Embassy Staffs of belligerent nations

A-58 · #1 (**permalink**) February 23rd, 2009, 05:46 AM

I was watching "Tora Tora Tora" just now and saw something that I didn't think about before. What happens to the embassy staff (diplomats, staff, guards, family, etc) when war is declared? Do they all get chunked into a concentration camp, sent home (by what means, war has been declared) or what? Just wondering. As always, thanks for any and all help in the matter.

TiredOldSoldier · #2 (**permalink**) February 23rd, 2009, 07:01 AM

I believe they still enjoy diplomatc immunity and are sent home through some "neutral" line of comunications.

brndirt1 · #3 (**permalink**) February 23rd, 2009, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

I believe they still enjoy diplomatc immunity and are sent home through some "neutral" line of comunications.

I believe you have it correct here, if not using a neutral nation's shipping then a Red Cross ship could be and were used in the exchange of diplomatic personell. Those in "non-embassy" stations, such as those on Hawaii were "detained in house arrest" until transportation could be arranged for them. At least that is how I remember reading of the situation at the time.

texson66 · #4 (**permalink**) February 23rd, 2009, 04:07 PM

From Wikipedia:

"After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kurusu was interned in the United States at Hot Springs, Virginia [10], until the United States and Japan negotiated an exchange of their diplomatic personnel and citizens. In June 1942, Kurusu sailed to Mozambique on board the ocean liner Gripsholm, which then brought back American ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew and other Americans who had been interned in Japan. Following the Allied victory in Japan, the American military tribunal elected in February, 1946, not to prosecute either Kurusu or Nomura [11]."

Sounds like it took a while, but the exchange was done,

DocCasualty · #5 (**permalink**) February 23rd, 2009, 04:42 PM

I ran across this on Google Answers with its associated citings:

Quote:

Subject: Re: Closure of the US Embassy in Berlin (WW2)... When?
Answered By: answerfinder-ga on 01 Jan 2004 09:43 PST
Rated:

Dear Bryan,The ambassador was withdrawn on 16 November 1938. The Charge d'Affairwas then responsible for US interests in Germany.On 11 December 1941 Germany declared war on the US. All staff wereordered to report at the embassy at 8 a.m., 14 December 1941. Therethey found it occupied by the Gestapo. They were all then interreduntil April the following year.The First and Third Secretaries in the embassy at that time both referto the small number of staff. Some of the staff including secretaries,were American citizens, but there is one reference to a German JewishSecretary. There is also mention of the fear of microphones andconversations being overhead, so German nationals must still have hadaccess to the building at this time and would be suspected of plantingthem (my thoughts).Sources:Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum"Relations with Germany also suffered as a consequence of Nazibehavior at home. On November 16, 1938, for example, U.S. Secretary ofState Cordell Hull recalled the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Hugh R.Wilson, in protest over "Kristallnacht" -- the Nazi pogrom against theJews. The Germans responded in kind, and from this date forward, untilthe German declaration of war on the United States on December 11,1941, matters at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and the German Embassy inWashington were handled by the two nation's respective Charged'Affairs."Sourcehttp://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/german1.htmlUS State Department ? Ambassadors to Germany"Name: Hugh R. Wilson State of Residency: Illinois Foreign Service officer Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Appointment: Jan 17, 1938 Presentation of Credentials: Mar 3, 1938 Termination of Mission: Left post, Nov 16, 1938 Note: Commissioned to Germany. Note: During the period 1938-1941 each of the following served asCharg d?Affaires ad interim: Alexander C. Kirk (May 1939-Oct 1940)and Leland B. Morris (Oct 1940-Dec 1941). Morris was serving as Charg d?Affaires ad interim when Germany declared war on the United StatesDec 11, 1941."Sourcehttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10636.htmFrom the web site: Traces"TRACES is a non-profit educational organization created to gather,preserve and present stories of people from the Midwest and Germany orAustria who encountered each other during World War II."The life of George F Kennan.George F. Kennan, first secretary to the ambassador in Berlin from1939 to his internment in 1941 and release five months later. (Kennanlater became a successful post-war diplomat and writer)"....he soon discovered that the U.S. embassy in Germany ?was faced atthat moment with formidable administrative problems for which thedepartment had made no adequate provisions.? Besides attending to theconcerns of U.S. Americans in Germany and representing Washington inthe German capital, the embassy had accepted many of the formerresponsibilities of the French and British embassies: ?the protectionof their nationals, their diplomatic property, their prisoners of war,and the tasks connected with the exchange of their official personnel.And in addition to this? Kennan noted, ?there were many new problemsaffecting American interests themselves.? In short, the U.S. embassybecame overwhelmed by the diplomatic concerns and duties of war.""....Under such conditions the U.S. embassy?s job of executing itsmyriad duties became nearly impossible. Kennan commented that ?gettingnight-duty personnel back and forth between their homes and theembassy and in meeting couriers and other travelers who arrived atnight at remote suburban stations [as long-distance trains haddiscontinued service into the city after the British began bombingBerlin] can easily be imagined. They were heightened by the fact? hecomplained, ?that when the war began the embassy possessed not asingle official vehicle, nor would the government buy it one.?Instead, Alexander Kirk, the embassy?s charge d?affaires?contemptuously? purchased with his own money a Renault and a smallluggage trailer."And on the closing of the embassy"....On Sunday morning, 14 December all staff and their familiescollected at the embassy ?only to find the building, inside and out,already guarded by members of the Gestapo, and ourselves theirprisoners.? Then, the entire assemblage moved by bus and rail to BadNauheim, near Frankfurt am Main."Source http://www.traces.org/georgefkennan.htmlSome of his letters for this period appear at http://www.traces.org/kennansletters.html&e=912Kennan wrote several books and the answer may appear in his memoirs.Sketches from Life by George F Kennan "Early diary entries fitfully record his bleak stays in Berlin andMoscow in the 1930s and '40s" (extract from the review of the book)Sourcehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394575040?v=glanceTruman LibraryOral History Interview with Perry Laukhuff, third secretary, AmericanEmbassy, Berlin, 1940-41"My secretary in the Embassy was a German woman who was a Jewess andwhose bitterness and despair day-by-day grew deeper and were terribly,you know, sad. She disappeared during the war (after we left). I'msure she and her husband were taken off to be liquidated. No one everknew what happened to them. I think without exception, at the Embassy,we were tremendously anti-Germany and pro-Allied, but of course, wedidn't show that in our official dealings so much.""We had allied real estate all over Europe from Norway to Greece, totry to handle by mail and see that there were caretakers and theproperty was taken care of and the bills were paid and all that sortof thing, and it was a hopeless job; we had a very small staff to dealwith this."Sourcehttp://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/laukhuff.htmLeipzig ConsulateHowever, as U.S.-German relations deteriorated in the late 1930s andWorld War II spread across globe, the Nazi authorities ordered theclosure of the Leipzig consulate general, which shut down on July 10,1941.http://www.usembassy.de/consular/leipzig/cghiste.htm

Sorry for the hard to read nature of this. "Copy and Paste" didn't quite work like I thought it would. It's located here Google Answers: Closure of the US Embassy in Berlin (WW2)... When? and easier to read.

TiredOldSoldier · #6 (**permalink**) February 24th, 2009, 06:31 AM

Sending back diplomats was just one area where the combattants generally played it by the book. Contrary to general opinion WW2 was not always total war and there are a lot of surprising episodes of "gentleman agreements" between combattants.
The following picture is the Italian ship Duilio that was used in 1942 to carry civilians from Ethiopia and Abyssinia back to Italy under one such special agreement (and as the British did not allow it to go through the Suez canal some pretty complexarrangements for refueling had to be made). red_cross.jpg