This article appeared in the KQ2 Hometown News
on April 15, 2007.

People get a first-hand look at what WWII was like through a traveling museum

While some people relive the emotional period of the Holocaust, a few people get a first-hand look what World War II was like. Many people may actually remember the days of World War II internment camps. Everybody else may have learned it through a high school or college history class. A mobile World War II display made its way to St. Joe to share the internment of German and Italian-Americans.

Pictures, books and an educational video welcomed people on the buseum at East Hills Library to bring an unknown story to the Midland Empire.

"Americans who were interred around this country because people were afraid of them by their ethnic background," Barbara Voshell, tourist, said.

More than 70 people toured the bus learning about how World War II prisoners lived, they also learned about an internment they never knew existed. That's the hidden message the Traces Museum from Saint Paul, Minnesota put on wheels. More than 15,000 German-Americans were imprisoned in their own country.

"I wasn't aware of the fact that they government rounded up people, like Germans, Italians, Japanese and others in Central and South America and held them to be an exchange for Americans who were interred in Germany and Japan," Donald Sklenar, tourist, said.

This is TRACES (www.TRACES.org) sixth bus tour since 2004. More than 60,000 people have walked through these doors.

"I would definitely say it's worth your time," Pam Evans, tourist, said. "It`s really opened my eyes and I don't think anyone would be disappointed."

"I think it`s extremely fascinating," Betty Kammeren, tourist, said. "I find it quite interesting to know that Latin Americans were interred during the war."

The wheels on the bus will continue to go round and round. The tour hits North Kansas City Sunday night before heading to Clinton, Missouri on Tuesday.

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