I sent the following review to the DB Review list and I thought that people
on this list might be interested in this book. I will most likely get some
unhappy responses from DB Review for this, or att least, for my last
sentence.
The train to Crystal City: FDR's secret prisoner exchange program and
America's only family internment camp during World War II DB81065 Russell,
Jan Jarboe. Reading time: 15 hours, 23 minutes.
Read by Patrick Downer.
Biography
War and the Military
Author of Lady Bird (DB 49783) examines the history of the Crystal City
internment camp, which operated between 1942 and 1948 and housed families of
Japanese, German, and Italian descent, many American-born, who had been
decreed dangerous enemy aliens. Describes life at the camp and repatriation
to foreign countries. 2015
Most of us have read books about the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned
in US concentration camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This
book is about a different kind of camp, one that most of us have never heard
about. It imprisoned families of people of German, Japanese, and Italian
descent, some of them American citizens, who were suspected of working on
behalf of the countries with whom the US was at war. The book is extremely
well documented, and not only provides historical facts, but tells the
stories of several families who were interned at Crystal City. The history
provides a cautionary tale for us today. Although some of the men in the
camp, did sympathize with the governments of the countries where they had
been born, there were actually very few individuals who were dangers to the
US. And it appears that a vast majority were perceived by our government as
dangerous, only because of their cultural identifications with the countries
of their birth. Not only were the men who were deemed as dangerous
imprisoned, but their families were imprisoned with them. Their children
were American citizens and these children identified as Americans. As
becomes evident from the material in the book, there was a reason for
imprisoning these people that was equally important to the perceived reason
of national security. The US government planned to use the people in the
camp at Crystal City as hostages, to bargain for the lives of American
citizens held by the Germans, Japanese, and Italians. The American born
children of the suspects, (who were American citizens), were included in
those who would be traded for other American citizens whose lives were
deemed more valuable than their's. Additionally, there were people of
German, Japanese, and Italian descent, whom the US had removed from the
Latin American countries where they had been living, who were also detainees
in the camp and who were also traded for Americans. The story of how all of
this was accomplished, of the thinking of the people who made and
administered the policies, of those few who disapproved but had no power to
reverse them, and of what happened to the families as they were moved into
the camp, adjusted to life there, and then were sent to the war torn
countries in exchange for Americans, is horrifying and fascinating. This is
an important book to read if you are interested in American history and if
you want to understand how our country really works.
Miriam
