Crystal City Internment Camp Analysis

Earl G. Harrison the commissioner of the INS was on a mission to find the perfect location for the establishment of the very first family camp. In his searching he came across government owned land in rural and isolated Crystal City, Texas. This old migrant camp was geographically the ideal location for the establishment of the family camp. The location was both strategically far enough from both the East and West Coast, and it was close enough to house the transported families from Latin America. On December 12, 1942, thirty-five German families that were being held at Ellis Island and Camp Forest entered the unfinished camp in Crystal City, the camp was officially opened. Harrison placed Joseph O’Rourke who had previously worked at the Seagoville camp, as officer in charge at Crystal City.
Under O’Rourke’s command and the labor of German and Japanese internees he reconstructed the old migrant camp into the largest internment camp in the nation. The Crystal City Enemy Detention Facility was in total 290 acres, and consisted of 500 buildings, with a variety of living units that all had heaters, kerosene ranges,
In a video created by the INS in 1945 that highlights the life inside Crystal City Internment Camp it stated that the camp was equipped with electricity, plumbing, and running water throughout. All housing units were provided with daily milk deliveries, ice boxes, linens, chairs, and some even had their own toilets. Crystal City was seen as the model camp of all camps, however there were underlining reasons as to why internees in Crystal City had it so much better than others, and that reasoning was a part of the whole bigger picture of what really happened within the camp. Officials knew that how they treated the internees here could have a direct effect on how American POW’s and American’s being held in Japan and Germany were being