German immigrants in US During WWI 1914-1918 suffered internment at slave labor camps and home & business's burned to ground like in Siesta Key Fl

WWI June 28 1914 - Nov 11,1918. When war broke out in 1914 between the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, and later Italy) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), the United States announced a policy of strict neutrality in keeping with tradition. This position was untenable when American shipping came under repeated attack from German U-boats. During WWI 1914 -1918 German immigrants in the US suffered harassment, internment at slave labor camps, home and business's burned to the ground (Higelhurst Hotel Siesta Key), lynchings and even the humiliation of being tarred and feathered. On Siesta Key Fl it was known that Harry Higel's grandparents were German immigrants. Mr Higel named his Higelhurst Hotel after the small village Hurst Germany where he grandparents/family came from. Although a little-remembered part of history today, America was completely wracked by the fear and paranoia of Germans that swept from coast to coast during the Great War. 

The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 and helped lead the Allies to victory. But before that, many Americans were terrified of the German threat growing on the other side of the world. When WWI broke out and Germany became the enemy of the Allies abroad, the American government began calling on its people to reject their German-American neighbors. President Woodrow Wilson declared in 1917 that German-Americans were to be treated as 'alien-enemies' and that they should reject their German identity if they were to be accepted in US society.

"Hotel Higelhurst’s proximity to Rube Allyn’s property have led some to believe he was responsible for devastating 'Higelhurst' fire, as well as Harry Higel’s murder", Jeff LaHurd said, a local historian who oversees the Sarasota County History Center. The unsolved murder of Harry Higel story on Siesta Key Fl links WWI and America's induction in April 1917 to fight the Germans in France, Higelhurst Hotel arson fire in March 2017 on Siesta Key just days prior to America induction into WWI, Dirty Politics in Florida, Anti-German Sentiment in America and specifically in Sarasota with Harry Higel whose grandparents were German immigrants, RMS Lusitania passenger ship sunk by German U boat in Atlantic, 1920's Prohibition, unsavory Private Investigators in St Pete, Harry Higel Murder on Siesta Key during a pistol whipping, Rigged Manatee County Grand Jury frees murder suspect Rube Allyn, and finally buried loaded Colt revolver with a broken grip found buried 100 Years later on Siesta Key that appears to link to Higel Murder. Harry Higel named his fancy 2 story hotel on Siesta Key the 'HigleHurst Inn' in 1915, Higel from his family name and Hurst from his families village in North Rhine-Westphalia Germany. The village Hurst is situated nearby to the villages Bach and Loch and north-east of Franfurt Germany. Mr. Higel's war hawk extremest neighbor Rube Allyn knew all of this. You can't make this stuff up, it all really happened.

Sarasota Mayor Harry Higel murdered by newsman Rube Allyn simply because he was of German heritage it was WWI on Siesta Key. WWI 1914 to 1918: It was a time when German immigrants and their children born in the USA were America’s undesirables. Americans of German descent and German culture, like Harry Higel and his family, in the United States were very much under attack. Because Germany was one of America’s main adversaries in WWI, many Anglo-Americans began to fear that German Americans were still loyal to the Kaiser, or German emperor. Harry Higel's adversary Rube Allyn, in Sarasota and on Siesta Key, hated Germans. 

Suddenly, all German Americans became “hyphenated Americans” who suspiciously practiced their own traditions instead of “assimilating” into Anglo-American culture. As President Woodrow Wilson once admonished: “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him, carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic when he gets ready.” In Rube Allyn's booze soaked brain, President Wilson had made it "open season on Germans".

Throughout the U.S., during 1914 to 1918 individuals (like Rube Allyn), groups, and politicians took actions, larger and small, that were aimed at ridding itself of German culture and German influence in the country. Case in point thre is no doubt that Rube Allyn burning down Harry Higel's German themed HigelHurst Hotel on Siesta Key in March of 1917 (see Tampa Tribune article above). The climate became so hostile that by 1918, South Dakota prohibited the use of German over the telephone, and in public assemblies of three or more persons. With the US entry into World War I after Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, German nationals were automatically classified as "enemy aliens." Two of the four main World War I-era internment camps for "Germans"  were located in Hot Springs, N.C. and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

 

The War Prison Camp of Fort Oglethorpe GA for Germans during WWI consisted of a huge, somewhat hilly plot of land approximately a mile square. The entire area was surrounded by two barbed-wire fences, about ten feet high." Tripod watch towers were located outside the barbed wire perimeter. Each tower was equipped with a search light, telephone and machine-gun.Fort Oglethorpe was a military facility used to hold German prisoners of war from 1917 to 1920. Not only did it hold war prisoners, it also held civilian German immigrants and wealthy German-Americans who the American government believed carried too much influence. Fort Oglethorpe also held German businessmen, journalists, academics, and artists who likely had no connection with the war effort of their native country. Several committed suicide while incarcerated at Fort Oglethorpe. Some of the prisoners performed hard labor on the roads and in the quarry.

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer wrote during WWI that "All German aliens interned by the government are regarded as enemies, and their property is treated accordingly." President Woodrow Wilson issued two sets of regulations on April 6, 1917, and November 16, 1917, imposing restrictions on German-born male residents of the United States over the age of 14. The rules were written to include natives of Germany who had become citizens of countries other than the U.S.; all were classified as aliens. 

Some 250,000 people in that category were required to register at their local post office, to carry their registration card at all times, and to report any change of address or employment. The same regulations and registration requirements were imposed on German females on April 18, 1918. Some 6,300 such aliens were arrested. Thousands were interrogated and investigated. A total of 2,048 (0.8%) were incarcerated for the remainder of the war in two camps, Fort Douglas, Utah, for those west of the Mississippi, and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for those east of the Mississippi. 

The cases of these German aliens, whether being considered for internment or under internment, were managed by the Enemy Alien Registration Section of the Department of Justice. From December 1917 this section was headed by J. Edgar Hoover, then not yet 23 years old. Back story on mayor Harry Higel's Higelhurst Hotel arson on Siesta Key was Harry Higel's link to Germany and even the Hotel name 'Hurst' links to a region in Germany. Higelhurst Hotel was torched on March 30th, 1917, three days later On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany which was granted, Rube Allyn was ecstatic. Rube Allyn was a war hawk and hated Germans. Rube wanted to join the Army in his 50's to go and kill Germans in France in 1917 but he was too old at 52 to join.

Plenty of friction between mayor Harry Higel and newspaper editor Rube Allyn from 1913 to 1921, both ran for Mayor of Sarasota 3 times, Harry Higel won all three times. Harry Higel was of direct German heritage, murdered on January 7th 1921, case remains unsolved 100 years later. In July 1921 City of Sarasota breaks away from Manatee County and becomes Sarasota County mostly due to ineffective investigation oh Higel murder and possible tainted Manatee County Grand Jury that freed the oh so guilty Rube Allyn. Manatee County Grand Jury was a "Kangaroo Court" at least two members of the Grand Jury were personal friends and/or newspaper associates of Rube Allyn.

The Higel story pivots around WWI and America's induction in April 1917 to fight the Germans in France and it's effect in Florida. Rube Allyn hated Harry Higel who was of German heritage. In the years leading up to and during World War I, the US experienced a wave of anti-German sentiment, fueled by super-patriotism (Rube Allyn) and xenophobia, that resulted in open hostility toward all things German. Rube Allyn's friend, idol and mentor Elbert Hubbard and his wife were on the RMS Lusitania passenger ship that was torpedoed by a German U-Boat killing 1,195 including 128 Americans on May 7, 1915. As a result of U-boat attacks on U.S. shipping to Europe, the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany on February 4, 1917. The disaster set off a chain of events that led to the U.S. entering World War I in 1917. Rube Allyn was devastated by his friend Elbert Hubbard's murder by the Germans.

"Gun Buried on Siesta Key": 1920's Era Colt Revolver Found Buried on Siesta Key Verified by Sarasota County Sheriff Cold Case Detective Brandon Clark as Possible Link to Murder of Sarasota Mayor Harry Higel. Get real here, nobody buries a perfectly fine, loaded gun with a broken grip on Siesta Key unless it was used in the bludgeoning murder of former Sarasota Mayor Harry Higel on Friday January 7tth, 1921. The Colt .32 caliber Police Pocket Positive six shot double action revolver went into the muck and mud of salt water wetland on Siesta Key in 1921 looking real shiny and pretty as seen in the top photo and came out of the ground 100 years later a rusty mess. But 6 live bullets remained in the cylinder of the Colt revolver, I have it on my desk.

I had not indicated the exact address on Givens St off of Higel Ave on Siesta Key where the broken Colt revolver was found as the homeowner had his house up for sale and I did not want to create undo attention to the address. The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates that Harry Higel was found unconscious in the middle of the road of Siesta Dr and Higel Ave, (where I have claimed all along the exact location of the crime scene).
A). The Sarasota County Sheriff report revealed today indicates the firearm that I tuned in on Nov 26th 2019, is in fact a 1900's era Colt revolver produced between 1907 and 1922, as I have claimed in numerous reports.
B). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates that back in 1921 investigators were unable to determine the instrument used to injure Higel.
C). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates injuries to Higel were from a solid object and above the neck (as in a pistol whipping).
D). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates the weapon used to kill Higel was never located.
E). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates that rumors had it, the weapon used to kill Higel was buried somewhere on Siesta Key.
F). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates that to this date, no weapon has ever been found, aside from this Colt revolver.
G). The Sarasota County Sheriff report indicates that the location of the Colt revolver was approximately one (1) block of Higel's location.
H). On 3/24/2020 The Sarasota County Sheriff report further states by writer: "I retrieved the weapon from Property and inspected it's parts. Upon review and through my own independent research, I believe, as reported by (Bill) Warner, these parts are to a Colt revolver produced in the early 1900's".

For a fictional story about the murder of Harry Higel with a weapon like the one I describe, see Tony Dunbar's The Story of the Sarasota Celery Fields & Other Mysteries, Blind Pass Publications" https://blindpasspublications.com/Books/index#celery

The Herald Tribune Newspaper in Sarasota did an article about the Higel murder, "100 years later, the murder of popular Sarasota mayor Harry Higel remains unsolved", by Billy Cox, Jan 7th, 2021. The Herald Tribune pointed out that "on March 9, 1921, Rube Allyn was released after a grand jury deliberated for 10 minutes. Sarasota private investigator Bill Warner claims on his website the jury was filled with Allyn’s “newspaper pals and drinking buddies.” Bill Warner says Higel’s injuries are consistent with a pistol-whipping; in fact, he says rusted fragments of a .32 caliber pocket Colt revolver – manufactured between 1907 and 1922 – were recovered near a Givens Street canal in November 2019. He says the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the make and the approximate time range of its manufacture. “You’d never throw away a revolver like that with six live bullets in it unless you’d committed a crime,” Bill Warner says. Like I said, this story looks like a script for a block buster movie. see https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2021/01/07/sarasota-mayor-harry-higels-murder-remains-unsolved-100-years-later/6564394002/

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