Post by Anja on Mar 13, 2005 17:28:10 GMT -5
aqui.
www.wfa-usa.org/new/germanamer.htm
Robert Prager moved to the United States from Dresden, Germany, in 1905 and felt a strong sense of loyalty to the United States when war was declared on his homeland in 1917. Working as a miner just outside of Collinsville, Illinois, Prager applied for membership into the local miners union, but was denied because he was suspected to be a German agent who was plotting to blow up the mine in which he worked. After reading a statement pleading Prager's case for membership into the union, a group of local miners forced Prager to show his patriotism by parading through the streets of Collinsville while kissing the American flag and singing the Star Spangled Banner. After being taken into police custody for safety purposes earlier that evening, Prager was found once again by the now drunken and hostile mob and forced back into the streets. The mob marched Prager just outside of town where he was to meet his fate in the early morning of April 5, 1918. The mob threw a rope over a tree branch and tightened the noose around Prager's neck. Over two hundred people watched the murder of this innocent German-American while not trying to stop the culprits. The police stopped following the mob once they reached the city limits because they had come to the edge of their jurisdiction.[1] Upon learning of the incident, the local chief of police in Collinsville had this to say, "In one way I believe it is a good thing they got Prager. If he had been spirited away by the police I believe the mob would have vented its rage by hanging two or three Collinsville persons who have been suspected of Disloyalty." [2]
contd on website...
www.wfa-usa.org/new/germanamer.htm
Robert Prager moved to the United States from Dresden, Germany, in 1905 and felt a strong sense of loyalty to the United States when war was declared on his homeland in 1917. Working as a miner just outside of Collinsville, Illinois, Prager applied for membership into the local miners union, but was denied because he was suspected to be a German agent who was plotting to blow up the mine in which he worked. After reading a statement pleading Prager's case for membership into the union, a group of local miners forced Prager to show his patriotism by parading through the streets of Collinsville while kissing the American flag and singing the Star Spangled Banner. After being taken into police custody for safety purposes earlier that evening, Prager was found once again by the now drunken and hostile mob and forced back into the streets. The mob marched Prager just outside of town where he was to meet his fate in the early morning of April 5, 1918. The mob threw a rope over a tree branch and tightened the noose around Prager's neck. Over two hundred people watched the murder of this innocent German-American while not trying to stop the culprits. The police stopped following the mob once they reached the city limits because they had come to the edge of their jurisdiction.[1] Upon learning of the incident, the local chief of police in Collinsville had this to say, "In one way I believe it is a good thing they got Prager. If he had been spirited away by the police I believe the mob would have vented its rage by hanging two or three Collinsville persons who have been suspected of Disloyalty." [2]
contd on website...
