Germans in America

If you've read some of my other blogs you've noticed the emphasis upon the German population of the United States during the Great Depression years. How many Germans were there? Here are a few facts.

• Before World War I more than 6% of American schoolchildren received their primary education only in German. By the way, my father was one of them. 

• 49 million Americans claim German ancestors. In 1996 this group was 25% of the population.

• The first German American, Dr. Johannes Fleischer arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.

• The first permanent German settlement was Germantown, PA., near Philadelphia, 1683. 

• Waves of Germans settled in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Louisiana and Massachusetts during the 18th century.

• Thousands of German soldiers came to support King George III, Elector of Hanover and King of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. 

• Between 1840-48 Germans were the largest group of immigrants to America.

• The cities of Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, Chicago, New York and Baltimore were the favored destinations of Germans. 

• By 1900 the populations of Cleveland, Milwaukee, Hoboken and Cincinnati were all more than 40% German.

• In Texas, where I live, many Germans came through the port of Galveston to farm and later to take industrial jobs in Houston. The Germans built the brewing industry in Houston. By the 1920s college-educated German Americans were moving into the chemical and oil industries.

I've already noted how President Roosevelt and the FBI feared what Germans favoring Nazism might do leading up to and during WW II.

Many other fascinating facts can be found on Absolute Astronomy under the topic German American.

Santorini, the legend of Atlantis and the Nazis

Santorini and the legend of Atlantis

Maybe you've noticed from studying my links about Atlantis, etc. and Madame H P Blavatsky that Atlantis plays a significant part in the legendary background of the Aryan race and the myths the Nazis created about themselves.

Here's a link to the island of Santorini. On this site are also are the references from Plato's writings. By the way, the name Atlantis comes from the mythical giant Atlas and not from the ocean.

History of the Swastika

History of the Swastika

Here is important information, especially since the swastika is seen so negatively ever since the Nazis chose it as their own.

When I was working on the book cover for Freya's Child, there were some comments from friends about whether or not to incorporate this image. Several worried that the very use of the image on the cover would cause potential readers to turn away. Others felt it would attract them.

The publisher and I finally compromised as  you can see when you look at the image above. 

German Americans In American Internment/Concentration Camps

Understanding the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938, known as the Anschluss (link-up), is critical to the understanding of the thinking of Hitler and the National Socialists. If an Austrian opposed these moves, were an active member of an opposition party or were a Jew, he or she was thrown into jail or a concentration camp.


"During the few weeks between the Anschluss and the plebiscite, Social Democrats, Communists and other potential political dissenters, as well as Jews, were rounded up and either imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. Within only a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The plebiscite itself was subject to large-scale propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 400,000 people (nearly 10% of the eligible voting population), mainly former members of left-wing parties and Jews."


We Americans have heard much about Nazi concentration camps and have been appropriately outraged, but how much do we know about American concentration camps? Some very interesting and disturbing information is now available.


Many of us have heard about United States' treatment of American Indians in the nineteenth century, the breaking of treaties and the forced relocation of thousands of native Americans, known as the Trail of Tears.


The internment of Japanese Americans has received prominent dramatization by way of the 1995 novel and then the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars".


But very few know that about 5,000 Germans living in several Latin American republics were removed and transported to the USA and placed in internment camps. In addition, at least 11,000 German Americans were held in more than fifty internment sites throughout the USA and Hawaii.


"Pursuant to the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 (50 USC 21-24), which remains in effect today, the US may apprehend, intern and otherwise restrict the freedom of "alien enemies" upon declaration of war or actual, attempted or threatened invasion by a foreign nation. . . By law, only enemy aliens could be interned. However, with government approval, thousands of German American family members joined them in the camps as voluntarily interned spouses and children. 

Nazis, Aryans and India

In a post on my other Blog I explore the background of the German claim to be the true representatives of the Aryan race in the 20th century. See

• Hyperborea, Lemuria, Atlantis, Aryans and the Nazis: "Aryan is a word derived from the Indo-Aryan Vedic Sanskrit and Iranian Avestan terms meaning "noble." During the 19th century an idea spread that people from India and Iran were the earliest Europeans."

In his R2 Blog "Vedic Origins of the Europeans," David Frawley, a devout Hindu teacher, points out that "many ancient European peoples, particularly the Celts and Germans, regarded themselves as children of Danu, with Danu meaning the Mother Goddess, who was also, like Sarasvati in the Rig Veda, a river Goddess. The Celts called themselves “Tuatha De Danaan”, while the Germans had a similar name. Ancient European river names like the Danube and various rivers called Don in Russia, Scotland, England and France reflect this. The Danube which flows to the Black Sea is their most important river and could reflect their eastern origins." Note the word 'could'.

Frawley traces all this back through the Romans and the Rig Vedic people. The Rig-Veda is the oldest and one of the most important religious texts of ancient India. The hymns known as the Vedas are considered the sacred knowledge of the Aryans, a people who invaded India about 1600 B.C. Their beliefs developed into the Hindu religion.

Frawley also points out that the early European Aryans maintained a pluralistic tradition, worshipping many gods and goddesses, like the Rig Vedic people. He continues, "the Europeans were a very different ethnic type (Nordic and Alpine) from most of the Indians and Iranians who were of the Mediterranean branch of the Caucasian race." Where then did the Europeans come from?


Frawley suggests they may be from ancient Afghanistan and parts of the Middle East and South Asia, where we still find blond and red-haired people. His explanation for how and when these people entered Europe is filled with many phrases like "it is probable," "it is possible," "it could" and "it may be."


Contributions to the R2 Blog are made by geneticists. Geneticists and paleoanthropologists study the evolutionary origins of modern humans. To quote  paleoanthropologist, Donald C. Johnson, "The current best explanation for the beginning of modern humans is the Out of Africa model that postulates a single African origin for Homo sapiens."


In this Blog I'm not taking issue with these theories of human evolution and their conflict with Biblical information. I only wish to point out that the science of genetics and DNA testing, etc. was not available to 19th century Europeans. On the basis of their studies of language and phrenology, a study of the relationship between a person's character and the shape of his skull, they believed they could trace the origin of the Aryan (Teutonic) people back to the Himalayan mountains of Tibet. See my Blogs: Welcome The Master Race  , New Teachings and the Nazis. 

The German American Bund Began in Yaphank, NY

After WW I German settlers living in the New York City area started the German American Settlement League, Inc. in the city of Yaphank, Long Island. The current address, according to Google is 11 Private Road, with the phone # 631-924-8507. There's even a Yaphank forum where one might discuss this background issue.

Mrs. M. Kapproth, a special ed. teacher, tells us that the League's Siegfried Park started out as a summer place for children and a campground for adults. It was to be a country-like enclave to the German speaking people from NYC. At one point you had to be of German descent and be sponsored by a member of the League to live in Siegfried Park.

Here's a posting of the Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter from July-August, 2009. Helen Kalbach, President, writes that the society was 35 years old that year.

David Behrens, staff writer for the Wild Bill Guarnere Community, describes  Camp Siegfried, located on a wooded lakefront near the mid-Suffolk village. He says that in 1936 the "Camp Siegfried Special" train would leave Penn Station every Sunday to bring thousands of bundists to the Yaphank depot. That was the summer in which the German American Bund was formally organized. It had evolved from a series of nationwide German-American groups following WW I. These included the Free Society of Teutonia, organized in 1924, the Friends of the Hitler Movement and the Friends of New Germany, founded in 1933.
  
Gustave Neuss shares some history to the G-A-S League. He writes that their property at Camp Siegried was taken over by the Alien Property Custodian during WW II as an enemy asset. Residences and other real property of detainees were also confiscated. Commenting on the German-American Bund, he writes,

"The German-American Bund activity was not limited to Yaphank and the New York City area.  Groups of the pro-Nazis were located throughout the United States.  Hitler’s claim was that after he had conquered Europe he would then take over the USA.  The Bund and other pro-German groups located throughout the country provided a cadre of subversives to assist in such a takeover. Detaining the most dangerous of these, defused a potential problem.  Fortunately the battlegrounds never reached the United States mainland."

What Dark Forces Were Behind The Nazis?

With this posting I begin a new series of blogs that will provide further background for Freya's Child, my third novel in The Spiral Bridge Mysteries series. I will share some of the information I put together as I worked on this novel in the form of links both to books and websites.

Some related postings from my other Blog, Reclaiming Our Heritage:

• Aryan Destiny
• How the Nazis—Not the Grinch—Stole Christmas
• Written in the Book of Life - Nazi concentration camp records
• Priests, Priestesses, Magic and Spell Casting
• The Myth of Ragnoroek, the Twilight of the Gods
• Hitler—Artist, Thief and Destroyer
• Here Comes the Bride and Richard Wagner
• Richard Wagner, Hitler and Nazism
• The Stuff That Led to Nazism
• Hyperborea, Lemuria, Atlantis, Aryans and the Nazis
• Nazism, Theosophy, Gnosticism and the Occult
• More Roots of Nazism
• Avatar, Incarnation and Christ
• Destiny And The Holy Lance
• Asatru and the Word
• Ride of the Valkyries
• Esotericism and My Third Novel
• Germany, The Great Depression and the Year of My Birth

As you will see, there were some very dark, occult forces at work in the background.