Were German Americans or German aliens spying for Germany?

[jwong]

I read the book by Mr. David Lowman entitled MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents From The West Coast During WWII.

In his book, Mr. Lowman discusses the general history of MAGIC, the secret U.S. intelligence project run by U.S. cryptanalysts. In 1940 they were able to break the Japanese government's code and ciphers and read the encrypted diplomatic messages. Mr. Lowman tries to show that the MAGIC code played a major role in the U.S. government decision to incarcerate the entire West Coast Japanese-American community in 1942 because of U.S. military and security concerns of Japanese-American espionage & sabotage.

I thought that it was unfair for the U.S. government to actually do this because I have heard that German Americans and aliens were also detained or convicted for doing the same thing.

Would anyone know exactly how many were caught?

And could anyone also recommend any good books that I can read more about this. I have been trying to find some books on this subject, but I do not know where to start.

I would appreciate any advice or comment about the above questions.

[Kakita Harry]

There were German American spy's at least trying to infiltrate the US, but the (or one) action failed horribly and the were all caught, imprisoned and one part got the death penalty, the rest got sentencend to 15+ years.

I'll dig for the book(s)

[walterkaschner]

Hi JWONG!

You should try Ladislas Farago, The Game of the Foxes (David McKay Co., N.Y. 1971), a highly readable and exhaustive study of German Espionage in the U.S. and Britain during WW II.

Also there is some, but not a great deal of material in David Kahn, Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (Macmillan Publishing Co., N.Y., 1978).

Hope this helps. Regards, Kaschner

[jwong]

Thank you very much!