Posted on 10/18/2017 9:20:01 AM PDT by Jewbacca
A fascinating collection of photos have resurfaced showing the hardships faced by German-Americans at the brutal height of the First World War. As Europe was ravaged by fighting, German immigrants in the US suffered harassment, internment, lynchings - and even the humiliation of being tarred and feathered.
Although a little-remembered part of history today, America was wracked by the fear and paranoia that swept from coast to coast during the Great War.
The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 and helped lead the Allies to victory. But before that, many Americans were terrified of the German threat growing on the other side of the world.
This collection of pictures reveals the full extent of war hysteria and open hostility towards all things German that erupted across the nation.
Before the war broke out, America had welcomed German immigrants and regarded them highly. German was the second most widely spoken language in the country and there were over 100 million first and second-generation German-Americans living in the United States, with many of them involved in the thousands of German organizations across the country.
The United States embraced them and the German language became an established part of the high school curriculum.
But when the war broke out and Germany became the enemy of the Allies abroad, the American government began calling on its people to reject their German-American neighbors.
President Woodrow Wilson declared that German-Americans were to be treated as 'alien-enemies' and that they should reject their German identity if they were to be accepted in US society.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
So we lose thousands of soldiers, just because some people were idiotic enough to go to Europe in the middle of a war.
There was no warning issued.
Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.Even if I was of stock that did not originate in the Irish Republic, that should matter?
The Royal navy also attempted to destroy the wreck in the 1950s. Again, odd behavior.
>>Well, by “that”, I meant the League of Nations.
League of Notions
Al Stewart
I’m here sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
Spread out in a hall of Versailles
And every single nationality and principality
have come for a piece of the pie
I’m sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
And the lines and the borders are gone
We’ve got to do this jigsaw puzzle
It’s an awful muddle
But somehow we’ve got to go on
Lawrence of Arabia is waiting in the wings
He’s got some Arab sheikhs and kings
And we’re in debt to them somehow
Lawrence of Arabia has got this perfect vision
Gonna sell him down the river
There’s no time for him now
I think I’m gonna take a piece of Russia
And a Piece of Germany
And give them to Poland again
I’ll put together Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
And hope that is how they’ll remain
Then I’ll take a bit of Turkey
Then a lot of Turkey
This is all quite a heady affair
There’s Persia and Iraq to pick up
And there’s Churchill’s hiccup
And we can’t leave it up in the air
Woodrow Wilson waves his fourteen points around
And says “The time to act is now
Won’t get this opportunity again”
Woodrow Wilson has his fourteen points
But Clemenceau turns to Lloyd George
And says “You know that
God himself had only ten”
Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)
Voices in the corridors of power
Candles burning hour by hour
Still you know that to the victors go the spoils
Such a great responsibility to make it fair
And there must be some reparations now
And don’t forget the oil
Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)
Pax vobiscum
Wo-Oh, Pax vobiscum
If I recall correctly, Eisenhower, Nimitz and Halsey were of German ancestry....................................... Many of our Division Commanders had German names. Spatz USAAF, Huebner (V Corps)
Reinhart (65th Division)
Dager (11th Armored Division)
Schmidt (76th Division)
Lauer (99th Division)
Reinhardt (69th Division)........ (Bolte had it before one of the Reinhart brothers, the one who linked up at the Torgau on the Oder with the Russians)
Kramer (66th Division)
Stroh (106th Division)
Gerhardt (29th Division)
Baade (35th Division)
I’m sure there were many more in the PTO and the CBI.
“I call BS. Better have pics of that.”
You means, aside from the very first photo and story in the article?
Because an attack on Belgium invoked requirements to honor agreements to defend that nation. It’s really as simple as that.
Before WW I, the German-American community and its civic organizations were opposed to US entry into WW I, with many in active collaboration with German government officials. With the assistance of German Americans, German spies and agents committed many acts of industrial sabotage that were a violation of international law in that the US was a neutral power US at the time.
The German ambassador to the US even warned the US Secretary of State Robert Lansing that if the US entered the war on the side of the Allies, "a million Germans would rise up in revolt." Lansing replied that US would have a million and one lamp posts at the ready.
In such a context, it is easy to understand suspicious and hostile attitudes toward German-Americans. Of course, most German Americans were soon seen to be not only loyal but eager to prove themselves to be patriots and supporters of the American war effort.
“The Germans didn’t exactly “sneak up”, they announced their plans ahead of time and gave fair warning.”
Its hopeless. They swallowed the evil Hun stories. Im just amazed we haven’t heard about catching Belgian babies on bayonets yet.
“There was no warning issued”
The Germans took out a full page ad in the NYT saying they were going to sink it because it carried war cargo. The explicitly said they would and warned people not to sail on it.
One day I’ll get to ask him what Ace Frehley is doing on his album cover.
Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.
Even if I was of stock that did not originate in the Irish Republic, that should matter?
Wow, calling someone a Brit is now: profanity, personal attacks, racism or violence in posts. Who knew!
Nope. The ship was attacked without warning.
A propaganda ad saying “all allied ships”, furthermore, is a declaration of war and a declaration of intent to flout the Cruiser Rules. To agree with the German Empire’s POV is to disagree with the sovereignty of anyone else, including the USA.
Well, it is a "special" relationship { nudge nudge wink wink }
Pretty sure the masters of the Royal Hive never cared much for our pesky "GD piece of paper"... (which is understandable since it didn't recognize the royal nature of things that folks of their, slave and opium peddling, ilk were so traditionaly attached to).
Well, now you know.
More than a man. False flag stuff happens all the time.
“It should be kept in mind that in that era the loyalty of the German-American community was genuinely in doubt and presented a serious internal security problem.”
Undoubtedly. And Japanese Americans were arrested for their efforts to help with the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Spies called in fleet movements so the attack would have maximum effect.)
I mainly posted this so people can use it to make the point you just made when talking about how evil white Americans were to Japanese Americans.
The camps may have been wrong, but it want racism.
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