American Passage (64 page)

350
“Herzlich Willkommen!”
: Arnold Krammer,
Undue Process: The Untold Story of America’s German Alien Internees
(Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 1997), 10–11, 25–26, 30. For more on the issue, see John Christgau,
“Enemies”: World War II Alien Internment
(Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1985).

351
On December 8, 1941
: Memo from Major Lemuel B. Schofield to J. Edgar Hoover, December 8, 1941, File 56125-29, INS.
351
Some of the internees
: Jerre Mangione,
An Ethnic At Large: A Memoir of America in the Thirties and Forties
(New York: Putnam’s, 1978), 321.
352
A large number of enemy
: File 56125-29, INS; “Harbor Camp for Enemy Aliens,”
NYTM
, January 25, 1942. See also “The Detention of Krauss,”
New Yor ker
, March 6, 1943.
352
The Office of Strategic Services
: The OSS report and other related documents can be found in File 56125-86, INS.
353
Hoover was right
: Not to be outdone, Hoover later placed his own FBI agents among the detainees at Ellis Island. According to a German who was temporarily detained at Ellis Island: “You see, there were FBI men scattered among us as observers. You don’t know them, and once a roommate I’d had for a month or more left, and one of the guards told me that fellow had been an FBI man on duty.” “The Detention of Krauss,”
New Yorker
, March 6, 1943.
353
One Justice Department official
: File 56125-86, INS.
354
Although Bishop was taken
:
NYT
, January 15, 1940. On the Christian Front, see Theodore Irwin, “Inside the Christian Front,”
Forum
, March 1940, and Ronald H. Bayor,
Neighbors in Conflict: The Irish, Germans, Jews, and Italians of New York City, 1929–1941
(Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), 97–104.
355
One of them was
: On the Pinza case, see
NYT
, March 13, 1942; Ezio Pinza,
An Autobiography
(New York: Rinehart, 1958), 202–228; Sarah Goodyear, “When Being Italian Was a Crime,”
Village Voice
, April 11, 2000; “Statement of Doris L. Pinza,” Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, October 26, 1999.
356
The other half
: Rose Marie Neupert, “The Neupert Family Story,” http://www. gaic.info/real_neupert.html.
356
Most of the detainees
:
NYT
, September 23, 1942. For more on these camps, see Mangione,
An Ethnic At Large,
319–352.
357
By March 1946
: Stephen Fox,
Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Americans During World War II
(New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2005)
,
327–328.
357
One of those not holding up
: On the story of the Hackenbergs, see Fox,
Fear Itself,
325–332.
357
Hundreds of these enemy aliens
:
NYT
, January 3, 1947; Letter from Rosina and Max Rapp to Senator William Langer, July 23, 1947, Folder 12, Box 214, WL.
358
The Fuhr family
: On the Fuhr family, see Fox,
Fear Itself,
109–126.
358
While in custody
: Fox,
Fear Itself,
114, 122.
359
Langer introduced a bill
: Senate Bill 1749, July 26, 1947, 80th Congress, 1st Session; Fox,
Fear Itself,
124–126; Eberhard E. Fuhr, “My Internment by the U.S. Government,” http://www.gaic.info/real_fuhr.html.
359
One of those not on Langer’s list
: Sworn Statement of William Langer, August 1947, Folder 9, Box 214, WL; Senate Bill 1083, April 10, 1947, 80th Congress, 1st Session;
NYT
, September 11, 1947.
359
At the end of June 1948
:
Ahrens v. Clark
, 335 U.S. 188 (1948);
NYT
, July 7, 8, 1948; Fox,
Fear Itself,
140.
359
In the following weeks
: Fox,
Fear Itself,
329–333;
NYT
, November 17, 1945. For lists of German detainees and the disposition of their cases, see Folder 1, Box 257, WL.
360
Although exact numbers
: On the number of enemy alien detainees, see Krammer,
Undue Process,
171. Two websites document the experience of German internment during World War II: the German American Internee Coalition, http://www.gaic.info/index.html, and http://www.foitimes.com/. 360
The bill also granted
: On the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, see Michael J. Ybarra,
Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt
(Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2004) 509–534. 361
President Truman came out
: “Text of President’s Message Vetoing the Communist-Control Bill,”
NYT
, September 23, 1950.
361
Embarrassed at having
: W. L. White, “The Isle of Detention,”
American Mercury
, May 1951.
361
Gulda arrived at
:
NYT
, October 9, 1950;
Time
, October 23, 1950;
Newsweek
, Oct. 23, 1950; A. H. Raskin, “New Role for Ellis Island,”
NYTM
, November 12, 1950.
362
The law also affected
: Letter from Arthur A. Sweberg to President Harry Truman, March 22, 1951; Letter from Mrs. Josephine Mazzeo to President Harry Truman, March 28, 1951, Folder 2750-C Misc, Box 1717, HST. 362
George Voskovec
:
New Yorker
, May 12, 1951;
NYT
, December 4, 1950. 362
As Truman predicted
:
NYT
, March 22, 1951.
363
Upon his release
:
NYT
, April 3, 1951;
New Yorker
, May 12, 1951. 363
Voskovec would later
:
NYT
, November 13, 1955.
363
When Ellen arrived
: Ellen Raphael Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1952), 8.
364
The government’s case
: The case against Ellen Knauff is summarized in Memorandum for the President from J. Howard McGrath, Attorney General, received July 14, 1950, Justice Department Folder, Box 22, HST.
364
It would be more
: Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story,
29.
365
The Court relied on
:
Knauff v. Shaughnessy
, 338 U.S. 537 (1950); David Cole,
Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
(New York: New Press, 2003), 136–137; Charles D. Weisselberg, “The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens: Lessons from the Lives of Ellen Knauff and Ignatz Mezei,”
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
143, no. 4 (April 1995). 366
Having lost
:
NYT
, May 18, 1950.
366
In the meantime
:
Time
, April 17, 1950.
366
In the spring of 1950
: Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story,
138.
366
The press attention
: Memo for Charles Rose from Edward A. Harris, June 15, 1950; Memo for Steve Spingarn from Harry S. Truman, June 17, 1950, Justice Department Folder, Box 22, HST.
367
The Justice Department stalled
: Memorandum for Peyton Ford, Deputy Attorney General from Steve Spingarn, August 2, 1950; Memorandum for Peyton Ford, Deputy Attorney General from Steve Spingarn, September 25, 1950, Justice Department Folder, Box 22, HST.
367
However, the Justice Department
:
NYT
, February 28, 1950; Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story,
81.
368
It took the board members
:
NYT
, March 27, 1951.
368
By the end of August
: U.S. Department of Justice, Board of Immigration Appeals, File A-6937471, reprinted in Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story
. 368
McGrath released
:
NYT
, November 3, 1951.
369
However, there were
:
NYT
, July 3, 1953; Knauff,
The Ellen Knauff Story
, 54. 369
Though she ultimately
: Anthony Lewis, “Security and Liberty: Preserving the Values of Freedom,” in Richard C. Leone and Greg Anrig Jr.,
The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism
(New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 72.
369
The widespread sympathy
: For the story of C. L. R. James and his detention at Ellis Island, see C. L. R. James,
Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In,
reprint (London: Allison & Busby, 1985), 132–173; Emily Eakin, “Embracing the Wisdom of a Castaway,”
NYT
, August 4, 2001; Farrukh Dhondy,
C. L. R. James: A Life
(New York: Pantheon, 2001), 107–111.
371
Mezei was not
: On the Mezei case, see Cole,
Enemy Aliens
, 138–139; Weisselberg, “The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens”; Richard A. Serrano, “Detained, Without Details,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 21, 2005.
372
The next step
:
Shaughnessy v. Mezei
, 345 U.S. 206 (1953).
373
A defeated Mezei
:
NYT
, April 23, 1953.
374
The government had a strong
: Weisselberg, “The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens,” 975–978. Many years later, Mezei’s stepdaugher remembered how Ignatz would enlist his stepchildren to hand out Communist leaflets on election day. Richard A. Serrano, “Detained, Without Details,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 21, 2005.
374
Whereas Knauff was
: Weisselberg, “The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens,” 979.
374
The special three-man board
: Weisselberg, “The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens,” 983–984.
375
By 1954, Ellis Island
:
NYT
, December 6, 1954.
375
On Veterans Day
:
NYT
, November 12, 13, 1954.
376
“They rewarded with”
:
NYT
, November 14, 1954.

379
A businessman reading
:
WSJ
, September 18, 1956.
379
The sale was made
:
NYT
, November 14, 1954.
380
So the GSA opened
: Barbara Blumberg, “Celebrating the Immigrant: An Ad- ministrative History of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, 1952–1982,” National Park Service, 1985, Chapter 5.
380
In response
: Blumberg, “Celebrating the Immigrant.”
380
Some of the proposals
:
NYT
, February 3, 1958.
380
When bidding opened
:
Business Week
, September 29, 1956.
380
Ellis Island’s future
:
NYTM,
May 25, 1958.
381
“This is not just”
:
NYT
, December 20, 1960; December 8, 1962.
381
To Corsi:
Edward Corsi,
In the Shadow of Liberty: The Chronicle of Ellis Island
(New York: Macmillan, 1935), 281–295.
383
With full control
: Blumberg, “Celebrating the Immigrant,” chapter 6;
Time
, March 4, 1966;
NYT
, February 25, 1966.
383
The centerpiece of
:
New York World-Telegram and Sun
, March 7, 1966.
383
There were other
:
NYT
, February 26, 1966; Harry T. Brundidge, “The Passing of Ellis Island,”
American Mercury
, December 1954.
384
The island was a mess
:
NYT
, July 16, 1964, March 5, 1968.
384
For some white
: Peter Morton Coan,
Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words
(New York: Checkmark Books, 1997), 220; Paul Knaplund,
Moorings Old and New: Entries in an Immigrant’s Log
(Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1963), 148. See also David R. Roediger,
Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs
(New York: Basic Books, 2005), 118–119.
385
Meanwhile, black leaders
: On African-American attitudes toward immigration, see Daryl Scott, “ ‘Immigrant Indigestion’: A. Philip Randolph: Radical and Restrictionist,” Center for Immigration Studies,
Backgrounder
, June 1999, http://www.cis.org/articles/1999/back699.html, and “ ‘Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are’: Black Americans on Immigration,” Center for Immigration Studies, Paper 10, June 1996, http://www.cis.org/articles/1996/paper10.html. 386
In the early morning hours
:
NYT
, March 17, 1970.
387
It would prove
: Nixon Tapes, Conversation No. 610-1, Nov. 1, 1971, RMN. The conversation is not transcribed and the audio quality of the recording is poor. This is the author’s rough transcription of the account. The aides at the meeting included John Mitchell, George Schultz, and H. R. Haldeman.
387
Two days after
: On the NEGRO takeover of Ellis Island, see
NYT
, January
8, July 25, 26, August 2, 19, 20, 21, 1970;
Newsweek
, September 28, 1970; and Blumberg, “Celebrating the Immigrant,” chapter 6.
388
This did not deter
: NEGRO brochure, WHCF, SMOF, Leonard Garment, Box
138, RMN.
388
Matthew continually referred
: In fact, a few years earlier, Irving Kristol wrote a long piece arguing the same idea. See Irving Kristol, “The Negro Today is Like the Immigrant Yesterday,”
NYTM
, September 11, 1966.
388
Not surprisingly
: Blumberg, “Celebrating the Immigrant,” 6.
389
Since the mid-1960s
:
NYT
, April 24, 1973.
389
As the Ellis Island colony
:
NYT
, November 29, December 11, 1973. In November 1973, Matthew was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. In March 1975, an appeals court struck down the conviction, arguing that errors by the judge merited a dismissal.
389
Around the same time
: Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan,
Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City
, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970).
390
Ethnic pride
: Michael Novak,
The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics
(New York: Macmillan, 1971). On the phenomenon of white ethnicity, see Vincent J. Cannato,
The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and his Struggle to Save New York
(New York: Basic Books, 2001), 389–441; and Mathew Frye Jacobson,
Roots, Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post Civil-Rights America
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).