Based on your knowledge of America's homefront during World War II and the author's statement about his father, what do you think MOST likely happened to the Shmitz family?

A) The Shmitz family was deported from the United States and sent back to Germany.
B) Mr. Shmitz was drafted into the Army and sent to the Pacific theater to fight against the Japanese.
C) Mr. Shmitz was drafted into the Army and sent to the European theater to fight against the Germans.
D) The Shmitz family was detained and sent to an internment camp because they were perceived as a potential threat to national security.

The correct answer is D. During World War II, the Shmitz family (of German origins) was most likely detained and sent to an internment camp because they were perceived as a potential threat to national security, as a result of the Executive Order 9066.

Explanation:

The Executive Order 9066, issued on 19 February 1942 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, decreed that all residents of the United States of Japanese, German and Italian origin, even if born on American soil, had to to be locked up in internment camps.

At the base of this action there was, officially, the justification of the state of belligerency in place with the Axis countries, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. At the end of the war over 120,000 US citizens of Japanese, Italian and German descent, including women and children, were interned in concentration camps.