German - American internment German - American Internment refers to the detention of German and German - American citizens in the United States during World War I and World War II . Unlike the Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II and the Italian Americans who were subject to the same fate , these internees have never received an apology or reparations . World War I . Civilian internees . President Woodrow Wilson issued two sets of regulations on April 6 , 1917 , and November 16 , 1917 , imposing restrictions on German - born male residents of the United States over the age of 14 . The rules were written to include natives of Germany who had become citizens of countries other than the U . S . Some 250 , 000 people in that category were required to register at their local post office , to carry their registration card at all times , and to report any change of address or employment . The same regulations and registration requirements were imposed on females on April 18 , 1918 . Some 6 , 300 such aliens were arrested . Thousands were interrogated and investigated . A total of 2 , 048 were incarcerated for the remainder of the war in two camps , Fort Douglas , Utah , for those west of the Mississippi and Fort Oglethorpe , Georgia , for those east of the Mississippi . The cases of these aliens , whether being considered for internment or under internment , were managed by the Enemy Alien Registration Section of the Department of Justice , headed beginning in December 1917 by J . Edgar Hoover , then not yet 23 years old . Among the notable internees were the geneticist Richard Goldschmidt and 29 players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra . Their music director , Karl Muck , spent more than a year at Fort Oglethorpe , as did the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra , Ernst Kunwald . One internee described a memorable concert in the mess hall packed with 2000 internees , with honored guests like their doctors and government censors on the front benches , facing 100 musicians . Under Muck ' s baton , he wrote , " the " Eroica " rushed at us and carried us far away and above war and worry and barbed wire . " Most internees were paroled on the orders of Attorney General A . Mitchell Palmer in June 1919 . Some remained in custody until as late as March and April 1920 . Merchant marine vessels . Until the U . S . declared war on Germany , German commercial vessels and their crews were not detained . In January 1917 , there were 54 such vessels in mainland U . S . ports and one in San Juan , Puerto Rico , free to leave . With the declaration of war , 1800 merchant sailors became prisoners of war . Over 2 , 000 German officers and sailors were interned in Hot Springs , North Carolina on the grounds of the Mountain Park Hotel . Military internees . Before the U . S . entered the war , several German military vessels found themselves in U . S . ports , where authorities ordered them to leave within 24 hours or submit to detention . The crews were first treated as alien detainees and then as prisoners of war ( POWs ) . In December 1914 the German gunboat " Cormoran " , pursued by the Japanese Navy , tried to take on provisions and refuel in Guam and the commanding officer , when denied what he required , accepted internment as enemy aliens rather than return to sea without sufficient fuel . The ship ' s guns were disabled . Most of the crew lived on board , since there were no housing facilities available . During the several years the Germans were detainees , they outnumbered U . S . Marines in Guam . Relations were cordial , and a U . S . Navy nurse married one of the " Cormoran ' s " officers . As a result of U - boat attacks on U . S . shipping to Britain , the U . S . broke off diplomatic relations with Germany on February 4 , 1917 . U . S . authorities in Guam then imposed greater restrictions on the German detainees . Those who had moved to quarters on land returned to the ship . Following the U . S . declaration of war on Germany in April 1917 , the Americans demanded " the immediate and unconditional surrender of the ship and personnel . " The German captain and his crew blew up the ship , taking several German lives . Six whose bodies were found were buried in the U . S . Naval Cemetery in Apra with full military honors . The surviving 353 German service members became prisoners of war , and on April 29 were shipped to the U . S . mainland . Non - German crewmen were treated differently . Four Chinese nationals became personal servants in the homes of wealthy locals . Another 28 , Melanesians from German New Guinea , were confined on Guam and not accorded the rations and monthly allowance that other POWs received . The crews of the cruiser " Geier " and an accompanying supply ship , which sought refuge from the Japanese Navy in Honolulu in November 1914 , were similarly interned until they became POWs . Several hundred men on two other German cruisers , the " Prinz Eitel Friedrich " and " Kronprinz Wilhelm " , unwilling to face certain destruction by the British Navy in the Atlantic , lived for several years on their ships in various Virginia ports and frequently enjoyed shore leave . Eventually they were given a strip of land in the Norfolk Navy Yard on which to build accommodations . They constructed a complex commonly known as the " German village " , with painted one - room houses and fenced yards made from scrap lumber , curtained windows , and gardens of flowers and vegetables , as well as a village church , a police station , and cafes serving non - alcoholic beverages . They rescued animals from other ships and raised goats and pigs in the village along with numerous pet cats and dogs . On October 1 , 1916 , the ships and their personnel were moved to the Philadelphia Navy Yard along with the village structures , which again became known locally as the " German village . " In this more secure location in the Navy Yard at Philadelphia ' s League Island behind a barbed wire fence , the detainees designated February 2 , 1917 as Red Cross Day and solicited donations to the German Red Cross . As German - American relations worsened in the spring of 1917 , nine successfully escaped detention , prompting Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels to act immediately on plans to transfer the other 750 to detention camps at Fort McPherson and Fort Oglethorpe in late March 1917 , where they were isolated from civilian detainees . Following the U . S . declaration of war on Imperial Germany , some of the " Cormoran " ' s crew members joined them at McPherson , while others were held at Fort Douglas , Utah , for the duration of the war . World War II . At the start of World War II , under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 , the United States government detained and interned over 11 , 000 German enemy aliens , as well as a small number of German - American citizens , either naturalized or native - born . Their ranks included immigrants to the U . S . as well as visitors stranded in the U . S . by hostilities . In many cases , the families of the internees were allowed to remain together at internment camp s in the U . S . In other cases , families were separated . Limited due process was allowed for those arrested and detained . The population of German citizens in the United Statesnot to mention American citizens of German birthwas far too large for a general policy of internment comparable to that used in the case of the Japanese in America . Instead , German citizens were detained and evicted from coastal areas on an individual basis . The War Department considered mass expulsions from coastal areas for reasons of military security , but never executed such plans . A total of 11 , 507 Germans and German - Americans were interned during the war , accounting for 36 % of the total internments under the Justice Department ' s Enemy Alien Control Program , but far less than the 110 , 000 Japanese - Americans interned . Such internments began with the detention of 1 , 260 Germans shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor . Of the 254 persons evicted from coastal areas , the majority were German . In addition , over 4 , 500 ethnic Germans were brought to the U . S . from Latin America and similarly detained . The Federal Bureau of Investigation drafted a list of Germans in fifteen Latin American countries whom it suspected of subversive activities and , following the attack on Pearl Harbor , demanded their eviction to the U . S . for detention . The countries that responded expelled 4 , 058 people . Some 10 % to 15 % were Nazi party members , including approximately a dozen who were recruiters for the NSDAP / AO , roughly the overseas arm of the Nazi party . Just eight were people suspected of espionage . Also transferred were some 81 Jewish Germans who had recently fled persecution in Nazi Germany . Many had been residents of Latin America for years , some for decades . In some instances , corrupt Latin American officials took the opportunity to seize their property . Sometimes financial rewards paid by American intelligence led to someone ' s identification and expulsion . Several countries did not participate in the program , while others operated their own detention facilities . The U . S . internment camps to which Germans from Latin America were directed included : Some internees were held at least as late as 1948 . Review legislation . Legislation was introduced in the United States Congress in 2001 to create an independent commission to review government policies on European enemy ethnic groups during the war . On August 3 , 2001 , Senators Russell Feingold ( D - WI ) and Charles Grassley ( R - IA ) the European Americans and Refugees Wartime Treatment Study Act in the U . S . Senate , joined by Senator Ted Kennedy ( D - MA ) and Senator Joseph Lieberman . This bill creates an independent commission to review U . S . government policies directed against German and Italians during World War II in the U . S . and Latin America . In 2007 , the U . S . Senate passed the Wartime Treatment Study Act , which would examine the treatment of ethnic groups targeted by the U . S . government during World War II . Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions opposed it , citing historians from the U . S . Holocaust Memorial Museum who called it exaggerated . In 2009 , the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration , Citizenship , Refugees , Border Security , and International Law passed the Wartime Treatment Study Act by a vote of 9 to 1 , but it was not voted on by the full house and did not become law . Activism . In 2005 , activists formed an organization called the German American Internee Coalition to publicize the " internment , repatriation and exchange of civilians of German ethnicity " during World War II and to seek U . S . government review and acknowledgment of civil rights violations . The TRACES Center for History and Culture based in St . Paul , Minnesota travels the United States in a " bus - eum " to educate citizens of the World War II treatment of foreign nationals in the U . S .