ENEMIES IN LOVE: A GERMAN POW, A BLACK NURSE, AND AN UNLIKELY ROMANCE
By Alexis Clark
This was not the book I was expecting to read, based on the synopsis given:
“This is a love story like no other: Elinor Powell was an African American nurse in the U.S. military during World War II; Frederick Albert was a soldier in Hitler’s army, captured by the Allies and shipped to a prisoner-of-war camp in the Arizona desert. Like most other black nurses, Eleanor pulled a second-class assignment, in a dusty, sun-baked—and segregated—Western town. The army figured that the risk of fraternization between black nurses and white German POWs was almost nil.
Brought together by unlikely circumstances and racist assumptions, Elinor and Frederick should have been bitter enemies; but instead, at the height of World War II, they fell in love. Their dramatic story was unearthed by journalist Alexis Clark, who through years of interviews and historical research has pieced together an astounding narrative of race and true love in the cauldron of war.”
Yes, this tells the story of Elinor and Frederick, who fell in love during WWII and eventually married. But this book is about much more than that. In fact, the story of Elinor and Frederick is just a small part of what I see as a history book that depicts a deep American shame, a not-so-well known event that occurred on U.S. soil, and an ongoing struggle for human rights and dignity.
Probably about half of the book is devoted specifically to the two lovers, including the family history of each and how they came to meet, marry, and finally settle down after years of struggling to find a place to live without prejudice and hate. The other half describes two very distinct situations in the United States that I’m ashamed and embarrassed to say I wasn’t very knowledgeable about. One of those situations describes the extreme level of segregation and bigotry toward black nurses in the early 1900’s and subsequent years by the American Nursing Association and the U.S. Army. It wasn’t until 1941 that black nurses, after years of protest and pushing, were allowed, with a restricted quota, into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. They were also restricted to treating only black soldiers. Nurses were sent to bases that were totally segregated. Elinor Powell was sent to Fort Huachuca in Arizona, but not to treat black soldiers. Instead, to her shock, she would be treating German prisoners of war.
The fact that the U.S. had several prisoner of war camps here was another eye-opener for me. These camps were kept as low-key as possible, as the government was holding the prisoners here reluctantly and they didn’t want U.S. citizens to be frightened or angered. Most of them were transferred here from Britain, which had no place to hold them, and after repeated entreaties from them, the U.S. finally agreed to let them send some of their German and Italian POWs here.
The book describes, in much detail, the intense racism that black nurses had to endure. The author goes on to describe the bigotry Elinor, Frederick and their children were subjected to as a mixed race family here in America and in Germany. It’s evident from some of those interviewed by the author that this irony was not lost – white supremacy was a value shared by both Americans and Germans. The fact was, that even with a shortage of nurses overseas and at home to tend to injured soldiers, our country denied thousands of black nurses the ability to perform their jobs and treat these soldiers. This indicates the pervasive level of ignorance and racism in America.
Author Alexis Clark did her homework with this book. It is notated thoroughly; in fact, a good 20% of the pages are acknowledgements and bibliography. I learned a lot and am grateful for her diligence. I feel like Elinor’s and Frederick’s story itself is merely a lead-in to the real truth of this book – the deep prejudice that has existed in the history of our country and is still prevalent today. After reading it, I feel a deep depression that we have allowed, and continue to allow, such hate, ignorance and intolerance to be an ingrained part of America’s culture.
As to the story of Elinor and Frederick, I would give this 3 stars. I felt that part of the book, while interesting, was not the main focus and the title was somewhat misleading in this regard. The rest of the book was fascinating.
Thanks to NetGalley and The New Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Reviewed March 2018
House of Black and Blue 