|
Voice of Reason Broadcast Network:
Dr. Tomislav Sunic Interviews Mr. Eberhard Fuhr
October 6th 2009
A Radio Broadcast Review
By Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc Sci, Cert Hum
Reviewed October 2009: Contact Reviewer Here |
 October 6th 2009: Dr. Tomislav Sunic interviewed Mr Eberhard Fuhr, a spokesman for German-American civilians who were interned in prison camps on American soil during World War II.
Mr Eberhard Fuhr was interned alonside thousands of other German-Americans, Italian-Americans and Japanese-Americans during World War II for no other reason than their ethnicity. Most of them were American citizens but had their citizenship revoked as they registered under the Alien Registration Act.
The plight of the German-American internees remains to be acknowledged by the United States government, despite its recognition of the plight of the Japanese-America internees.
Eberhard Fuhr, prisoner number 4056849, speaks candidly about his experience as a prisoner of the United States government.
Eberhard Fuhr explains the animosity towards anything German and how it was taken, somewhat on purpose as Nazi-loving. All it took for one to find themselves a prisoner was a careless comment, a picture on the wall or just blind lies from someone who didn't like the internee.
Mr Fuhr points out that The Holocaust wasn't generally known about at the time, suggesting that this couldn't have been the reason for the mass internment of american citizens: Indeed he points out that the SS St Louis, full of Jewish-German refugees, was turned away from the United States of America - a land that some would, and indeed have, called the 'land of the free'.
Mr Fuhr, prisoner number 406849, was interned at Crystal City, Texas, a new camp built to ease the U.S government's "internee problem." He candidly points out the contradictory attitudes that society has had with the German people and how the eye for an eye principle was very much applied.
He states how companies who had factories in Germany, such as those belonging to Henry Ford, were victimized, drawing heavy criticism from those around: He states how those who were interned were denyed due process (legal representation, witnesses) in contradiction to the United States Constitution; How they were constantly harrassed by the authorities and guards, some of whom considered them as Nazi's and threatened them with violence, death and other unwanted fate's.
It is worth noting Mr Fuhr arrived in the U. S. A. with his parents in 1928 and was only 17 young years old when he was interned - hardly a born and bred Nazi nevertheless. But because of the mass hysterior and internment he, alongside his brother Julius, were forced to fend for themselves, unable to pay the mortgage on their parents home, or the utility bills: Even though he was 17 at the time, it is a matter of historical fact that many younger children were also left to fend for themselves in similar circumstances.
Mr Fuhr suggests that every effort was made by the United States government to avoid neutrality and go to war on the Allied side. This supports what Mr Fuhr and others have told this reviewer, that the United States of America, Land of the Free, was vehemently anti-German - an attitude that survived the war years and indeed the 20th century upon the knowledge that the Japanese, interned alongside the Germans recieved $20,000 each, not a dime to the German-Americans.
|
Crystal City Internment Camp |
Mr Fuhr also considers the situation at the end of World War II and in the years afterwards where he considers how a great amount of patents, ideas and inventions were stolen from Germany and used by the Americans in their shield against Communism during the Cold War years.
Mr Fuhr and Tom Sunic both identify the amount of German technology that benefited the American people and subsequently the Western world: Alongside space and military technology there was the rubber industry and even the computer which you are using to browse this site, has its origins within the Nazi Regime (See Here).
Quite ironically, Mr Fuhr recalls his eighteenth birthday behind wire and how he was forced to register for the military draft - even though they were deemed enemy aliens they still had to register for military service.
He also briefly mentions the case of Art Jacobs who was interned alongside him at Crystal City who was expelled to Germany: Art Jacobs, after intense pleading, managed to convince the authorities in Germany that he was in fact an American. He was subsequently allowed to return and joined the United States Airforce: He retired as a United States Airforce Major.
Excluded from society like second-class citizens, they have constantly had to fight against the Hollywood stigma of Nazism which still prevails today: Therefore it is worth noting that it is a matter of historical fact that not all Germans were Nazi's.
An informative presentation that only falls short due to time constrictions: It is something we must learn more about: Something which i feel sure that Tom Sunic will help us do in the months to come.
Both Eberhard Fuhr and Art Jacobs were interviwed by the BBC for a documentary some years ago.
|
Eberhard Fuhr's passport: For more information and to see the souce of this image please visit the Traces website Here |
Perhaps Mr Fuhr's internment can be characterized by the following statement from his interview with Tom Sunic.......
When he asked if he could visit his parents looted home he was told that,
"he could go as long as he took three guards with him, paid all of their expenses and returned within the parole period"
So much for Land of the Free: The United States treated their own people as criminals charged with nothing - nothing except being who they were: Who were they? American citizens or Americans seeking full citizenship; children who knew little of the country they were suposed to be associated with and adults who had taken their family to the United States of America to give them a better life: If seeking a better life for our family is a crime whilst obeying the laws of one's adopted country then we are all guilty!!!
To visit Tom Sunic's spot on the web go to the Voice of Reason Broadcast Network Here
Dr. Tomislav Sunic Interviews Mr. Eberhard Fuhr October 6th 2009
A Radio presentation review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc sci, Cert Hum
Copyright © 2009 Douglas Brough: All Rights Reserved
Read the Full Review Here
More Radio Presentation Reviews Here
| 
Copyright © 2009 Friends of Germany Coalition, Douglas Brough and/or respective authors: All Rights reserved 