{"id":31124,"date":"2013-05-16T17:04:15","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T17:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=31124"},"modified":"2016-04-01T15:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T15:59:00","slug":"a-black-nurse-a-german-soldier-and-an-unlikely-wwii-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=31124","title":{"rendered":"A Black Nurse, a German Soldier and an Unlikely WWII Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Black Nurse, a German Soldier and an Unlikely WWII Romance<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2013-05-14<\/p>\n

Alexis Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nurse and the soldier may never have met \u2013 and eventually married \u2013 had it not been for the American government\u2019s mistreatment of black women during World War II<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elinor Elizabeth Powell was an African-American military nurse. Frederick Albert was a German prisoner of war. Their paths crossed in Arizona in 1944. It was a time when the Army was resisting enlisting black nurses and the relatively small number allowed entry tended to be assigned to the least desirable duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey decided they were going to use African-Americans but in very small numbers and in segregated locations,\u201d said Charissa Threat, a history professor at Northeastern University who teaches race and gender studies.<\/p>\n

Ms. Powell was born in 1921 in Milton, Mass., and in, 1944, after completing basic training at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., she was sent, as some other black nurses were, to tend to German prisoners of war in Florence, Ariz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the story of how they met,\u201d said Chris Albert, 59, the youngest son of Elinor and Frederick Albert. \u201cIt was in the officers\u2019 mess hall, and my father was working in the kitchen. He kind of boldly made his way straight for my mother and said: \u2018You should know my name. I\u2019m the man who\u2019s going to marry you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Frederick Karl Albert was born in 1925 in Oppeln, Germany. \u201cHe volunteered for the paratroops to impress his father, who served in WWI,\u201d Mr. Albert said. \u201cHis father was an engineer and not really interested in his children. My dad ended up getting captured in Italy.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…The American military officially ended segregation after WWII, but for the Alberts, the issue of race would resurface throughout their lives. Their unlikely romance resulted in Stephen\u2019s birth in December 1946. After Frederick was able to return to the United States, he and Elinor married on June 26, 1947, in Manhattan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the first 10 years for my parents were a struggle to find some kind of economic security and a safe haven for an interracial family,\u201d said Chris Albert, who plays the trumpet with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey moved to Boston and my father worked several jobs,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cAt some point, he decided it was best if they moved to G\u00f6ttingen, Germany, where his parents lived. He could work for his father\u2019s cement manufacturing business.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kristina Brandner, 70, a niece of Frederick Albert, said life in Germany was difficult. \u201cG\u00f6ttingen is a small town,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cMy grandmother never had contact with black people so it was strange and uncomfortable for her with Elinor. Kids used to ask me how come there was a black woman living with us, and why is your cousin another color. Sometimes, I saw Elinor in the kitchen crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

In less than two years, Frederick, Elinor, Stephen and Chris, who was an infant, returned to the United States….<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Black Nurse, a German Soldier and an Unlikely WWII Romance The New York Times 2013-05-14 Alexis Clark The nurse and the soldier may never have met \u2013 and eventually married \u2013 had it not been for the American government\u2019s mistreatment of black women during World War II. Elinor Elizabeth Powell was an African-American military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,28,459,8,20],"tags":[14707,14708,14709,2948,2640,2327,969],"class_list":["post-31124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-europe","category-history","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-alexis-clark","tag-elinor-elizabeth-powell","tag-frederick-albert","tag-germany","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46348,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31124\/revisions\/46348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}