Loyalty: Two Sides to Every Story

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

There are always two (or more) sides to every story.

Recently I wrote two articles of opposing perspectives about WWI.  One was written for my The County Times newspaper column and is based on the war experience and life of a WWI American soldier from Algoma named Quiren Groessl.

I wrote the other story by request for the Kewaunee County Historical Society Historical Notes newsletter as an alternative viewpoint to an article the publisher had written about anti-German sentiment in Kewaunee County during WWI.

Although it is not directly related to this story, for the purposes of my family history blog, I want to note that my family had soldiers on both sides of the war.  My great grandfather, Georg Scheitzach, served in the German military from 1902 in a train battalion through 1918 as a non-commissioned officer, a captain in a squadron in the German army reserves.  My great uncle Cyril Tracy was an American soldier, a private from a small town in northern Wisconsin.

Here are two perspectives.

Remember When

Corporal Quiren “Squeegee” M. Groessl earned the nickname “Big Boy” on the WWI battlefield in France when he took on three German soldiers at once and lived to tell about it.  Groessl returned home to Algoma a war hero, but more importantly--after time and reflection--found himself to be a much wiser man than when he entered the service.     

Quiren Groessl

Groessl of the Fighting Fifth of Door County and Algoma, 28^th Infantry came home disabled by a German soldier’s bayonet.  After he was captured by three Germans who were marching him to their line, he made up his mind that he might just as well be dead as spend the rest of the war studying German. 

At an opportune moment, as shells from the American line screamed overhead, Groessl pretended to fall and, with a trench knife he had hidden in his pants, struck the man on his left in the neck.  He grabbed that soldier’s weapon and hit the man on the right in the face with the butt of the rifle.  The man behind him stuck him with a bayonet, cutting Groessl across his back, then made a guttural noise and fell over backward, dead. 

Groessl crawled across no man’s land to reach his own company.  A French doctor operated and stitched him up and Corporal Groessl was sent to a hospital in France to recover from severe nerve damage, paralysis, and loss of the use of his right arm.  Later, he was shipped to an American hospital.

Back in the U.S., no one came to visit soldiers recovering in the hospital; they were virtually ignored.  When released, Groessl was taken to rallies to speak to encourage people to buy war bonds.  He found himself telling lies to parents of soldiers who asked if he knew their sons.  Although he knew none of the soldiers, he said, “Yes, they were well when I last saw them.”    

   

Quiren Groessl stepped off the train upon his return to Algoma to the sound of a band, school children, his family, the mayor of Algoma, and people waving and shouting.   

Newspapers claimed that “Big Boy” Groessl was eager to get back into the fight.  Before he had even recovered, they wrote that Soldier Groessl was ready to take another crack at “Fritz”.

Just settled at home, he was again sought to get people to buy war bonds.  The Liberty Loan Committee from Kewaunee encouraged him to speak at a meeting to a capacity crowd.  He was also asked to visit an influential German farmer to convince the farmer to buy bonds so others would follow suit. 

The committee members with him soon got to the point with the farmer and began using threats, telling the farmer he would be run out of the county and that his home and barn would be burned to the ground.  Groessl was ashamed that he had gone with them and disgusted by the extortion and blackmail.  It was the last visit or speech he made.   

For the rest of his long life, Groessl had time to reflect on his war experience and how it impacted him and the community he lived in. 

Quiren Groessl’s diary describes how America’s entry into the war changed everything in Kewaunee County.  At first anti-German sentiment was not too noticeable, “but gradually like a cancer it grew insidiously from a whisper here, and a subtle remark there.  A name spoken of derisively…  Before much longer many more people of German ancestry were automatically suspect… And as time went on, the few grew in numbers.”

Groessl learned that in times of war there were those who considered themselves 100% American--the super-patriots who became suspicious of everyone else.  They could do no wrong but believed that everyone else could. 

To the super-patriots, it didn’t matter that Groessl’s German father had lived a decent life and raised a good family in the U.S. or that Groessl had voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army.  He, an American, had been summoned to the courthouse to be questioned about his citizenship and loyalty to his country. 

The press stirred sentiment with statements like “The German machine-made soldier is inferior to the young, virile, resourceful American.”  The papers helped create a pro-American, anti-German mentality.

Groessl wrote in his pre-war diary that the Algoma community was “made up of all nationalities, blending together, inter-marrying and working and playing together to make a better life for all.”  What could turn a man who was the son of a German immigrant father and German relatives and friends into one ready to take on the Germans?  Propaganda. 

“Squeegee” realized that he and his fellow soldiers were like babes in the woods.  “We came over to France to fight a war that we knew nothing about.” 

He and his buddies saw their friends shot and blown away.  They grew hardened.  He wrote, “I honestly didn’t know that any human being could see and experience these things and come away from a war in his right mind.”  They lived in constant fear of death and weren’t sure how much more they could take. 

Their eyes were opened.  They had been exposed to bands playing, flags flying, and precision marching at home.  Brightly colored posters showing victorious armies were part of the propaganda to appeal to American youth.  He wrote that it had been aimed at the younger generation who, because of their youth, inexperience, and gullibility, had not been made mistrustful of the half-truths being fed to them.  “Wars were started by old men and fought by young men,” he concluded.

He had been conditioned to do what men had done before him--to fight a war and perhaps be maimed or die for those who would not try to settle arguments or problems by open discussion but instead by secret treaties. 

Quiren M. Groessl married, became a prominent local citizen, and raised a family.  He adjusted to life with pain and spent many hours in a radio room making more than 20,000 amateur radio contacts and friends in other parts of the world.    He died in August, 1983 at age 87.    


And another perspective...

Loyalty Efforts in Kewaunee County During World War I

As a follow-up to Jerry Abitz’ article, “Anti-German Sentiment in World War I” in the April, 2014 issue of Historical Notes (Vol XXVI, No. 2), this column presents an alternative perspective. 

Stories of savage inhumanities committed by the Huns and threats by Germany to sink American merchant ships filled American newspapers.  Then, a German U-boat sunk the RMS Lusitania killing 1128 people; 128 American lives were lost. 

Meanwhile, a large number of native born and German-born people sympathized with and were extending financial aid to Germany.  Pro-Germans in Kewaunee County had, very enthusiastically, shown sympathy for Germany up until the time the U.S. declared war.  The declaration of war did not cool their ardor for the Kaiser.  They were sullen and outspoken.  Their leaders--mainly among the Lutheran priesthood--were perpetuating support for Germany. 

Pro-German people were so outspoken in the summer of 1917 that some loyal men realized something must be done to curb them.  The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion was organized in Milwaukee.  A local group, the Abraham Lincoln Chapter No. 5, was started in Kewaunee.

Soon, the chapter had over 100 members and arranged a meeting at the Bohemian Opera House.  The building was packed and pro-Germanism received its first setback.  More chapters were organized.  Influential local people like judges and attorneys went into the county to speak at meetings.  This effort built enthusiasm and the Loyalty Legion rose to over 3,000 members.   

Super-patriots were proud they were able to keep disloyal people in line and to reduce pro-German fervor.  They were doing their part to fight the war from the home front.  They were able to get a German banker sent to Fort Oglethorpe for making seditious utterances and to oust another man who did not serve robustly enough on the County Council of Defense.  They proudly created a secret system to keep many disloyal men and women in line.   

Supporters of Germany were costing the U. S. war effort.  The county had not filled its quota for the first Liberty Loan--bonds sold to finance the war.  So, a speakers bureau created publicity and held public meetings.  As a result of their efforts, the 2^nd Liberty Loan bond sale was 200% over goal.    

Patriotic editors needed to spur the spirit of loyalty so the Kewaunee County Press, from its first publication in June, 1918 until the close of the war, featured editorials loyal to the government and anti-German.  

     

Patriotism and loyalty to the United States were critical to building the confidence of soldiers, their families, and the community.  Young men could not be sent to war confused about their loyalty.  Almost weekly, drafted men, including sons of German mothers and fathers, were leaving for the camps.  Court house corridors were crowded with anxious young men and their families, many of them trying to evade the draft or get service deferments.  To assure the safety of the public and troops, those potentially sympathetic to Germany needed to be called in to be questioned about their loyalties.      

It was important that everyone get on board to support the U.S. war effort.  Young men were encouraged to not only serve when called, but to volunteer, young women to write “Dear Soldier” letters and to do Red Cross work.  Everyone was asked to conserve food.  Splintered loyalism did not demonstrate shared sacrifice toward a common cause.          

  

It was everyone’s duty to wholeheartedly support America’s war effort.  “Pro-Germanism” could not be allowed to fester.    

Article Notes:

Food conservation restrictions during WWI per George W. Wing:   One pound of sugar could be purchased per week.  Flour could only be sold if an equal amount of substitutes like cornmeal or oat flour were purchased.  Conservation required three meatless days a week and two wheatless days. 

There were four issues of Liberty Loan bonds during WWI.  The fifth and last was called a Victory Liberty Loan.  (source:  Google.com) 

Article Sources:

Groessl, Quiren M., “Big Boy” A Diary of World War I, American soldier from Algoma, voluntarily enlisted, was the son of a German born father.  Groessl wrote that he and others were called into the Court House to be questioned about their loyalty.  He also referred to local people who were hyper patriotic as “super-patriots”.  Groessl was recruited to speak at war bond rallies after he returned home a war hero having been severely injured when captured by German soldiers in France.    

 

Wing, George W., Memoirs of George W. Wing, “The World’s War”, pgs. 41-48, Personal accounts of his life and family.  A patriotic local attorney and judge, Wing shared his sentiments about the need to quell pro-Germanism in Kewaunee County during WWI and activities he participated in toward that goal.  

Pvt. Cyril J. Tracy (seated center)

        

Evergreen Cemetery Wausaukee, WI