VANISHED: German-American Civilian Internment in Texas, 1941-48

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History announce the exhibition Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment in Texas, 1941-1948. Developed by the Traces Center for History and Culture, this nationally touring exhibit presents stunning details of the internment of 15,000 German-American civilians by the U.S. government during World War II at over 60 camps and detention centers across the country, eight of them in Texas.

Vanished also features the hitherto untold stories of the more than 6,600 Germans, Japanese and Italians living in Latin America who were forcibly brought to the U.S.—largely to Texas—and held in camps. Many were later traded for German-held U.S. nationals and deported to wartime Germany, including Jews who had fled the Nazis.

TRACES Executive Director and curator of this exhibition Michael Luick-Thrams, Ph.D. notes that “through this exhibit and subsequent discussions, Texans will see WWII history in a new way, and ‘re-visit’ an event and a period too often misunderstood and obscured by facile clichés”

The general public are invited to the exhibit opening at 6:00 pm on Thursday, February 12 at which Dr. Luick-Thrams and Dr. Arnold Krammer will speak about German-American internment and Heidi Donald, a former internee, will offer personal recollections of this extraordinary period in American history.

These exhibits were sponsored by Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the City of College Station through the Arts Council of Brazos Valley, and The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research.