Enemy alien

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The term Enemy Alien (in English, for example, foreigners from enemy countries , often shortened to hostile foreigner ) describes in Anglo-American law the member of a state with which the country in which he is staying is in a conflict - not necessarily war . The term was primarily used during the Second World War , but also during the First World War . During the Second World War also in other countries, z. B. Germany and France, members of enemy states interned .

Right development up to the First World War

In international martial law it was an old tradition that civilian members of an enemy state were exposed to all diplomatic rights and national privileges on their own soil. This principle was first written down by William Blackstone in 1766 in his Commentaries on the Law of England , he also used the term alien enemy for it .

In 1798, the United States passed the Alien and Sedition Acts , including the Alien Enemies Act , to prepare the nation for a feared war with France in the wake of the XYZ affair . The Alien Enemies Act stipulated that anyone born in enemy territory over the age of 14 could be recorded, arrested and expelled from the USA.

Various states set up internment camps in their colonies ; The Spanish camps in Cuba are considered to be the first from 1896 onwards. In 1901 the USA set up internment camps in the Philippines. From 1900 to 1902 the British used the systematic internment in an unprecedented extent in the Second Boer War in South Africa and in 1904 the internment of the Herero and Nama in German South West Africa was the first step towards genocide in the largest German colony. In the years that followed, a debate began in western nations about the 150,000 or so victims of internment through ignorance, mismanagement or intent, and there was strong rejection of the practice in all participating states.

In the First World War, however, the previously discredited internment camps of the colonies were used for the first time in Europe. The decisive factor was the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May 1915. Only a week later, the British government ordered the internment of all male Germans and members of Austria-Hungarians of military age as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man . In all warring nations similar regulations were subsequently made and camps were set up.

Great Britain

First World War

Anti-German demonstrators in England in 1914. The sign reads: Ein Kehraus, No more German influence, Today demonstration at 2:30

During the First World War there was widespread hysteria against Germans. A petition for the imprisonment of Germans living in England was launched, signed by 1.25 million English people. There was a mass demonstration in Trafalgar Square against Germans in Great Britain.

Second World War

Since the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, many Germans came to Great Britain as refugees from the Nazi regime. From the outbreak of war in 1939, these were initially subjected to restrictions without distinction like other members of enemy states. They were only allowed to move within three miles of their home. They were prohibited from owning vehicles, radios, cameras, and maps.

From mid-September 1939, Germans and Austrians had to face a tribunal that determined the “degree of loyalty”. The category (A - C) determined whether they were sent to internment camps. On May 12, 1940, the British authorities started the "general roundup"; now people classified in category B or C were also interned. After Italy entered the war , this also affected a larger number of Italians.

First the emigrants were interned in Huyton . When the capacity was no longer sufficient, other accommodation options were sought. The Isle of Man , which is comparatively isolated from the British mainland, was predestined as it also offered a large number of accommodations as a popular holiday destination. A total of 25,000 emigrants were sent to mostly provisional camps on islands.

When the capacity of the British camps was exhausted, 6,564 German and Austrian internees were deported to Canada and 2,500 to Australia. There were internees in India too. Germans from Ceylon and, after May 9, 1940, those from the Dutch East Indies were also held prisoner in the internment camps in India . These overseas deportations had fatal consequences for several hundred people. During the transfer of internees to Canada, the ship - the Arandora Star - was sunk by the German submarine U 47 . Several hundred German and Italian prisoners drowned on board the Arandora Star , including the former Berlin city councilor and KPD politician Karl Olbrysch and his partner. Others, like Franz Eichenberg , got lucky and were rescued by a Canadian destroyer. The fifty-seven-day crossing with the HMT Dunera to Australia was more than exhausting for those affected .

In late July 1940, however, the government stopped internment in Great Britain, Canada and Australia, which was increasingly viewed as a pointless act. The repatriation of the internees began gradually. However, the internment was only ended in autumn 1942.

Ironically, in Great Britain the soldiers of German and Austrian descent who fought for the British army were referred to as The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens (" The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens "). Among them was Ken Adam .

Australia

During the First World War, Australia had the War Precautions Act 1914 as a legal basis , which referred to Australia's status as an ally with England and the possible endangerment of Australian interests. 7,000 people were interned thereafter, 4,500 of whom were considered enemy aliens. The British also sent enemy aliens from small South Asian possessions for internment in Australia. Many of the smaller camps initially opened were closed in 1915 in favor of accommodation in larger ones. The largest was the Holsworthy Detention Center in New South Wales .

The National Security Act of 1939 applied similarly during World War II . About 7,000 residents were interned between 1939 and 1946. In addition, around 8,000 other internees from the Netherlands and England and their colonial areas in the Pacific region were held captive in Australia (cf., for example, the history of the SS Dunera troop transport ).

United States

The Alien Enemy Act of 1798, which is still today called Chap. 50 of the United States Code is valid, gives the US President the right to order the arrest and deportation of any foreigner who is a citizen of a country with which the United States is at war (see also " Alien and Sedition Acts ") . A new formulation followed in 1918.

First World War

After America entered the war on April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson imposed a number of restrictions on German citizens living in the USA on the basis of the Alien Enemy Act , which restricted their power of disposal over their property as well as their freedom of movement. There were forbidden zones that they were no longer allowed to enter, they had to register with the police or the postmasters in the USA, they were forbidden from possessing communications equipment, radios and firearms, etc. These measures were extended to persons from Austria-Hungary in December 1917 and from April 1918 to all hostile foreigners. Violations were punished severely, and police raids were the order of the day. There were over 10,000 arrests leading to investigations, but mostly soon to parole. For the arrestees themselves, it was a humiliating experience that often resulted in loss of job, social standing, or housing.

About 2,300 people were permanently detained by the War Department as dangerous enemy aliens in two camps: Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia and Fort Douglas, Utah . The overwhelming majority were German nationals or Austrians who were suspected of showing particular disloyalty to the USA. Only 8 percent of them were detained for an extended period of time and probably only about 2 percent were detained for the duration of the war or longer.

Around 10 percent of the 2,300 internees were wealthy, German-born immigrants who were suspected of being disloyal or of funding pro-German propaganda. Most of the internees, however, consisted of simple workers, the needy and the unemployed. At best, her only crime was being involved in radical politics or in labor unrest. In addition to these 2,300 internees, there were up to 2,800 members of the Navy who were accused of violating American neutrality, as well as members of the merchant navy who were in American ports and in or in countries where the United States was a colonial power after April 6, 1917 (Philippines , Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico) had been captured. Other internees came to the US from South and Latin America, where they had been arrested under US pressure.

The internees were released or repatriated from November 1918, albeit very slowly. It was not until March 1920 that the Swiss delegation in Washington was able to inform the German government that no more German citizens were being held in the USA. In the meantime, domestic politics in the USA had made the transition from enemy alien hysteria to fear of a red threat , which provided the new justification for the hesitant release of the last internees, as they were now considered too radical and dangerous to get on To be paroled.

Second World War

The Immigration Act of 1924 formed the basis for a largely xenophobic immigration policy in the USA, from which German-Jewish emigrants in particular also suffered in the 1930s - reinforced by strong anti-Semitic tendencies within American society. After a brief relaxation of entry regulations in 1938, the Roosevelt administration reverted to a more restrictive immigration policy from 1939 onwards, "allegedly in response to the fear of subversive elements among immigrants", which by 1941 had made it almost impossible to "unite Get legal access to the United States, a bureaucratic situation made even more complicated by the war ”.

After Roosevelt himself had further fueled the fear of spies among German emigrants, and especially among Jewish people, it was only a small step to the Alien Registration Act of 1940 , which also went down in history under the name Smith Act . It required all foreign-born people over the age of 14 who were not yet US citizens to register with a federal agency. "The US government touted the law as a measure to protect loyal foreigners, and as such it received a lot of media attention and general support, including the German-Jewish refugee press."

The Alien Enemy Act and the Alien Registration Act formed the basis of Presidential Proclamations 2525-2527, the first of which was enacted on October 7, 1941 by President Roosevelt. It was the result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and only affected Japanese on American territory. The two proclamations that followed in December 1941 - as a reaction to the declarations of war by Germany and Italy against the USA - expanded the circle of those affected. All three declared the people of Japanese (Proclamation 2525), German (Proclamation 2526) and Italian (Proclamation 2527) origin to be Enemy Aliens and created regulations for dealing with them:

  • Enemy aliens in the US and Alaska were henceforth controlled by the Justice Department; those in Hawaii , the Philippines, and the Panama Canal Zone were under the War Department.
  • All those affected have been asked to register with the US government as Enemy Aliens .
  • The proclamations laid down general rules restricting their activities and allowed zones to be established from which they could be evacuated.
  • The proclamations specifically approved arrest and internment for the duration of the war if an enemy alien was considered potentially dangerous to the peace and security of the United States.
  • In mid-January 1942, the request was made to have a new ID card issued within a week, which then always had to be carried with you. The data collected in the course of issuing the ID card was passed on to the FBI , which had previously played a crucial role in identifying the people who were considered to be enemy aliens .

The American citizens of Japanese descent (so-called enemy non-alien ) were initially hardest hit by these measures. As part of the internment of Americans of Japanese descent , they were forcibly relocated to internment camps from the west coast. About 120,000 people of Japanese descent ended up in camps; 65% of them were American citizens. "The policy against the Japanese and Japanese-American citizens on the west coast was racially and politically justified and had little to do with actual military necessity." With reference to the entire United States, Krammer reports that at the end of 1941 alone thousands had been held for interrogation and the Department of Justice called in 60,000 enemy aliens for interrogation. The interrogations took place through so-called Civilian Alien Enemy Hearing Boards , which were able to make one of three recommendations for each affected person: Unconditional release; Release on parole (combined with twice weekly reports); Internment. Germans affected by the measures were initially those “who appeared to be politically particularly dangerous, that is, people who had visited Germany since Hitler came to power, or those who had acquired the 'return migrant mark' offered by the German government at an extremely cheap rate, and with it should be encouraged to return to Germany. The US Department of Justice viewed such investments in the enemy's economy as a clear sign of disloyalty. After that, the approach was rather unsystematic. "

While Schenderlein does not report anything about the internment of German and Italian refugees, a documentary on Bavarian TV in 2007 pointed out that there were over 50 different camps for interning Germans in the United States during World War II , including on Ellis Island . Some of the internees had even been repatriated in order to exchange them for American prisoners of war in Germany. Arnold Krammer, who already dealt with the internment in the USA during the Second World War in 1996, stated that “the history of the 7041 German internees, who together with their families, interned seafarers and foreigners from Latin America make a total of 25,655, is hardly known is. [..] It should also be emphasized that the number of internees was small in relation to the number of those who were able to continue their lives unmolested. "

Independently of this, Schenderlein points out that the refugees on the west coast were more affected by the proclamations than those on the east coast and describes the effects of the proclamations using the example of California:

“Especially in California, with its concentration of defense industry, military bases and a large Japanese population, the term 'enemy alien' had become a 'catchphrase' that was repeatedly used by the press to draw attention to the dangers posed by hostile aliens , real or imagined. The tension around people of Japanese descent has reached hysterical proportions through reports of alleged sabotage and other subversive activities. Even if the term 'hostile foreigner' was mainly used in relation to Japanese people (without differentiation according to their nationality status), and rarely to German or Italian 'foreigners', some German-Jewish refugees nevertheless feared for their own safety and feared that the People couldn't make the distinctions necessary. After all, one refugee representative wrote: 'If someone is obviously being treated as an enemy, then there must be something to it.' Signs in restaurants reading 'Hostile foreigners stay out' fueled these fears and created situations that were worryingly reminiscent of what the refugees were in Had experienced Germany when their compatriots had put up signs saying 'non-Aryans stay out'. "

There were also violent protests by Jewish associations against all of these measures - but also a large number of actions with which the refugees, who no longer defined themselves as emigrants, wanted to prove their absolute loyalty as immigrants.

In February and March 1942, representatives of the refugees were able to speak to the Tolan Committee , and on the West Coast they received assistance from California Governor Culbert Olson and Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron . “Ultimately, no resettlement of German or Italian foreigners took place. While this decision, unlike the one against the Japanese, had a lot to do with the lack of pronounced racism against the European "foreigners", the official conclusion was instead that it would not be realistic to relocate and intern all enemy German and Italian foreigners, if you want to win the war. ”The most visible sign of this change may have been the recruitment of German emigrants for the military and the Office of Strategic Services , including Herbert Marcuse , which began in 1943 .

Nevertheless, in 1942 and 1943 there were repeated attempts to tighten restrictions on the west coast. Night curfews were imposed and travel was restricted to a very narrow circle around the place of residence. Ultimately, the resettlement of all enemy aliens of German and Italian descent living in military zone 1 in the coastal area of ​​California, Washington and Oregon as well as in southern California and Arizona on the border with Mexico did not come to fruition . Schenderlein also attributes the fact that some things were ordered, but then not implemented, to the fact that responsibility for the enemy aliens was transferred from an originally responsible civil authority to the War Ministry in February 1942. The military authority had no sympathy for the enemy aliens and had strictly subordinated their concerns to the military necessities defined by them. For example, a senior military officer responded to a request from a refugee organization in Los Angeles about the night curfews, “that it was certainly regrettable that civilians had to endure 'unintended disadvantages' that resulted from the war, but that you' as former victims a terrible persecution that you have only recently escaped, the current inconvenience of staying in your house between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. should seem insignificant by comparison '. "

While internees with Japanese roots were released relatively quickly after the end of the Second World War, many Germans among the internees retained their status as enemy aliens . “When the war in Europe ended in May 1945 and a great deal of cargo space became available, the new President Harry Truman declared that the United States had no more room for unreliable residents. Although enemy aliens were no longer enemies after the war was over, Truman decreed, citing the Enemy Alien Act of 1789, that all aliens who had been classified as dangerous during the war should now be repatriated - voluntarily or involuntarily - because they were still viewed as highly undesirable. Internees to whom this provision applied were informed individually on July 24, 1945. In total, the Ministry of Justice deported around 500 German internees - including 318 inmates from Ft. Lincoln and 80 from Crystal City . ”In 1947 there were still 600 Germans in Crystal City , of whom 380 were subsequently released. The remaining 220 were brought to Ellis Island and were to be deported to Germany from there. Surprisingly, in June 1947 a decision was made against further deportations. "With that the whole Enemy Alien Program was completed and all those interned on Ellis Island were released."

literature

  • Waltraud Strickhausen: Great Britain , in: Claus-Dieter Krohn (ed.), Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration 1933–1945 . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft WBG, Darmstadt 1998 pp. 251–270.
  • Alfred Fleischhacker (Ed.): That was our life, memories and documents on the history of the FDJ in Great Britain 1939-1946. Verlag Neues Leben , Berlin 1996 ISBN 3-355-01475-3 .
  • Arnold Krammer: Enemies without a uniform. German civil internees in the USA during the Second World War . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , Volume 44, Issue 4, 1996. The article is available online.
  • Max Zimmering : The involuntary trip around the world . Children's book publisher, Berlin 1956.
  • Bohdan S. Kordan: Enemy Alien - prisoners of war. Internment in Canada during the Great War . Montreal 2002.
  • Anne Schenderlein: GERMAN JEWISH “ENEMY ALIENS” IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR , BULLETIN OF THE GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE (GHI), 60, SPRING 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrea Pitzer: Enemy Aliens . In: Laphams Quarterly , 2014.
  2. ↑ Spiegel Online A Day: loyalty enemies , accessed on July 27 of 2008.
  3. ↑ Wolf Klaphake: Internment ( Engl. ) In: Uncommon Lives: Wolf Klaphake . National Archives of Australia. 2004. Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
  4. ↑ Germans interned in Australia ( Memento from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ ENEMY ALIENS: The Internment of Italian Migrants in Australia . Connor Court Publishing Online Bookshop. 2005. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
  6. ↑ Tatura WK2 Camps & Irrigation Museum
  7. ^ A b Alien Enemies Act and Related World War II: Presidential Proclamations
  8. ↑ The following remarks on enemy aliens during the First World War follow, unless otherwise stated, the website International Encyclopedia of the First World War: Enemy Aliens and Internment . The site also provides information on internment practices in Germany and Great Britain.
  9. ↑ See: Lars-Broder Keil: The USA achieved their first victory in 1917 without weapons
  10. ↑ This thesis goes back to: Jörg Nagler: Nationale Minoritäten im Krieg. 'Enemy Foreigners' and the American Home Front during the First World War , Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 2000, ISBN 978-3-930908-61-5 .
  11. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish "Enemy Aliens" in the United States , p. 102. "[..], now ostensibly in response to fears of subversive elements among the immigrants."
  12. ↑ ibid., P. 102. "It had becorne almost impossible to gain legal entrance to the United States, a bureaucratically induced situation further complicated by the war."
  13. ↑ The document Timeline: Japanese Americans during World War II gives a good overview of the timing of all measures directed against enemy aliens from the Smith Act onwards , even if its focus is on state activities directed against people of Japanese origin. The Glossary document explains some important terms in this field.
  14. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish “Enemy Aliens” in the United States , p. 108. “The US government promoted the Act as a measure protecting loyal aliens, and as such it received much publicity and overall support in the media, including the German Jewish refugee press. "
  15. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 587; on the role of the FBI, see p. 584 ff.
  16. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish “Enemy Aliens” in the United States , p. 109. “The policies against the Japanese and Japanese-American citizens on the West Coast were rooted in racism and politics and had little to do with actual military necessity. "
  17. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 584 ff.
  18. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 586.
  19. ^ Ellis Island on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1943 . See also: Known Locations of Internment Camps and Detention Centers that held German American Internees in the United States during World War II
  20. ^ Bavarian television: Documentary: Nazis against their will ( Memento from May 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - Presentation of the film by Michaela Kirst, broadcast on January 20, 2010.
  21. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 603.
  22. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish “Enemy Aliens” in the United States , pp. 110-111. "Especially in California, with its concentration of defense industries, military sites, and a large Japanese population, the term" enemy alien "had become" a headline slogan ", used repeatedly by the press to point out the danger of enemy aliens, real or imagined. The tension over people of Japanese descent reached at times hysterical dimensions, with reports about alleged sabotage and other subversive activities. Even though the term “enemy alien” was mainly employed to refer to Japanese (with no distinction as to their citizenship status) and rarely to German or Italian “aliens”, some German Jewish refugees feared for their own safety, concerned that people might not make the necessary distinctions. After all, one refugee representative wrote, "if somebody is obviously treated as an enemy, then there must be something to it." Signs in restaurants saying “enemy aliens keep out” lent credence to these fears, creating situations disturbingly reminiscent of what the refugees had experienced in Germany, when their countrymen had posted signs saying “non-Aryans keep out”.
  23. ↑ Jewish Response to incarceration
  24. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish “Enemy Aliens” in the United States , p. 112. “Ultimately, no removal of German and Italian aliens was carried out. While this decision had much to do with the absence of pronounced racism against the European “aliens” in contrast to that against the Japanese, the official conclusion was instead that it would not be realistic to relocate and internally all German and Italian enemy aliens if one wanted to win the war. "
  25. ^ Anne Schenderlein: German Jewish “Enemy Aliens” in the United States , p. 115. “The chief of the Wartime Civil Control Administration, Tom C. Clark, for example, responded to a plea by the Los Angeles refugee organization that it was certainly regrettable that civilians had to endure “incidental inconveniences” resulting from war but that “as past victims of a persecution as terrifying as that from which you have so lately escaped, the present inconveniences of remaining in your house between 8 pm and 6 am must seem insignificant by comparison "."
  26. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 598. In his article, Krammer also deals in great detail with the Crystal City internment camp . For the Crystal City Internment Camp see the article of the same name in the English WIKIPEDIA or: Crystal City (detention facility) . Very detailed and with images: NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES: Crystal City Internment Camp .
  27. ^ Arnold Krammer: Feinde ohne Uniform , p. 599