Teaching Notes

This is a photograph of German internees in the barracks at Fort Douglas, Utah. Considering their attire and facial expressions, I assume they have just arrived at the camp.

Using this photograph with the "Zoom In, Zoom Out" strategy would encourage close observation. With this strategy, the photograph is cropped into 3 or 4 sections with students responding to what they see in each section prior to viewing the entire picture. The item description at the bottom of the photograph could be the final "reveal" when using this strategy. Teachers could ask guiding questions with each section or allow the students to note their observations. This could be with the whole class or as a group activity with each group getting a section of the photograph.

The Library of Congress provides an excellent analysis tool and teachers' guides for primary sources that provide guiding questions:

https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

This photograph could also be compared with the next picture in this album showing internees in the barracks in Fort Douglas. For example, students could debate which photograph they believe was taken first, including the differences in attire and in facial expressions.

Teaching Notes

This photograph of internees at Fort Douglas, Utah could be compared with the first picture in this album, which also shows internees in the barracks in Fort Douglas. For example, students could debate which photograph they believe was taken first, by examining the differences in attire and facial expressions. 

Teachers could use the Library of Congress analysis tool and teachers' guides for primary sources to provide guiding questions:

https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

Another idea is to use the attached Padlet containing this photograph and five others from this album. Students using the Padlet would examine all six photographs and choose two to analyze, commenting on each two.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh

Teaching Notes

Adolph Thierbach, an internee at the Hot Springs, North Carolina camp, took this photo. His album, linked here, documented his stay. https://www.ibiblio.org/ww1gd/Index.html 

I have downloaded and included several of the photographs in my album. More of Adolph's pictures are available for viewing and downloading in the North Carolina State Archives digital collections. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/united-states-german-internment-camp-hot-springs-nc/563375

Following the students' observations of the photographs of the barracks showing the interned Germans located at Fort Douglas, they could discuss why they believe this picture of the empty barracks at Hot Springs, North Carolina was taken.

Guiding questions: How does this photograph compare with the pictures of the Fort Douglas, Utah barracks? Why might an internee photograph the barracks?

The Library of Congress's observation tool and teachers' guides include more guiding questions.: https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

Teaching Notes

This photograph of the street of the barracks in Fort Douglas, Utah, could be paired with the picture of the street of the barracks from Hot Springs, North Carolina. Students could discuss the similarities. If the students do not know the purpose of barracks, the teacher could explain this. 

The Library of Congress's Observation Tool and Teachers' Guides include more guiding questions.: https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

The teachers could also pair the pictures of these barracks with those of Japanese American internment barracks. Teachers could explain the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 and how it allows for the internment of individuals deemed enemies during wartime by Executive Order. 

Teachers could also discuss why students believe fewer German Americans were interned during WWI than Japanese Americans during WWII. Why have the German camps been largely forgotten?

Teaching Notes

This photograph of the street of the barracks in Hot Springs, North Carolina, could be paired with the picture of the street of the barracks from Fort Douglas, Utah. Students could discuss the similarities and differences.  North Carolina, WWI   If the students do not know the purpose of barracks, the teacher could explain this. 

The Library of Congress's Observation Tool and Teachers' Guides include more guiding questions.: https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

The teachers could also pair the pictures of these barracks with those of Japanese American internment barracks. Teachers could explain the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 and how it allows for the internment of individuals deemed enemies during wartime by Executive Order. 

Teachers could also discuss why students believe fewer German Americans were interned during WWI than Japanese Americans during WWII. Why have the German camps been largely forgotten?

Teaching Notes

Adolph Thierbach, an internee at the Hot Springs, North Carolina camp, took this photo. His album, linked here, documented his stay. https://www.ibiblio.org/ww1gd/Index.html 

I have downloaded and included several of the photographs in my album. More of Adolph's pictures are available for viewing and downloading in the North Carolina State Archives digital collections. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/united-states-german-internment-camp-hot-springs-nc/563375

About the picture: The internees built a German Village from scraps of wood on the grounds of the camp. A street in the village is pictured along with some internees who built it. More information on the village and the camp is available here: https://visitmadisoncounty.com/ww1-internment-camp-hot-springs/

Teachers could use Thierbach's album as a stand-alone lesson on German internment or contrast his photographs with those of the Fort Oglethorpe and Fort Douglas camps, noting similarities and differences. 

Another teaching idea is to use the attached Padlet containing this photograph and five others from my album. Students using the Padlet would examine all six photographs and choose two to analyze, commenting on each two.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh

  North Carolina, WWI  

Teaching Notes

This photograph of an interned German knitting a scarf in the Fort Douglas, Utah barracks lends itself to close observation and questioning. With the top descriptor cropped off, students may wonder what this man is doing. Other guiding questions: what type of building does he appear to be in?  Why are pictures tacked on the wall? Do you think this photograph was taken in America? During what period of history? 

For more guiding questions, teachers could use the Library of Congress's Observation Tool and Teacher's Guide for Analyzing Primary Sources or Analyzing Photographs and Prints. Link attached here:

https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

Another teaching idea is to use the attached Padlet containing this photograph and five others from my album. Students using the Padlet would examine all six photographs and choose two to analyze, commenting on each two.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh 

Teaching Notes

Adolph Thierbach, an internee at the Hot Springs, North Carolina camp, took this photo. His album, linked here, documented his stay. https://www.ibiblio.org/ww1gd/Index.html 

I have downloaded and included several of his photographs in my album. More of Adolph's pictures, including this one, are available for viewing and downloading in the North Carolina State Archives digital collections. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/united-states-german-internment-camp-hot-springs-nc/563375

More information on the village and the camp is available here: https://visitmadisoncounty.com/ww1-internment-camp-hot-springs/

Teachers could use Thierbach's album as a stand-alone lesson on German internment or contrast his photographs with those of the Fort Oglethorpe and Fort Douglas camps, noting similarities and differences. 

Another teaching idea is to use the attached Padlet containing this photograph and five others from my album. Students using the Padlet would examine all six photographs and choose two to analyze, commenting on each two.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh

This photograph from the internment camp at Hot Springs, North Carolina could serve as a good "jumping off" point to discuss how detainees spent their "free time" while interned. From my research, I gather that Hot Springs was the most hospitable of the camps.

The close-up photograph of the carved alligator is here: https://www.ibiblio.org/ww1gd/Alligator_G0056.html

Teaching Notes

This photograph from the internment camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia could be paired with the photograph of the staged alligator attack at Hot Springs, North Carolina to discuss how detainees spent their "free time" while interned.

Another photograph in this collection from the National Archives states that volleyball was the German prisoners' chief sport. 

I have cropped this photograph, but the original from the National Archives Digital Collection notes that it was taken on May 3, 1919, well after the cease-fire in October 1918.

The link to Fort Oglethorpe photographs is here: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?dataSource=description&page=1&q=%22Fort%20Oglethorpe%22%20%22war%20prison%22&typeOfMaterials=Photographs%20and%20other%20Graphic%20Materials 

Teaching Notes

This photograph from the National Archives Digital Collection shows a poultry yard behind the Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, prison camp barracks. A notation beside the photograph states that wealthy prisoners "owned their own" poultry yards, indicating that detainees could retain at least a portion of their wealth while in the camps.

A teaching idea is to use the attached Padlet containing this photograph and five others from my album. Students using the Padlet would examine all six photographs and choose two to analyze, commenting on each two.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh

Teachers could also pair this picture with others from Hot Springs, North Carolina and Fort Douglas, Utah to discuss the differences between the barracks at each camp. 

The link for the Ft. Oglethorpe photographs is here: 

https://catalog.archives.gov/search?dataSource=description&page=1&q=%22Fort%20Oglethorpe%22%20%22war%20prison%22&typeOfMaterials=Photographs%20and%20other%20Graphic%20Materials

  Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia  

Teaching Notes

In November 1917, James Watson Gerard, American Ambassador to Germany from 1913-1917, stated, "Every citizen must declare himself American -- or traitor!" when giving a speech to the Ladies Aid Society of St. Mary's Hospital in New York, calling for all German Americans to be loyal to the United States during the war.

At the time, Germans constituted the largest immigrant group in the United States, and German was the most widely taught foreign language until the U.S. entered World War I.

When discussing America's entry into WWI and subsequent German persecution, teachers could use this recording as a quick "bellringer" activity by instructing each student to respond to the quote, "Every citizen must declare himself American--or traitor!" either individually in their notebooks or through discussion with a classmate. The teacher could then play the "Loyalty" recording and have students analyze its message. This lesson introduction could work well when teaching about German internment as well as the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

If the teacher has time for a "deeper dive" into the source, the Library of Congress provides a student Primary Source Analysis Tool and a Teacher's Guide to Analyzing Sound Recordings, linked here: https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

Teaching Notes

Teachers working with more advanced students or those with additional time could use this opinion piece from The New York Tribune, April 20, 1918. An excerpt from the article could also be used in a "gallery walk" which includes other sources from this album. I have provided a transcript of the article, which could easily be condensed.

The following is a notable quote from the end of the article: "Let us have a nation-wide clean-.up. Let us fill our internment camps up with Germans and turn all Americans who are working for German victory over to the military courts."

At the time, Germans constituted the largest immigrant group in the United States, and German was the most widely taught foreign language until the U.S. entered World War I.

The link to the Library of Congress's Student Primary Source Analysis Tool and the Teacher's Guide to Analyzing Newspapers is here: https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

Teaching Notes

To access the Hot Springs camp photograph album with the photographer's descriptions of each picture, search for "Thierbach, Adolph." He was the photographer and a detainee in the camp.

Two photographs in the Padlet (link below) were taken from his collection.

https://padlet.com/napierl2/sharing-your-ideas-nkezr0xicf4st5rh

If students are interested in the topic, the following links are excellent resources. From my research, I gather Hot Springs was the most hospitable of the three camps in my album. Some Hot Springs internees were later transferred to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

https://visitmadisoncounty.com/ww1-internment-camp-hot-springs/

https://www.ibiblio.org/ww1gd/Index.html

Teaching Notes

This article by Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, a senior and projects archivist at National Archives and Records Administration, was published by the National Archives in their NGS Quarterly, April—June 2017, Volume 43, Number 2.

I found it a valuable research tool. The PDF has links to additional National Archives' digital sources on German Internment Camps, including photographs of German women registering as enemy aliens.

Teaching Notes

States of Incarceration website source: Incarceration at Fort Oglethorpe during World War I, providing a glimpse into life at the camp.

Teaching Notes

A secondary research source.

"The War Department: Keeper of Our Nation's Enemy Aliens During World War I":  a scholarly address given by Mitchell Yockelson to the Society for Military History Annual Meeting, April 1998.

© Mitchell Yockelson, 1998