Reconciliation Mid- term Report

Joey Baumgartner

I am currently and throughout this year will continue to be, engaged in a process of reconciling my inheritance.  By inheritance I intend to mean that which I have received on authority. Much of the knowledge and social norms that I have received and been exposed to originate outside my familial influence, indeed often running contrary to it. Throughout this year I intend to reconcile these two sources of knowledge by furthering my knowledge of my own, until now neglected, family history.  With this in mind, my work for the year will focus on one figure, my great grandfather Josef Baumgartner. 

            My great grandfather is somewhat of a mythic figure in our family.  Among other things, he was the first paternal ancestor to arrive in the Americas.  During WWII Josef was interned in the United States as a “dangerous German enemy alien.” Through fieldwork and accompanying research I will undertake an endeavor to understand my great grandfather’s internment with the intention of recording and documenting the events of, leading up to, and the overall impact of that internment as expressed by a family oral history as well as library sourced information. 

             As it currently stands, my reading list consists of:

The German- Americans and World War II: an ethnic experience, Timothy J. Holian

Undue Process: the untold story of America’s German aline internees, Arnold Krammer

Faces of the Enemy: reflections of the hostile imagination, Sam Keen

Enemy Aliens: double standards and consitutional freedoms in the war on terrorism, David Cole

The Misplaced American, Ursula Potter

I have taken a survey of books on the subject, but I am allowing information as it becomes relevent to lead me into the next piece.

            Out of this work I anticipate other issues of significance to emerge such as immigration and naturalization policy, nativism, authenticity, and power.  Also to be pursued will be an investigation into the relevance of these and other themes as they relate to today’s events.