- Heidi Gordon was 3 years old when her and her family were sent to an internment camp in Texas
- Exhibit is a joint project between the Friends of Santa Cruz Public Libraries and the SC chapter of the ACLU
- Father Werner Gurcke, married to American Starr Pait, was put on a list of 35 Costa Rican residents considered to be among the most dangerous US enemies
- Was only connected to a local German club, and donated a miniscule amount to a “relief org for Germans that might have been a front for the Nazi Party”
- His import-export business was blacklisted by the British government; eventually blacklisted by Costa Rican gov due to pressure by the US
- US intel targeted ethnic Germans, Italians and Japanese because :
- Their fear of fascism being right on their doorstep
- Axis businesses having a hand in the pots that American businesses also did, which they did not like; they used the war as an excuse to stomp out their competition
- US realized they could trade Axis nationals for American POWs -- even Axis nationals that lived in Latin America and hadn’t stepped foot in their country of origin for years
- Gurcke arrested and imprisoned 1942
- Was released and him and family were sent to US
- When arriving in Southern California, was immediately charged with entering the country illegally
- Was then sent to internment camp in Crystal City, Texas
- 15 months later, family was released and they came to live in Santa Cruz in summer cottage owned by Starr’s family
- 1946, US tried to deport Werner Gurcke back to Germany → he hadn’t lived there since he was 19
- Was luckily helped by his boss and was allowed to stay
- Officials constantly harassed them all because they wanted to use them for exchange purposes
- Gurcke became a naturalized citizen of US in 1953