I know the immigration officers changed names and spellings. I have cousins who spell their name differently than I do because the officials who filled out the papers of the two original cousins who came here with different spellings of the same name, and the immigrants were afraid to complain, so they just kept their “new” names. Same thing happened on my Mother’s side. Her ancestor was an indentured servant, and when he completed his servitude, his “master” gave him somebody else’s papers with the wrong name on them, so he just kept that name.
BTW, every German youth during that period was a Hitler Youth member, including the best college professor I had, without any choice.