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This article appeared in
the The Moberly Monitor and Evening Democrat Vanished: German-American
Disloyalty is a distasteful word and has the connotations of being untrustworthy, unfaithful, traitorous, double-dealing, treacherous, and deceitful. It is not a “nice” word; in fact, it is a very negative word. After December 7, 1941, thousands of German Americans were suspected of being disloyal by the U.S. government. There are many stories that substantiate this; many lives were disrupted, and even ruined. People lived this scenario during World War II. These stories need to be told. Hardship caused by suspicion of a person or a group of people because of national origin is grave; it is demeaning. And when this suspicion is generated by one's own government, wellŠ “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-48” is a TRACES exhibit and will be in Moberly on Thursday, April 19, 2007, from 6:00-9:00 p.m., hosted by Little Dixie Regional Libraries. The BUS-eum 2 traveling exhibit will be parked in front of the library available for public view. TRACES is a nonprofit educational organization created to gather, preserve, and present stories of people from the Midwest and Germany or Austria who encountered each other during World War II. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about a part of American history that all too often is overlooked. A discussion about this topic will take place in the library programming room at 7:00 p.m. so, again, ideally, this affords the opportunity to view the exhibit, attend the open discussion, then review the exhibit by going through it afterward. This writer strongly recommends that those who possibly can, make it a point to attend this special program. It is a chance for all of us to gain information that adds an important part of our history to our awareness. Following is a quotation from Alexander Solzhenitzyn from his book The Gulag Archipelago that is relevant to this exhibit: “Arrest is an instantaneous, shattering thrust, expulsion, somersault from one state to another. The gate to our past life is slammed shut once and for allŠIt's a blinding flash and a blow, which shifts the present instantly into the past and the impossible into the omnipotent actualityŠThat's all. And neither for the first hour nor for the first day will you be able to grasp anything else. The traditional image of the arrest is also trembling hands packing for the victim-a change of underwear, a piece of soap, something to eat; and no one knows what is needed, what is permitted, what clothes are best to wear; and the Security agents keep interrupting and hurrying you: ‘You don't need anything. They'll feed you there. It's warm there.' (It's all lies. They keep hurrying you to frighten you.)” Case in point, quoted from page 11 in the book VANISHED: German-American Internment, 1941-48 written by Michael Luick-Thrams copyrighted 2005: “My sisterŠwas confronted by two F.B.I. men who showed their identification and said that she should accompany them to their offices for questioning. She could not forget her screaming and crying sisters. On arrival at the F.B.I. headquarters, flanked by the two agents, she was fingerprinted and photographed with a number, as an enemy alien. After several hours of harassing ‘we don't believe you' style of questioning, she was ordered to get into a car and was told, ‘You are a prisoner, an enemy alien, and will be detained.' She knew that she was a U.S. citizen, but no one told her why she was detained. She was driven by the two F.B.I. men to Fort Armstrong Immigration Station, where upon she was handed over to an Army soldier, who marched her up a flight of stairs with the bayonet of his rifle at her back. He gave her over to a matron-guard who searched her and locked her in a large ward type of barred room with the thirty-five women. It was in this ward that she was reunited with our mother. No one knew why they were being detained. No one had a change of clothing. Their Army cots were one foot apart and everyone was on edge with fear and worry for their children, husbands, and family.” This was the treatment thousands of people received from U.S. government officials. To become better informed about this “dark” period of U.S. history, plan to attend the exhibit on Thursday, April 19, held between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. at Little Dixie Regional Libraries Moberly. | Home | |