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Clark, Alexis

WORK TITLE: Enemies in Love
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
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RESEARCHER NOTES:

LC control no.: n 2017020779
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017020779
HEADING: Clark, Alexis
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370 __ |e New York (N.Y.) |2 naf
372 __ |a Journalism |a Education |2 lcsh
373 __ |a Columbia University. Graduate School of Journalism |2 naf
374 __ |a College teachers |2 lcsh
375 __ |a Females |2 lcdgt
670 __ |a Cathy Graham’s art of the table, 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Alexis Clark) data view (Alexis Clark, a former editor at Town & Country, writes for numerous publications, including Condé Nast Traveler and the New York Times. She is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism)
670 __ |a Clark, Alexis. Enemies in love, 2018: |b ECIP t.p. (Alexis Clark) about the author (an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has written for the New York Times, NBC News Digital, Yahoo, The Root, Condé Nast Traveler, among others. She was previously a senior editor at Town & Country. She lives in New York City)

PERSONAL

Born in TX.

EDUCATION:

Spelman College, B.A.; University of Virginia, master’s degree; Columbia University, graduated.

ADDRESS

  • Home - NY.

CAREER

Editor, educator, and writer. Town & Country, New York, NY, former senior editor; Columbia University, New York, adjunct assistant professor.

AVOCATIONS:

Yoga.

WRITINGS

  • Second Bloom: Cathy Graham's Art of the Table, foreword by Joanna Coles; photography by Quentin Bacon and Andrew Ingalls, Vendome (New York, NY), 2017
  • Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance, New Press (New York, NY), 2018

Contributor of articles to publications, including Condé Nast Traveler and the New York Times. Contributor to websites, including the Root, NBC News Digital, and Yahoo.

SIDELIGHTS

Alexis Clark is a writer, educator, and editor. She holds degrees from Spelman College, Columbia University, and the University of Virginia. Clark previously worked as a senior editor for Town & Country magazine. She is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University. Clark has written articles that have appeared in publications, including the New York Times and Condé Nast Traveler, as well as on websites, including Yahoo, NBC News Digital, and the Root.

In 2018, Clark released Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance. In this volume, she tells the true love story of Elinor Powell and Frederick Albert. In an interview with Bettina Zilkha, contributor to the Forbes website, Clark explained how she came to learn about Powell and Albert’s story. She was researching her ancestor’s military experience, which led her to the book, G.I. Nightingales: The Army Nurse Corps in World War II. Clark told Zilkha: “One line in the book changed everything for me. It mentioned that one black nurse, Elinor Powell, met and later married a German prisoner of war, Frederick Albert, who was detained … where she was stationed. I was hooked immediately. I had to tell their story.” Powell grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, and her family was respected in the community. Segregation did not exist in Milton, so Powell was allowed to attend school with the white children in the town and to socialize with them outside of class. Powell’s father was a soldier in World War I. When World War II broke out, Powell decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and serve her country. She became a nurse and was stationed in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Joining the Army was a jarring experience for Powell because it was the first time in her life that she was forced to endure overt racism. The military segregated its black members. Additionally, Jim Crow laws were in operation in Arizona. Powell was not allowed to eat at certain restaurants or enter bathrooms designated for white people only. However, Powell persisted in her service. When she came to the prisoner of war camp in nearby Florence, AZ, she met Albert, who was assigned to cook in the camp’s mess hall. Albert instantly fell for Powell and approached her to tell her they would marry one day. Powell also felt an attraction to Albert. Over time, they developed a romantic relationship. They knew that Albert would be sent back to Germany soon, so they devised a plan that would allow them to be together. Albert impregnated Powell before he was deported. Powell moved back to Milton with her disappointed mother. When the child was born, Albert was allowed to return to the U.S. to provide for the child and Powell. They went on to have more children and maintained their relationship, even when infidelity threatened to end it.

Regarding the lessons she took away from the research for Enemies in Love, Clark told Karen Grigsby Bates, writer on the National Public Radio website: “I learned that black women served this country during World War II. And I learned about their struggles to be even admitted into the Army Nurse Corps. With that came a strict quota, even though there were nursing shortages. Even though President Roosevelt threatened to draft nurses in January 1944 and 1945, the Army rejected thousands of qualified black nurses!” Clark continued: “They wanted to enlist and they weren’t able to. That was another piece that I found illuminating about the role that blacks have played in the military. And then you have this ‘Love Conquers All’ story between Elinor and Frederick—twenty years before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the Supreme Court.”

Bridget Thoreson, reviewer in Booklist, described Enemies in Love as “a powerful tale of love against all odds.” A Kirkus Reviews critic called it “a footnote in the vast literature of civil rights, but a resonant one.” M.J. Brodie, contributor to the Medium website, commented: “This book is worth reading in dark times like today. If nothing else, it gives us hope that even the worst kind of discrimination and hatred can still give way to lasting love. Without the racism of Jim Crow, Elinor and Frederick would never have been brought together. Elinor would have been deployed to nurse American soldiers at the front, rather than hidden away on an isolated prisoner-of-war camp where she met Frederick.” Brodie concluded: “Despite the sad context to how this couple met, their story is truly a confirmation that ‘love wins’ and that is an uplifting message for our difficult times.” Writing on the From the Inside website, Jade Anna Hughes suggested: “If you are looking to read about a romance with a WW2 backdrop this may not be for you. But if you are interested in learning about parts of WW2 that we never really hear about then you will definitely appreciate Enemies in Love.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

  • Booklist, April 1, 2018, Bridget Thoreson, review of Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance, p. 48.

  • Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of Enemies in Love.

ONLINE

  • Columbia Journalism School website, https://journalism.columbia.edu/ (July 20, 2018), author faculty profile.

  • Forbes Online, https://www.forbes.com/ (May 11, 2018), Bettina Zilkha, author interview.

  • From the Inside, http://www.jadeannahughes.com/ (April 26, 2018), Jade Anna Hughes, review of Enemies in Love.

  • Medium, https://medium.com/ (July 20, 2018), M.J. Brodie, review of Enemies in Love.

  • National Public Radio Online, https://www.npr.org/ (May 27, 2018), Karen Grigsby Bates, author interview.

  • Second Bloom: Cathy Graham's Art of the Table Vendome (New York, NY), 2017
  • Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance New Press (New York, NY), 2018
1. Enemies in love : a German POW, a black nurse, and an unlikely romance LCCN 2017041548 Type of material Book Personal name Clark, Alexis, author. Main title Enemies in love : a German POW, a black nurse, and an unlikely romance / Alexis Clark. Published/Produced New York : The New Press, 2018. Projected pub date 1805 Description pages cm ISBN 9781620971864 (alkaline paper) 1620971860 (alkaline paper) Item not available at the Library. Why not? 2. Second bloom : Cathy Graham's art of the table LCCN 2017016336 Type of material Book Main title Second bloom : Cathy Graham's art of the table / by Alexis Clark ; foreword by Joanna Coles ; photography by Quentin Bacon and Andrew Ingalls. Published/Produced New York : Vendome, [2017] Projected pub date 1111 Description pages cm ISBN 9780865653436 (acid-free paper) CALL NUMBER TX879 .C55 2017 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms
  • Colombia Journalism School - https://journalism.columbia.edu/faculty/alexis-clark

    Alexis Clark
    Adjunct Faculty

    Alexis Clark is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Town & Country, NBC News Digital, Condé Nast Traveler, The Smithsonian Magazine and other publications. Her debut book, Enemies in Love — the true story of a black army nurse who falls in love with a German prisoner of war interned at a camp in a Jim Crow state — was published by The New Press in May 2018. Her book has since been covered by The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, PBS Newshour Weekend, NPR, WNYC Midday, Bloomberg TV, and Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien. Clark first wrote about black nurses and German POWs in WWII for The New York Times (link is external)in 2013 and was awarded multiple research grants from the Ford Foundation. Previously, Alexis was a senior editor at Town & Country covering cultural and philanthropic events across the country, including President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

    Alexis, a Texas native, is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School. She also holds a Master’s degree in Government from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in Political Science from Spelman College. When she’s not writing, she enjoys yoga, British crime dramas and anything on JFK.

    Instagram: abclarknyc (link is external)

    Contact
    Email: abc2002@columbia.edu (link sends e-mail)
    Twitter: @msabclark (link is external)

  • National Public Radio - https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/05/27/555619978/what-happens-when-two-enemies-fall-in-love

    QUOTED: "I learned that black women served this country during World War II. And I learned about their struggles to be even admitted into the Army Nurse Corps. With that came a strict quota, even though there were nursing shortages. Even though President Roosevelt threatened to draft nurses in January 1944 and 1945, the Army rejected thousands of qualified black nurses!"
    "They wanted to enlist and they weren't able to. That was another piece that I found illuminating about the role that blacks have played in the military. And then you have this 'Love Conquers All' story between Elinor and Frederick—twenty years before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the Supreme Court."

    What Happens When Two Enemies Fall In Love?

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    May 27, 20186:00 AM ET
    Karen Grigsby Bates
    KAREN GRIGSBY BATES

    Alexis Clark, author of Enemies in Love
    Julie Skarratt
    A love story between a black Army nurse and a white German POW during World War II? You couldn't make that story up — and Alexis Clark didn't. The former editor at Town & Country is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism. I spoke with her about her new book, Enemies in Love, and what she learned about hidden Army history and the human heart.

    Below is an edited version of our conversation.

    What was the inspiration for this book, what got you rolling?

    I was really interested in the military after I found out that I was a distant relative of Colonel Charles Young. He was the highest ranking African-American in the army until his death in 1922. So I just started delving into African-Americans who served in the military. And I discovered a book called G.I. Nightingales, and it was about World War II nurses. There was a very brief chapter about black women who served in the Army Nurse Corps.

    That's when I first learned about Elinor Powell, and a little sentence that said she met and later married a German prisoner of war in Arizona. I was like, "Wait a minute. I need to unpack this."

    Who was Elinor Powell, and where did she come from?

    Elinor Elizabeth Powell was from a prominent African-American family from Milton, Mass — a progressive suburb outside of Boston. Her family was one of the few black families to settle there. Her father had served in the Great War. So basically, when she joined the Army, she was going in her father's footsteps serving her country. There weren't really any stories of egregious racism in Milton — Elinor was largely shielded from that. She had white friends, and went to white schools, and had a great childhood. So she thought she was doing her patriotic duty enlisting to serve in the war.

    What happened when she was assigned to an intake base in Arizona?

    That was at Fort Huachuca, about an hour and a half outside Tucson. And it was her first encounter with Jim Crow. The military at the time was entirely segregated, and Arizona functioned under Jim Crow. So this was her first experience seeing "Whites Only" and "Colored" signs. It was this great irony — she is serving her country, fighting a war against fascism and racism — and here she was on the receiving end by her own country! She realized that she couldn't even get served at certain restaurants; she would be wearing her military uniform and they wouldn't serve her. Or in some instances, they would tell her, "Well, we'll bring you the food around back..."

    She must have been outraged. Did other black soldiers feel the same way?

    When I was doing my research, I would read various letters that black soldiers wrote to the NAACP, complaining that here they are serving their military and they're in train stations and they see German POWs use the dining rooms with American guards. But they didn't have access. And that was also a shock to the Germans, because in most of their cases, they hadn't traveled to the United States and they did not encounter African-Americans at home.

    Enemies in Love
    Enemies in Love
    A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance
    by Alexis Clark

    Hardcover, 251 pages purchase

    So how did Elinor and her future husband, Frederick Albert, meet?

    They met at a prisoner of war camp in Florence, Arizona. The closest city was Phoenix, which is about an hour and a half away. Frederick was a great cook and a baker, and so his assignment was to work in the mess hall. So when the nurses entered for their meal, he spotted Elinor and he said it was like he was under a spell. He walked right up to her and said, "You should know my name. I'm the man who's going to marry you."

    Whoa! Just like that?

    Yes! And he wasn't the only one — she felt it, too. The attraction became stronger and stronger. Eventually they had a relationship. Then the war ended, and it was obvious Frederick was going to be shipped back to Europe at some point; he couldn't stay at Camp Florence forever. But Frederick and Elinor had a plan. They decided that they should conceive a child, because that was going to be the easiest and quickest way for Frederick to be able to return to the United States, because he would have to support a child. And that's exactly what happened. So before he was deported, they conceived a child. And then he returned to Germany, and she returned home to Milton, pregnant and unmarried.

    I'm sure that was hugely popular with her family!

    Well, her father had died a few years before that, but her mother was very proper and she was not happy at all! She thought Elinor was being conned — that Frederick just wanted sex or a green card. But eventually he got permission to return, and they planned a small wedding.

    Was that the beginning of their Happily Ever After?

    Not exactly. When Frederick moved to the United States to marry Elinor and then start a family together, they struggled. They moved to Boston. They tried to find apartments, find work. As a mixed couple, no one wanted to live next to them; it was hard to get a lease. It was hard for him to find employment because he was German. (Remember, this was right after the war.) And Elinor knew that he was from a wealthy family, and she feared that he would regret his decision.

    So at some point, the whole family went to Germany, because they thought that would be easier?

    Yes. Frederick's father had done well after the war, and Frederick was positioned to take over his father's engineering firm. And that's what they did. But it was not easy on Elinor. People were pointing, taunting her when she was walking down the street. She remembers that a man dropped his groceries when he saw her and the fruit just rolled down the lane. He couldn't believe it! She said she felt like an animal in a zoo.

    How did she fare with his family? After all, she was black and American, and this was a country where a lot of people believed in Hitler's Master Race theory....

    His mother was very unkind. She didn't speak fluent English, and she showed her displeasure by screaming at Elinor in German often. Frederick would watch his mother berate his wife, but he didn't do anything. He was not an aggressive man. He knew Elinor was very unhappy; they realized Germany wasn't going to work. So they returned to the United States.

    A World War II Diary and Lost Love
    They started off in Morton, a suburb of Philadelphia. And they couldn't enroll their son in the school that's in their neighborhood -- the principal suggested the colored school nearby. So Elinor pitched a fit and approached the NAACP. At the time, she had to go ahead and put her son in school. But I did see a newspaper clip, and eventually they desegregated the school that they wanted her son to originally attend.

    Did the family stay in Morton?

    The family moved a lot, trying to find a place that would accept them. Finally they find a community called Village Creek, in South Norwalk, Conn. Frederick got a job at Pepperidge Farms, the baking company. And it literally was a neighborhood that said it's a prejudice-free zone. So mixed couples, Jewish couples, artists, gays, you name it — they were welcome there.

    And that's where they settled. The only thing that was difficult is that Elinor and Frederick really didn't bring up race with their children. So the boys had identity problems. Their older child had to undergo a lot of hardship because of their decision to be together, despite the fact that society was against them.

    What did you learn from researching and writing this book?

    I learned that black women served this country during World War II. And I learned about their struggles to be even admitted into the Army Nurse Corps. With that came a strict quota, even though there were nursing shortages. Even though President Roosevelt threatened to draft nurses in January 1944 and 1945, the Army rejected thousands of qualified black nurses! They wanted to enlist and they weren't able to. That was another piece that I found illuminating about the role that blacks have played in the military. And then you have this 'Love Conquers All' story between Elinor and Frederick — twenty years before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the Supreme Court.

  • Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/bettinazilkha/2018/05/11/darren-walker-hosts-a-book-party-for-alexis-clarks-enemies-in-love/#7cbea3ca5755

    QUOTED: "One line in the book changed everything for me. It mentioned that one black nurse, Elinor Powell, met and later married a German prisoner of war, Frederick Albert, who was detained ... where she was stationed. I was hooked immediately. I had to tell their story."

    Darren Walker Hosts A Book Party For Alexis Clark's 'Enemies In Love'
    Bettina Zilkha
    Bettina Zilkha
    Contributor
    i
    May 11, 2018, 12:55pm 350 views #LitLife

    Gallery
    Darren Walker Hosts A Book Party For 'Enemies In Love'
    10 images

    Ford Foundation President Darren Walker hosted a book party for Alexis Clark's new book, Enemies In Love, Wednesday at Ford Foundation headquarters. A former editor at Town & Country, Clark became fascinated with the role African-Americans played in the U.S. military during World War II, from her relative, Colonel Charles Young, to Army nurses. Six years in the making, the book focuses on Elinor Powell, who met and married a German prisoner of war.

    "This is a beautiful book of love, courage and redemption," said Walker. "Only in America could such a remarkable narrative be found!"

    The evening began with an informative question and answer session, with Walker interviewing Clark. Susan Fales-Hill, Crystal McCrary, Alex Hitz, Judy Byrd, and Chris Albert, the nurse and POW's son, were enraptured by the story. Here, Alexis Clark talks about Enemies In Love.

    Can you tell me how the idea for the book came about?

    After discovering that I was a distant relative of Colonel Charles Young, the highest-ranking African-American in the U.S. military until his death in 1922, I started reading a ton of military history. I happened to be reading a book called “G.I. Nightingales: The Army Nurse Corps in World War II”, and there was a brief chapter about black nurses who served. I didn’t know that; I knew about the Tuskegee Airmen and black soldiers, but not African American nurses. And then one line in the book changed everything for me. It mentioned that one black nurse, Elinor Powell, met and later married a German prisoner of war, Frederick Albert, who was detained at a POW Camp in Arizona where she was stationed. I was hooked immediately. I had to tell their story and unpack the history behind it. I first wrote about Elinor and Frederick for The New York Times a few years ago, and the idea to expand the story into a book came shortly after.

    What do you hope the reader will take away from it?

    This book reveals a dramatic and mostly unknown chapter in American history, when hundreds of thousands of German POWs were detained in the United States and the circumstances behind the black nurses who were tasked to care for them. I hope readers will be moved as they discover this moment when Jim Crow and Nazism collided and the remarkable interracial love story that spawned from it.

    If a movie is made, who ideally would play the main characters?

    I love this question, because I think Elinor and Frederick’s story would be so powerful on screen. I think Michael Fassbender as Frederick and either Condola Rashad or Kerry Washington as Elinor.

QUOTED: "a powerful tale of love against all odds."

Print Marked Items
Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and
an Unlikely Romance
Bridget Thoreson
Booklist.
114.15 (Apr. 1, 2018): p48.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text: 
Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance. By Alexis Clark. May 2018. 288p. illus. New Press, $25.99
(9781620971864). 940.54.
The relationship that blossomed in an Arizona prisoner-of-war camp during WWII was not only unlikely--it was forbidden. But Frederick Albert,
a German who was drafted into Hitler's army but held no loyalty to the Third Reich, could not deny his attraction to the nurse he spotted in the
cafeteria. Statuesque at six feet tall, Elinor Powell was one of the few African American nurses permitted to serve their country. The romance
between Frederick and Elinor, crossing the boundaries of wartime allegiances and race, endured despite the severe tests it faced, as Clark relates
in this remarkable true story. Like many of their generation, Frederick and Elinor remained tight-lipped about their wartime experiences, leaving
their story told for the most part through tantalizing second-hand accounts. But Enemies in Love expands beyond the beleaguered couple to
examine some of the lesser-known aspects of the war, from the discrimination faced by African Americans in the military to the interaction
between German prisoners of war and the communities that reluctantly housed them. A powerful tale of love against all odds.--Bridget Thoreson
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Thoreson, Bridget. "Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2018, p. 48. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534956846/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=59d0eb1f. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534956846

QUOTED: "a footnote in the vast literature of civil rights, but a resonant one."

Clark, Alexis: ENEMIES IN LOVE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Clark, Alexis ENEMIES IN LOVE New Press (Adult Nonfiction) $25.99 5, 15 ISBN: 978-1-62097-186-4
An African-American nurse experiences racism in two nations driven apart by war.
Elinor Powell earned a nursing degree in 1943 and joined the U.S. Army the following year, determined to do her part for the war effort. She was
sent to Arizona to complete her basic training and then posted to a German prisoner-of-war camp in the desert south of Phoenix. There, Elinor
met Frederick Albert, an English-speaking German with a learned interest in the jazz music that had been banned by the Hitler regime. Frederick,
writes freelance journalist Clark, was a man of many parts, an artist and intellectual who opposed Hitler but joined the army all the same. He
claimed to have been a combat soldier captured in Italy, but the paperwork Clark turns up suggests that he was instead a medical corpsman taken
prisoner in North Africa. "The most reasonable explanation was that in an attempt to impress his children, Frederick told them that he was an elite
paratrooper," writes the author. Whatever the case, those children resulted from the ardent romance Elinor and Frederick struck up in that Arizona
camp and continued after the war, moving a step ahead of Jim Crow laws and finally, after marrying in New York, returning for a time to
Germany, where their young children experienced a racism of a different kind and degree from that they would have to endure back home.
"Focusing on prejudice could have destroyed their relationship," writes Clark, "since it seemed that the world was against them." Yet their
relationship prevailed even when it developed that Frederick had a different notion of faithfulness from Elinor's, and they did what they could to
shield their children--one of whom grew up to be a professional jazz trumpeter--from the worst of the bigotry they encountered in two lands.
A footnote in the vast literature of civil rights, but a resonant one.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Clark, Alexis: ENEMIES IN LOVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650575/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a2ae9822. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650575

Thoreson, Bridget. "Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2018, p. 48. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534956846/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "Clark, Alexis: ENEMIES IN LOVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650575/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018.
  • Medium
    https://medium.com/@suilnua/love-wins-a-review-of-enemies-in-love-by-alexis-clark-6868e10c05ab

    Word count: 1267

    QUOTED: "this book is worth reading in dark times like today. If nothing else, it gives us hope that even the worst kind of discrimination and hatred can still give way to lasting love. Without the racism of Jim Crow, Elinor and Frederick would never have been brought together. Elinor would have been deployed to nurse American soldiers at the front, rather than hidden away on an isolated prisoner-of-war camp where she met Frederick."
    "Despite the sad context to how this couple met, their story is truly a confirmation that ‘love wins’ and that is an uplifting message for our difficult times."

    MJ Brodie
    Love Wins: A Review of ‘Enemies in Love’ by Alexis Clark

    Broadcasters sometimes speak of the ‘driveway moment’, that impulse to keep on listening to a radio show that is so compelling, the listener will sit on their driveway in their car to hear the rest of the show rather than go into their house. I’ve had my fair share of driveway moments but I’ve also had ‘pull over the car while driving or else I’ll slam into a tree’ moments too. One of those moments was not so long ago when I was listening to an interview on NPR with an historian of World War Two who talked about the internment of German prisoners of war in the US. This is a history that I, in common with many people, know little about. I had always assumed that German POWs were largely interned in Europe since that is, after all, where most of the combat between US and German troops took place. It turns out that thousands of German POWs were transfered out of the European and North African theaters of war and shipped to camps in the US due to lack of space in Europe.
    What shocked me, however, and caused to me want to pull over my car, was learning from this historian that many German POWs experienced a delightful degree of white privilege while interned in the USA. Despite their allegiance to the Nazi state, many American families welcomed the German POWs into their communities as curiosities and some were taken into the homes of the American families they worked for and trusted implicitly.
    This privilege they enjoyed was in stark contrast to the shameful way that African-American troops were treated by their own government during a time when Jim Crow still prevailed and the US military remained segregated. In one case, African-American troops guarding the transport of German POWs to a camp in the South were forced to sit hungry in a waiting room while the German prisoners were allowed to eat their fill in the whites-only dining carriage. This anecdote and many others piqued my curiosity and caused me to seek out further information on this period in US history.
    One of the most recent books I read on the era is ‘Enemies in Love’ by Alexis Clark, a journalist and former editor of Town and Country magazine. The book is written in the breezy style you would expect from a journalist who has a background in lifestyle writing but that makes it all the more engaging for a broad readership. Ms Clark’s story centers on the relationship between a black Army nursing officer, Elinor Powell, and a German prisoner-of-war who was held at the camp where she worked, Friedrich Albert. Their relationship is the lens through which we learn about the realities of interracial marriage prior to the 1960s and the incredible obstacles to happiness that racism placed in the way of couples like Elinor and Friedrich.
    Beyond this more personal and engaging narrative, however, is the more troubling history of the treatment of black nurses during the Second World War by their own government. Ms Clark delves into the archives to reveal just how hard black nurses had to fight to be allowed to serve their country and, even when they won the right to do so, how little thanks they received in return. The US Army was desperately short of nursing staff at times during the war but never took up the offer of service from the many black nursing school graduates who wished to serve. Instead, they even considered conscription of white nursing staff, rather than fill out the ranks of Army nurses with African-American women.
    For the ‘lucky’ few thousand African-American women who did get to serve their country as Army nurses, Ms Clark reveals that they faced discrimination in the form of Jim Crow segregation on the military bases where they were stationed. African-American nursing staff were not treated as valuable assets to the military and were instead largely deployed to care for prisoners-of-war at camps across the US. The reason behind this was that the Army did not wish to encourage fraternization with the enemy and it was assumed that an African-American nursing staff would reduce such opportunities for the largely white — and Nazi — prisoner-of-war population, a racist and erroneous assumption.
    Ms Clark writes movingly about the ambitious Elinor Powell and how hard she tried to build a nursing career in the face of overwhelming racism and sexism. The in-depth research involved in uncovering the barriers placed in front of African-American nurses during the war is evident but the book also uses in-person interviews from a nursing school friend of Elinor’s and from her son to give us a more personal insight into the shock experienced by Massachussetts-born Elinor when confronted with the Jim Crow racism of the South.
    We also get an insight into what attracted the couple to one another while isolated on this prisoner-of-war base in Arizona through interviews with German/Austrian (the family lived between both countries) relatives of Friedrich. This is perhaps what is also shocking to the reader of ‘Enemies in Love’: such racism and sexism existed within living memory to the extent that this book can be complemented by contemporary or near-contemporary eye-witness interviews. People are still alive today who experienced the hateful racism of the 1940s.
    This is a short book but is neatly focused on the relationship between Elinor and Frederick (as he called himself after moving to the United States after the war) and rarely deviates from their personal story except to give us historical context in which to place their relationship. That is the downside of the book. I felt there could have been a more in-depth exploration of the context for Friedrich and Elinor’s relationship and I would have liked to have known more about their struggle for acceptance in both Germany and the USA. Their relationship is plenty fascinating to last for the 250-odd pages but I wanted to know more. Truth be told, I did not want this book to end.
    Rather than give away how Elinor and Frederick’s story ends, I will simply conclude by saying that this book is worth reading in dark times like today. If nothing else, it gives us hope that even the worst kind of discrimination and hatred can still give way to lasting love. Without the racism of Jim Crow, Elinor and Frederick would never have been brought together. Elinor would have been deployed to nurse American soldiers at the front, rather than hidden away on an isolated prisoner-of-war camp where she met Frederick. Despite the sad context to how this couple met, their story is truly a confirmation that ‘love wins’ and that is an uplifting message for our difficult times.
    #WCJune2018 #LoveWins

  • From the Inside
    http://www.jadeannahughes.com/book-reviews/2018/4/26/enemies-in-love-alexis-clark

    Word count: 589

    QUOTED: "If you are looking to read about a romance with a WW2 backdrop this may not be for you. But if you are interested in learning about parts of WW2 that we never really hear about then you will definitely appreciate Enemies in Love."

    Jade Anna Hughes
    April 26, 2018
    In Enemies in Love Alexis Clark recounts the story of a very unlikely love between a black American nurse, Elinor Powell, and a German POW, Frederick Albert, during WW2. Elinor and Frederick met in a POW camp in Arizona, and fell in love. Recollected by Alexis Clark via journals, interviews with friends and family members, scrapbooks, and a huge amount of background research, Enemies in Love is, in my opinion, a fascinating story.

    First of all, while the premise of this book is a love story, it is actually a deeply researched essay on segregation, racism, and bias that black women faced in general in their day to day lives in the first half of the 20th century, even after WW2. While I think most people are somewhat knowledgeable on the lasting effects of Jim Crow nowadays (I would hope), this type of reading is incredibly important because it contains so much information that we never hear about really, especially in most WW2 literature. Alexis Clark delves deeply into the huge blocks that black women had to jump over in order to first of all be able to qualify as nurses, and then find work, even in the armed forces during WW2 when there was a huge shortage of nurses. She also gives us a detailed background of how and why German POWs ended up in the US. It seems insane to think that a country would turn qualified nurses away because of their skin color even in a time when the country needed them, but it happened.

    I think all of the relevant history around the story helps visualize both of the characters properly, it also provides us with a relevant, and important, history lesson.

    I thought I was pretty well-versed in WW2 information but I had no idea of the amount of Axis POWs that were shipped to the US and interned here! I also think it’s incredible how German POWs were treated better than black nurses and soldiers in many areas in the armed forces and in civilian life. The enemy was treated better than US citizens that were fighting against the enemy!! I think we can still see this great hypocrisy displayed today in regards to current events.

    All in all, Elinor and Frederick’s story is very touching, especially considering how they defied the odds and remained together until they died. Their union was very much out of the ordinary, and they even had a child out of wedlock out of choice, which at the time was of course a huge no-no. I found their story to be incredibly inspiring, especially as Alexis Clark really does her best to portray them as human beings, with their good and bad sides.

    If you are looking to read about a romance with a WW2 backdrop this may not be for you. But if you are interested in learning about parts of WW2 that we never really hear about then you will definitely appreciate Enemies in Love.

    Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy. Enemies in Love will be published by The New Press on May 15, 2018.