Harvey Solomon - Such Splendid Prisons: Diplomatic Detainment in America during World War II

Uncovering a hidden slice of wartime America, Harvey Solomons Such Splendid Prisons tells an intriguing story of elite Axis prisoners incarcerated by the U.S. government, replete with behind-the-scenes diplomatic machinations and political calculations.

Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump, The Generals, and The Allies

In World War II the U.S. government detained thousands of the Axis powers diplomats and dependentsby putting them up in luxury hotels. In this absorbing, cinematic account, Harvey Solomon examines the one place where Germans, Italians, and Japanese all had to live together: the United States of America.

Stephen Wertheim, visiting assistant professor of history at Columbia University

In a consistently fascinating book, Harvey Solomon guides his readers through what really isin that overused phraseone of the last untold stories of World War II. Here in their faded glory are the experiences of the enemy diplomats obliged to remain in the custody of the U.S. government after the outbreak of war. Exotic characters and arcane attitudes abound in this window on diplomatic lives as they were lived in what now seems like the end of an era. Readers have to pinch themselves to be sure this isnt some dream of the nineteenth century but rather events that unfolded simultaneously with the horrors of Auschwitz, Stalingrad, and Hiroshima.

Nicholas J. Cull, professor of communications and director of the Masters of Diplomacy Program at the University of Southern California

With sharp characterization, crackling prose, and an eye for humorous detail, Harvey Solomon takes us on a wild technicolor ride.... His prodigious research has cracked the code of silence surrounding the secretive detention of Axis diplomats and their families. This is the most detailed and lively account of this ironic wartime episode yet written.

Max Paul Friedman, professor of history at American University

In this engagingly written volume, Harvey Solomon tells the unknownand fascinatingstory of enemy diplomats who were detained in America during the Second World War. Anyone interested in the war will find Such Splendid Prisons an intriguing, memorable tale.

Jonathan Rosenberg, associate professor of history at Hunter College, CUNY Graduate Center.

Harvey Solomon

Potomac Books

An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press

2020 by Harvey Solomon

Front cover designed by Stephen C. Fischer.

Author photo courtesy of the author.

Frontispiece: German detainees. Courtesy of the Greenbrier.

All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Solomon, Harvey, author.

Title: Such splendid prisons: diplomatic detainment in America during World War II / Harvey Solomon.

Description: [Lincoln]: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Harvey Solomon tells the vivid story of the roundup, captivity, and eventual repatriation of Axis diplomats and their families who were stranded in the nations capital after the bombing of Pearl HarborProvided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019015764

ISBN 9781640120846 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 9781640122871 (epub)

ISBN 9781640122888 (mobi)

ISBN 9781640122895 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : World War, 19391945Prisoners and prisons, American. | Prisoners of warUnited StatesBiography. | DiplomatsGermanyBiography. | DiplomatsJapanBiography. | Diplomatic and consular service, GermanUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Diplomatic and consular service, JapaneseUnited StatesHistory20th century. | GermansGovernment policyUnited StatesHistory20th century. | JapaneseGovernment policyUnited StatesHistory20th century. | World War, 19391945Diplomatic history. | United StatesForeign relations20th century.

Classification: LCC D 805. U 5 S 65 2020 | DDC 940.53/1773dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015764

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To those unsung Americansmen and women, black and white and brown, old and young, native and foreign bornwho pitched in to do the right thing at the right time:

auditors, bakers, bathhouse attendants, bellmen, boiler inspectors, bookkeepers, bootblacks, border patrol agents, busboys, cabinet makers, carpenters, cashiers, casino chefs, cafeteria helpers, checkers, chefs, cleaners, coal truck drivers, cold meat men, cottage cleaners, desk clerks, dishwashers, electricians, elevator mechanics and operators, engineers, exterminators, extractors, FBI agents, firemen, fry cooks, gardeners, golf course managers, house physicians, housekeepers, ice plant operators, icemen, incinerator operators, interior decorators, ironers, janitors, laborers, laundry managers, linen women, lobbymen, locker boys, maids, mail clerks, managers, mangel girls, masons, masseurs and masseuses, mechanics, medical directors, movie operators, musicians, painters, pastry helpers, plasterers, plumbers, porters, press girls, printers, purchasing agents, receiving clerks, salad makers, sauce cooks, seamstresses, secretaries, shakers, starchers, State Department agents, state police, stewards, swimming instructors, taxi drivers, technicians, telephone operators, tennis pros and managers, tinners, tree surgeons, upholsterers, utility men, waiters and waitresses, watchmen, and yardsmen.

This book is for them and their families.

• Else Arnecke: German emigr lured from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to work at the German embassy
• Robert Bannerman: State Department agent overseeing the detainment, specialized in logistics
• Adolf Berle Jr.: U.S. assistant secretary of state, 193844
• Francis Biddle: U.S. attorney general, 194145
• Margret Boveri: Freelance German journalist and close friend of journalist Paul Scheffer
• Charles Brousse: French press attach and Allied intelligence agent who worked with (and later married) undercover agent Betty Pack
• Charles Bruggmann: Swiss ambassador to the United States, 193954
• William Bullitt: U.S. ambassador to France, 193640
• Prince Ascanio dei Principi Colonna: Italian ambassador to the United States, 193942
• Hans Dieckhoff: German ambassador to the United States, 193738
• Helen Essary: Writer for the Washington Times-Herald
• Thomas Fitch: Washington DC based State Department agent overseeing the detainment
• Bella Fromm: Jewish freelance writer based in Berlin, later emigrated to the United States
• Evelyn Peyton Gordon: Writer for the Washington Daily News
• Don Joaquin Rodrguez de Gortzar: Spanish diplomat and liaison to the Japanese detainees
• Gaston Henry-Haye: Ardent Ptainist and French ambassador to the United States, 194043
• Cordell Hull: U.S. secretary of state, 193344
• Sadao Iguchi: First secretary at the Japanese embassy and spokesman for the detainees at the Homestead and Greenbrier
• Takeo Iguchi: Keen-eyed eleven-year-old son of counselor Sadao Iguchi and classmate of Mariko Terasaki