During World War II, Elinor Powell, an African American nurse, joined up with the racially segregated military in Jim Crow-era Arizona. The discrimination she encountered compounded after she fell deeply in love with Frederick Albert, a German prisoner of war to whom she ended up being assigned. Journalist Alexis Clark told the NewsHour Weekend’s Ivette Feliciano in regards to the couple’s unlikely story and her guide, “Enemies in appreciate.”
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IVETTE FELICIANO:
German soldier Frederick Albert was captured in Italy in 1944 and taken up to a prisoner of war camp in Arizona where he came across African American nurse, Elinor Powell.
IVETTE FELICIANO:
So just how did they satisfy? And what is the whole story of their courtship?
ALEXIS CLARK:
Frederick, who was a cook that is great and a baker, worked in a mess hallway. And, evidently, he saw Elinor for the first-time and he moved right as much as her and said, “You ought to know my title. I’m the person who’s going to marry you.”
IVETTE FELICIANO:
Also it ended up being all smooth sailing from here?
ALEXIS CLARK:
Well, she had been shocked, needless to say. After all, listed here is this prisoner that is german of, you understand, hitting on her. Broad daylight. And that he was, you know, trying to court her so it was obvious.