Dr. Kimberly Kontag, a New Ulm native and author of the non-fiction book Where the Clouds Meet the Water, talks about how her German-Ecuadorian grandfather and father were deported to Germany during World War II and how they ended up. I will tell you about the circumstances leading up to my return to Japan.
NEW ULM – New Ulm native Dr. Kimberly Kontag told her family’s story about a secret government program that relocated her family from Ecuador to Germany during World War II.
Kontag shared the family’s story Friday at a German Bohemian Association meeting at the New Ulm Country Club. This story was the subject of a nonfiction book written by Kontag called “Where Clouds Meet Water.”
The book details how her Ecuadorian-born grandfather, Ernesto Kontag, and his children were forced to immigrate to Germany during World War II.
Dr. Contag said the book was the most exciting project he has ever worked on, not only because it is about his family, but also because so few people knew about U.S. interference with people of German descent living in Latin America.
In 1942, the Inter-American Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the conference, the United States urged Latin American countries to take measures to isolate people of German, Italian, and Japanese descent. Several South American countries were encouraged to create blacklists of individuals living in their country who had family members from Axis countries. This included the Contag family.
Dr. Kontag explained that her great-grandfather Oscar Kontag emigrated from German Prussia in 1903 and settled in Ecuador with his wife in 1905. By 1917, Oscar Contag had died, but he had several children born in Ecuador. Among them was Dr. Kontag’s grandfather Ernesto, who grew up in Quito. By the start of World War II, Ernest Kontag was in the import-export business and had four children.
In February 1942, Ernesto was blacklisted by the Ecuadorian government. He was considered a potential danger to the United States, resulting in his business being shut down and him and his four children being expelled from Ecuador.
Kontag said her father, Karl Heinz, was 11 years old when his family was deported from Ecuador because of his German heritage. None of his family had ever lived in Germany, but they were considered a potential threat.
“Many of these [deported] People were born in these countries and their parents were born in these countries,” Dr. Kontag said. “How many generations ago were you not part of this country?”
On May 6, 1942, the family was rounded up and moved in rail cars and sent to the coast. They traveled by boat along the coast of Ecuador through the Panama Canal to New Orleans. From there, the family was sent by train to a concentration camp in the United States. The Contag family was sent to the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. In 1942, there were more than 1,000 deportees at the hotel. The government began calling them “bargain nationals.” The government could exchange them for individuals held by the Axis powers. Eventually, the Contag family was sent to Nazi-occupied Germany. When they arrived in Germany, Ernest was unable to stay with his children or keep them all together. Having lost his husband, he had to work full time to support his family abroad. The Contag children were sent to Potsdam without a father.
Dr. Contag’s father, Karl-Heinz, had to join the German Youth Corps at the age of 12. The Contag family had to work hard to survive in Germany and to integrate.
“These four children, whose first language is Spanish, needed to learn enough German to pass as Germans in a completely unfamiliar country,” said Dr. Kontag.
Although they were not apart during the war, the Kontag family was rarely together: the children lived in different households, and Karl-Heinz had to move several times due to air raids.
Before the war ended, Ernest Kontag lost track of his eldest son Karl Henitz. When the war ended, Ernest was forced to leave Germany with his three other children for France, but he intended to return for Karl Henitz.
In 1946, most of the Contag family was staying in a refugee camp in France. Ernesto eventually finds out where Karl Heinz is staying in Germany. He was able to cross the border and leave Germany in an ambulance. He was eventually reunited with his family at a refugee camp.
After the war ended, the Contag family was able to return to the Americas, first to the United States and then back to Ecuador, where Karl Heinz was able to change his name back to Carlos.
The return to Ecuador was bittersweet for the Contag family. Ernesto Contag’s import-export business had long since gone out of business, and there was little work for him in Ecuador. He took a job as a farm manager, again separating him from his children.
Dr. Kontag said that while her family was able to return to Ecuador after being deported, many were unable to return and many lost everything.
“No detainees have been convicted of war crimes against the United States,” Dr. Kontag said.
Dr. Kontag’s father would eventually immigrate to the United States to study veterinary medicine. He received a scholarship to veterinary school in Ames, Iowa. There he met and married a woman from New Ulm, Minnesota. He ends up moving to New Ulm with her. Some people present at the German Bohemian Association meeting recalled that Carlos Kontag visited their farms to inspect the animals.
Dr. Kimberly Contag herself is a 1976 graduate of New Ulm High School.
Dr. Kontag said the best part about writing a book about his family and sharing his story is that people from all over the world contact him.
“The wonderful thing is [people] “I’m reading this book about someone who ended up in New Ulm,” she said. Copies of her book are downloaded all over the world, allowing people to learn parts of history they don’t necessarily know.
“That’s the best part,” she said.
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