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...