In
April 1922 my grandmother traveled from Bremerhaven, Germany to New York City.
She was sponsored by a great aunt or cousin, I’m not quite sure, and likely
arrived by visa. She was single and also about five months pregnant. In August of
that year my mother was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
By
the end of that year my grandfather immigrated to the United States, possibly
illegally, and caught up with my grandmother. They married without much ceremony
and continued to live in Connecticut for the next six years. During that time
my Uncle Walter was born. Then about 1928 the entire family moved back to
Bremerhaven. Their reason for returning to Germany is unclear, but my
grandfather’s immigration status may have been a factor.
Germany
in the 1930s was a boiling political stew. Although a world-wide depression was
in progress, the German experience was notably different. Where much of the
world, especially the United States, had lived in a fabricated prosperity
during the 1920s, the German people had spent most of the 20s in economic
desolation, for a variety of reasons. As Hitler rose to power through lies,
Nationalism, violence, and theatrics, Germans rallied to the perceived stability
he symbolized. Exclusivity of the Aryan race, with the associated use of antisemitism,
racism, and eugenics became foundational.
In
1935 the new Nazi controlled German Government quietly instituted what was
called Lebensborn, roughly translated
as “fount of life”. Although presented to the German people as a socially philosophical
position by the Government, it soon became evident to Germans that there was an
active policy at work. Young women of Aryan decent were essentially being
rounded up to live in permanent camps where German men, usually army officers,
would visit. The purpose was to create children of pure Aryan decent who could
be raised as national leaders. This continued through the decade and into the
next.
My
mother was then about 14 and my grandmother was not emotionally blinded to the
policy. When my mother turned 17 my grandparents found the resources to ship
her off to the United States, even though in 1939 restrictions for such were
quite difficult. They could so for one reason alone, my mother was a US
citizen.
Today
Donald Trump, in an effort to woo his Conservative supporters, has decided to
attack the US Constitutional right of citizenship to anyone born in this
country. Make no mistake about it, the assault on this right has more to do
with the sense of exclusivity that we can associate with the dark periods of
human social development than it does with any abuse of economic benefits.
Created
in 1868 and ratified by the 14th Amendment to our Constitution, it
assured that all Americans, especially those born into slavery, would be
guaranteed the same rights as any other American citizen. It elevated to the
level of constitutional law an equality that had been left out of the original
constitution as an appeasement to the Southern Colonies. It reduced ambiguity as
to who was a citizen and who was not, which was likely the primary driver for
the ratification. However, there were other unforeseen benefits that evolved
over time.
The
United States has been a magnet for individuals who viewed living in a land
that symbolizes freedom and the pursuit of prosperity as more important than
the fear of uprooting their lives. The knowledge that their children would not
have to face that fear had to be liberating. As a country the benefits brought
by those inspired individuals have been incalculable. How every politician or
other successful American you listen to loves to display their immigrant roots
is de facto proof of that very benefit.
Now,
if my mother had not been allowed to return to the United States, staying in
Germany and surviving the war, and didn’t meet my father in New York City in
1944, it is only a philosophical (or perhaps theological) question whether I,
my children, or grandchildren would be in existence today or not. Regardless,
we certainly wouldn’t be Americans.
I
don’t portend that my contribution to this society has been a critical
addition. However, I feel myself part of a larger iceberg of citizenry that
supports a peak that rises above the surface of troubled waters that cover the
earth. I also have every reason to think my children and grandchildren will be
the same if not actually lead others in sustaining the values that have made
this Nation unique. My mother’s journey was consequential.
The
Trumpian-Conservative-Republican desire to eliminate birth right citizenship is
another attempt to contract the nation into hate and nationalistic exclusivity. Lebensborn was logically consistent with a German effort to do exactly
the same thing. Sure there will be women who will view the ability to confer
American citizenship for their children in a way that labels them as “birth tourists”.
However, I believe this Nation can
survive the few children that, as a result, will have an opportunity to travel to
this Country as citizens and who will view that journey as one of opportunity.
There
is no reason to scuttle, by use of fear for political purpose, a Constitutional
law that gives back far, far more than it gives away.
