ABSTRACT
The Justice Department initially planned to place enemy aliens under its custody in federal prisons or in specially designed premises in state prisons. After the introduction of the registration procedures for female enemy aliens, the Justice Department also intensified its surveillance activities in this regard, especially since public pressure had increased considerably. The surveillance and internment procedures of the First World War became a rehearsal and blueprint for the next world war, only twenty-two years later, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066. The prime targets of officials and vigilante surveillance organisations in the context of the home front were left radical groups and enemy aliens. In the United States – the country of immigration par excellence – the juxtaposition of national security and the rights of aliens in time of war produced a complex legal and ethical conundrum which differed in many ways from the situation in Europe.
