Sr. Gertrude Maria Schroeder, Internee, 3

Sister Gertrude Maria recalls, "I went to Benediction. Sister Mary was in charge of the door. As I was walking back from the chapel to the dorm, Sister Mary came to me and said that there was a man waiting for me in the parlor. The man was wearing a Honolulu Police Department brown uniform."

Sister Gertrude Maria explained, “Since I was a German citizen and had to periodically register with the Immigration Service I had been expecting the police to come to verify my papers but the police officer didn’t ask for my papers, he asked if I would accompany but did not say to where. I asked him if I would be home for supper and he assured me I would. I then went to my room to get my purse, my alien card and a warm jacket. It was fortuitous that I took my jacket because Fort Armstrong was cold at night. Those were the only clothes I had with me for my seven weeks of internment. I could still visualize the skirt; it was red-plaid.”

The sisters’ community journal entry for December 9, reads, “A police officer came to get Gertrude Erika Schroeder. We did not even have time to notify Mother Henriette. When we did, Mother called the Chief of Police who tried to reassure her that Gertrude was in good hands and no harm would come to her. Mother sought the intervention of men of influence in order to return the child.”

Sr. Gertrude recalls, “As I walked away, I could see the sister gathered on the third floor looking down. When I got in the police car I saw an elderly woman and a I recognized a young women from the University of Hawaii. The young woman was in labor, it was apparent. In the car behind us I saw a professor of English from the university. He was a pro-Hitler German. He knew I had lived in Germany and my parents and I were all German citizens. I avoided any association with him while I was at the university. I’m not sure what happened to him."

According to the community journal, “It would take seven weeks of negotiations with the Western Defense Command and the fervent prayers of the Rev. Mother Louise Henriette and her nuns before the little girl [Gertrude Schroeder] was released from Camp Sand Island.”

In fact, Gertrude Schroeder was never sent to the Sand Island camp, but she was interned at Fort Armstrong.

Sister Gertrude Maria continued with her story, “When we were let out of the car we were at a building with a long line of people in front of it. No one spoke. When I got to the front of the line, I was ready to show my alien card. But when I showed the police officer my card, he took my purse, my papers, my passport and my nail clippers. I remember being upset that he took my nail clippers and voiced my concern as if I were oblivious to the fact that there were soldiers with guns guarding us.”

From there, Gertrude Schroeder got in line with several other women to go up the stairs to an open dormitory. “There were only bare beds in the room. I spotted a wooden box and dragged it to the window to calculate where I was. I saw the Our Lady of Peace Cathedral and Iolani Palace, so I knew I was near the harbor. Across the courtyard from my buiding was the male dormitory. The men in the windows could see in our rooms, something I did not appreciate.”