All throughout my years of public education growing up, every Social Studies teacher I ever had all referred to America as “the great melting pot”. People from all nations, cultures and walks of life coming to the US to seek a better life – all melding together as one big conglomerate of people known as “Americans”.
Those who have come to this land of ours throughout our country’s history have valued the opportunity to become Americans. But, even though they become Americans, they still carry a heritage…a history or ancestral quotient that in the most perfect of worlds will give them pride. However, this weekend, I had a profound discussion with a very good friend which opened my eyes to the sad state of the human condition around us and that sometimes pride battles elements that will quash it.
I am very proud of my German heritage. My family has deep roots in Deutschland. Mom’s parents were from the North Rhine-Westphalia part of the kingdom of Prussia (Gramps hailed from Ronsdorf which became part of Wuppertal just before WWII, grandma was from Düsseldorf). My dad’s dad came from Saxony in eastern Germany (Grandpa Holder was from Leipsig, the home of Johann Sebastian Bach of whom I am a direct descendant) and his Grandmother Gundlacht was from Württemberg, now known as Stuttgart…something I didn’t know until I spoke with my dad earlier today. With his health not being the best lately and his advanced age, I have embraced every opportunity to tap his memory about our family as much as I can…while I can.
Most people I know have family heritage outside of the US; Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, India, and more. And now, in this politically correct climate, all have embraced their heritage and exhibit pride in it. But our nation’s sometimes embarrassing history shows us that sometimes this wasn’t always the case.
As I mentioned before, the “melting pot” term always prefaced that people came to America “seeking a better life”. Irish immigrants came to this country in the late 1800s to escape the Great Potato Famine. Russian immigrants came to escape the Czarist rule, then Communism. But the one national origin that has seen the most immigrant influxes coming to the United States of America over time has been German. Germans form the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 49 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population.
German immigrants had been coming to the United States since the U.S. was a colony of Britain. The heaviest German immigration to the United States occurred between 1848 and World War I, during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. Many of the early immigrants came to the U.S. in search of religious freedom. Later, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815), individuals sought freedom from military involvement and political oppression, which created a poor economic climate, which continued through the entire 19th and part of the 20th century.
During World War I, German Americans, especially those born abroad, were sometimes accused of being too sympathetic to the German Empire. Several thousand vocal opponents of the war were imprisoned. Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty. The Red Cross barred individuals with German last names from joining in fear of sabotage. One man was hanged in Illinois, apparently for no other reason than that he was of German descent. The killers were found not guilty of the crime and the hanging was called an act of patriotism by a jury.
Then the lunacy that was Hitler came into play, and anti-war sentiment toward those of German descent became fever pitched. Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom – including Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein – were Jewish Germans or anti-Nazis fleeing government oppression. Under the still active Alien Enemy Act of 1798, the United States government interned nearly 11,000 German-Americans between 1940 and 1948, similar to our country’s treatment of Japanese-Americans. Most were not yet American citizens. Some of these were United States citizens.
Civil rights violations occurred. Many German-Americans were arrested without warrant. Others were held without charge for months or interrogated without benefit of legal counsel. Convictions were not eligible for appeal. An unknown number of "voluntary internees" joined their spouses and parents in the camps and were not permitted to leave. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the anti-German sentiment aroused by World War II finally began to abate.
For the longest time growing up, I knew of my German heritage, yet my grandparents seemed ashamed to call themselves German. It wasn’t until many years later, once I learned the history of the prejudice and the fear it bred in German-Americans, that I finally understood why. My friend’s parents were German immigrants, and they too felt that this embarrassment by their parents to claim their heritage was wrong. Sadly, though, the American people once again demonstrated intolerance and lack of understanding in the past, much like we have continually demonstrated as a nation throughout our history.
But now, in today’s times, we have become more tolerant. Yet the fear remains. Deep wounds are hard to heal at times. But, to reassure my good friend, I am proud of my heritage. I am proud to be German. And I’m very glad they are proud of it as well.
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