A Privileged Few Under War Time Conditions
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered the Japanese diplomatic contingent escorted to the palatial Greenbrier resort in the mountains of southeastern West Virginia where they would remain confined to await arrangements for their exchange for their American diplomatic counter-parts in Japan. The entourage consisted of an ambassador; officials of several ministries including foreign affairs and education; consuls and vice consuls; several chancellors; first, second and third secretaries; military officers; commercial, press and assorted naval attaches'; researchers, clerks, wives, sons, daughters and even maids, assorted servants, cooks, chauffeurs and news correspondents.
There were mandatory daily roll calls ordered by the FBI where Germans and Japanese were always on time the Italians always late. Perhaps Italians considered it their privilege since Columbus did discover the Americas or so they say.
The Japanese legation consisted of more than 400 embassy staff and consulate officers from across North America including Canada and Mexico all were escorted under guard to the opulent Greenbrier and Homestead Hotels. Considering the Axis powers held our diplomatic personnel, U. S. policy was to assure the Axis diplomats and their families would be humanely held in hope the Americans in foreign countries would receive reciprocal treatment until such time as they could be repatriated through an exchange agreement.
As time wore on the internees were permuted to exercise each day within certain specific areas and times. Later they were permitted the full use of the tennis courts and golf course, horseback riding and other recreational activities available at the hotel. Two cottages were converted into school rooms for the children, one for use by the Germans and the other by the Japanese. Religious services were conducted weekly according to various preferences.
In addition to the Japanese, Germans and Italians, there were officials and citizens of other Axis powers also interned at the Greenbrier. There were officials and dependents from the European nations of Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia and several others.
The hotel was one of the world's most elegant internment camps nestled in the Allegheny Mountains in the Appalachian Range offering a beautiful 18 hole golf course, 40 miles of bridle paths, a swimming pool, a health spa and 7,000 acres of pristine scenery, as well as a well trained staff to cater to one's every need. Before being taken over by the U. S. State Department as a temporary "holding facility” for Axis diplomats and others, the resort was a favorite retreat for the harried executives of many of America's largest companies. The resort boasted world famous golf professionals on staff. The hotel's promotional brochure of the period described it as "America's most beautiful all-year resort, unique in possessing an ambiance of mellow charm and cherished tradition which come only after a resort has had the experience of welcoming and pleasing the great names of the world for over 160 years. “
Among the guests at White Sulphur Springs at one time or another the register would list: Robert E. Lee, Woodrow Wilson, the Prince of Wales, Joseph P. Kennedy, the Vanderbilts and many other rich and famous names.
As mentioned previously the U. S. Government's motivation for placing the Axis diplomats and their families and staff in such comfortable surroundings with tennis courts, archery, croquet and dozens of exclusive gift shops and boutiques was the hope our diplomats, also confined within enemy nations at war with the United States, would receive comparable courtesy and respect until they could be repatriated.
The nightly motion pictures for the detainees enjoyment might well have included such popular releases as: Gone With The Wind; Charlie Chan In Rio; the Mask of Fu Manchu; Citizen Kane and Disney's Dumbo for the children. Films alluding to war were not shown for fear of aggravating an already hostile audience, nor were news reels shown in the hotel's theater.
If the internees had listened to radio they might have heard Walter Winchell or H. V. Kaltenborn report the news of the war.
The diplomatic utopian hotel, lavish and palatial, was considered a war-time Shangri-La. It was reported that the Germans interned there were neither contented or appreciative of the amenities but preferred to fight among themselves. Rather than take advantage of the sporting activities which were available, they preferred to engage in intrigue or devise ways to attempt to correspond with Fifth Columnists on the outside.
One of the German Embassy's staff, listed a second secretary of the German Embassy, was in reality head of the Gestapo in the United States and claimed to be the personal representative of Heinrich Himmler, an important Nazi in Hitler's dictatorship. He boasted while in North America he personality had created the largest contingent of saboteurs and propagandists in the world. His bullying was responsible for one German suicide and two aborted attempts to escape the hotel.
Many Japanese occupied themselves gambling with poker, the game of choice, of which Ambassador Nomura was said to be very capable.
Confined to 8 to 10 acres within the huge resort all was not compatible between many of the internees. There was no end to the quarreling. There were miniature, juvenile diplomatic crises bordering on the ridiculous. According to two investigative reporters from the News Syndicate Company writing for the Times Herald who managed to gain access to the hotel they referred to certain "guests” as being the "snakes in the Garden of Eden. “The problem of incompatibility was started by the Italians, according to the reporters perhaps as a result as their seeing themselves "as being more socially impeccable or perhaps because they just didn't like the arrogance of the Nazis who from the beginning refused to fraternize with their fellow internees. The Italians refused to eat at the same table as the Germans, the Germans would not associate with the Japanese. The Germans were "Heiling Hitler” with outstretched palms at every opportunity while the Italians refused to return the salute. They would not ride in the same elevator with each other, at one point they wanted rooms in different wings of the hotel to be as far away from each other as possible. There were brawls on the dance floor in a ballroom once famous for tradition and dignity in an atmosphere of "old world charm. “
It soon became apparent the famous author Rudyard Kipling might have been correct in his famous observation "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. “The two groups certainly did not meet as social equals. The Germans with their air of superiority began to look down at the Japanese who grinned and bowed with practiced politeness. It all came to a head one evening when a Japanese sauntered across the ballroom at one of the weekly dances and asked a fraulein to dance. It is said that she stared at him in astonished disbelief when several Germans broke in at which point there erupted an all out free-for-all, requiring the FBI to intervene to restore calm.
There was also a reported attempt to poison the hotel's guarded water supply which was situated at an elevated position behind the hotel in a large stone colonnaded entablature resembling a Greek temple. This was unsuccessful.
As Marquis Childs of the Saturday Evening Post later reported, one women at the Greenbrier was the wife of Dr. Hans Thomsen, Charge d' Affaires of the German Embassy. Frau Anne "Bebe” Thomsen was the daughter of an officer in the Kaiser's army and an outspoken Nazi. She apparently didn't get along well with the Italian diplomatic community at the hotel. Christmas 1941 saw her presenting gift packages to all the Italians. When opened they each contained small, live, furry animals mice, gophers and chipmunks captured in the near-by forest by servants she paid to do the collecting. This did not endear her to the Italians in the hotel.
A waitress was overheard to to say, "the way those Germans and Italians strut around and glare at each other is like a scene out of a comedy. “
By February, 1942 the FBI had arrested six German waiters and an Italian baker at the Greenbrier as "dangerous enemy aliens. “They may have been reporting on U. S. troop train movements passing through White Sulphur Springs destined for the disembarkation points at the U. S. Naval Base at Norfolk, Virginia.
Much of diplomacy is conducted and governed by a set of international protocol recognized and practiced between the accredited envoys from all nations (most of the time). Only in rare instances does the formality of polite and considerate conduct break down between the representatives of nations as, for example, briefly described here-in between the Axis representatives of the presumed partners in war as was the case with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy.
The Italians were later moved to Asheville, North Carolina to avoid the challenged duels, fistfights and near-fistfights with the Germans.
Upon their departure, the staff at the Greenbrier was said to be sorry to see them transferred to North Carolina along with several Hungarian and Bulgarian diplomats. They had come to admire and respect the Italians as much as they scoffed and despised the Germans. The Italians were were far more courteous, requested little and were generous tippers. The Germans were considered to be exactly the opposite.
The Germans complained about the quality of food served at one of the nation's finest and most luxurious resorts. At each sitting they were provided with a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner menu offering a wide selection of dishes from which to choose. Still the complaining and grumbling continued unabated. The complaints were soon too much for the annoyed Swiss coordinator who arrived at a solution to stop the whining. He let it be known he would cable Germany where the American diplomats were interned and obtain three typical menus presenting the fare provided the Americans and have them cabled to Washington. The Axis diplomats could then have exactly the same meals as being served at Bad Nauheim, where it was said wasn't such a bad place either. Since the Germans were aware of the situation with food rationing in Germany compared with the abundance at the Greenbrier there were no more complaints and several compliments.
A writer for the Saturday Evening Post Magazine managed to obtain permission to enter the hotel where he reported there was no peace for the neutral Swiss who were charged with monitoring and eventually arranging for the repatriation of the interned diplomats, their families and staff and prisoners of war then confined at the hotel.
The Swiss had other self appointed duties, they had to wind up the personal affairs of those interned, selling their automobiles; pay rents that were due and cancel leases; inform families in the home countries of deaths; forward the last remaining possessions, identification papers, contents of pockets, trinkets, letters, etc., to the next of kin when and where known. They would also forward International Red Cross packages. At the height of the war nearly 5,500 Swiss were employed in Bern's prisoner bureau which had world-wide responsibility.