[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2525-E2526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PROCLAMATION NO. 2526

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MATT SALMON

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 19, 1999

  Mr. SALMON. Mr. Speaker, the severe treatment of Japanese Americans 
and aliens during World War II has been extensively detailed. Not as 
chronicled is the less pervasive, but still serious discrimination on 
the basis of ethnicity suffered by Americans or aliens of Italian and 
German descent. To this end, Congressman Rick Lazio's Wartime Violation 
of

[[Page E2526]]

Italian Americans Civil Liberties Act, which passed the House last 
week, would provide Americans with a sharper account of the 
discrimination suffered by Italian Americans during World War II. But, 
history would still lack a clear picture of the German-American 
experience.
  It's clear that certain Americans of German descent experienced 
injustices similar to other ethnic groups during World War II. For 
example, consider the case of Arthur D. Jacobs, an American of German 
descent, who now lives in my district. Mr. Jacobs published a book 
earlier in the year, The Prison Called Hohenasperg that details his 
account of internment in the United States and Germany. Mr. Jacobs and 
his family spent time at Ellis Island, Crystal City, TX, and finally a 
prison camp in Germany. The event that put Mr. Jacobs ordeal in motion 
was the leveling of unsubstantiated, anonymous charges against his 
father.
  The book has generated national interest. The November 1st edition of 
the American Library Association's Booklist offered the following 
review of the book:

       There has been very little written about the terrible 
     punishment that was meted out to thousands of German 
     Americans during World War II. That's why Jacob's book is an 
     important one. This modest tome opens up a hidden and 
     disgraceful chapter in our history for all to see.

  The internment of Mr. Jacobs and his family was not an isolated case. 
Arnold Kramer, a Texas A&M professor specializing in European history 
and author of Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's German Alien 
Internees, observed in his book that about 15 percent of the 10,905 
German aliens and Americans interned were committed Nazis, while the 
rest ``were ordinary American citizens.''
  In the 48 hours following the bombing of Pearl Harbor President 
Franklin Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2525, 2526, and 2527, which 
authorized restrictive rules for aliens of Japanese, German, and 
Italian descent, respectively. These proclamations coupled with 
Executive Order 9066, which authorized the War Department to exclude 
certain persons from designated military areas, resulted in hardships 
and the deprivation of certain fundamental rights for the targeted 
populations. A 1980 Congressional Research Service Report, The 
Internment of German and Italian Aliens Compared With the Internment of 
Japanese Aliens in the United States During World War II: A Brief 
History and Analysis, revealed that the War Department would not 
support the ``collective evacuation of German and Italian aliens from 
the West Coast or from anywhere else in the United States'' but would 
authorize individual exclusion orders ``against both aliens and 
citizens under the authority of Executive Order 9066.'' In other words, 
German and Italian Americans and aliens could still be denied basic 
civil liberties because of their heritage.
  Ideally, Congress would address both the Italian American and German 
American experience during World War II. On a per capita basis, it 
appears that significantly more Americans or aliens of German descent 
were interned than Italian Americans. According to personal Justice 
Denied, a report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment 
of Civilians issued in 1982, the Justice Department had interned 1,393 
Germans and 264 Italians by February 16, 1942. Moreover, the 
Commission's report contains evidence that German Americans were 
considered to be more of a threat than Italian Americans. For instance, 
the Secretary of War in 1942 instructed the military commander in 
charge of implementing Executive Order 9066 to consider plans for 
excluding German aliens, but to ignore the Italians. And later in the 
year, the Attorney General announced that Italians would no longer be 
considered ``aliens of enemy nationality.'' No such clarification was 
ever issued for German Americans. Finally, President Franklin Roosevelt 
dismissed the threat of those of Italian descent living in America, 
referring to them as ``a lot of opera singers.''
  As we reach the end of the century, I urge my colleagues to pursue a 
full historical accounting of the experiences of all Americans who 
suffered discrimination during the Second World War as expeditiously as 
possible.

                          ____________________