Enemies

World War II Alien Internment

University of Nebraska Press

ISBN 0-595-17915-0

"It is still stunning to read the personal stories of even a few of these men and to be reminded of the fragility of constitutional assurances of due process."

Bismarck Tribune

"Enemies focuses on the Enemy Alien Internment Program, which operated from 1941 to 1946, and confined more than 31,000 persons... An excellent account, recommended for academic and large public libraries."

--Louis Vyhanek, Library Journal

"Christgau has taken a fresh, comprehensive look at our government's flawed alien internment program of World War 11. He makes the story poignant by focusing on the lives of several people at Ft. Lincoln, a prison camp near Bismarck, North Dakota."

--Stanton Samuelson, San Francisco Examiner

"Some of these events might be incorporated into a fictional spy thriller... This book, however, deals strictly with facts, told in a crisp, exciting manner."

--Jack Russell, San Mateo Times

"Christgau's writing is provocative, readable, clear and stimulating."

--Maudie McDonald

This riveting book is the first account written about the highly secret Enemy Alien Internment Program of the United States during WWII. The book presents the story of Ft. Lincoln Internment Camp for German and Japanese aliens near Bismarck, North Dakota.

Based on interviews and FBI and National Archives records, ENEMIES follows the lives of eight internees prior to incarceration at the camp, life once there, and the mark internment made on them. In so doing, ENEMIES reveals a segment of American history as astounding as any account of the usually peaceful West Coast relocation centers for persons of Japanese ancestry.

From day-to-day survival to suicides and attempted escapes, the stories of Kurt Peters, Eddie Friedman, Fred Fengler, Herman Cordes, Hironori Tanaka, and others arrested after Pearl Harbor offer a mesmerizing account of an infamous period of U.S. and WWII history. ENEMIES is food for thought about the realities of civil liberties in American democracy then and now.

Contents: Kurt / Die Wanderkameraden / The Railroaders / Max and Moritz / Hiro / Bibliography

Purchase Now at University of Nebraska Press