As we mark the 100th anniversary of World War I, it is a good time to reflect on Hoboken’s role in that deadly conflict. A port city with large immigrant communities, Hoboken was the port of embarkation for thousands of American troops.
The Central Powers of Austria-Hungary and Germany, joined by the Ottoman Empire, faced off against the Allies of Russia, France, and Great Britain. At the start of the war immigrants tended to identify with their native countries. This meant that some German-Americans and Irish-Americans had little sympathy for Britain.
Though the U.S. did not join the war until 1917, the war’s effects were immediately felt in Hoboken, which was home to major European shipping companies and numerous immigrants and foreign nationals. At the outbreak of war, the powerful British Royal Navy blockaded Germany. A number of German ships were in port in Hoboken, the U.S. home of the Hamburg American and North German Lloyd steamship lines. The ships would remain in port until the U.S. military seized them in 1917.
The Business of War
While many Hoboken jobs were lost by the blockade of European liners and the sharp decline in transatlantic migration, other businesses in town profited from the war. While the German ships sat in port, other ships were needed to make voyages to Britain, and Hoboken shipyards prospered. Two wartime needs—munitions and paperwork—were supplied by Hoboken’s Remington Arms Company and American Lead Pencil.
Before the U.S. entered the war, several Germans from Hoboken were arrested on suspicion of sabotage and related activities. A German citizen named Fritz Kolb was arrested in his room in the Commercial Hotel at 212 River St. in March 1917 and convicted a month later for possession of explosives.
The loss of American lives to German u-boat attacks turned U.S. public opinion against Germany. U-boat attacks and a proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico prompted President Woodrow Wilson to request from Congress a declaration of war against Germany. On April 6, 1917, a declaration of war was passed.
Hoboken was declared the main point of embarkation for the U.S. Expeditionary Force, and many of the city’s residents and business owners would face hardship during the war. At dawn on April 6, 1917, U.S. Army soldiers seized the German ships as they sat at the Hoboken docks. Two weeks later the German shipping companies’ piers were taken over by the government, and army encampments were established there. The prize ships of the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd lines were turned into massive troop transports. In the tense atmosphere of war, Germans living in the U.S. were targeted as potential or actual enemies.
Hoboken’s large German population was harshly affected. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Hoboken had a population of 70,324, of which 10,018 were German born. Many of Hoboken’s Germans were detained, evicted from their homes, lost their jobs, or saw their businesses shut down. High-level employees of the German shipping companies were among those arrested. While Irish Americans generally remained cold toward Great Britain, they maintained their position in U.S. society. But Hoboken’s German community was dismantled in the 19 months of war, and Hoboken would no longer be a German town.
Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken
General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, reportedly rallied the troops in France before the Meuse-Argonne offense by telling them that they would be in “Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken” by Christmas—Hoboken being the port that nearly all soldiers would pass through on their way home.
The first convoy carrying U.S. troops to war left Hoboken on June 14, 1917. Fourteen transport ships, carrying 11,991 officers, enlisted men, and civilians departed the city. A total of 936 voyages to France and England were made from Hoboken during the war. Approximately two million servicemen passed through Hoboken between the spring of 1917 and the fall of 1918.
Many troops were brought overseas in German ships that had been captured in Hoboken. Among these ships was the USS Leviathan, formerly the Hamburg-American liner Vaterland, the largest ship in the world at the time. The Navy converted the prestigious liner to a troop transport with a capacity of 14,000 passengers. In 1918 it was repainted with a camouflage pattern, designed to make it difficult for German u-boats to target. Over the course of the war the ship delivered 120,000 servicemen to Europe.
Hardships at Home
Although wartime industries created new jobs, wartime activity caused major economic disruption, and Hoboken experienced an overall decline as a result of the war.
Dockworkers and shipyard workers were fired for being born in one of the enemy nations. Thousands of German, Austrian, and Hungarian workers, including American citizens, lost their jobs. A federal order prohibiting enemy aliens from living, working, or traveling within one hundred yards of docks, piers, and waterfronts caused thousands of evictions on Hudson and River Streets.
A major conflict between the local and federal government involved the sale of alcohol. Hoboken was famous for its saloons and beer gardens, many of which were near the waterfront. Federal regulations prohibited serving alcohol near the military areas. In March 1918 the military took greater control over Hoboken life. Women found walking the streets after dark faced arrest for prostitution, and Chinese restaurants were ordered to close nightly, causing many to go out of business.
War… and Peace
After armistice was declared on Nov. 11, 1918, celebration and mourning alternatively took hold at the Hoboken docks as ships returned homesick soldiers as well as caskets. More than two million American soldiers had fought in Europe, including 2,469 draftees from Hoboken. The first troops to return to the U.S. arrived in Hoboken on Dec. 2, 1918. General Pershing triumphantly returned to Hoboken aboard the USS George Washington on Sept. 8, 1919. On Nov. 13, 1919, the Lake Daroga docked in Hoboken, carrying the first transport of the bodies of fallen American soldiers.
President Woodrow Wilson also embarked from Hoboken for his service in Europe, defining the terms of peace at Versailles. His return in July 1919 was a time of celebration, as people crowded along Washington Street to wave American flags and watch the president pass in his motorcade.
After the war, Hoboken made the rough transition to peacetime. The Leviathan was turned over to an American shipping company, and commercial life returned to the docks.
U.S. involvement in World War I was launched from piers that have since been removed or turned into grassy parks. While the horrors of the war were experienced in faraway fields or in doomed ships on the open sea, bits and pieces of the conflict were felt on the docks and streets of Hoboken.—07030