Gerhard Krebs Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, conducted by Michael Patton, Immigration Interview, March 8, 2016.
A. Interview Process- This interview was conducted in person over spring break at Mr. Krebs house in Richmond. It was conducted in the kitchen area because it was easiest way to get access for Mr. Krebs. His wife was there to watch him to make sure he was ok throughout the interview. I had to edit some parts out where dogs barked and people walked into the room because we were in a public space in the house. Other than those quick little extra sounds it was fine throughout the interview. I used my microphone connected to my mac book to record Mr. Krebs and used my phone as a back up in case that didn’t work and couldn’t hear myself.
B. Biography- Gerhard Krebs was an immigrant from Germany in 1959. He lived through World War II and was directly involved with the war as being part of Hitler Youth. His family lost loved ones during the war as well. He was a construction worker and left to see changes in construction from Germany to the American way of doing construction. Mr. Krebs went through Ellis Island but didn’t stay there like immigrants before him because it was already being shut down for that kind of processing. He initially lived in Long Island, NY when he came over and had jobs lined up before he came over. Gerhard as well went through the visa process very quickly and didn’t have to wait the three years as others did.
C. Research- This interview described a time when immigration to America was changing and was still on the rise after World War II. Ellis Island was closing and immigrants didn’t have to wait on the Island during the time Mr. Krebs came over. It was after World War II and the war directly impacted him. Many people died and construction was a much needed job during the time after World War II so Europe could rebuild and Mr. Krebs had a construction company that his father left to his brother and himself. Hitler Youth was seen as important as school was and taught them ways the of Hitler and would be the future of a Nazi Germany. Children had to join it and be apart of Hitler Youth and it was expected they learned the ways. Hitler established this youth movement in 1920s and it grew to over 100,000 kids and after Hitler came to power and got rid of all other youth movements it grew to over 4 million.
D. Transcription-
Michael Patton: You emigrated from Germany correct?
Gerhard Krebs: Yes
Michael Patton: When did you emigrate?
Gerhard Krebs: 1959, 25th of December
MP: What was the first place you entered?
GK: New York
MP: How was your experience when you came to America in your twenties?
GK: Its different, when you come to, at that time we had to get a visa to come in. You know? I got the visa easy, a friend in Germany and US got in touch that I wanted to come and I needed to get the citizenship right away, because I had a job coming up at a marine base in Connecticut and you have to be citizen to work there, and normally you have to wait three years to get citizenship. But I got it right away and became a citizen in 1959.
MP: What was the process of having to find work in a new country?
GK: I had a job, already when I came here.
MP: When you were looking for the job before you came over was it hard to set that up?
GK: I had a uncle on Long Island which had a business, started for him right away and had some kind of income right away. He was German too, but told him that time he’s not going to speak German and I was going to learn English right away.
MP: Was learning English difficult?
GK: No it was easy let me tell you, (…) within a year I could speak English, so that I could get around. I couldn’t speak fluently but I could get around. Otherwise it was easy for me.
MP: Being new to the country can you describe if it was hard to adjust to the new experiences you faced in America?
GK: [Shaking head no] because it was for me about the same, I joined right away the republican party, because in Germany I was same type of thing involved. Like a political party, same type as republican over here. It was called the Germany conservative party.
MP: How did joining the Republican Party help with the new experiences?
GK: It helped right away (…) to get to know people, and helped get a job. (…) Today if you’re in the field of computers, at that time construction was more sought for than anything else.
MP: Did your family come with you?
GK: Nope, I’m the only one. I’m the black sheep so called.
MP: Why were you considered the black sheep?
GK: My mother said that, “You’re going to die over there, you’re not going to survive over there”. I said you want to bet, and I was going to own a house in 5 years, but I owned one in 3. I only had 80 dollars in my pocket when I came. But after three years I had my own house, was built in 1899 a Dutch colonial. (…) Everyone said you would have never known there was such character in that house. I had no problem selling that house.
MP: Since your family didn’t come did it make transitioning any harder?
GK: No, I went a couple of times to North Germany a couple of times for construction and [Couldn’t understand word] for construction a couple times. [left family to go on construction sites multiple times]
MP: Now going through the process you went through to get into America, how does it differ from now?
GK: Today you can jump over the fence and youre here, at that time you had to have a visa, and landed at Ellis Island but didn’t have to stay there. I had to have a sponsor at that time. I would not recommend to anybody to come over here.
MP: Why do you say that?
GK: Out there at Germany if you had a job you had it made. My brother and I owned a construction over there and had it made. [Talks about his mother again]. It’s tough now to come to this country and have no body, its tough.
MP: Did you have to overcome any cultural issues here in America?
GK: Nope [Shakes head no]
MP: Why did you come to the United States?
GK: I wanted change, and find something different. The construction out there were built to last 100 years and over here its 30 years. Everything here was wood and over there it was concrete and solid. Wanted to learn how it was built over here. Went back for the first time and talked to brother, went to building permit place to see if they could build anything from America over there but was told no and forget it. (…)Everything is done with wood out there not a such thing. [Explains how house is built]
MP: Did you apply any of the cultural form Germany to Americans?
GK: Long Island had the largest German population in America. I joined a club a German club, which I became president after a year. Actually it was a North German club. (…) I was only one from the South Germany. He ran the club differently under him. [Jokes his wife won’t let him cook anymore because she didn’t like the food, because she was American and German food was the best there is]
MP: How much of a sacrifice was it to leave Germany?
GK: None. I knew I’m going to go someplace where I have to learn first again the way of living over here. You can’t go someplace and think differently. I knew I had to get used to living over here right away. It bothered me a bit. There was two construction companies and the other one wanted him to marry the eligible daughter of the other company, and was off within two weeks of the proposal of the deal. [Jokes about the situation between the two companies and talks about how hideous the girl was]
MP: Due to the time period, did you have any experience with World War II?
GK: Yeah, I was in World War II. I was a youth, I was already in the Army at 21. I was part of the Hitler Youth, you had to be or otherwise forget it. You had to join the Hitler Youth.
MP: How was that experience?
GK: My dad got killed in the war. By an American bomb at a hospital. He was injured in Italy and got transferred back to Germany to a hospital. The hospital was 50 miles from where we lived, and we could see the bombs coming in at that time. Oh my gosh there going to [I can’t understand the word], had to sections a hospital section and industry section and (…) they sectioned it out with Christmas trees. They made a mistake and had the red flags on the industry section and not the hospital, so you don’t bomb the hospital section, and there were American soldiers got killed as well. They carpeted bomb the whole area and couldn’t help. My cousin was there, father was there, and uncle was there, and you couldn’t do anything. (…) Left the section and went inland away from the front line. [Describes the bomb, and the carnage that happened at the hospital section] Cousin went back to Stalingrad after time was up in the hospital and (…) was killed there. The whole family lost one male section of their part of the family. [Describes who was killed in each section of the family and proceeds to show me a map of Germany]
E. Conclusion- The interview went a lot better than expected. I was worried that it would be hard to understand Mr. Krebs because he has an accent and speaks lightly, so I thought it would be harder to get to hear him and get quality audio. At parts it was still hard to understand but it was very little. The interview once it started and got past the awkwardness it went well and flowed well. I had a hard time to stay on script because as we went through the interview other questions came to mind to get more information from Mr. Krebs. I asked majority of the questions I had prepared but it was hard to ask them in the order I had planned because Mr. Krebs would bring forth more questionable topics that I could ask questions on. The divergences were positive and Mr. Krebs had a lot to say, the non-edited draft of the audio was a total of 35 minutes.