000 people walking through. Information aboard the mobile museum explores a virtually unknown yet significant historical event, possibly one of the country's least known World War II chapters, he said. The Midwest was the site of 18 internment camps or detention centers, including the Hamilton County Workhouse in Cincinnati. "Some disappeared under the cover of night, while others were taken during raids on their place of employment," Luick-Thrams said. "About a third were kidnapped by U.S. agents in other countries and brought here by force. None had a lawyer, or were charged with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime." Many were imprisoned for the duration of that global war, and for years after it ended, he said. "It's real unique that people don't think of our government as a conspirator," said 18-year-old Nate Fields, a senior. "And I thought it was amazing that the government is unable to tell American citizens the truth. "I like the government ... America has written in the Constitution that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave, so why do we consider ourselves morally ethical to kidnap other citizens from foreign lands. "America, considered a perfect institution, is unable to admit a mistake to the citizens because of overwhelming prideful feelings," Fields said. "The government would rather pretend like this never happened just to prevent the wreckage of society's view of our government as a perfect nation." Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2158 or lebbing@coxohio.com.
Palladium-Item - Richmond, Ind. - May 7, 2007 Mobile museum features 'enemy aliens' During the World War II era, many German-American civilians were imprisoned in the Midwest. Their stories will be shared Wednesday at Indiana University East in Richmond as the TRACES mobile museum -- a retrofitted school bus named the BUS-eum 2 -- makes a stop in front of the college's Whitewater Hall from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Some disappeared under the cover of night, some were taken during raids on their place of employment and others were kidnapped by U.S. agents. None had a lawyer nor were they charged with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime. Some were later exchanged for Nazi-held Americans. The exhibit, put together by the TRACES Center for History and Culture in St. Paul, Minn., includes 10 narrative panels, an NBC "Dateline" documentary and a 1945 government film. The Midwest was home of 18 internment camps or detention centers, including Camp McCoy (now Fort McCoy) near Sparta, Wis.; Home of the Good Shepherd Convents in Milwaukee, Chicago and Cleveland; county or city jails in Milwaukee and St. Louis; detention centers in Kansas City, Chicago and Detroit; and the Hotel Gibson and Hamilton County Workhouse in Cincinnati. The goal of the exhibit, which is being sponsored in Richmond by the IU East campus library, Morrisson-Reeves Library and the American Democracy Project, is to present this little-known piece of history to a wide audience and to stimulate thought and discussion.
The Cincinnati Post - May 4, 2007 Local German immigrants interned during WWII -- BUS-eum: "Vanished: German American Civilian Internment, 1941-48" is Saturday at Cincinnati Museum Center, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. When Dr. John Peaslee, the principal of old Woodward High (now the School for the Creative and Performing Arts), interrupted class on March 23, 1943, to ask 17-year-old Eberhard Fuhr to step out into the hallway, the young man wasn't surprised that an FBI officer was waiting to arrest him. His parents had been arrested and sent to an internment camp for enemy aliens six months earlier. Carl Fuhr, a baker, his wife, Anna, and their two oldest sons immigrated to the United States in 1927 and settled here at 1907 Baymiller St. in the West End. None became naturalized citizens, which was not uncommon at the time. Their youngest son, Gerhard, was born here in 1929, and was a citizen. Like many recent immigrants, the Fuhrs spoke "half German and half English at home" and were active in the local German American organizations. Eberhard (Eb) sang in the Kinder Chorus under the direction of Frederick von Kappelhoff, the father of Doris Day. When Germany attacked Poland in 1939 and later turned westward against France, he remembers that his father "was definitely pro-German." But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, his family was torn between their native and adoptive homelands. After spending a night in the Cincinnati Workhouse, Eb and his older brother went before a hearing board at the federal courthouse. The authorities did not permit them representation by an attorney or any witnesses. Eb knew their fate was sealed before entering the hearing room when he saw an article in The Cincinnati Post that made it clear the brothers would soon end up with their parents in the "concentration camp." At the camp in Crystal City, Texas, "it was 110 degrees in the shade, but there wasn't any shade," remembers Eb. Half the camp was filled with Japanese Americans, half with German Americans. Not long after arriving, Eb's father received a letter from the Cincinnati chief of police demanding to know what he was going to do about the trash in their yard on Beekman Street after the neighbors had looted the house. The Fuhrs lost their possessions to looters and their house to bankruptcy. As the war ground on, many Japanese men in internment camps were drafted for service in the Army. Almost all chose to fight in Europe, especially with the 100th Infantry Battalion or 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Many other men and women moved out of the camps to inland cities, including Cincinnati. When Eb Fuhr was arrested, he made it clear that he would not fight in the European Theater, and not anyplace as long as his mother was held in the camp. Whether for that reason or some other, the Fuhrs remained prisoners at Crystal City. When Allied troops rolled into Berlin and declared victory in Europe on May 8, 1945, the Fuhrs expected they would soon be released, but for another two and a half years they were held at the camp. Finally, in June 1947, they were sent to Ellis Island, where a review board ordered all but the youngest, an American citizen by birth, to be deported to post-war Germany. Only when Sen. William Langer of North Dakota held hearings and crafted legislation were the Fuhrs finally released in September 1947. Carl and Anna, as well as their youngest son, returned to Cincinnati. Eb, who married a woman he met in the camp, went off to college and a career that took him across the United States. During those years in the camp, Eb resolved to "never waste any time and do something with my life." Since he retired, he has become involved in telling the story of his family and the approximately 15,000 other people of German ancestry who were interned during World War II. One manifestation of his efforts will literally roll into town tomorrow. The BUS-eum, a converted school bus, carries a traveling exhibit organized by TRACES in St. Paul, Minn., that tells the little-known story of interned German American citizens. Eb Fuhr will be on hand to talk with visitors. Looking back from the perspective of 60 years, and in the midst of another war in which a group of immigrants is held in suspicion, Eb sees the story of the German American internment as important from several perspectives. First, it is an essential corrective to the often told story of the Japanese American internment. By not including the fate of German Americans and other perceived enemy alien groups, many people have come to think of the World War II interment episode as an issue of racial prejudice, when, in fact, it was a political and security issue. In the midst of war, Eb believes that a nation has the right to protect itself. He accepts the time he spent in the camp from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945, but resents every day of the two and a half years beyond VE Day that his family was imprisoned. In the post 9-11 world, when Muslims and especially Arab Muslims are looked upon with suspicion, Eb hopes that by reflecting on the story told in the BUS-eum exhibit, Americans will think harder about how to protect the nation while preserving human and civil rights. Dan Hurley is the assistant vice president for history and research at the Cincinnati Museum Center. He is also the staff historian for Channel 12 News and the executive producer of Local 12 Newsmakers Sunday mornings. dhurley@cincymuseum.org. The Marshal Democrat-News - May 2, 2007 By AMY CRUMP/Library Director This was true in part because the wives believed they were legal if their husbands were. It seems so wrong to me that families were broken up because of fear. As we pass the first day of May -- the "Day Without Immigrants" observation -- I see the similarities in current events and those WWII policies. Families are being torn apart -- through deportation -- because of governmental policies that seem to require closer examination. You can learn more about both time periods at your Marshall Public Library -- there are a number of books addressing these issues and history. The News and Tribune - April 27. 2007 Story of German-American internment coming Wednesday By Patrick L. Boucher In 1943, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt were meeting in Teheran, Iran, British Gen. Bernard Montgomery was destroying the remnants of Erwin Rommell’s Afrika Corp., and 8-year-old Anneliese Wiegand entered the Crystal City German internment camp in Texas. Thanks to “TRACES,” a historical-education organization — being hosted by the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library — the Wiegand story and the story of 15,000 other German internees will be told Wednesday in New Albany. To tell this little-known story, TRACES has equipped a bus, referred to as a “Bus-eum,” with artifacts, narrative texts and multimedia. “The intent is to bring history to people,” said Michael Luick-Thrams, TRACES executive director. “So far, 65,000 people have toured our bus,” he said. TRACES, whose motto is “We Bring History to Life,” is dedicated to telling the stories of Midwesterners during World War II. The German internee story is practically unknown, because staff and internees were sworn to secrecy, and had to promise to never tell their story, Thrams said. The Wiegands lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1942. Otto Wiegand — the family patriarch and a member of the German Merchant Marine — had jumped ship in 1920 to New York, married, opened a butcher shop and started a family. “Then, on a late summer day in 1942, two well-dressed men from the government arrived at my father’s shop, escorted him back to our family’s apartment and told him to get an overnight bag because he was going with them to answer a few questions,” Anneliese Wiegand said. “They told my mother not to worry.” That would be the last time the Wiegand family would live together until 1943, when Anneliese, her brother, Frederick, and mother Alma voluntarily entered the internment camp in order to stay with Anneliese’s father and try to keep the family together. Anneliese and her family would be repatriated to Germany — repatriation meant being exchanged for U.S. citizens being held in Germany — and face a harrowing life there during the final war years. In 1953, nine years after their forced repatriation, and 10 years after entering the internment camp, the entire family was reunited permanently in the United States. Anneliese Wiegand, now Anneliese Krauter, would eventually settle just outside Indianapolis, raise a family and write a book about her war years experiences titled, “From the Heart’s Closet; A Young Girl’s World War II Story.” She plans to attend the TRACES stop in New Albany and bring copies of her books to sell. Despite her family’s hardships, it always retained their devotion to the United States, Anneliese. “Because of the way my parents raised us and the type of people they were, they never turned us against the country of our birth,” she said of the United States. “They were never vengeful, because they loved this country so.” | Home | |
