Different Days
Page 19
Little attention has been paid to the fact that thousands of Germans (and a smaller number of Italians) were interned in the US during World War II. Japanese internment and relocation is much more widely known and studied. Because of the relocation from the West Coast, many more Japanese spent the war in internment camps. Those Japanese who were interned also received an apology and compensation from the government. The German and other European internees have received neither.
Upon release, internees signed a form agreeing to not speak of their internment and many feared violating that agreement would lead to being incarcerated again. Others felt internment left a stain on their reputations whether they’d done anything wrong or not. These factors contributed to people not knowing what had happened.
No matter ethnicity, internment tore families apart, left children without parents to be cared for by relatives or orphanages, left wives and mothers without financial support, and left a lasting legacy of pain for families and internees to deal with.
For many years the Berg family did not speak of the internment years. And they did not know who had reported them or what had been reported. The informants were later found to be two patients from the nursing home who suffered from alcoholism and mental issues, a former disgruntled employee of the nursing home, and a coworker of Mr. Berg’s. The family lost personal and real property, their business, and time as a family. Upon release, they had to start from scratch. Mr. Berg left his daughters with this lesson: “Only cowards give up, so pick up your bootstraps, move forward, and achieve.”
Doris Berg did just that. She graduated from the prestigious Punahou School on Oahu, attended the University of Hawaii and UCLA, and became a teacher and counselor as well as a wife and mother. Doris has also worked tirelessly to spread information about the injustices of internment, specifically the little-known German internment, in hopes that knowledge will keep history from repeating.
For further information:
Estlack, Russell. Shattered Lives, Shattered Dreams: The Untold Story of America’s Enemy Aliens in World War II. Salt Lake: Cedar Fort, 2011
Russell, Jan Jarboe. The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America’s Only Family Internment Camp During World War II. New York: Scribner, 2015.
Websites:
www.gaic.info. German American Internee Coalition.
www.foitimes.com. Freedom of Information Times.
Acknowledgments
This story, although fictionalized, was inspired by that of Doris Berg Nye, and I am extremely grateful to her for sharing her life as the daughter of interned German Americans in World War II Hawaii, as well as answering my many questions. It has been a blessing and a pleasure to become acquainted with her. Doris, you are one of my heroes! Thank you. And I hope, as you do, that knowledge of history will keep that history from repeating.
Thanks to Bethany Buck for recognizing Different Days as a story that needed to be told and helping me shape it. Thanks also to Alison Weiss, Sky Pony editorial director, for making me feel a part of the family, and thanks especially to Becky Herrick, Sky Pony editor, for her help and support to see the book through to completion.
The members of my Thursday writing group, Stephanie, Jeanie, Kristen, Valerie, Yvonne, Cindy and Peggy, have been invaluable in the feedback and suggestions they offered. Thank you ladies for always being there! And I’d like to mention and thank Norma Bentzinger for sharing her stories of her German family’s experiences with prejudice during both wars.
And finally, to my family—the Lauzes, the young Erwins, and especially my husband, Jim—thanks for sharing the journey. I couldn’t do it without you.