FEINGOLD INTRODUCES BILL TO STUDY TREATMENT OF GERMAN
AND ITALIAN AMERICANS DURING WWII
Legislation to Study Treatment of German Americans, Italian Americans
and Jewish Refugees During World War II Comes as America Observes 65th
Anniversary of Executive Order Leading to Japanese Internments
February 19, 2007
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has reintroduced
legislation to study the U.S. government’s treatment of German
Americans and Italian Americans during World War II, as well as the
treatment of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. The Wartime Treatment
Study Act, co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joe Lieberman
(ID-CT), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), would create
two fact-finding commissions to study the internments and other restrictions
imposed on some European Americans during World War II, and the government
policies limiting the ability of Jewish refugees to come to the United
States.
Although the U.S. government has formally studied and recognized the
mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, no similar endeavor
has been undertaken with regard to these other groups. The bipartisan
legislation was introduced in advance of today’s commemoration
of the 65th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which
resulted in more than 100,000 ethnic Japanese being forced from their
homes and ultimately into internment camps.
“Americans are rightly proud of our victory in World War II,
but few people know about our government’s failure then to protect
the basic rights of German and Italian Americans,” Feingold said.
“Americans must learn from these tragedies now, while the people
who survived these injustices are still with us.”
During WWII, approximately 11,000 ethnic Germans, 3,200 ethnic Italians,
and scores of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians or other European Americans
living in America were taken from their homes and placed in internment
camps. Hundreds of thousands of other European Americans were labeled
“enemy aliens” and denied basic travel and property rights.
“We also must understand how U.S. policies failed to provide
adequate safe harbor to Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi
Germany,” Feingold said. “It is a horrible truth that, while
the United States heroically battled fascism, it also turned away thousands
of refugees, delivering many refugees to their deaths at the hands of
the Nazi regime.”
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