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Old 10-11-2016, 12:32 PM
 
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Both in the civilian world and in the military, was prejudice common back then?
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Old 10-11-2016, 12:47 PM
 
Location: Type 0.73 Kardashev
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Originally Posted by madison999 View Post
Both in the civilian world and in the military, was prejudice common back then?
There was some but World War I had largely mitigated this. There were hundreds of German language schools in the United States before the first world war. There's this myth that in the days of yore, immigrants came from Europe and immediately shed their native languages. Not so. And it did not end with the next generation. Second- and third-generation immigrants from Germany who only spoke German were not at all uncommon in the decades before World War I, especially in strongholds of German immigrants.

But then came the war. Nine decades before the 'freedom fries' embarrassment of awhile back, sauerkraut was rechristened 'liberty cabbage' in many places. Berlin, Michigan, was renamed, as were many other cities with names of German origin. Orchestras stopped playing Wagner.

German-Americans got the message loud and clear. Speaking German was no longer politically correct. They did what they had to do.
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Old 10-11-2016, 01:07 PM
 
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This should be good read for you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund

with a twist to it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundism

as technically all Russian revolutionaries of the 1917 revolution came from BUND. How this ended in NAZI movement is enigma to me, though NAZI/NSDAP was technically a socialist (Marxist=Jewish) idea.


By Arnie Bernstein

In the 1930s and 1940s (and beyond) fascism and Nazi loyalty was as American as a proverbial apple pie. Never mind Hitler and his Third Reich were held in political and moral disdain by the Roosevelt administration. There was a substantial counter culture of loyalists to Hitler and his throughout the United States during Depression era and into the WWII years.

http://www.thehistoryreader.com/mode...nazis-america/
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Old 10-11-2016, 02:37 PM
 
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The first link was interesting, in that it pointed out that the German American Bund considered themselves 'true Americans'. Shades of today, with a certain political faction deeming itself as 'real Americans'?

The second link is pointless, in that the only thing they have in common is the German word 'bund', meaning association or organization. But then, I don't believe that Urkoz is a fan of the Chosen People.

As for the third link, let's just say that the quote gleaned from it is less than fertilizer.
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Old 10-12-2016, 04:49 AM
 
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Originally Posted by madison999 View Post
Both in the civilian world and in the military, was prejudice common back then?
Yes, there was a lot of prejudice against Germans during WWII. They were the enemy. My grandmother told me stories when I was a kid about one of my great-grandfathers who was Dutch. (He was born in Haarlem, Holland, in 1898 and came to US in 1915 during WWI.) Like most Dutchmen he was fluent in English, French, German, and Flemish--but he spoke English with a thick accent that sounded German. People who did not know that he was Dutch automatically assumed that he was German. He got harassed a lot for his "German accent." The Dutch, however, were allies of the US after Hitler invaded the Netherlands.
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Old 10-12-2016, 09:11 PM
 
Location: Montgomery County, PA
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Originally Posted by Unsettomati View Post
German-Americans got the message loud and clear. Speaking German was no longer politically correct. They did what they had to do.
Are you saying the level of mistrust of the Germans back then was as high as it is of Muslims today? I suspect it is worse for the Muslims because of the cultural differences already existing.
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Old 10-13-2016, 04:18 AM
 
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My best friend in my pre-school and early primary school years during the 1940's lived next door. His mother was an Austrian immigrant, with a slight accent, and her parents ran a stocking mill in town. They both spoke with very heavy accents, and her older sister had a stronger accent than she did. As far as I can recall this family were the only German-speaking immigrants in the town.

I remember a few adults angrily declaring that "They say they are Austrians, but they are really Germans!!!" However, the people on our street, including my parents, seemed to have no qualms or problems about the woman or her family. However, my mother - an inveterate gossip of the very worst sort - did maintain in private, "They are really Germans," so her apparent goodwill was something of a sham. The family's factory, by the way, changed from making ladies stockings to parachutes during the war.

I do remember one public "argument"...I put it in quotes as I really do not remember if it actually was an argument, and my friend's mother saying loudly and with much emotion, "They (the Germans) stole our country!" I do remember it was a rebuke or correction to something someone said.

On the other hand, I unfortunately can remember that when kids had arguments and fights the three kids in this family would find the others screaming, "Nazi! Nazi! Nazi!" at them, and they would run home crying, sometimes after having stones thrown at them. In all honesty, I must say that I was one of them. After a day or two the kids were playing with us again...until it happened again. I remember that the mother from across the street heard this once. She ran out of her house and grabbed one of her kids by the arm and slapped his face several times, and then went after a second one...she was absolutely furious.

Rather ironically the town had a very large population of Sicilian immigrants and their children. I have been told that prior to the war some stores in a section of town that was almost entirely composed of Sicilian immigrants displayed pictures of Mussolini before the war. (I have no idea if that was true, but it was claimed later on.) But I never ever heard anyone question their loyalty, and, of course, they had sons and grandsons in the U.S. forces as did the other people in town. (The Austrian family had no sons, and their grandsons were only children.)
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Old 10-13-2016, 06:50 AM
 
Location: Type 0.73 Kardashev
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Originally Posted by HappyRider View Post
Are you saying the level of mistrust of the Germans back then was as high as it is of Muslims today? I suspect it is worse for the Muslims because of the cultural differences already existing.
No.

One advantage German-Americans had was numbers. Tens of millions of Americans had German ancestry 100 years ago. It's a lot easier to get by when 'your people' constitute a majority of the town and the next town over and the next town over after that. Safety in numbers.

Once they stopped offending the delicate sensitivities of their neighbors by speaking German, they were mostly set. And they didn't have too many issues as far as religion. They were even the 'right' kind of Christian, mostly (Protestant).

That's World War I. By the time World War II rolled around there were far fewer issues. My surname is basically synonymous with the Third Reich, but I've never heard of any issues my family had during the Second World War. It's Minnesota. Despite the Scandinavian stereotype, there are more people here with ancestors in Germany than those with ancestors in all the Scandinavian countries combined.

As a final comment, I'll just add that we need to be aware that today's in-groups weren't always in. In the 19th century, Catholicism was just another variety of Christianity that it (mostly) is today. I say 'mostly' because there are still a few 'Cult of Rome' types out there, but this is not nearly as widespread as it was. And what we now see as 'white' was not always so expansive. Italians and Irish weren't always seen as white, nor were eastern Europeans and even, more distantly, Germans.
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Old 10-13-2016, 06:57 AM
 
Location: Minnysoda
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So much so the Government had a program ...FDR was a turd

https://www.archives.gov/research/im...-overview.html

German Internees

The Freedom of Information Times
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Old 10-14-2016, 11:42 AM
 
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Originally Posted by RDM66 View Post
Yes, there was a lot of prejudice against Germans during WWII. They were the enemy. My grandmother told me stories when I was a kid about one of my great-grandfathers who was Dutch. (He was born in Haarlem, Holland, in 1898 and came to US in 1915 during WWI.) Like most Dutchmen he was fluent in English, French, German, and Flemish--but he spoke English with a thick accent that sounded German. People who did not know that he was Dutch automatically assumed that he was German. He got harassed a lot for his "German accent." The Dutch, however, were allies of the US after Hitler invaded the Netherlands.
When I lived in the upper Midwest and Amish started moving in I thought they spoke German as well until someone told me it was Pennsylvania Dutch. In the early 2,000's.
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