This program will be available for sale to the general public starting on March 7, 2026.Want to register before then? Become a member today, or if you are already a member, log in to register for this program. A Luxurious Detention: How the U.S. Held Axis Diplomats after Pearl Harbor Evening Lecture/Seminar Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. ET Code: 1J0552 Location: This online program is presented on Zoom. Select your Registration $20 Member $30 Gen. Admission Resize text German diplomats at the Greenbrier resort, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, circa 1942 (Courtesy of The Greenbrier, Resort) In the chaotic days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor—the greatest foreign intelligence failure in American history up until that time—the Roosevelt administration made a controversial decision. To encourage reciprocal treatment of U.S. diplomats trapped abroad, it sent hundreds of Axis diplomats living in the United States to remote luxury hotels. Already stunned by the attack on Honolulu that killed more than 2,400 service members and civilians, many Americans were enraged by the government’s magnanimity towards its enemies. This cause célèbre drove a fascinating story: the roundup, detention, and eventual repatriation of more than a thousand German, Japanese, Italian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian diplomats, families, staff, servants, journalists, students, businessmen, and, mixed in, spies. Harvey Solomon, author of Such Splendid Prisons: Diplomatic Detainment in America during World War II, makes this story come alive as he interweaves eyewitness accounts and personal stories backed by official and private documentation, unpublished memoirs, and contemporaneous reporting. General Information View Common FAQs and Policies about our Online Programs on Zoom.
