Our CSUN – screening
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Detained In America: The Selective Relocation of German-Americans and German Aliens During WWII, was the original title of my final paper in 2011 at California State University Northridge. Last week, October 9, 2014 we screened, 'Children Of Internment', the film version of this paper I wrote for CSUN.
I originally wrote about this topic because I felt that, like the Japanese-Americans of WWII, many German-Americans were not given the protection that is granted to Americans under the Read More >>
It's A Great Day!
Thanks to the Texas Historical Commission's (THC) preservation efforts at the former site of the Crystal City (Family) Internment Camp, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
According to William A. McWhorter, the site was formally listed and announced by the National Park Service on August 1, 2014. Mr. McWhorter wrote the National register nomination.
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Picture: William A. McWhorter, 6th from the right, 
In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the FBI by the Attorney General, Harlan F. Stone. By 1936 the FBI and U.S. Justice Department had secretly collected a list of names of people across the country who might be "dangerous and disloyal." This program was created during peacetime and gave those so labeled no right to confront their accusers. Acquiring thousands of names was the personal passion of Hoover. He believe he had a mandate to intrude into peoples' lives. He understood better 
Nativism has always been a driving a force in America, but it was during WWI that the government established the precedent of manipulating nativist fears as a way of clamping down on civil liberties and curtailing dissent. During WWI anyone who opposed the war, for whatever reason, was synonymous with disloyalty and even sedition.
Creating fear and then exploiting that fear, the government used the "threat" of all dissenters to justify a larger crackdown on civil liberties. Both legal 
Tom Brokaw wrote in his book, The Greatest Generation, Random House, Inc, New York. (p 216)
Italian and German aliens living in California coastal areas were ordered to move in early 1942 but by June of that year this order had been rescinded and there was no major relocation for those groups. Italian and German immigrants were picked up and questions closely; they may have had some uncomfortable moments 
My friend, Richard G. Santos, passed away in his sleep February 22, 2013, in Pearsall, TX. I first met him in the fall of 2011. I had begun my senior thesis for college when he introduced me to many of the internees that we have been lucky enough to interview for the Children of Internment film. The "voice" of the German internees was a huge part of his agenda as a historian. I have attached an email he sent to me on his recollection of two incidents at the First National Reunion of the