More Family History

     I recently did a little more research into my family, especially on my mom's side. I learned that after they came over from Germany five generations ago, my great-great grandparents settled in small German towns in North Dakota. We learned in class how the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants formed Chinatowns, Japantowns, and Koreatowns but I found it interesting that my ancestors did something similar. The town that they settled in, along with the majority of the neighboring towns were completely German. All of the residents spoke German so all business for the most part was conducted in German. I also learned that my grandparent's generation was the first to learn English in the schools. My grandfather, along with his 12 siblings were all taught German at home and only learned English once they started attending school. They brought some of the English that they were learning home with them so my great-grandparents did learn some English but they never stopped speaking German. I also found it interesting that the teaching of the German language and traditions stopped with my grandpa's generation. Neither he nor his siblings taught any of their children how to speak German and many of the cultural traditions were lost as well over time. We're not really sure why this happened but we think it probably had to due with World War II. Many German immigrants were ashamed of their heritage during and even after the war so they wanted their Children to assimilate to American culture so that they would have a better chance of not facing discrimination for being German. They probably heard about what was happening with the Japanese and the internment camps and were scared of having the same done to them. While I understand why this may be the case for the loss of German tradition in my family, I do wish that I knew more about my heritage or could speak the language like my ancestors did.