A plan to study the treatment of Europeans interned by the United States government during World War II is languishing in the Senate following unexpectedly strong opposition from GOP lawmakers.
A narrow majority of Republican senators, led by Jeff Sessions of Alabama, rejected a proposal to form a congressional commission examining the wartime experiences of Axis citizens and European-born Americans, thousands of whom were held in American internment camps. Co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the bill would also create a separate commission to study the treatment of Jewish war refugees.
As Washington buzzed over the derailed immigration bill last week, wrangling over the so-called Wartime Treatment Study Act reflected an equally deep-seated, if less public, partisan divide. Republican critics of the bill, including Sessions, argue that it is based on flawed findings, and say they fear that it could lead to the paying of reparations. Its backers say the critics are simply loath to investigate possible government wrongdoing given the ongoing war in Iraq.
“The Republicans want to say, ‘Look, these are casualties of war, this is the price people pay for us to protect them, but that doesn’t mean we have to be responsible in a court of law for what we do,’” said Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and professor of law at Fordham University who has written extensively about Holocaust restitution and historical justice. “They say to themselves that between Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, there is a nest of potential ignominy.”
Feingold, who represents a large German American population, also hinted that he sees current resonances in the debate over German internment during World War II.
“Whenever you have a conflict, the danger to those who are of the same background that includes our enemies is real,” he told The Associated Press last week. “And you always have to guard against that.”
In reality, Feingold’s bill has had a long and rocky road in the Senate. First introduced in 2001, the proposal has been stalled repeatedly over the past six years through anonymous Republican holds. A standalone version of the bill was torpedoed in the current Congress by a Republican parliamentary maneuver. Ultimately, despite the objection of 26 GOP senators, the legislation was tacked on as an amendment to the stalled immigration bill, leaving its ultimate status uncertain.
Along with the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II, the Department of Justice rounded up more than 30,000 “enemy aliens” — including 11,000 Germans, 3,200 Italians and scores of other Europeans, including some who resided in Latin America and were turned over to the American government. A congressional commission to study the internment of Japanese Americans was established in 1980. Separate legislation, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, apologized for the Japanese internment on behalf of the American government, and provided that reparations, eventually totaling some $1.2 billion, be paid to surviving internees.
Sessions did not return a call for comment. In his congressional testimony, Sessions said the bill was based on findings — including the assertion that the government’s wartime policies were “devastating” — “that slander America incorrectly.”
A May 8 letter sent to the Judiciary Committee by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling states that the bill’s “identical depiction of the treatment of Axis citizens and European Americans was ‘outrageously exaggerated,’” quoting a senior historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who spoke with Justice Department officials back in 2001.
A spokesman for the Holocaust museum declined to comment on the legislation, but identified the historian as Peter Black.
Several Republican senators who voted against the Feingold-Grassley bill, including Elizabeth Dole, Mitch McConnell and John Warner, did not return the Forward’s calls for comment.
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Mr. Liebman: You should tell the complete WWI story of German Americans. Thousands were interned, more than 5,000 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Hundreds of thousands Americanized their surnames, lest they be the targets of vigilantes. At least one German American was hung by vigilantes. And, like during WWII, they were required to register as enemy aliens, including members of the clergy. I am left with the question, are you sure the dock bombings were done by Americans of German heritage...or was it maritime and union members?
Few people realize that German agents and saboteurs were active on a massive scale on American soil during WW I. There is plenty of evidence linking them to major bombings of docks, warehouses and industrial sites on the Eastern Seaboard. Munitions and supply manufacturers in the East had to post heavy security to protect their factories and ships had to be routinely checked for bombs. Moreover, large numbers of German Americans tried to sign up to join the German army in WW I prior to America's entry late in the war. It is therefore not at all surprising, and makes perfect sense, that the government would keep a close eye on German Americans during WW II and would put a not small number of them behind bars during the war. Especially when we had a repeat of openly pro-Nazi German American organizations in the years leading up to Pearl Harbor. Given their experience in WW I with German saboteurs and sympathizers and a reprise of the same phenomenon in WW II, the American government's response is understandable.
Ms. Weiss: Do you suppose that Senator Sessions, et al., do not believe that German merchant seamen who were sailing on American flagships were interned in the United States long before December 7, 1941, like March or April of 1941....
You raise a very interesting question. Actually, I would bet that Senator Sessions knows more not less. When politicians want to prevent an investigation, control the parameters, hand select the investigators, or limit the scope of the investigation it should tell you something, don't you think? Who's position seems more reasonable- Feingold’s - stating that sometimes during time of war we vilify innocent civilians who are the nationality of the enemy Session's - claiming that US government wartime policies were and are beyond reproach. According to Session’s logic, America always possesses the moral high ground and would never violate the Geneva conventions, international law, or allow wartime profiteering. He is unwilling to review or expose any details but yet he asserts that European American internees have “outrageously exaggerated” their treatment. Supposedly, just conducting an investigation would "slander" America incorrectly. Perhaps, we need Sessions to explain how one “slanders” America correctly. It seems pretty obvious that during time of war both sides of a conflict commit awful acts. Historically, we have seen that innocent civilians suffer the most during wartime. Of course, wouldn’t it seem logical to seek the truth even if it exposes wartime injustices that are not our proudest moments. Certainly, exposing to the world the awful consequences of war might help future abuses by both sides of a conflict. In my mind, holding all sides of a conflict responsible to abuses to civilians is the moral high ground. Not complying to the Geneva conventions or calling them quaint is not in anyone’s best interest. In regards to German and Italian seaman, they were removed from their ships in American ports as early as August of 1939. My father, a German citizen, who shipped for the Panama Transit Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Oil Company, was among them . Then on May 7, 1941 seven months before Pearl Harbor my father was incarcerated and sent to an internment camp in North Dakota. How many Americans know that German and Italian seaman not Japanese Americans were the first to be interned during the war? My guess is Senator Sessions knows this. However, he probably doesn’t want to reveal the role of big oil. Just like today, oil was significant in the machinations of WWII.
Correction to the following statement: "including 11,000 Germans, 3,200 Italians and scores of other Europeans, including some who resided in Latin America and were turned over to the American government." The author failed to note that 11,229 "enemy aliens" are included in the 30,000 of persons rounded up by the Government during World War II.
Re: GOP Slams Effort To Study WWII Internment Camps in U.S. Sessions needs to make public the "flawed" findings that "slander" America incorrectly to which he refers to. Unless, he does this it is just more of the empty rhetoric of political mudslinging in the name of patriotism, so familiar of partisan politicians. Publish the May 8 letter of Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling let's see what the "outrageous exaggerations" are to which he refers. Perhaps, Senator Sessions knows that we might find that famous and well known Republicans during WWII were greater sympathizers and saboteurs with Hitler and the Third Reich than the German American internees who were imprisoned across the country in internment camps.
This proposed legislation is part of Feingold's one person extreme opposition to the Iraq war. He is part of the "moral equivalency" crowd making the case that the United states was the moral equivalent of its enemies because our government interned enemy aliens. But, look at the numbers--11,000 Germans and 3,200 Italians. The numbers of citizens of both those nation in the United States were much higher than that but that's all who were interned. These must have been well identified as people willing to take action against the United states during the war and were dealt with accordingly. One only hopes that the present government is moving to do the same with Arabs in this country if necessary.
Mr. David S. Levine: Perhaps you need to be reminded that the Holocaust began when the first innocent victim was knowingly sentenced to his or her fate.