AN UNLIKELY ROMANCE

  In 1944 a German soldier named named Frederick Albert was captured in Italy and transported to an American POW camp in Arizona. Frederick was a good cook and a baker. He was working in the mess hall one day when a beautiful American Army nurse walked in. You might call it love at first sight because he boldly walked up to her and said "You should know my name. I'm the man who's going to marry you.". If Elinor Powell had been White this kind of boldness would have been shocking enough but this was a German soldier hitting on Black woman in broad daylight in Jim Crow Arizona.

  Both Frederick and Elinor were from prominent families. Frederick was from a wealthy German family. Although his family never joined the Nazi Party they were staunch nationalists and believed in Hitler. Hitler rated racial groups from the most superior to the most inferior. The Aryan or Germanic race topped the list. Blacks were next to the bottom and the only race considered lower were the Jews. Frederick, however; was an artist and he loved American jazz. Because jazz was considered ethnic music it was outlawed in Germany. Frederick found a way to listen to it anyway. He considered Blacks to be artistic and he imagined them to be warm and affectionate. Affection was something that was lacking in his own family. He had a dysfunctional relationship with his father who was a WW1 veteran. Frederick was a free spirit. He wasn't into things military and he didn't believe in the war but he became a paratrooper in order to impress his father. In America, through the cultural bridge of music genres such as jazz, country and soul music American attitudes toward race were changing.

  Elinor was from Milton Massachusetts which was a Boston suburb. She was four years older than Frederick. Elinor was born in 1921 and Frederick in 1925. Milton was considered progressive for the time. She attended White schools, had White friends, and was from an educated family. She knew about discrimination but was secluded from it. That is until she joined the Army. Black soldiers were not allowed to eat in White restaurants. German POW's were. Black soldiers were segregated from White soldiers and White facilities both on post and off. They were used mostly as support troops because many White commanders didn't believe Black troops would make good combat soldiers. At first Black women were not accepted as nurses. The Army wanted White nurses but because of demand, Black women were finally allowed to serve as nurses. The Army, however; did not want them around White American soldiers. This is why Elinor was caring for German soldiers in a POW camp. There were two types of German soldiers in the camp. Soldiers like Frederick and hard core Nazi's who treated the Black nurses badly.

  Frederick and Elinor fell in love and somehow managed to find time to be together. Elinor was an Army officer and if caught could have been court martialed and imprisoned. They couldn't get married because of miscegenation laws in Arizona. At the end of the war all German POW's were deported. They decided that the best way to reunite after the war was if she became pregnant. She conceived his child and returned home to Massachusetts. Because they had a child together she was able to obtain a sponsorship of Frederick and he returned to America in 1947. They were married in New York where interracial marriage was legal.

  They moved around a lot because it was hard to rent since few people wanted to live next door to an interracial couple. Frederick couldn't get a job and the couple decided to try their luck in Germany. He hoped to be groomed to take over his fathers business one day. The move turned out to be a disaster. His mother did not like the fact that her son was married to a Black woman and she was very blunt about it to Elinor. After a year and a half they returned to America. This time they settled in Philadelphia but they again encountered racism when their son was not allowed to go to a White school. Finally, they settled in community in South Norwalk Connecticut named Village Creek. A community that advertised itself as a prejudiced free zone. Frederick was able to find a job, because of his experience as a cook at Pepperidge Farm. He and Elinor lived the rest of their lives there and had two sons together. Frederick died in 2001 and Elinor in 2005.