German World Alliance

Deutsche Weltallianz

P.O. Box 50371

Preston King Station

ARLINGTON, VA. 22205

Website: www.GermanWorldAlliance.org

April 30, 2009

Pres. Barack H. Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Re:  German-American Internees

Dear Mr. President,

The German World Alliance (GWA), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is pleased to note the initiatives which you have started since the beginning of your presidency in order to bring about a new dialogue in many conflict areas of our world.  I am, as president of the GWA, convinced that a policy of détente is only possible through dialogue.  Those who reject dialogue are not really competent to offer solutions to the world’s problems.

I would like at this point to remind you of your speech in Prague.  In it, you recalled the horrors of WWII and warned of intolerance and extremism.  Europeans cheered you and let you know that they understood your message.  After two horrible world wars, Europe now follows a policy of political dialogue.  I am certain that both America and Europe will have to continue to be responsible in the world.  Understanding between the two sections of the earth is thus important.  Understanding can only take place where it is possible to have an open dialogue and to discuss rather than repress problems.

In the United States, many citizens of German ancestry are still alive who were interned in US camps and accused of disloyalty to the US because of their German identity.  They suffered discrimination, were suppressed and blanketly accused of cooperation with Nazi Germany.  They have, up to the present day, received neither restitution nor an apology from the U.S. government.  Here I would like to remind you of the case of the many Japanese who suffered a similar fate in the USA.  The Japanese were rehabilitated and received restitution.  These gestures allowed those who had suffered a painful wound to begin a process of healing.

Nearly a full human life span has passed since WWII.  It is my view that the time has come to make a similar gesture to the German-American internees, to show the US government’s regret.  It is important that these elderly persons should finally be liberated from the old accusations of disloyalty toward the US.  To do so would be an important moral gesture. 

I hope that I, as president of the GWA, can presume to ask you to take this step.  The GWA, which represents the German ethnic group in the US, will make every effort for the publication of a letter by you in this regard in all German publications.

Respectfully,

Wassertheurer Peter

President of the German World Alliance/

Präsident der Deutschen Weltallianz

By: VP KSchemm