Kenedy Alien Detention Camp Cemetery
Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
During World War II, the U.S. established three internment camps in Texas for alien civilians in the U.S. and Latin America, and one was located in Kenedy. The U.S. repatriated German, Japanese and Italian detainees in trade for American prisoners held overseas. The Kenedy camp opened on April 21, 1942, and over the next 30 months it housed more than 3,500 internees. Five who died while confined in the camp are buried here. The site became a branch P.O.W. camp for Fort Sam Houston from 1944 until 1946. In 1976, the El Cibolo Chapter of the D.A.R. marked the gravesites. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During World War II the United States interned not only its own residents of German, Japanese, and Italian ancestry but also civilians seized from Latin American nations, holding many as bargaining chips to exchange for Americans trapped overseas. The camp at Kenedy opened in April 1942 and passed more than 3,500 internees through its fences over thirty months before becoming a branch prisoner-of-war camp for Fort Sam Houston. Five people who died in confinement lie buried here, their graves marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1976 and the ground designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2005.
Why it matters
This quiet cemetery preserves the memory of a little-known chapter of the WWII home front — the detention and hostage-exchange of civilian 'enemy aliens,' including people forcibly brought from Latin America — a reminder of how wartime fear reshaped the lives of the foreign-born on American soil.
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Related events
- · World War II civilian internment
- · Latin American internment program
Themes & tags
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