Crystal City Internment Camp 1945

[Txtwilightchica30]

This is crazy my family has been in Crystal forever I am part of The Avila Family and never knew about this wow!

[alexjonesviewer]

Agree this is a propaganda film.

The holocaust happened to people like us.google fema death camps in america

[PatricksTime]

propaganda! 

[tonabill]

I personally know a person of German heritage that was born in the Crystal City camp. She remembers her mother commenting on fond memories of their detention period there. These were Germans that were sent there from Costa Rica. I went out of my way to visit Crystal City so that I could send the lady born there, pictures of her birthplace. My mother's fiance also spent time in a detention center in Texas. I have read his letters from the camp and later....no ill feelings.

[CrystalCity1945]

@tonabill Thanks for your feedback!

[actress8145]

I seen this film at school like last week.

[CrystalCity1945]

@actress8145 Thanks for your note!

[BanPhotoRadar]

SB 1070 - is a repeat of the tyrannical Arizona government!

[jmfflint2]

this is a load of shit the Japanese were not treated this well.

[Yubera2K10]

@jmfflint2 Well, at least we treated them better then they treated us.

[HewieOfHG]

was this how it rely was or is this one of those propaganda films the nazi's used to lore the Jew's to camps like this out in Poland

[CrystalCity1945]

This camp was "nice"; but you are correct, it resembles "Theresienstadt" in the book and move called "War and Remembrance."

But we were treated with dignity!

[xtiml]

@HewieOfHG those amps were similar till the end of the war when typhuis and food shortages too kover, germans had little contact with camp inmates who were forced labor for the war effort of gertmnay, inside copntrol was left up to capos usually criminals,psychopathic and sadistist. enjoyed playing on the other inmates.allied bombibng led to the food shortages and the degradation of the camps in general and thats why typhus took over,.and all te pics seen are typhus victims

[order9066]

Excellent video, thanks for posting.

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for the feedback!

[CrystalCity1945]

1HighPlains... thanks for your comment... Art

[1highplains]

i bet the new martial law fema camps they are gonna haul all of us to wont be like this!! one more thing,,, god bless the lady that posted this video...

[Lapetiteangel]

they make it seem like they took really good care of them and they were happy but I have read otherwise....

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for your comment......

Art

[killer66143]

i dont like this video too boring but its ok

[CrystalCity1945]

AmericanFreedomParty.... yes the did... I was there....

[AmericanFreedomParty]

They put german,italian, and japanese in interment camps

[CrystalCity1945]

jkoff76...your grandfather told you correctly! We too who suffered internment wonder and wonder and wonder why this aspect of internment is not in the main stream media!!!!!  Thanks for your comment!

[am220uss]

I wonder what the Japanese did with the

civilians they captured in the Philippines?

[CrystalCity1945]

I have no idea! But it is an excellent question... probably there is an answer to it on the internet.

[am220uss]

I will give you the answer, They were interned by the Japanese under very harsh conditions, starved, beaten and made to work, with many deaths.

[jkoff76]

My grandfather told me horrible things that were done to German Americans during the two world wars. If you were an immigrant or first generation, you were a Dirty Hun, Kraut or whatever, German immigrants were 'detained' at Ellis Island, over 11000 were put in internment camps; funny, they never write this in history books!!

[CrystalCity1945]

Don't know that America is building internment camps.

[Yonah613]

why is America building so many camps in 2007 - 2009 ??

[CrystalCity1945]

You may think they look like hotels... and you may think it was plush... but it was not... no facilities, cooking or toilet in my unit....

[echoandi]

These concentration camps sure look like hotels compared to the concentration camps FEMA is building all over the USA.

[comicalhistory]

It is outrageous for you to make such a comparison between the two situations. No mater how bad the conditions in a FEMA camp, a resident can leave that camp -forever, if they want - without being shot, is not used as forced labour (i.e.: slavery) and this makes the conditions infinitely better in a FEMA camp.

[am220uss]

Nobody was forced to work by the WRA Forced labour and slavery is a .lie Those that chose to work were paid and those who signed a loyality oath and promised not to return to the West coast could leave . There were plenty of jobs available. 30,000 had new homes by 1944. Cut the lies and exaggerations

do some research before you post.

[comicalhistory]

Research?

So tell me, how does your claim of loyalty oaths and this supposed West Coast Oath have to do, in the slightest, with the 10's of thousands of Latin American Germans, Italians and Japanese who the USA arranged to have transported to the United States, where they were held illegally, and meanwhile, with US support,the Samosa regime seized their assets: homes, businesses, funds.

jobs? new homes? where?

[am220uss]

Comical you are . Where did you get that

number " tens of thousands" source please. There were at max 120 thousand

interned in the US including europeans

I am well aware that Enemy aliens were

rounded up by other countries that entered the war on our side then sent to the US for housing because these countries did not have the resources

to care for them. I guess you would have just let the spies roam freely. What you say Samosa did Canada did also it was not our choice.We did not do it

[am220uss]

they went all over the midwest and eastern part of the country. WRA records are available right on the internet a few clicks away. There were 44 other states you know.

[comicalhistory]

try some reading on the issue: A good starting place is: Max Friedman's "Nazis and Good Neighbors: The United States Campaign against the Germans of Latin America in World War II"

Friedman is a Yale history PHD & his book has rave reviews from: Reviews in American History,Journal of American History, German Studies Review, American Historical Review, and the Jewish Post,

[am220uss]

Rave reviews from a bunch of left wing

US bashing liberals. Yale and most US universities are controled by these people. I have read their text books

and have yet to find a mention of the japanese atomic bomb project or many of the horrible things japan did during the war. I even sat in on their history classes

and these were not mentioned although

the bombs we dropped were described

as horrible etc . They were so pro-japanese they skipped the rape of

nanking also.

[order9066]

Quote your source so I can research your claim.

[compteach13]

My father and his family were detained there for several years. He thinks that he was in the kindergarten class that is featured here. He was sent back to Germany during the war as a prisoner of war exchange. This was not a resort - they were removed from their homes in New York and forced to live here. It doesn't matter if the place was paradise, it was wrong. My father was born in this country, he was an American citizen.

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for your comments "compteach13." You are correct it was WRONG!

[am220uss]

compteach13- Enemy aliens were interned by all countries at war, in part for their own protection . it was required by the Geneva conventions. The children might have been U.S. citizens because they were born here but the status of their parents is what counts. Even today if a illegal is deported the children are sent with them. Children do not have the rights of adults. If your grandfather was exchanged he must have wanted it as those who did not were allowed to stay.

[order9066]

How is an American of Japanese descent, most of whom who had never visited Japan, nor spoke of word of Japanese an "Enemy Alien"? Americans on the West Coast during WWII were scared little rabbits terrified of men and women of Japanese ancestry. FDR should not have issued Executive Order 9066. We dropped 2 atomic weapons on Japanese civilians. Every MP and soldiers who kidnapped Americans in put them in camps disgust me.

[am220uss]

An enemy alien by definition was born in japan, and was a citizen of japan living in the U.S. and therefore spoke Japanese very well. Their were 43,000 of them and they were the parents of the U.S. citizens.

Japan considered any child born of japanese parents even if born in the U.S.

to be japanese citizens therefore most of the children had dual citizenship. Those scared rabbits you mention beat japan to its knees . Killing Japanese soldiers at rates as high as 12 to 1. They hid in holes

[order9066]

120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were locked up by FDR's civil rights violators. Dual citizenship with Japanese doesn't concern me, and it didn't concern the US Army when American men of Japanese descent were drafted in January 1944. I read that US Forces in the Pacific theater suffered heavy casualties because the Emperor's soldiers fought like cornered badgers. Ask any dead Marine killed at Iwo Jima. West Coast civilians were needlessly frightened and terrified of the U.S. "Japs".

[am220uss]

you say "Ask any dead marine killed on Iwo Jima" that statment shows how stupid you are. On Iwo Jima The U.S.

marines killed japanese soldiers at

a rate of over three of them to one of ours.

The Japanese hid in holes while the marines were forced to make a frontal

assult due to the small size ot the Island. The japanese were not good fighters they often killed themselves. The refusal

to surrender was a problem for us only when the japanese were on the defense.

[order9066]

The Marines enjoyed air superiority and overwhelming support from naval guns. When I served in the Army we called holes "fighting postions". I was always impressed with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team; 21 earned Medals of Honor. Many of them had family incarcerated by soldiers at American internment camps wearing the same uniform they wore. Locking up Americans of Japanese descent violated the US constitution and their civil rights, that's why the American government apologized to the families.

[Robtseward]

I forwarded this to everybody

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks Robert! Art

[CrystalCity1945]

to all who have responded... I say thank you, thank you, thank you. I was interned there at age 12...

[sm0keyftw]

if you were interned at 12 you must be very old now.. no offence but how old are you

[CrystalCity1945]

Soon, in February of this year, I will be 76 years young...

[smartiplants]

I used to pass by these buildings on my way to school in Crystal. I was primary school at the time and the buildings no longer in use. I feel if they did it once they could do it again.

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for your comments! You are correct; they can do it again!

[smartiplants]

Crystal City used to be a very nice place. I was born and raised there and so was my mother. I have a lot of wonderful memories of Crystal.

[Nurde]

This makes Crystal City look like a resort. I wonder how much of it is really true and how much of it is propaganda.

[Robtseward]

Of course there is propaganda, There is a glimpse of what it looked like at the beginning. Germans and Japanese are very industrious people. You can bet that they did their best to make the camps as livable as possible for their children's sake as well as their own. That meant that they had to struggle. Was it paradise? No. But you have to admit, they were not European Jewish Ghettos. Despite the bad things that happened there, nobody starved to death.

[danimariaec]

My grandfather and his family lived in this camp. This is very emotional for me. The stories you find behind the families that were brought to live here are quite insipiring.

[Rigirly198]

i have a project on thiss,=]

[blablabii]

I have a project on this! Thank you so much

[CrystalCity1945]

YOU ARE WELCOME!  Art

[13579mich]

hola art, me interesa contactarte sobre un documental sobre el tema. los japoneses peruanos q estuvieron en crystal city

[lablack1]

this is a very informational video. Thanks!

[CrystalCity1945]

Thank you for the feedback! It is appreciated...

[peeweez1wifey]

o kool i live in cc! :D

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for your comment!

[liquideyez636]

very interesting video, i live in crystal city texas, this video gives me a good insight on how the camps were runned and how the incarcerated lived there. most ppl i know always talk about the camps like if they were some sort of concentration camps like the nazi's had.even though the german, italian, japanese americans were citizens of our country they were still put in these camps as a precaution. personnally i think its wrong but this was the american psychie especially during war.

[ramonacatz]

Well I wouldn't say this is the best insight into how life was really like. It shows a picturesque version of the camps. By no means were the camps as horrifying as the camps in Europe, but you have to acknowledge that the people seen in this video are being held against their will. Their human rights are being denied. Racism and fear put them in the camps. There is no excusing what happened. Hopefully we learn from the mistakes of the past.

[CrystalCity1945]

Thanks for your feedback....

[danimariaec]

I agree with you. Watching the video made me quite emotional. I wrote an essay on this specific camp. My grandfather and his family were held here. His father was originally taken from Ecuador due to the fact that he was of German descent and my greatgrandmother followed after with her 5 (if I'm not wrong) looking for her husband. She found him (as many other wives did) in a labor camp in Panama. They were all later transported to Crystal City.

[CrystalCity1945]

Thank you for your comment!