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| The German POW Monument in historic Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. The monument was dedicated in 1932 in memory of 18 German sailors who died of Typhoid fever while interred at am internment camp in nearby Hot Springs, NC between 1917-1919. Photo courtesy of Find A Grave. |
Today, more Americans are certainly aware of the internment of Japanese immigrants and second-generation (Nisei) Japanese-Americans during World War II following the Japanese Empire's attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941 and the hardships those people endured as they were forcibly relocated from their homes in the midst of nationwide anti-Japanese hysteria.
Although a little-remembered part of American history today, German-Americans (both immigrants and natural-born U.S. citizens) faced similar discrimination a few decades earlier during the outbreak of America's entry into the First World War on Friday, April 6, 1917. World War I inspired an outbreak of nativism and xenophobia that targeted German immigrants, German-born Americans, and even the German language in America.
Today, visitors to the beautiful historic Riverside Cemetery located along the French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina will find a very interesting memorial beneath a large oak tree amongst the many headstones that speaks to one of the more forgotten parts of our nation's history.
There are very few markers and memorials in the Carolinas dedicated to foreign-born enemy combatants. What makes this particular memorial unique is that it is dedicated to German prisoners who died while being interred at nearby Hot Springs, North Carolina between 1917-1919.
Most of the estimated 2,200 German POWs held in captivity at Hot Springs were actually merchant sailors and civilian passengers from German merchant vessels seized by the U.S. when the country declared war on Germany in April of 1917 following nearly three years of neutrality during World War I. Of this number eighteen prisoners of war died at the camp following an 1918 outbreak of Typhoid fever.
The story behind this monument is a very unique one in the annuals of the region's history. It also serves as part of a larger and somewhat darker account of the hardships also faced by German-Americans at the start of America's entry into what was then called "The War To End All Wars" when the entire country was swept
up by fear and paranoia.
German Sentiment In America Prior To The War
Before the war broke out in Europe, America had been very welcoming to German immigrants and regarded them very highly. At one time German was the second-most widely spoken language behind English and was part of the high school language curriculum. German-Americans living in the U.S. were largely fiercely loyal to this new country of theirs, many of whom had served in all of America's previous wars.
One of the nation's first heroes from the American Revolutionary War was a Prussian officer named Baron Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben, who became a major general in the Continental Army under George Washington. In addition a large number of Pennsylvanian-born Germans fought with the Continental Army, and a number of former British-hired Hessians deserted and joined the American cause during the five main years of fighting between 1776-1781.
German-Americans were the largest ethnic contingent to fight for the Union in the War Between The States. About 216,000 native-born Germans, along with another 250,000 1st-generation German-Americans, served in the Union Army, notably from New York, Wisconsin, and Ohio. In addition at least five Union generals: Peter Osterhaus, Edward S. Salomon, Frederick Salomon, August Kautz and Felix Salm-Salm, and over a dozen regimental commanders were of German descent. Over 40 Germans won the U.S. Medal of Honor for their service in the war.
Because the majority of Germans living in America were largely nationalistic in their personal views, only a few hundred served in the Confederate Army; these being primarily 3rd and 4th-generation descended from those who had migrated to the Carolinas in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Prussian-born Lieutenant Colonel Heros von Borcke, who served under Major General J.E.B. Stuart, is the most famous German officer in the Confederacy. Colonel Adolphus Heiman, a Prussian-born veteran of the Mexican–American War who commanded the 10th Tennessee Infantry and Colonel Augustus Buchel, a native of Hesse and commander of the 1st Texas Cavalry, were probably the highest ranking German-born Confederates.
Several prominent U.S. politicians and U.S. Presidents could trace their ancestry back to German roots, the most famous example was Spanish-American War hero Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
By 1914, there were over 100 million first and second-generation German-Americans living in the United States, embraced by this country, many of them involved in hundreds of American and German patriotic organizations across the country.
Anti-German-American Sentiment
When the First World War broke out in Europe on August 1, 1914, Americans, for the most part, wished to remain neutral in the conflict. Though as the first year of the war went on, and Germany aggressively invaded the neutral countries of Belgium and Luxembourg, American sympathies turned more toward the Allied Entente Powers of Britain, France, and Russia.
For their part, most German-Americans remained fiercely loyal to the United States and supported their adopted country. Some German-born immigrants living in America did cheer on Kaiser Wilhelm's forces, though few if any took any active part in fighting, being content to cheer on their German brothers from a distance under American neutrality.
However,
news from Europe soon began to divide the country.
Reports from British and French news sources that German soldiers had committed atrocities against Belgian civilians circulated widely and gave rise to anti-German sentiment in the United States. Most of these stories -- including the stories that German soldiers were mutilating and raping nuns and eating Belgian babies, or spearing them with their bayonets -- were the work of British propaganda.
The first true cracks in U.S. support for their fellow Americans of German descent actually came with the sinking of the British ship RMS Lusitania on Friday, May 7, 1915, by the German U-Boat U-20 killing over 1,100 people -- among them 128 American citizens. Despite warnings from the German foreign ministry actually printed in American newspapers warning travelers about the North Atlantic being a war zone, the sinking of the Lusitania (a legitimate war target as it carried war material in its cargo hold) angered the nation largely because the German's gave no warning to the ship before attacking.
Imperial Germany's actions following the incident with the Lusitania did little to soothe the growing anti-German sentiment rising in America.
Fearing that America might join the war against the Central Powers, the in January of 1917, the German Foreign Office sent a secret diplomatic communication that was intercepted by the British intelligence and turned over to the U.S. government. The Zimmermann Telegram proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered the war, promising money and material support to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; territory the country lost to the United States during the Mexican War.
On Thursday, February 1, 1917, the German Empire began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the Atlantic bearing the American flag, both passenger and merchant ships. These actions, in conjunction with the release of the Zimmermann Telegram, were the final straw. The United States congress declared war on Germany and her allies on Friday, April 6, 1917.
Following America's entry into the global war, two bills were immediately passed into law by Congress in 1917: the Espionage Act and Trading with the Enemy Act. Both of these acts became the legal groundwork for the repression and internment of German-Americans. The American Protective League (1917-1919) was also formed about this time, an organization of private citizens who helped U.S. authorities identity suspected German sympathizers and spy on Left-wing and labor organizations seeking out "disloyal" persons. Just having a German surname was cause enough for the APL to launch an investigation into a person's private affairs.
Even U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared that German-Americans were to be treated as "alien-enemies" and that they should reject their German identity if they were to be accepted in U.S. society. The U.S. government barred all German-Americans from living near military facilities, airports, port towns, or the capitol.
Fueled by the Federal government's actions, harassment of German-Americans became commonplace in American society, fueled by uber-patriotism and xenophobia that resulted in open hostility toward all things German.
Across the U.S. the wave of anti-German reaction took over like a fever as the country began purging itself of German culture and identity in the country.
Groups like the APL encouraged the public burning of German-language books and
campaigned to change the names of cities, streets, parks, and schools in
America to the names of Belgian and French communities destroyed in the
war. American institutions such as the Red Cross barred individuals with
German last names from joining in fear of sabotage.
The names of German food were removed from restaurant menus; Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage, hamburgers became liberty steaks. Dachshund dogs became liberty pups, and even German measles became liberty measles. Businesses and homes belonging to German-Americans were vandalized, German immigrants in the U.S. suffered harassment, were tarred and feathered. Tens of thousands lost their jobs for simply being born German.
The demonization of German-Americans took perhaps its ugliest turn in Collinsville, Illinois on Wednesday, April 4, 1918, when a German immigrant, Robert Prager, was lynched.
Germantown, Nebraska, was renamed Garland after a local soldier who died in the war. East Germantown, Indiana, was changed to Pershing; Berlin, Iowa, became Lincoln. Berlin, Michigan, later became Marne (named after the Second Battle of the Marne) in 1919.
Some Americans even advocated ridding orchestras of music by German composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.
The most pervasive damage was done, however, to German language and education. Prior to U.S. entry into World War I, about 35% of American schools and universities taught German as a language elective. By the time the war ended, only about 1% did so.
As the mass xenophobia against German-Americans rose in the country, many Americans were suddenly in fear that German spies were everywhere.
In response, many German-Americans felt pressure to declare their stances against Imperial Germany in public gatherings just to prove their ties to America. At several universities, professors were charged under the Sedition Act with having made "unpatriotic" and anti-war utterances, leading to some of their dismissals. Some German Americans reacted by overtly defending their loyalty to the United States. Others changed the names of their businesses, and sometimes even their own names, in an attempt to conceal German ties and to disappear into mainstream America.
Ironically, in spite of all this anti-German sentiment thousands of German-Americans fought to defend America in World War I, led by John J. Pershing, whose family had long before changed their name from the native German, Pfoerschin.
Over the course of the war, the U.S. government registered around half a million "enemy alien" civilians, spied on many of them, and sent approximately 6,000 men and women to internment camps. The U.S. government seized huge troves of private property under the broad powers of these acts with dubious relevance to the war effort, ultimately amassing assets worth more than half a billion dollars -- close to the entire federal budget of America prior to the war.
The internment of immigrants required remarkably low standard of evidence, sometimes with no charges at all being filed. Simple suspicion was sometimes enough to warrant arrest and detainment. This internment allegedly prevented German immigrants from spying, or joining the military of their home country. It forced every German-American to get fingerprinted and registered and sent them into camps across the country, locked in like prisoners of war.
These actions were so prevalent at the time that, between 1917 to 1920, the German culture in American was virtually erased.
Internment of German-Americans At Hot Springs
In 1917, the small town of Hot Springs, North Carolina
had a population of 650 people, but would soon increase with the
arrival of about 2,300 German detainees. Hot Springs would soon be the
site of the largest German internment camp in the United States at that time. Before the war broke out in Europe, America had been very welcoming to German immigrants and regarded them very highly. At one time German was the second-most widely spoken language behind English and was part of the high school language curriculum. German-Americans living in the U.S. were largely fiercely loyal to this new country of theirs, many of whom had served in all of America's previous wars.
One of the nation's first heroes from the American Revolutionary War was a Prussian officer named Baron Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben, who became a major general in the Continental Army under George Washington. In addition a large number of Pennsylvanian-born Germans fought with the Continental Army, and a number of former British-hired Hessians deserted and joined the American cause during the five main years of fighting between 1776-1781.
German-Americans were the largest ethnic contingent to fight for the Union in the War Between The States. About 216,000 native-born Germans, along with another 250,000 1st-generation German-Americans, served in the Union Army, notably from New York, Wisconsin, and Ohio. In addition at least five Union generals: Peter Osterhaus, Edward S. Salomon, Frederick Salomon, August Kautz and Felix Salm-Salm, and over a dozen regimental commanders were of German descent. Over 40 Germans won the U.S. Medal of Honor for their service in the war.
Because the majority of Germans living in America were largely nationalistic in their personal views, only a few hundred served in the Confederate Army; these being primarily 3rd and 4th-generation descended from those who had migrated to the Carolinas in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Prussian-born Lieutenant Colonel Heros von Borcke, who served under Major General J.E.B. Stuart, is the most famous German officer in the Confederacy. Colonel Adolphus Heiman, a Prussian-born veteran of the Mexican–American War who commanded the 10th Tennessee Infantry and Colonel Augustus Buchel, a native of Hesse and commander of the 1st Texas Cavalry, were probably the highest ranking German-born Confederates.
Several prominent U.S. politicians and U.S. Presidents could trace their ancestry back to German roots, the most famous example was Spanish-American War hero Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
By 1914, there were over 100 million first and second-generation German-Americans living in the United States, embraced by this country, many of them involved in hundreds of American and German patriotic organizations across the country.
Anti-German-American Sentiment
When the First World War broke out in Europe on August 1, 1914, Americans, for the most part, wished to remain neutral in the conflict. Though as the first year of the war went on, and Germany aggressively invaded the neutral countries of Belgium and Luxembourg, American sympathies turned more toward the Allied Entente Powers of Britain, France, and Russia.
For their part, most German-Americans remained fiercely loyal to the United States and supported their adopted country. Some German-born immigrants living in America did cheer on Kaiser Wilhelm's forces, though few if any took any active part in fighting, being content to cheer on their German brothers from a distance under American neutrality.
However,
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| A propaganda cartoon from the July 25, 1915 edition of Life, depicting a German soldier parading with children impaled on his bayonet. This cartoon appeared two months following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
Reports from British and French news sources that German soldiers had committed atrocities against Belgian civilians circulated widely and gave rise to anti-German sentiment in the United States. Most of these stories -- including the stories that German soldiers were mutilating and raping nuns and eating Belgian babies, or spearing them with their bayonets -- were the work of British propaganda.
The first true cracks in U.S. support for their fellow Americans of German descent actually came with the sinking of the British ship RMS Lusitania on Friday, May 7, 1915, by the German U-Boat U-20 killing over 1,100 people -- among them 128 American citizens. Despite warnings from the German foreign ministry actually printed in American newspapers warning travelers about the North Atlantic being a war zone, the sinking of the Lusitania (a legitimate war target as it carried war material in its cargo hold) angered the nation largely because the German's gave no warning to the ship before attacking.
Imperial Germany's actions following the incident with the Lusitania did little to soothe the growing anti-German sentiment rising in America.
Fearing that America might join the war against the Central Powers, the in January of 1917, the German Foreign Office sent a secret diplomatic communication that was intercepted by the British intelligence and turned over to the U.S. government. The Zimmermann Telegram proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered the war, promising money and material support to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; territory the country lost to the United States during the Mexican War.
On Thursday, February 1, 1917, the German Empire began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the Atlantic bearing the American flag, both passenger and merchant ships. These actions, in conjunction with the release of the Zimmermann Telegram, were the final straw. The United States congress declared war on Germany and her allies on Friday, April 6, 1917.
Following America's entry into the global war, two bills were immediately passed into law by Congress in 1917: the Espionage Act and Trading with the Enemy Act. Both of these acts became the legal groundwork for the repression and internment of German-Americans. The American Protective League (1917-1919) was also formed about this time, an organization of private citizens who helped U.S. authorities identity suspected German sympathizers and spy on Left-wing and labor organizations seeking out "disloyal" persons. Just having a German surname was cause enough for the APL to launch an investigation into a person's private affairs.
Even U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared that German-Americans were to be treated as "alien-enemies" and that they should reject their German identity if they were to be accepted in U.S. society. The U.S. government barred all German-Americans from living near military facilities, airports, port towns, or the capitol.
Fueled by the Federal government's actions, harassment of German-Americans became commonplace in American society, fueled by uber-patriotism and xenophobia that resulted in open hostility toward all things German.
Across the U.S. the wave of anti-German reaction took over like a fever as the country began purging itself of German culture and identity in the country.
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| U.S. Anti-German propaganda poster circa 1917. |
The names of German food were removed from restaurant menus; Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage, hamburgers became liberty steaks. Dachshund dogs became liberty pups, and even German measles became liberty measles. Businesses and homes belonging to German-Americans were vandalized, German immigrants in the U.S. suffered harassment, were tarred and feathered. Tens of thousands lost their jobs for simply being born German.
The demonization of German-Americans took perhaps its ugliest turn in Collinsville, Illinois on Wednesday, April 4, 1918, when a German immigrant, Robert Prager, was lynched.
Germantown, Nebraska, was renamed Garland after a local soldier who died in the war. East Germantown, Indiana, was changed to Pershing; Berlin, Iowa, became Lincoln. Berlin, Michigan, later became Marne (named after the Second Battle of the Marne) in 1919.
Some Americans even advocated ridding orchestras of music by German composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.
The most pervasive damage was done, however, to German language and education. Prior to U.S. entry into World War I, about 35% of American schools and universities taught German as a language elective. By the time the war ended, only about 1% did so.
As the mass xenophobia against German-Americans rose in the country, many Americans were suddenly in fear that German spies were everywhere.
In response, many German-Americans felt pressure to declare their stances against Imperial Germany in public gatherings just to prove their ties to America. At several universities, professors were charged under the Sedition Act with having made "unpatriotic" and anti-war utterances, leading to some of their dismissals. Some German Americans reacted by overtly defending their loyalty to the United States. Others changed the names of their businesses, and sometimes even their own names, in an attempt to conceal German ties and to disappear into mainstream America.
Ironically, in spite of all this anti-German sentiment thousands of German-Americans fought to defend America in World War I, led by John J. Pershing, whose family had long before changed their name from the native German, Pfoerschin.
Over the course of the war, the U.S. government registered around half a million "enemy alien" civilians, spied on many of them, and sent approximately 6,000 men and women to internment camps. The U.S. government seized huge troves of private property under the broad powers of these acts with dubious relevance to the war effort, ultimately amassing assets worth more than half a billion dollars -- close to the entire federal budget of America prior to the war.
The internment of immigrants required remarkably low standard of evidence, sometimes with no charges at all being filed. Simple suspicion was sometimes enough to warrant arrest and detainment. This internment allegedly prevented German immigrants from spying, or joining the military of their home country. It forced every German-American to get fingerprinted and registered and sent them into camps across the country, locked in like prisoners of war.
These actions were so prevalent at the time that, between 1917 to 1920, the German culture in American was virtually erased.
Internment of German-Americans At Hot Springs
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| Built in 1884 by James H. Rumbough, the 200 room Mountain Park Hotel was a popular tourist destination for years before World War I because of the natural hot springs. The hotel and grounds were leased to the federal government in May of 1917 as an internment camp for German prisoners of war. The hotel burned in 1920 and was never rebuilt. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
The Mountain Park Hotel had been a thriving business until the outbreak of World War I when travel to the hotel slowed considerably. In May of 1917, the hotel and grounds were leased to the U.S. War Department to be used as an internment camp for German Merchant Sailors.
Many German-owned passenger ships were captured by the American government after the U.S. entered the war. Most of whom were civilians and comprised of the crews of the German commercial ships which had taken cover in American ports when Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1914. In total approximately 54 merchant vessels were confiscated as "war property" and 1,800 German sailors were sent to internment camps.
One of these ships was the German passenger liner, S.S. Vaterland -- German for Fatherland. The ship, its crew and passengers were in port at Hoboken, New Jersey when the vessel was seized by the United States Shipping Board on the same day the U.S. entered the war. The Vatherland was later recommissioned the S.S. Leviathan, and would later see service as a transport ship for American soldiers to the war in Europe.
The crew and the passengers of the Vatherland, most of which were German civilians, were declared "enemy aliens" and would make up a large portion of the 2,200 people that would eventually be detained at Hot Springs for the duration of the war.
The first 18 German internees arrived by train at the camp on Friday, June 8, 1917, followed five days later on Wednesday, June 13th by 58 more German prisoners. Among the prisoners were also 27 wives and 19 children of the detainees, all of whom would rent out homes and rooms in the small town of Hot Springs while their husbands and loved ones were held at the camp.
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| German detainees at Hot Springs, North Carolina in 1917. The majority of these were German merchant sailors. Photo taken by Adolph Thierbach, courtesy of the NC Department of Archives. |
Most reports of the American internment camps describe relatively benign conditions which included rigid schedules and military discipline, but few instances in which prisoners were underfed or overworked. There were a handful of suicides, several dozen transfers of prisoners to mental asylums, and outbreaks of disease that came near the end of the war, particularly during the dreaded Influenza Pandemic of 1918.
The conditions at the Hot Springs Camp were not completely inhospitable under the circumstances. The site itself was largely chosen for its lack of mosquitoes and its mild climate next to the river.
The ship's officers were quartered inside the hotel itself in the guest rooms. The hotel had been built for 300 guests, but the American government placed about 700 German ships' officers in it, three or four to a room.
In addition to the hotel another thirty-six buildings had to be built, including
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| Inside one of the newly constructed barracks at Hot Springs internment camp in 1917. German sailors and civilians lived in these crowded conditions for nearly two years. Image courtesy of the NC Department of Archives. |
The wives and children of the prisoners were allowed to rent rooms in town, or stayed at local homes taking jobs working as household servants, or at various jobs at local establishments.
Despite the initial tension over having "dangerous enemy aliens" in their midst, the people of small Southern town of Hot Springs quickly came to accept their new German "neighbors" in spite of the widespread national hysteria against all things German in the rest of the county.
Many friendships grew up between the Germans and the townspeople. Relatives of the internees were allowed to visit and many of the local people opened their homes. Guards took prisoners home for dinner. The German women -- many of them excellent dressmakers -- taught crafts to the townspeople.
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| German photographer Adolph Thierbach, one of the detainees at Hot Springs internment camp who chronicled the daily lives of the prisoners through his photography. Photo courtesy NC Department of Archives. |
There was even a whole orchestra band at the camp which had been aboard the Vatherland when the vessel was confiscated by the U.S. Government. These men were allowed to keep their musical instruments and bring them to Hot Springs where they regularly put on concerts for the sake of morale for the prisoners, and also later to entertain the local citizens at the Mountain Park hotel with traditional German music on Sunday afternoons.
Music wasn't the only thing that the prisoners had to remind them of home.
In their spare time, some of the more industrious homesick prisoners actually constructed a small German village along the French Broad River they nicknamed "Old Heidelberg" which was built from scrap lumber from the construction of the barracks, rocks, and from driftwood left along the banks of the French Broad River from the Great Flood of 1916. The village even had a chapel made of flattened tobacco tins which was large enough to hold a few people for worship.
One of the detainees at the Hot Springs Camp was a German photographer, Adolph Thierbach, who chronicled his stay through his photography. Thierbach’s incredible photographs are about all that endure from this almost forgotten chapter of American history and highlight what life was like inside the internment camp.
The following are some of the photos taken by Mr. Thierbach during his time at Hot Springs.
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| German POW camp barracks at Hot Springs in Madison County, North Carolina taken in 1918. |
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| German sailors interred at Hot Springs internment camp in one of the barracks being constructed in 1917. Note some of the orchestra players with their instruments in the foreground. |
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| German sailors helping to construct some of the barracks they would be living in for the next two years. |
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| Members of the German Orchestra from the ship Vatherland in the Mountain Park Hotel in 1918. |
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| Some of the German detainees on stage during a performance with the German Orchestra in the foreground. |
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| German detainees constructing a small chapel in the camp by the French Broad River made of driftwood and flattened tobacco tins. |
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| The homesick German internees used driftwood found along the French Broad River from the 1916 Great Flood to construct a makeshift German village they called "Old Heidelberg". The chapel can be seen in the background. |
In spite of the conditions and the apparent liberty that these detainees had at Hot Springs, they were still considered enemies by the U.S. government and in the spring of 1918 plans were being made to move these German sailors and crew to other camps, particularly Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. This was largely due to the U.S. War Department taking over custody of German detainees from the U.S. Department of Immigration.
However, in 1918, these plans were largely put on hold when the global Influenza pandemic and and outbreak of typhoid proved fatal. Hundreds in the camp were stricken and at least 18 of the Germans died as a result in the hospital in nearby Asheville.
Some of the Germans died and were buried in the Oddfellows Cemetery located just outside the town. Their bodies were later moved to Riverside Cemetery in Asheville and buried in a mass grave.
After only fourteen months of operation, the American government decided to close the camp and to make the Mountain Park Hotel a hospital for wounded American soldiers. Some of the detainees were placed in jobs outside the camp. On Friday, August 30, 1918, the remainder were finally sent to Fort Oglethorpe where new barracks were being built.
Because of the warm friendships that had developed with the townspeople of Hot Springs, many of them came back after the war with their families. A few remained in America and became naturalized U.S. citizens.
When the armistice was announced on Monday, November 11, 1918, the German band reportedly played all night.
Even when the fighting ended in late 1918, many weren't sent free. Some inmates remained incarcerated until 1920. About 7 months after the signing of the Armistice, small groups of prisoners started receiving notices of release. The last prisoner wasn't released until April 1920, a full year and a half after the end of the war.
When the war ended, the Mountain Park Hotel never regained its former glory. The grand hotel was burned in 1920 by an arsonist never to be rebuilt. Two other hotels were built on the grounds of the springs during the next forty years, but neither were as grand as the Mountain Park Hotel. Both of these smaller hotels also burned down in fires, and the small town of Hot Springs was nearly forgotten as a tourist destination.
The structures build by the Germans -- the barracks buildings and the Old German village -- were all destroyed after the war. Some of the village was destroyed by guards celebrating the signing of the Armistice, and the remaining structures were lost to another flood a few years later.
Today there exists no trace of the internment camp at Hot Springs, as though that chapter of American history never happened. The only evidence that still exists today are Theirbach's photographs in the North Carolina Department of Archives -- and of course, the monument at Asheville's historic Riverside Cemetery in memory of the dead.
The Monument
On Sunday, November 20, 1932, more than 5,000 people gathered at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville to dedicate a large granite monument to 18 German prisoners of war who were buried there.
The monument was erected and dedicated by the Kiffin Rockwell American Legion Post of Asheville, North Carolina. Rockwell was a resident of Asheville who flew for the French air corps with other American volunteers in the famous
Lafayette Escadrille.
Rockwell was the first American fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy
aircraft. Rockwell was killed in action in September of 1916 and is
buried in France.
Prior to this monument being erected the sailors graves had not been marked save for wooden crosses at the site that were falling into disrepair. The purpose behind the monument honoring these former "enemies" was largely to give comfort to relatives of the dead still living in Germany, and a sense of respect and patriotism from their former captors in the spirit of forgiveness from feelings of hatred and anger over German aggression during World War I.
It should be noted that, in spite of this seemingly noble gesture of goodwill and humanity, no mention is made of the actions taken by Americans domestically against their fellow Americans of German descent and German immigrants at the time.
The ceremony was broadcast live by NBC on the radio as was a translated rebroadcast in Germany. Paramount News and Universal Newsreel were on hand to film and make recordings in both English and German. It was a huge media event at the time with support from Washington D.C. and what was then the German Weimar Republic.
Events began at 2:30 PM with a procession from the cemetery gates led by uniformed Kiffin Rockwell Legion Post members carrying the United States flag, their post flag and a German flag. They were followed by five members of the German veteran's organization, Der Stahlhelm, carrying their flags and an American flag. After an invocation preformed in both English and German, a quartet sang The Star Spangled Banner and then the German national anthem Deutschland Uber Alles. Thomas Black, commander of the Kiffin Rockwell post, presented the monument to Dr. Frederich Wilhelm von Pritwittz, the German Ambassador to the United States under the Weimar Republic at the time.
During his address the German ambassador accepted this symbol of reconciliation on behalf of the German people. He also called for cooperation in building a lasting peace and "in front of the graves of those who died during the war it becomes self-evident that love should guide the world and prevent further willful destruction of human lives and civilization."
However, in 1918, these plans were largely put on hold when the global Influenza pandemic and and outbreak of typhoid proved fatal. Hundreds in the camp were stricken and at least 18 of the Germans died as a result in the hospital in nearby Asheville.
Some of the Germans died and were buried in the Oddfellows Cemetery located just outside the town. Their bodies were later moved to Riverside Cemetery in Asheville and buried in a mass grave.
After only fourteen months of operation, the American government decided to close the camp and to make the Mountain Park Hotel a hospital for wounded American soldiers. Some of the detainees were placed in jobs outside the camp. On Friday, August 30, 1918, the remainder were finally sent to Fort Oglethorpe where new barracks were being built.
Because of the warm friendships that had developed with the townspeople of Hot Springs, many of them came back after the war with their families. A few remained in America and became naturalized U.S. citizens.
When the armistice was announced on Monday, November 11, 1918, the German band reportedly played all night.
Even when the fighting ended in late 1918, many weren't sent free. Some inmates remained incarcerated until 1920. About 7 months after the signing of the Armistice, small groups of prisoners started receiving notices of release. The last prisoner wasn't released until April 1920, a full year and a half after the end of the war.
When the war ended, the Mountain Park Hotel never regained its former glory. The grand hotel was burned in 1920 by an arsonist never to be rebuilt. Two other hotels were built on the grounds of the springs during the next forty years, but neither were as grand as the Mountain Park Hotel. Both of these smaller hotels also burned down in fires, and the small town of Hot Springs was nearly forgotten as a tourist destination.
The structures build by the Germans -- the barracks buildings and the Old German village -- were all destroyed after the war. Some of the village was destroyed by guards celebrating the signing of the Armistice, and the remaining structures were lost to another flood a few years later.
Today there exists no trace of the internment camp at Hot Springs, as though that chapter of American history never happened. The only evidence that still exists today are Theirbach's photographs in the North Carolina Department of Archives -- and of course, the monument at Asheville's historic Riverside Cemetery in memory of the dead.
The Monument
On Sunday, November 20, 1932, more than 5,000 people gathered at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville to dedicate a large granite monument to 18 German prisoners of war who were buried there.
The monument was erected and dedicated by the Kiffin Rockwell American Legion Post of Asheville, North Carolina. Rockwell was a resident of Asheville who flew for the French air corps with other American volunteers in the famous
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| Commander Thomas
Black of the Kiffin Rockwell Post of the American Legion with Dr. Frederich Wilhelm von Prittwitz, German Ambassador to the United States at the monument dedication at Riverside Cemetery on Sunday, November 20, 1932. More than 5,000 people attended the dedication. Note the wooden crosses in front of the monument marking the site of the burials. Photo courtesy of the N.C. Department of Archives. |
Prior to this monument being erected the sailors graves had not been marked save for wooden crosses at the site that were falling into disrepair. The purpose behind the monument honoring these former "enemies" was largely to give comfort to relatives of the dead still living in Germany, and a sense of respect and patriotism from their former captors in the spirit of forgiveness from feelings of hatred and anger over German aggression during World War I.
It should be noted that, in spite of this seemingly noble gesture of goodwill and humanity, no mention is made of the actions taken by Americans domestically against their fellow Americans of German descent and German immigrants at the time.
The ceremony was broadcast live by NBC on the radio as was a translated rebroadcast in Germany. Paramount News and Universal Newsreel were on hand to film and make recordings in both English and German. It was a huge media event at the time with support from Washington D.C. and what was then the German Weimar Republic.
Events began at 2:30 PM with a procession from the cemetery gates led by uniformed Kiffin Rockwell Legion Post members carrying the United States flag, their post flag and a German flag. They were followed by five members of the German veteran's organization, Der Stahlhelm, carrying their flags and an American flag. After an invocation preformed in both English and German, a quartet sang The Star Spangled Banner and then the German national anthem Deutschland Uber Alles. Thomas Black, commander of the Kiffin Rockwell post, presented the monument to Dr. Frederich Wilhelm von Pritwittz, the German Ambassador to the United States under the Weimar Republic at the time.
During his address the German ambassador accepted this symbol of reconciliation on behalf of the German people. He also called for cooperation in building a lasting peace and "in front of the graves of those who died during the war it becomes self-evident that love should guide the world and prevent further willful destruction of human lives and civilization."
Following
the ambassador's address a benediction in German was said by Dr. J.
Brainerd Thrall pastor of the First Congregational Church and then a
three volley salute by the honor guard. The American and German versions
of "Taps" were played before the ceremony ended with the quartet
singing Gaetano Braga’s Angles Serenade. Following the speeches, many of those in attendance, including
the German ambassador, paid respects to U.S. World War I soldiers buried
in the cemetery.
Today the monument still sits on the site of the burials as the only physical public testament to the internment of Germans in North Carolina during World War I.
The granite monument is a block seventy-six inches long, forty-five inches high and nineteen inches wide. The base is ninety-five inches long by thirty-six inches wide.
Today the monument still sits on the site of the burials as the only physical public testament to the internment of Germans in North Carolina during World War I.
The granite monument is a block seventy-six inches long, forty-five inches high and nineteen inches wide. The base is ninety-five inches long by thirty-six inches wide.
The inscription at the top of the monument reads:
In Memory Of Eighteen German Sailors Who Died In The United States Army Hospital At Asheville
1918-1919.
Beneath this includes a quote by the German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, written in German and translated into English which reads:1918-1919.
Nicht grossern vorteil vusst'ichzu nennen
Als des'Feindes Verdienst erkennen.
Als des'Feindes Verdienst erkennen.
No greater gain for the human spirit
Than a sense of our foeman's merit.
Following the poem are inscribed the names of the eighteen German sailors in alphabetical order:
Karl Von Aspern, Karl Bening, Adam Biffar, Wilhelm Denecke, Karl Flum, Fritz Hoffman, Hans Jakobi, Karl Kilper, Emil Kobe, Karl Koschmieder, Heinrich Lochow, Hermann Menzel, Johann Wilhelm Meyer, Johann Meyerhoff, Viktor Wilhelm Rieke, Richard Paul Schlause, Wilhelm Stockhausen, Fritz Hermann Wahnschaffe.
Anyone visiting the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina should take the time to stop by and view this monument and never forget the lives of those who died so far from their homes over a century ago.
Anyone visiting the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina should take the time to stop by and view this monument and never forget the lives of those who died so far from their homes over a century ago.
"Der gute Kamerad" ("The Good Comrade") is a traditional lament of the German armed forces. The text was written by German poet Ludwig Uhland in 1809.
Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,
Einen bessern findst du nit.
Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,
Er ging an meiner Seite
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt.
Eine Kugel kam geflogen:
Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?
Ihn hat es weggerissen,
Er liegt zu meinen Füßen
Als wär's ein Stück von mir.
Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad.
Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!
I had a comrade,
You couldn't find a better one.
The drum called to battle,
He walked by my side,
In the same pace and step.
A bullet came a-flying,
Was it aimed for me or you?
He was swept away,
He lies at my feet,
As if he were a part of me.
He reaches out for my hand,
While I was loading.
I cannot hold your hand,
Stay in eternal life
My good comrade!
| Sources of information for this article include: The German Invasion of Western North Carolina: A Pictorial History by Jacqueline Burgin Painter,
Overmountain Press Publishing, 1997. ISBN-13: 978-1570720741. Asheville's Riverside Cemetery Images of America by Joshua Darty, (illustrated) Arcadia Publishing, 2018. ISBN: 1467128198, 9781467128193. Also a special thanks to the North Carolina Museum of History & North Carolina Department of Archives. | |
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