During WWII, the United States detained at least 11,000 ethnic Germans, overwhelmingly German nationals. The government examined the cases of German nationals individually, and detained relatively few in internment camps run by the Department of Justice, as related to its responsibilities under the Alien Enemies Act.
Physical attacks, though rare, were more violent: German American businesses and homes were vandalized, and German Americans accused of being "pro-German" were tarred and feathered, and, in at least once instance, lynched.
During World War II, the US Government interned at least 11,000 persons of German ancestry. By law, only “enemy aliens” could be interned. However, with governmental approval, their family members frequently joined them in the camps.
After the war, millions of German settlers were forcibly, even violently, expelled and sent back to Germany. Other ethnic Germans, whose families had lived in border regions like the Sudetenland for generations, also fled or were expelled. Allied opinion was divided about these expulsions.
During World War I, U.S. Government Propaganda Erased German Culture As the U.S. entered World War I, German culture was erased as the government promoted the unpopular war through anti-German propaganda. This backlash culminated in the lynching of a German immigrant.
As Europe was ravaged by fighting, German immigrants in the US suffered harassment, internment, lynchings - and even the humiliation of being tarred and feathered. Although a little-remembered part of history today, America was wracked by the fear and paranoia that swept from coast to coast during the Great War.
Frankenmuth Michigan: Known as Little Bavaria
Frankenmuth is a small town in Michigan, located just 90 miles north of Detroit. The interesting thing about Frankenmuth is the fact that it's the most German town in the USA. The moment you enter you feel like in Bavaria.
Between 1944 and 1950, these expulsions resulted in the deaths of over half a million ethnic Germans, with some experts claiming a death toll in excess of two million. Deaths resulted from a variety of causes, including but not limited to malnutrition, disease, physical violence, and time spent in internment camps.
After the war, the Allied occupation forces in Allied-occupied Germany promoted shame and guilt with a publicity campaign, which included posters depicting Nazi concentration camps with slogans such as "These Atrocities: Your Fault!" (Diese Schandtaten: Eure Schuld!).
As German immigrants moved into English-speaking countries, their surnames were impacted in a variety of ways. Most of the time the surname spelling changed to accommodate the different phonetic spelling in the English language. In other words, the recorder tried to write the name the way he heard it.
The large number of German Americans of recent connection to Germany, and their resulting political and economical influence, have been considered the reason they were spared large-scale relocation and internment.
As a result of security concerns in coastal areas, about 10,000 Italian-Americans were forced to relocate from their homes along the California coast and move inland. Also, 11,000 people of German ancestry were put into internment camps, many of them American-born children.
Why were Japanese Americans treated differently than German and Italian Americans? They were treated differently because America began to fear spies, sabotage and further attacks. How did the Allies disagree over military strategy?
Because Germany was one of America's adversaries in the war, many Anglo-Americans began to fear that German Americans were still loyal to the Kaiser, or German emperor.
Germany has a long and rich history with swimming, but it wasn't always legal to do so. In order to protect the environment, it was illegal to swim in rivers and streams from 1884-1933. During this time, many people drowned because they didn't know about the law or were unaware of its existence.
Many were frustrated by the American way of warfare, especially the officers who could not call upon the resources that their enemy could. The common soldier was annoyed that the American infantry declined to “fight fairly” and relied heavily on artillery and airpower to soften resistance.
Teaching the subject of the Holocaust and the Nazi era is mandatory in German schools and in addition to the classroom curriculum, almost all students have either visited a concentration camp or a Holocaust memorial or museum.
After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Dismantling in the West stopped in 1950. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953.
After Germany's surrender in May 1945, millions of German soldiers remained prisoners of war. In France, their internment lasted a particularly long time. But, for some former soldiers, it was a path to rehabilitation.
The 16 million men and women in the services included 1 million African Americans, along with 33,000+ Japanese-Americans, 20,000+ Chinese Americans, 24,674 American Indians, and some 16,000 Filipino-Americans. According to House concurrent resolution 253, 400,000 to 500,000 Hispanic Americans served.
Estimates for the total death count of the Second World War generally range somewhere between 70 and 85 million people. The Soviet Union suffered the highest number of fatalities of any single nation, with estimates mostly falling between 22 and 27 million deaths.
The largest portion of military dead were 5.7 million ethnic Russians, followed by 1.3 million ethnic Ukrainians.
Pennsylvania, with 3.5 million people of German ancestry, has the largest population of German-Americans in the U.S. and is home to one of the group's original settlements, Germantown (Philadelphia), founded in 1683 and the birthplace of the American antislavery movement in 1688, as well as the revolutionary Battle of ...
Leavenworth: Washington State's Little Germany.
The groups included Swiss Mennonites, Baptist Dunkers, Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Amish, and Waldensians; most German immigrants belonged to the main Lutheran and Reformed churches. The central colonies received the greatest part of this immigration, especially Pennsylvania.