Living and Working in an Internment Camp

Living and Working in an Internment Camp. . , Crystal Care Family Internment Camp was staffed by local civilian employees in secretarial and clerical positions, civilian nurses and doctors, a professional cadre of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) administrators and Border Patrolmen. Later in the war, the INS employed local men from Crystal City as guards. J.L. O'Rourke was the officer in charge. Under O'Rourke internment camp functions were allocated to several key divisions: the Administrative Service, Surveillance, Internal Security and Internal Relations [originally called the Liaison Division], Maintenance, Construction and Repair, Education, and Medical., The Third Geneva Convention, Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929), also applied toward the treatment of Enemy Aliens interned in INS camps, monitored by the International Red Cross. These provisions applied to the amount of food, living space, and clothing that each internee received, often better than the housing and living conditions of the rationing public in Zavala County. To comply with international law and promote as positive an environment as possible, the INS designed the internment camp much like a small community with numerous buildings for food stores, auditoriums, warehouses, administration offices and a 70-bed hospital, places of worship, a post office, bakery, barber shop, beauty shop, school system, a Japanese Sumo wrestling ring, and a German beer garten. Internees printed four camp newspapers: the Crystal City Times (English), the Jiji Kai (Japanese), Los Andes (Spanish) and Das Lager (German)., In accordance with the Third Geneva Convention, no internee had to perform manual labor against their will. For those who wanted to work, they could earn 10 cents per hour up to a maximum of $4 per week. Jobs ranged from store clerks, hospital staff, librarians, laundry workers, shoe repairmen, furniture and mattress factory positions, janitors, barbers, and beauticians. Select internees worked in the INS administration offices. Internees with agricultural experience worked in the camp’s internal orange orchard, vegetable gardens, and the surrounding agricultural fields dedicated to the camp. In an effort to prevent internees from stockpiling cash in the event of an escape attempt, camp scrip was issued to internees., The camp scrip was pressed paper and plastic tokens that resembled coins or poker chips, but were not legal tender., Note: there were no reported escape attempts, successful or otherwise, from Crystal City Family Internment Camp.