The Writing 69th

In the beginning of America’s involvement in the war against Nazi Germany, all the action took place in the Atlantic and in the air over continental Europe. The army didn’t become involved in northern Europe until D-Day in June, 1944.

 Several reporters covered the air was. They were dubbed the Writing 69th. In the early days of the air war, with inadequate fighter support, chances were about one in six that the airmen would no return from a mission.

 The reporters found it heartrending when the men they’d spoken with earlier failed to make it back to England. Despite the high casualty rate, they wanted to experience a bombing mission for themselves. The Eighth Air Force granted their wish to the eight men who regularly covered the air bases, as long as they first went through intensive training.

 Explained Andy Rooney of Stars and Stripes, “If we were going to go on a bomber in battle, we were told, we’d better know how to shoot a gun in case we got in trouble.”

Left to right: Gladwin Hill, William Wade, Robert Post, Walter Cronkite, Homer Bigart, and Paul Manning.

  Three months of training were crammed into a week. They learned gunnery, oxygen maintenance, first aid, aircraft identification, and abandoning a plane by parachute or dinghy. They were warned against removing their gloves at high altitude and taken for an orientation flight around England in a B-17. Walter Cronkite wrote his wife, “It was a real thrill.”

   The B-17 Flying Fortresses and the B-24 Liberators were carrying out the American bombing missions. All the newsmen wanted to ride in the Forts. The men of the Liberators deserved recognition too, they were admonished. Bob Post of the New York Times finally volunteered to fly on a B-24.

   On February 26, 1943, they made their flight. The primary target was a Bremen aircraft factory. When it proved to be cloud-covered, they continued to the secondary target, a U-Boat base at Wilhelmshaven, well-protected by antiaircraft guns and fighters.

  One of the planes carrying a newsman had to turn back with mechanical problems. Two other reporters  missed the mission due to illness or conflicting orders. Five went all the way: Rooney, Cronkite, Post, Homer Bigart, and Gladwin Hill.

  The bombers came under attack by German fighters for over two hours. Over the target, they flew through deadly flak. Then more harassment from the fighters as they headed back to England.

   Andy Rooney’s plane suffered considerable damage. He had to help when one crewman passed out after his oxygen tank was damaged. No one was wounded.

  Bob Post was not so lucky. His B-24 went down over Wilhelmshaven. Two parachutes emerged, but neither was Post. German soldiers found his body in the wreckage.

  The other reporters rushed to get their stories filed. Cronkite and Rooney took part in live radio broadcasts.

  Despite the danger and discomfort, Homer Bigart wanted to go on another mission. Post’s death prevented newsman ride-alongs from becoming commonplace, however, until late in the war when the Luftwaffe had greatly diminished.

   How about you? Would you have wanted to ride along on a bombing mission over Germany, knowing the odds were good that you might be wounded or killed?

Terri Wangard writes novels that entertain and enlighten. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and has won and been a finalist in various writing contests. Her next book, Roll Back the Clouds, features the Lusitania and released on March 17. When not writing, she’s likely to be reading. Learn more at www.terriwangard.com

It’s Women’s History Month By Shirley Raye Redmond

Shirley here. Godly women are light and salt in our world. As March is Women’s
History Month, I thought it might be fun to offer a multiple choice quiz
to test your WHQ—women’s history quotient. The answers are provided
at the end of the quiz. Good luck!

(1) Who was the first licensed female watchmaker in the
Netherlands?
(A) Greta Brinker
(B) Corrie Ten Boom
(C) Maria Van Dyke

(2) Who was the first pilot to ever fly for the Missionary Aviation
Fellowship—yes, the pilot was a woman!
(A) Amelia Earheart
(B) Elizabeth Greene
(C) Beryl Markham

(3) Who was the most prolific female hymn writer of all time? Hint:
She was blind from infancy.
(A) Katherine Anne Porter
(B) Fanny Crosby
(C) Katherine Lee Bates

(4) Who opened the first orphanage for African American children
in 1899 near Chicago:
(A) Jane Addams
(B) Amanda Smith
(C) Harriet Beecher Stowe

(5) Pastor Alexander Whitaker taught her to read the Bible and
speak English. When baptized she took the name Rebecca and
married an English widower named John Rolfe. Who was she?
(A) Tucumcari
(B) Pocahontas
(C) Kateri

(6) One of the fastest runners in the world, she won three Olympic
gold medals. Hard to believe she was crippled with polio when
she was a baby. Who was she?
(A) Babe Didrickson
(B)
(C) Wilma Rudolph
(D) Tamika Catchings Smith

(7) As a lighthouse keeper in Rhode Island, she saved more than a
dozen men from drowning during her amazing career. She
received many honors and awards, including a visit from
President Ulyssess Grant who came to thank her personally for
her dedication to the United States Lighthouse Service. Who
was she?
(A) Jane Austen
(B) Ida Lewis
(C) Louisa May Alcott

Answers: The correct answer for each question is letter B. You can
learn more about these amazing women and others like them in my latest
book, Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Daring Women
of God.

Women of Fearless Faith

Meet women who have used their God-given talents to live out their faith to the fullest. They come from a variety of backgrounds, eras, and ethnicities, but each one has answered the Lord’s call on their life in bold and innovative ways.

Children of all ages will be inspired by the stories of

• Corrie ten Boom—activist, author, and Holocaust survivor
• Laurie Hernandez—gymnast who won both gold and silver medals in her sport
• Florence Nightingale—health care reformer
• Madeline L’Engle—author of children’s literature
• Mother Teresa—missionary and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

These and the 45 other female spiritual role models featured in this book have made a profound impact on the world around them, and in many cases changed the course of history. Strong, smart, and sometimes outspoken, these women are tremendous examples of God’s love in action.

These inspiring profiles will captivate kids’ imaginations and encourage them to discover their own gifts and how they can use them to glorify God.               

An award-winning writer and frequent conference speaker, Shirley Raye Redmond is the author of Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Daring Women of God (Harvest House). She holds an M.A. in literature and has been married to her husband Bill for over forty years. They live in New Mexico where she is prayer chairman for her local Community Bible Study (CBS). Touch base at shirleyrayeredmond.com or Facebook.

Edith Cavell

“Someday, somehow, I am going to do something useful, something for people. They are, most of them, so helpless, so hurt and so unhappy.”

Born in December of 1865, Edith Cavell grew up in a vicar’s family. She served as a governess for ten years before spending the next twenty years as a nurse. The children she cared for remembered her as great fun though strict. She taught them her values as well as educating them, much of the time in affluent homes of prosperous families.

Her interest in nursing likely began when she visited a free hospital in Germany that so impressed her, she set up a fund for the hospital to buy surgical instruments. While she was in nursing training, she didn’t always get good reviews. She was said to be “not methodical nor observant and she over-estimated her own power.” She had excellent intentions and was conscientious without being quite reliable. In a way, that doomed her.

In 1907, Belgian surgeon Antione Depage started an independent nursing school. Nursing in Belgium was little changed from medieval times. Hospitals were run by churches, and untrained nuns looked after patients. Spiritual care came before physical care. Cleanliness was unimportant. Nurses were considered lower than servants.

Depage hired nurses from Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Holland. The position of matron was offered to Edith Cavell on the recommendation of the mother-in-law of one of the children she’d been governess to in Belgium. The Belgians wanted a school like Florence Nightingale’s, with an Englishwoman who knew their language and lifestyle.

Edith turned nursing into a profession in Belgian with the highest standards for trainees and a model hospital. She had been visiting her mother in England in 1914 when notified that turmoil was breaking out on the continental after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife. She hurried back. When war was declared, she sent the German nurses home. Most Dutch and English nurses also left. Curiously, a German maid stayed, and caused trouble.

From Brussels, they could hear the cannon and see smoke through binoculars. On August 21, German troops marched into Brussels. Wounded soon came to Edith’s hospital from the battle on Mons.

Prince Reginald de Croy and his sister Princess Marie cared for wounded Allied soldiers and helped them escape from occupied Belgium. When two wounded English soldiers were taken to Brussels, Marie Depage, wife of the nursing school founder and a fatality in the sinking of the Lusitania, directed them to Edith, beginning her role in the resistance movement.

The Germans were suspicious. They made frequent surprise visits to the hospital, looking for Allied soldiers. Edith noticed strange workmen in the street who accomplished nothing. A Zeppelin passed low over Edith’s house, watching and photographing.

Careless risks were taken. Hiding soldiers routinely went out at night. Once a group returned drunk, singing at the top of their lungs. In May, Edith asked that no more be sent to her. However, she could never turn away anyone in need of help.

In June, 1915, an Englishman attacked and destroyed a Zeppelin in mid-air. This and raids on Zeppelin hangers infuriated the Germans. Belgian Independence Day observations on July 21 added to their fury. Ten days later, arrests began.

Edith was arrested on August 5. The Germans tricked her by pretending to know more than they did. Her statements translated into German were falsified. On October 11, after a trial in which defense attorneys were not allowed to see the defendants beforehand, she received the death sentence. That night, a pastor said she would be remembered as a heroine and a martyr. She replied, “Think of me only as a nurse who tried to do her duty.”

At dawn on October 15, 1915, she was executed by firing squad. One bullet through the forehead and three to the chest.

Would you have had the nerve to hide and help enemies in an occupied land?

Terri Wangard writes novels that entertain and enlighten. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and has won and been a finalist in various writing contests. Her next book, Roll Back the Clouds, featuring the Lusitania, releases on March 17. When not writing, she’s likely to be reading. Learn more at www.terriwangard.com

Jenny on the Job

      Jenny on the job keeps fresh as a daisy. Today’s woman might find such a paternalistic attitude insulting, but during World War II, the government believed posters with such slogans to be necessary.

      With ten million men gone off to war, acute labor shortages resulted, and women needed to enter the workforce. Who else would build the planes, ships, and tanks the military needed? Many women had never held a job before, and now they occupied jobs traditionally reserved for men, often in factory jobs requiring taxing industrial labor.

      The ladies had lots of reasons not to work. Wartime rationing made shopping more time-consuming. Gas rationing limited car use for those who had them. Household help was hard to find as domestics sought better paying war jobs. And on the job, many men were hostile to the women invading their turf.

      Many women took jobs out of a desire to help their husbands, brothers, or sons. “My husband is in the Pacific and I want to help make weapons for him and his buddies,” was a common motivation. Areas with a high need for workers, such as the shipyards in New Britain, Connecticut, trained some of their women workers and sent them out to meet one-on-one with the five thousand women who had not responded to their recruitment letters.

      Nervous industrialists asked Washington for special material on training women. One weary official asked his secretary to rubber stamp “every printed piece we send out, reading, ‘This includes, women, Negroes, handicapped, Chinamen and Spaniards.’ The only difference between training men and women in industry is in the toilet facilities.”

      Toilets did garner attention. The ladies would not put up with the dirty restrooms good enough for men. Some employers provided showers and lockers so the workers could clean up after a grimy work before heading home.

      Jenny appeared in 1943 in a series of eight posters created by artist Kula Robbins, issued by the United States Public Health Services and distributed to workplaces around the country. She offered tips meant to keep production and efficiency as high as possible while also being practical and safe on the job. Always the model production worker, Jenny demonstrated safety tips and advice on things like correct posture for lifting boxes and getting plenty of sleep, doing her best to help the war effort.

      While women may have been new to industrial jobs, they excelled, becoming adept at handling industrial equipment such as hand drills, or wiring bomb fuses. Skills like knitting and crocheting prepared them with patience, steady hands, and attention to detail. Production speed and accuracy for women, the highest priorities at all times, rivaled that of the men in delicate work. Vocational trainers who feared teaching mechanically inept women discovered the ladies’ very lack of familiarity with mechanics proved to be an asset, for they had no bad habits to unlearn.

      Jenny eats a man-sized meal raised a lot of comments in an online discussion. Severe rationing may have prompted the poster to “grant permission” to eat a full meal. The Captains of Industry may have believed “frail women” would faint or become careless if they maintained a “lady-like” diet.  Or a man-sized meal was the best way to make sure women working for the war effort had enough energy to make it through the long workday of operating dangerous machinery.

      How would you feel if these posters appeared in today's work places?

The rest of the posters may be viewed at http://www.pinterest.com/terriwangard/women-working-in-wwii/

Terri Wangard writes novels that entertain and enlighten. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and has won and been a finalist in various writing contests. Her next book, Roll Back the Clouds, features the Lusitania and releases on March 17. When not writing, she’s likely to be reading. Learn more at www.terriwangard.com

Courageous World Changers, book review

Courageous World Changers By Shirley Raye Redmond: Meet women who have used their God-given talents to live out their faith to the fullest. They come from a variety of backgrounds, eras, and ethnicities, but each one has answered the Lord’s call on their life in bold and innovative ways.

Children of all ages will be inspired by the stories of

·         Corrie ten Boom—activist, author, and Holocaust survivor

·         Laurie Hernandez—gymnast who won both gold and silver medals in her sport

·         Florence Nightingale—health care reformer

·         Madeline L’Engle—author of children’s literature

·         Mother Teresa—missionary and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

These and the 45 other female spiritual role models featured in this book have made a profound impact on the world around them, and in many cases changed the course of history. Strong, smart, and sometimes outspoken, these women are tremendous examples of God’s love in action.

These inspiring profiles will captivate kids’ imaginations and encourage them to discover their own gifts and how they can use them to glorify God.

Heidi here. In a day where young girls are being told they can be anything, do anything, don't let their gender rule them, Courageous World Changers by Shirley Raye Redmond is a breath of fresh air. These are women who were courageous with God as their focus.

Though there are some women you will recognize in this book, some are obscure women I've only vaguely heard of. And who doesn't like to learn a little now and again?

I specifically liked the quote from Mahalia Jackson, "Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them." Gabby Douglas' story was inspiring, ending with "All the glory goes to God." Condoleezza Rice, influential political adviser, says "faith and reason are not enemies of one another, that indeed we are called to love the Lord our God with our hearts and our minds."

I received this book free from the publisher and the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Grab your copy of Courageous World Changers by Shirley Raye Redmond today!

Tidbit Tuesday: Civilian Public Service

Until World War II, there were few choices for men who disagreed with bearing arms and going to war. During the Revolutionary War, exemptions varied by state, but most fined individuals who refused to enlist. Men could purchase a substitute during the Civil War, but perhaps just as many went into hiding while others chose prison.

In WWI, the U.S. created noncombatant roles for conscientious objectors, but many were objects of ridicule, derision, and even violence. Eventually the shortage of farm labor gave men an opportunity to work on farms or with the American Friends Service Committee. Those who refused even noncombatant role were sent to prison.

By the time World War II rolled around, all registrants were given a questionnaire that included a checkoff to indicate opposition to military service because of religious training or belief. The Civilian Public Service organization was created in 1941 to provide alternative to military service. Until 1947, over 12,000 men performed “work of national importance” in 152 camps around the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.

Men in the CPS were not paid and received little Federal support. The cost of maintaining the camps, where the men lived in barracks-style facilities, and providing for the men was the responsibility of their congregations and families. Working nine hours per day, six days per week, the men of the CPS made significant contributions in the areas of fire prevention, flood control, medical science, and mental health.

Because of the religious element in conscientious objection, the camps were administered by several denominations such as the Mennonite Central Committee, American Friends Service Committee, and Brethren Service Committee. Each camp had a director, who in the beginning was a pastor, as well as matron, business director, and dietitian.

Camps were closed and CPS workers released from their assignments in March 1947. Shortly thereafter, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to American and British Friends Service Committee for their relief work in Europe.

 _______________________________________

Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone's throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. She is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. Linda is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a trustee for her local public library. To find out more about Linda and her books visit her website. Her latest release, Love's Rescue, is a modern retelling of the story of Rahab set in the final days of the occupation of Paris.

The Real Wallis Simpson

Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and that is certainly true of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Wallis Simpson is reviled as the woman who seduced/bewitched/charmed the king of England into marrying her so she could be queen. Nothing could be further from the truth, according to author Anna Pasternak in her new book The Real Wallis Simpson.

Wallis believed she was Edward’s flavor of the month. He would soon find someone else and leave her behind. In the meantime, she enjoyed his attention and her fling in high society. Then she would be content to return to a quiet life with her husband, Ernest Simpson.

Edward was captivated by the direct way she spoke to him, and the genuine interest she showed in his life as Prince of Wales. When he insisted on marrying her, and abdicating if that was the only way, she urged him not to. She didn’t want to marry him, but he was determined.

Edward was self-absorbed, immature, and reckless. The British establishment had doubts about him being king. Even his father felt his second son, Bertie, had better prospects. Yet when Edward abdicated, they attacked Wallis, a twice-divorced American. She certainly didn’t deserve their cruelty.

She wasn’t guiltless, though. She was a married woman who had no business fooling around with the king. Her husband was supposed to be okay with it, proud as any husband would be that his wife was singled out by the Prince of Wales. And Wallis divorced Ernest, clearing the way for Edward to marry her. She should have left England.

Edward believed their exile would be short-lived. Within a year, they’d be back in England, living as genteel aristocracy living a leisurely life of house parties and shooting parties. He would take his place alongside his brothers, supporting Bertie as King George VI and performing royal duties. His wife, naturally, would be made Her Royal Highness.

It didn’t happen.

The establishment―the government, the church, and the royal family―didn’t want him back. Always popular with the people, he would outshine the shy, stuttering king. The king’s wife, Queen Elizabeth, was especially hostile to Wallis. She and her mother-in-law, Queen Mary, bordered on hysteria in their objection to Edward’s wife.

The Windsors faced a nomadic life in France, never really settling down because they wanted to return to England. They always lived in fabulous homes where they loved to entertain. Wallis was known as a witty, charming woman, elegantly dressed, who hosted elegant parties. She tried to replicate Edward’s familiar royal surroundings, going so far as dressing the footmen as though they were at Buckingham Palace.

Their lives in exile lacked purpose. Had Edward known how useless he’d become, would he have abdicated? His devotion to Wallis never failed. She grew to love him and sought to make him happy. After reading of all their foibles, one word comes to mind: pitiful.

Terri Wangard writes novels that entertain and enlighten. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) has won and been a finalist in various writing contests. When not writing, she’s likely to be reading. Learn more at www.terriwangard.com.

Curious George Flees the Nazis

When I was five years old, I needed a tonsillectomy. In preparation for the procedure, my parents talked to me about what would happen by using H.A & Margret Rey’s Curious George Goes to the Hospital. The seventh and final book of the original series, it was published in 1966. However, it might never have been, but fortunately, for children around the globe, the German-born Jewish authors were able to flee Europe ahead of Hitler’s oppression.

Born in Hamburg in 1898, Hans Reyersbach lived near the Hagenbeck Zoo where he became fascinated with the animals and learned to imitate their sounds and paint their likeness. After serving in the Army during WWI, Hans painted circus posters for a living until going to Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1920s where he met he future wife Margarete who had fled Germany after Hitler’s rise to power.

The couple married in 1936 and founded an advertising agency. Hans decided his last name was too difficult for the Brazilians, so he changed it to “Rey.” Margarete decided to become “Margaret,” and shortly thereafter they obtained Brazilian citizenship. They decided to honeymoon in Europe, and ultimately settled in the Montmartre neighborhood in Paris.

By 1939, they had published Raffy and the 9 Monkeys. Margret helped write the story, and Hans drew the illustrations. Their next idea was about the youngest monkey in Raffy who was constantly getting himself into scrapes. The Adventures of FiFi was contracted with a French publisher, but before it could be released Paris was occupied by German forces, and being a Jew was dangerous.

It was time to leave. Hans built two bicycles from spare parts, and Margret packed their manuscripts and artwork into baskets dangling from the handlebars. On June 12, 1940, the couple set out, working their way south with hundreds of thousands of other refugees, alternately biking, walking, and using trains. Because they were Brazilian citizens they were able to get visas to leave the country. However, one official was suspicious about their German accents and detained them as possible spies. After finding FiFi, he decided the pair was harmless and sent them on their way.

Hans and Margret were able to get to Spain, then Portugal, and eventually back to Rio by which time they had lost all their baggage and spent most of their money. Managing to pull together enough funds, they sailed to New York, where they contacted their friend Grace Hogarth who had just been hired as a children’s book editor at Houghton Mifflin. Signing them to a four-book contract, she later said, “It took courage to print and publish colorful books in a gray wartime world.”

The books were an instant success and have since sold more than 27 million copies worldwide.

Which is your favorite Curious George book?

Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone's throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. Linda is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a trustee for her local public library. To find out more about Linda and her books, visit her website. Receive a free short story for signing up for her newsletter. You can find Linda on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Our Friends, the Enemy

Five years ago when I was doing research for my historical romantic suspense series, Intrigue under Western Skies, I discovered one of those tidbits I knew had to be used in one of the books. The series is set in Nebraska during the 1880s, so any time I ran across any mention of Nebraska history, I took notice. Little did I suspect that I’d find a connection between my home county in Georgia to the Nebraska prairie. But it wasn’t until I’d published three books, the plot came to me, and gave me a chance to recognize one of the unsung peacemakers of the post Civil War era.

The people for years after the Civil War were just as divided as today. Hatred was just as strong as before the war. Then P. H. Fitzgerald, a former Union soldier and Indiana publisher, had a vision of a town where soldiers of both North and South would settle. The idea was that if they became neighbors, they’d forget their differences. He located a stretch of land straddling Wilcox and Irwin Counties in South Georgia. The land was warm and plush and cheap, dotted with small farms of corn and cotton and peach orchards. This is the Wilcox County courthouse where the trial is set in Book 4, Escaped. 

In the late 1880s, a famine swept parts of Nebraska, and Mr. Fitzgerald had his former Northern ex-union soldiers willing to move South and help settle a new town alongside the locals. He set up a Colony Company and sent out a call for donations, then purchased 40,000 acres between the Ocmulgee River and the community of Swan. Tracts of land were doled out to the settlers, tradesmen and farmers alike.

Oh, and Mr. Fitzgerald offered his sponsors an invitation to come and check out the land for themselves. Enter my hero, Jake, who is sent by his boss to scout out the land for the Nebraska settlers. Juliette, my heroine, lives with her family at the north end of this land, near Oscewichee Springs. This is an old abandoned farmhouse located in the area like Juliette's home. 

During my childhood, my family and friends would go to the springs nearly every weekend for picnics and swimming. There was a big dance hall there in those days. During the 1880s, it was totally wild, of course, but I know the area well enough to describe how it must have been. The springs were ice-cold. In fact, the area, called Forest Glen, was so thick with trees and vegetation, once you turned off onto the dirt road on the way to the springs, the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. The water was crystal clear and bubbled from the springs along a gently flowing stream with shallow wading spots and deep swimming holes, the banks moss covered. It was a delightful place during the hot, muggy summers. Here is the Ocmulgee River located about a mile from my childhood home.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s dream came true, and Fitzgerald, Georgia, was incorporated in 1896. Called the Colony City, it still has the Blue and Gray Museum in operation. The streets are named for both Union and Confederate generals, and Lee and Grant Streets intersect at the main business district. The town's motto is "Our Friends, the Enemy"

How I wish we had peacemakers like Mr. Fitzgerald today, and people of differing political beliefs who could live together and love their neighbors.

Neuschwanstein Castle Used by Nazis

What could be more natural than visiting a fairy tale castle and viewing lots of fabulous art? That’s what you would have seen had you been allowed to tour Neuschwanstein Castle in the summer of 1945.

In 1866, the state of Prussia conquered Austria and Bavaria in the “German War.” From then on, Bavaria’s foreign policy was dictated by Prussia and “Mad” King Ludwig, King of Bavaria from 1864 to 1886, was no longer a sovereign ruler. The following year, he began planning his own kingdom where he could be a real king, in the form of his castles and palaces. He created a fantasy world as a refuge from reality, designing Neuschwanstein to be a hideaway from people.

The Nazis appreciated the castle’s role as a hideaway. They hid a vast collection of pilfered art in the castle during World War II. Much of it came from France. The castle remained unfinished, making it easier to use rooms for storage.

Neuschwanstein’s location was ideal. Isolated high in the Bavarian Alps, it is near the Austrian border. Hitler planned to build his own museum in Linz, Austria, his birthplace, and fill it with the stolen art.

Many other places held stashes of art, including salt mines, monasteries, and castles. Heritage sites were spared from attack unless they held strategic importance. Neuschwanstein had no such importance except as a landmark for planes, which the Allies certainly appreciated.

Over 6,000 stolen works of art were hidden at the castle. French curator Rose Valland worked at one of the Germans’ central collection centers where the treasures were accumulated before shipment into Germany. She secretly kept records of their destinations, and pointed the Allies Monuments Men to Neuschwanstein.

The SS intended to destroy the castle and its stored treasures to keep them from the Allies. Seventy years ago, the treasures were recovered. The castle remained undamaged and continues to attract millions of visitors. Ever been there?

Wartime Internment of Germans

The internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II is well known. Barely known is the interment of Germans and Italians.

It happened first during World War I. Any German who hadn’t completed the naturalization process was suspect. They could be detained for association with ethnic organizations, or for statements that sounded disloyal or opposed US involvement in the war. Many were rounded up because someone with a grudge complained about them.

Residents of an alien internment camp in WWI built an authentic German village in Hot Springs, North Carolina.

During WWII, more than 10,000 Germans and German Americans were interned. Many were taken away and their families had no idea of their whereabouts. Parents were taken and their young children left alone. Sometimes they were released within days; others were held for much longer.

They were given hearings, but not informed of the charges against them or who had made the charges. A United State Attorney tried to get a young mother to admit she’d named her son Horst after the Nazi martyr, Horst Wessel.

Besides detaining Germans in the United States, the government strong-armed Latin American countries to deport their German citizens to the US. The reason? They feared the Nazis would gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere. Of the 4,000 internees, 81 were Jewish refugees who had experienced the concentration camps in Europe. A Catholic priest was detained because he was supposed to be a Nazi. The camp commander considered him to be “no more of a Nazi than I am.”

Larger countries like Mexico and Argentina resisted the American demand, but smaller ones like Costa Rica gave in when the US threatened to boycott all products from German-owned companies. Coffee, for instance, was dominated by German firms, and with the war on, Costa Rica wouldn’t have been able to ship it anywhere else.

Besides keeping these supposedly dangerous enemies from impeding the war effort, the internees could be traded for American citizens held in Germany. Some deported families included an American spouse and American-born children.

During wartime, we may be fighting for freedom, but freedom is the first casualty.