“Where were the German camps?
Are you kidding?
Wikipedia:”
Thanks for the link. My grandfather was a child of German immigrants, his parents immigrated from Germany in the early 1900’s, they both passed away before WWII. My grandfather worked in a plant that manufactured engines for air force fighter and bomber planes during WWII, his work was building and servicing the engines. He was in his mid 30’s at the time raising a family. According to my grandmother he apparently never got bothered by the government even though he had an easily recognizable German last name. Strange. Never heard much about those camps and their existence.
Thanks for the note.
You are younger than I. My grandfather came over in the early teens, my grandmother a few years later. She rode a train from New York (Ellis Island, of course) all the way to North Dakota, terrified-—she and my grandpa had met only once, when he visited Germany with his cousin who was searching for a bride...and my grandpa scored while his cousin came up empty...
Anyway Grandpa showed up late for the train, missed it by a minute or so, and chased after it from stop to stop in his horse-pulled wagon. Thirty or 40 miles down the rail he looked in the little depot (train was gone again) and just about didn’t see the tiny, shivering, weeping woman sitting in a corner with a bag over her head.
They were married for over 50 years, separated only when Grandma died.
But to your point: my grandparents weren’t bothered either but they had been in the country, on their farm, for 30 years by that time. And right from the get-go they abjured the German language, German dress and customs-—they wanted to be Americans and they were quickly accepted as such.
Still both world wars were times of tension and concern. My mom’s cousin was in Hitler’s army until he slipped away one night...ended up a self-made millionaire in Canada...those were men and women back then, the real thing, you know?