Undue Process: The Untold Story of American's German Alien Internees

by Arnold Krammer

The shocking story of America's treatment of German aliens during World War II is revealed by prominent historian Arnold Krammer in Undue Process. Using extensive primary research, including interviews with former prisoners and recently released government documents, Krammer illuminates the government's motives and methods and exposes the quality of life in the camps.

Genres: World War II, History, American History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 25, 1997

About the author

Arnold Krammer was an American scholar of German and United States history and a professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He attended the University of Vienna, and held a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arnold Krammer's Undue Process is an important book about an overlooked group of victims of the American government. It's quite strange that this group is ignored and skipped over in legal changes. One would think that these Germans and German-Americans, that are now viewed as the white majority in America, would get justice before (or at least at the same time as) the minority group of Japanese concentration camp victims. While I find this issue very important and interesting, as all governmental overreaches should be examined and held accountable regardless of the number or race of the victims, I found the book a tedious textbook that was not nearly as engaging as Dr. Krammer is when listening to him speak. Krammer also almost does too much to remain appearance unbiased. He rarely calls things for what they are, opting for the government's preferred terms.

The subtitle of the book describes the contents of the book well. This is the untold story of America's German "Alien Internees" or concentration camp victims. Another important aspect of this story that needs to be clarified, though, is that these were not "Aliens," that were placed in concentration camps, they were American citizens, many naturally born in the USA. While many of the overreaches of Hoover's FBI are covered elsewhere, Krammer has a focus on the victims with ties to Germany during WWII, with minor digressions to the Italians, other Europeans, and the Japanese as well.

The first chapter, "The Lists," is about Hoover and the FBI's complete disregard for law, order, and the constitution, all done in the paranoid guise of "national defense." Unsurprisingly, we see this happen after WWII as well, as recently as The Patriot Act post-9/11. Hoover creates lists of "dangerous" individuals, which could be marked that way because of their nationality, groups they are members of, or due to rumors (even those intentionally spread by neighbors or business competitors). Your government doesn't protect you; it protects itself.

Next is "Precedents," a chapter on the sometimes slow-moving change and unintentional consequences of the law. Much of what happened to Americans and other humans during WWII is proceeded by similar governmental crimes during WWI. During the first world war, the government used the people's fear to "register" innocent people and incarcerate innocent people on a "small" scale (two thousand Germans). This sets precedent for the USA to do the same to Japanese-Americans in WWII, to the tune of one-hundred twenty thousand humans in concentration camps.

That chapter also goes though what other nations did to set up for similar abuses of power (including Canada, Britain, and a few others).

The rest of the book goes through the process of the US government beginning to round up people and information to get their concentration camps going, and then a lot of information about the data of the victims, the camps, life in the camps, and life after the concentration camps.

While I frequently use the term "concentration camps" in this review, I acknowledge that there IS a difference between the Nazi variety and the American one. Those in the US did not systematically murder millions nor work/starve them to death. These American camps were much more humane, but they still destroyed most every person's life that had to go through them, and the government never did anything to make it right with the German victims, while it did do something (which is a little better than nothing) for the Japanese victims of similar unjust punishment.

[Stephen Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few books on enemy alien internment in the United States, as opposed to Japanese-American relocation. Generally a good overview of the situation, based on its treatment of elements that I do know something about. A good variety of individual cases and a sympathetic treatment of those caught up in the process. There were a number of copy-editing mistakes, including the duplication of most of a paragraph at one point.