SP26 TBD

Anita Simons

Did you know that from 1941 to 1945 the U.S. government imprisoned nearly 11,000 German-Americans and 3,500 Italian-Americans? Unlike the well-known interned Japanese-Americans, many of these so-called enemy-alien immigrants faced interrogation and internment conditions that were far worse than those faced by foreign nationals. Playwright Anita Simons will discuss the research that led her to discover and meet many of the former interned German-Americans. Simons will show a government video from 1952 that proudly displays the Crystal City internment camp that held both Japanese-American and German-American citizens. She will also share interviews with former internees she met at a reunion held at an internment camp in North Dakota.