Rub n Rosario: 'I did over 4 years ... for being a German'

Just think what would have happened to him during that same time period if he was a person of Jewish heritage living in Berlin.

Hmmmmmm? Only one comment (ok, two but both from me). I guess nobody reads Rosario's articles. Hmmmmmm?

See http://www.foitimes.com for more detail on German American internment

Art former internee wrote:

See http://www.foitimes.com for more detail on German American internment

I have a strong German heritage - both of my great Grandfathers emmigrated from Germany and I can remember my Grandfathers and my Grandmothers speaking German to each other and even tho I feel that it was very unfortunate that American Germans and Japanese were interned it is nothing compared to what Hitler and his henchman did to the Jewish people (and many other ethnic groups). Further, the world was at war - a great war that threatened to take away everybody's "civil rights". I guess it is good to get the story out about the internments but let us remember what that period in our history meant to world freedom (and let us not say that those who are being held at Guantanamo have lost their civil rights,either because they are an even greater threat to our freedom today).

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights were created to prevent these kinds of injustices. Our country needs to especially rely on the rule of law during times of crises. All of the progress we've made in civil liberties were due to the rights of the few being upheld in the face of the demands of the majority (i.e., mob). No American regardless of his/her ancestry should face accusations without benefit of knowing their accuser, be denied counsel when in a court of law, be prevented from due process, and imprisoned without being found guilty by a jury of his/her peers. What we did to those of German, Japanese and Italian anestry is inexcusable under any scenario. And what we're doing to those in Guantanemo will be viewed in the same harsh light. We cannot be a country heralding human rights without practicing what we preach.

NLK wrote:

Hmmmmmm? Only one comment (ok, two but both from me). I guess nobody reads Rosario's articles. Hmmmmmm?

So, NLK are you saying what happened to Fuhr in America was acceptable and justified because Germany persecuted Jews during WWII? Is our country not better than Hitler's Germany? What about the rule of law? It seems to me that injustice is injustice and that we should not rationalize or justify our country's WWII behavior against innocent civilians by saying others were worse. Every American should defend against government civil rights abuses for the obvious reason - one day it could be you.

I am sayinmg it is better to intern than burn.

It is time for me to leave this web site and continue my quest to find intelligent life. None found here.

NLK wrote:

I am sayinmg it is better to intern than burn.
It is time for me to leave this web site and continue my quest to find intelligent life. None found here.

NLK, I doubt that anyone would argue with you that it is better to intern than to burn. But it also would have been better to arrest and intern for cause rather than for ancestry or guilt by association. Additionally, those arrested and incarcerated should have been extended habeas corpus and had the opportunity to know the charges against them and defend themselves in a court of law. Are you seeking other intelligent life or are you seeking others who agree with your position?

NLK's first comment shows s/he is ignorant of (or wants to bury) the fact that many Jews lived and worked openly and unharmed in Berlin right up to the end of the war.
NLK is a person with the agenda of diminishing every suffering and injustice in world history as "not as bad as what the Jews suffered under Hitler." Typically, he/she thinks s/he knows what the Jews suffered, i.e. "burning," whereas the evidence that is now forcing itself to be recognized (in spite of every effort to quell it) is that no evidence of genocidal gas chambers can be shown; in fact the opposite is proved. The relatively small number of crematory ovens in camps were used to cremate already deceased individuals only.
NLK is simply spouting propaganda, and probably looks for places to leave comments such as these.

This interview with a German-American who experienced internment in the U.S. during the war is very educational and should be appreciated for that reason, not derided because it's not about Jews.

Thanks for the opportunity to voice my views.

thank-you, Ahmadinejad .

Returning to the focus of the article Eb Fuhr's internment is not about German government policy but it is about American government policy. Fuhr was interned because he was German during a time of war. The story is about arrests and internment of innocent civilians during wartime by the US government. Certainly, Germany has a permanent stain for the genocide they perpetrated during WWII but that does not mean there are not skeletons in the closet of US Department of Justice. Fuhr has a pretty reasoned approach, that awful things happen during wartime on both sides. He also states that countries have a right to concern themselves about national security. It seems like the lesson to be learned is our government committed civil rights abuses and they are unwilling to own up to them. I applaud Fuhr for having the courage to stand up for what is right. Why is it not appropriate to examine German American internment during WWII? The current immigrant climate in America is becoming very heated. Is it out of the question to think that another ethnic group might become the target of US government abusive internment policy? I applaud Fuhr for speaking out at his age, people like him are one in a million.

Carolyn of Ingram, TX, thinks that twelve million people weren't victims of the Nazis but instead died of natural causes. Or maybe they went on vacation together and haven't been heard from since.

Carolyn probably thinks gorebull warming will kill her and the holocaust was faked.

Red Ryder,

You tipped your hand with your "gorebull" comment. You prefer to make a decision based on "opinion" rather than facts. The holocaust is factual, but so is European American internment during WWII. Although, you are not a holocaust denier you are a global warming denier.

Again, this is not a story about the holocaust and the death of 6 million Jews at the hand of the Nazis, rather this is a story of American government policy during wartime. This is about the constitution, rule of law, and the suspension of habeas corpus. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the help of congress and government funds does a commendable job of memoralizing the holocaust. It is over 6 decades since Fuhr was incarcerated and no investigation has occured regarding the internment of approximately 15,000 European Americans. Appropriately, many such investigations have occured concerning the victims of the holocaust. Again, this article and the issue of discussion is the review of the unconsitutional actions of the US Department of Justice.

I'll trade him his 4 years here in the USA for my dad's 4 years fighting in Europe.

If you have a problem with that, blame the demigod, FDR. It wasn't Bush .(but, I'm sure Halliburton built the internment camp)

What's Ruby Tuesday's point? are we rounding up citizens for camps again? if he's trying to make a link with GITMO and WW2 internment camps, he's
truly lost all perception of reality.

This is not an issue about trading time (your father's for Fuhr's. This is an issue about the rule of law. We need to practice what we preach. You are precisely right FDR was responsible for WWII internment and Bush is responsible for Gitmo. Neither party cares about the constitution. Where was the Department of Justice in both situations? The DOJ has the duty to uphold the law independent of the executive branch. The separation of powers is the bedrock of our constitution. Do you support the constitution or is it a meaningless document to you? Germany was a democracy before Hitler and we know what happened when the rule of law was traded for nationalism. If the politicians don't insist on accountablility the press and the people should. It is time to investigate the DOJ actions then and now.

Injustice is injustice! "A golden cage is still a cage"...is represents loss of freedom!

Red Ryder wrote:

Carolyn probably thinks gorebull warming will kill her and the holocaust was faked.

I'm really sorry for contributing to getting off the subject of Mr. Fuhr's talk, but I'm going to anyway. I'm not a global warming believer anymore than I'm a holocaust believer. I kind of like to have some evidence for what I believe, not just a lot of emotion. The holocaust wasn't "faked", because there was no holocaust, fake or real ... well, except for the war itself. There were camps and there were deaths, but no holocaust, no 6 million. Didn't you ever wonder why it always remains such a nice, neat number, even though all the death numbers assigned to the various camps keep going down? I guess that's not something that people who don't think ever think about.

carolyn wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm really sorry for contributing to getting off the subject of Mr. Fuhr's talk, but I'm going to anyway. I'm not a global warming believer anymore than I'm a holocaust believer. I kind of like to have some evidence for what I believe, not just a lot of emotion. The holocaust wasn't "faked", because there was no holocaust, fake or real ... well, except for the war itself. There were camps and there were deaths, but no holocaust, no 6 million. Didn't you ever wonder why it always remains such a nice, neat number, even though all the death numbers assigned to the various camps keep going down? I guess that's not something that people who don't think ever think about.

Carolyn, If you have an open mind, two good books to read are "The Destruction of the European Jews" a 3 volume series published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg and "Other Losses" by James Bacque. Hilberg a Jewish historian is meticulous with his research and uses primary documents to support his contentions, many in the Jewish community have criticized his work but serious historians have applauded it. "Other losses" also uses American documents to discuss the treatment of German POW's after the cessation of war. I am sorry but I do get annoyed when the issue of US internment policy is always turned into a discussion of the Holocaust. They are independent events by two different governments and they need to be treated as such. Personally, I use primary documents and facts to make my decisions.