Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance

Elinor Powell was an African American nurse serving in the U.S. military during World War II; Frederick Albert was a soldier in Hitler's army who was captured by the Allies and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in the Arizona desert. Assigned to a segregated Western town, Powell worked in conditions the military considered second-class. The army believed the risk of fraternization between Black nurses and white German PO Ws was minimal. Brought together by circumstance in a racist world, Powell and Albert fell in love during the height of World War II, despite expectations that they would be enemies. Journalist Alexis Clark uncovered their story through years of interviews and historical research, documenting a narrative of race and love during wartime. Based on a New York Times story by Clark, this book examines dreams deferred and love struggling to survive twenty-five years before the Supreme Court's Loving decision legalized mixed-race marriage. It reveals possibilities for human connection during one of history's most violent conflicts and explores a hidden history of race on the American home front during World War II.