Sr. Gertrude Maria Schroeder, Internee 2

Sister Gertrude Maria was born in Germany.“I was born in Rostock, Germany on July 12, 1923. Karl Rudolph Schroeder was my dad and Helena Kayser was my mother. I was just short of six years old when my family arrived in Hawaii. We sailed an Alrange ship from Vancouver and arrived at 3 p.m. on June 6th, 1929. It’s a date that I just remember.”

(The photo above is of Lincoln School in the 1930's. The photo below is of the current Lincoln School.)

Gertrude's mother was a Catholic, her father was not.She told me, "When I was a kid my dad wanted me to go to Lincoln School. My mother had her eye on Sacred Hearts Academy. The academy was quite expensive, but my mother kept harping on it, and finally mother won. I entered Sacred Hearts Academy in 1929."

However, sister's stay at Sacred Hearts Academy was not continuous. It was broken by a three-year period (1936-1939)when she returned to live in Germany. She believes it was this time in Germany, and her friendship with Japanese students at University of Hawaii that was the reason for her internment.

In the 1930’s, Karl Schroeder was the caretaker of the community’s Nuuanu estate. At that time there was a kindergarten class held there during the day but there was no one there in the evening, so Mr. Schroeder was hired to oversee the estate. Gertrude lived there until 1936, when at age thirteen, she returned to Germany.

“My mother had been ill and we went to Germany for her treatment but my father remained in Hawaii.” Shortly after Gertrude and her mother returned to Hawaii, her mother died.

Gertrude returned to Sacred Hearts and went on to the University of Hawaii. Although she had graduated from Sacred Hearts, she lived at the convent while she was a univerity student. (Remember her mother died in 1939.) Farrington Hall, University of Hawaii, circa 1940

Sister recalled, “On the morning of December 7, I was at Mass, sitting in a back pew. Looking up through the window, I could see planes spiraling overhead and when Mass was over I wanted to go up to the third floor to see what was going on, but a sister stopped me and said I wasn’t allowed.” Gertrude asked the sister why not. “Then she told me there was a war on.”

That night a territory-wide blackout was imposed; no lights could be visible. (While on the Neighbor Islands the enforcement was not as stringent, in the Honolulu area it was exact.) According to Catholic tradition, a candle lights the Blessed Sacrament continually. The mother of the convent, Mother Louise kept to tradition and didn't extinguish the candle in the sisters' chapel.

When an air raid warden told her the candle had to be put out, she tried to explain her reasoning, but the warden wasn't having any of it. According to the community journal Mother Louise "moved the candle under the altar, but the flame shone through the stained glass window,” and Sister Julie Louise remembers hearing a loudspeaker outside, “Corner of Sixth and Waialae, get that light off!”

Mother Louise moved the candle again, but it still could be seen. After the third warning from the warden, she extinguished the candle.

Sister Gertrude Maria remembers, “The night of December 7, a young secretary from one of the military bases spent the night with us. She knew one of the sisters and asked if she could stay at the convent. She had seen the bombing and was so afraid she cowered at the clap of any loud noise. The woman couldn’t even stay in a room by herself so the sisters put her in with me. During the night, she held my hand any time there was a loud noise. The next day in the paper there was news that the Japanese had landed behind St. Louis College."

(The Honolulu Advertiser ran the headline Sabotuers Land Here! on December 8, 1941. They did not put out a paper on December 7, 1941. They'll be more on that later.)