Approximately fifty Jews who are considered German nationals are new confined in American internment camps, it was learned here today following efforts on the part of Jewish organizations to obtain their release.
These Jewish internees hail from various countries in Latin America and were sent to the United States on the entrance of their countries in the war. Despite the fact that they are anti-Nazi, they are held in the same camps with Nazis and Italians, resulting in friction with the interned Nazis.
Attacks of Nazi internees on the Jews in Camp Blanding, Florida, resulted in the transfer of the interned Jewish refugees from that camp into an internment camp in Texas, where they were given separate quarters but must still associate with the Nazi internees during the daylight hours.
At a women’s camp in Sigoville, Tex., where there are also some family groups, friction was reported because Nazis refused to serve Jews at the canteen, and vice versa. Separate canteens had to be set up. No acts of violence, however, have taken place.
Cases of violence were reported from Fort Lincoln, N.D. A Nazi sailor who slapped a Jewish internee was sentenced to serve thirty days in the guard house. A Jewish refugee was transferred from that camp at his own request after a quarrel with Nazis in the dormitory. Jews are also being held at an internment camp in Georgia. The latter consists mostly of refugees from Germany who lived in Panama.
The Justice Department, it is understood, is not sympathetic to the idea of keeping Jews and Nazis in the same camps. The difficulty lies, however, in the fact that the internees were brought from Latin America under an arrangement that after the war they are to be taken back by the countries from which they have been deported, unless some other understanding is reached. There has been no classification of these internees by religion, so there is no formal reason for distinguishing them in the camps.
While some of the internment camps are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, others are under the jurisdiction of the War Department, it was stated here today. The treatment of the internees is supervised by a representative of the Swiss Legation in Washington in accordance with international regulations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
