The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, also known as "Safe Haven", located in Oswego, New York was the first and only refugee center established in the United States during World War II. From 1944 to 1945, the shelter housed almost 1000 European refugees, predominantly of Jewish descent. The effort was called "Safe Haven". The refugee shelter is now the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum. The shelter was established by the War Refugee Board.
On June 12, 1944, the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter was established in Oswego, New York by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was operated by the War Relocation Authority. It was the first and only refugee center established in the United States. In August 1944, the shelter received 982 refugees of predominantly Jewish descent and of various national backgrounds, especially Yugoslavian, Austrian, Polish, German and Czechoslovakian. [1] [2]
Fort Ontario was located on 80 acres that overlooked Lake Ontario. The purpose of the fort changed multiple times throughout its history. At various points, it was a British fur trading post, then an active military post for the US Army from the war of 1812 all the way through World War II as well as a major supply depot for its whole active service, then an educational camp for people who were illiterate, before finally being closed on March 15, 1944. Oswego, New York, which had benefited from the revenue that came from the soldiers at the fort, sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to ask for the fort to be reopened. The answer was to reopen the fort as a Refugee Shelter.
The War Refugee Board (WRB) was responsible for creating the camp, selecting the occupants and the overall policy until the closure of the camp on June 6, 1945. While creating and implementing their policies, the War Refugee Board always kept in mind the possible influence of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter on other, larger, refugee concerns.
The War Relocation Authority already had previous experience running a refugee camp within the United States. They had been responsible for formulating and implementing policies in the Japanese Relocation Centers. Their concerns were based solely on responding to problems of daily camp life. As such, there were sharp differences between how the two agencies thought the camp should be run. The WRA had found, while running the Japanese Relocation Centers, that in order to run a camp smoothly and prevent rebellion, policies had to be set out before the establishment of the camps. While the WRB wanted to implement camp policies gradually after the establishment of the camp in order to test public opinion and gain public support.
A big concern with the establishment of the camp was the issue of immigration. However, President Roosevelt made himself very clear that immigration laws were not going to be ignored. The refugees would merely be in the United States, not citizens of the United States. They would have no visa status. President Roosevelt also assured Congress that the Army would not permit any refugee escapes. Initially, plans were made to install spotlights along the existing 6-foot chain-link fence, as well as having 150 armed guards around the camp perimeter. Neither of these things were implemented. Because of their immigration status as "guests", the refugees would not be able to work, and they would not be allowed to travel beyond Oswego.
When Germany surrendered on May 6, 1945, twenty-four days after President Roosevelt's death, the question of what to do with the camp became a pressing issue. Internment was becoming increasingly difficult to support. The problem was whether to return the refugees to their home countries or to admit them into the United States. Most of the refugees wanted to stay. In fact, 60% of them had active immigration cases pending.
A subcommittee voted to close the camp, and the shelter was closed in February 1946. Some refugees chose to return to Europe, whether to find family members, or under the impression that their homes and businesses still remained as they had left them. Some were desperate to remain in the United States and not return to a country where they believed they had no future. Those from Central and Eastern Europe did not want to return to their countries that were now under Soviet occupation. Many were granted permanent or temporary status and allowed to stay in the country, sometimes ending up in the homes of family or friends. Others would later start a new life in newly formed Israel in 1948.
When it came to selecting the refugees who would be permitted to come to the United States, there were special criteria established by the WRB and President Roosevelt. Special Representative Leonard Ackermann along with Ruth Gruber, a reporter, traveled to Italy, to conduct the selection and then bring those selected to the port at Naples. The criteria established for the refugees were that they should be refugees for whom no other havens were available. Roosevelt also stated that the group should include mostly women and children – able-bodied men of military age would not be included – along with a couple rabbis, half a dozen doctors, and enough skilled workers to maintain the camp. Pregnant women who were in their third trimester could not be let onboard the ship because there were no facilities in the likely event the latter was to go into labor. Some women made an effort to hide their pregnancy in order to get into the ship. Refugees who had fled Yugoslavia who were communist sympathizers or had political ties to Josip Broz Tito were not allowed. Only those who swore loyalty to Yugoslavia's monarch Peter II and wanted nothing to do with Tito, Joseph Stalin and the Communist party were accepted.
The President of the United States has announced that approximately one thousand non-Italian refugees will be brought to the United States from Italy. The refugees will be maintained in a refugee shelter to be established at Fort Ontario near Oswego in the State of New York, where under appropriate conditions they will remain for the duration of the war. The refugees will be brought to the United States outside the regular immigration procedure The shelter will be equipped to take good care of the refugees and it is contemplated that they will be returned to their homes at the end of the war. It is planned to select and move applicants for this refugee shelter as soon as possible. Preference will be given to those refugees for whom no other haven or refuge is immediately available. Therefore, if you desire to make application for admission please fill out the form below. Please use only one form for yourself and all members of your immediate family. Notification of acceptance for movement will be given as quickly as possible after your applications has been received.
— Displaced Persons Sub-Commission; Allied Control Commission, Notice And Application, June 20, 1944 [3]
An abandoned mental asylum in Aversa, Italy was used as a central collection area for the refugees. After the selection, Ackermann brought the refugees to Naples, Italy, where the USAT Henry Gibbins, a troop transport ship, was waiting to join a convoy.
Aside from the days waiting in the Naples port, it took 17 days for the Henry Gibbins to cross the Atlantic Ocean. For most of the refugees, the trip was extremely uncomfortable. There were triple-tiered canvas hammocks instead of the luxury liner with beds and sheets that they were expecting. Also, they came under enemy fire soon after entering the Atlantic. As was standard procedure, the ship released black smoke to act as camouflage, but when someone forgot to open the vents, the lower decks were filled with smoke, adding to the terror of the refugees below. In addition, the mix of a normal diet and sea travel had a bad effect on those who had been used to hunger and poor nutrition. Most were sick a good portion of the journey, and some remained so for the entire time.
The Henry Gibbins arrived in New York City on August 3, 1944. The refugees had to remain on the ship one last night to allow returning wounded servicemen to be removed from the other ships in the convoy and brought to hospitals.
The experience of disembarking was traumatic for some of the refugees. They were subjected to the same routine performed on all returning servicemen, but without explanation, adding to their confusion and fear. They were sprayed for delousing under the presence of armed guards. It was only then that they could leave on a two-day train ride for Oswego.
Upon arriving at Fort Ontario, many were surprised, scared, and angered to see that the fort was surrounded in barbed-wire topped fences. They felt that they had left Europe expecting to be brought to safety and freedom but had instead been brought to another concentration camp. It was only after explanations from staff at the fort that the refugees began to accept the fence. However, there was a lack of freedom in the camp. For the first month, the refugees were not allowed to leave the camp. Even relatives who had traveled to Oswego were not allowed to enter the camp, and they had to visit with their relatives through the chain-link fence. Some local citizens from Oswego visited the camp to welcome the newcomers, passing sweets and gifts through the fence and people from Syracuse, Utica, Tupper Lake, Sackets Harbor, Mexico, Rome, Poland, Russia, Frankfort, Ilion, Watertown and Queensbury of Jewish, Catholic or Protestant descent came to give parcels or donations of clothes, food and even toys for the children.
In the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, there were 496 "units" (which are defined as either families or unaccompanied individuals). The refugees had undergone great trauma, and as a result needed to recuperate. Nearly 100 of the refugees had been imprisoned in Buchenwald or Dachau, which some managed to escape. Others were hidden and aided by members of Resistance groups, kindly neighbors or who made deals with black market smugglers and to get them to where advancing Allied Soldiers were nearby. Many of them had been refugees for 7 or 8 years, and almost all had suffered through food shortages, disease, torture and trauma. Another group of refugees were civilian internees of Italian concentration camps but were released following the Italian Armistice and told by their former guards to head south to avoid being recaptured by the Germans.
Many had the hopes of joining relatives who were already in the United States. Others had different reasons for wanting to come to the refugee camp in Oswego. Some were interested in the health care that they could receive in the United States, and had come to Oswego to regain their health. Others were interested in the education system that may be available to their children. Others were looking for jobs or economic opportunities offered in the United States.
However, the camp was neither aware of nor concerned with the expectations that the refugees came with. Their intention was to provide for the basic needs for the refugees, and had not intended to provide more than the basics. There was no plan for health care other than that which threatened the health of an individual or the group, and there were no plans to educate any of the child refugees although refugee children and teenagers were allowed by the town to attended local schools and tutors were allowed to come into the camp.
Of the 982 refugees that lived in the refugee camp at Fort Ontario, 187 were under the age of 16, and 116 were over the age of 60. A large majority of the group was Jewish, while others were Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Greek and Russian Orthodox. Religious differences - as well as differences due to age and nationality - caused tension among the refugees in the camp.
While in the camp, many complained about the loss of freedoms they encountered there. There were confiscations by U.S. Customs, censorship of their mail, and they were also unable to leave the camp. In September, however, the quarantine was lifted. Residents of the camp received 6 hour passes to Oswego. Thousands of visitors poured into the camp. On September 20, 1945 Eleanor Roosevelt, accompanied by Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr., visited the camp.
A group of boys at the shelter formed a Boy Scout troop. [4]
Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland—resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans." Two-thirds of the 125,000 people displaced were U.S. citizens.
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, about 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Syracuse. It promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York." It is the county seat of Oswego County.
MS St. Louis was a diesel-powered ocean liner built by the Bremer Vulkan shipyards in Bremen for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). She was named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri. She was the sister ship of Milwaukee. St. Louis regularly sailed the trans-Atlantic route from Hamburg to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and New York City, and made cruises to the Canary Islands, Madeira, Spain; and Morocco. St. Louis was built for both transatlantic liner service and for leisure cruises.
Fort Ontario is an American historic bastion fort situated by the City of Oswego in Oswego County, New York. It is owned by the state of New York and operated as a museum known as Fort Ontario State Historic Site. Fort Ontario is located on the east side of the Oswego River on high ground overlooking Lake Ontario.
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The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945 is a 1984 nonfiction book by David S. Wyman, former Josiah DuBois professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wyman was the chairman of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. The Abandonment of the Jews has been well received by most historians, and has won numerous prizes and widespread recognition, including a National Jewish Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Present Tense Literary Award, the Stuart Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Immigration History Society, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award."
HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was established on November 27, 1881, originally to help the large number of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States who had left Europe to escape antisemitic persecution and violence. In 1975, the State Department asked HIAS to aid in resettling 3,600 Vietnam refugees. Since that time, the organization continues to provide support for refugees of all nationalities, religions, and ethnic origins. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5 million people.
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Ivo John Lederer was a diplomatic historian who taught at Princeton (1955–57), Yale (1957–65) and Stanford (1965–77) universities. He also served at the Ford Foundation in New York City as Program Officer in charge of East European affairs. In 1977, he left academics to begin a second career in business.
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The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is a museum in Oswego, New York that tells the story of 982 mainly Jewish refugees who fled Europe in the U.S. Government "Safe Haven" program. They came to the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, in August 1944.
Between 1933 and 1945, a large number of Jews emigrated from Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. This exodus was triggered by the militaristic antisemitism perpetrated by the Nazi Party and by Germany's collaborators, ultimately culminating in the Holocaust. However, even before the genocide itself, which began during World War II, the Nazis had widely sponsored or enforced discriminatory practices—by legislation, in many cases—against Jewish residents, such as through the Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses. Although Adolf Hitler and the German government were initially accepting of voluntary Jewish emigration from the country, it became difficult to find new host countries, particularly as the 1930s were marked by the Great Depression, as the number of Jewish migrants increased. Eventually, the Nazis forbade emigration; the Jews who remained in Germany or in German-occupied territory by this point were either murdered in the ghettos or relocated to be systematically exploited and murdered at dedicated concentration camps and extermination camps throughout the European continent.
A neutral state, the United States entered the war on the Allied side in December 1941. The American government first became aware of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe in 1942 and 1943. Following a report on the failure to assist the Jewish people by the Department of State, the War Refugee Board was created in 1944 to assist refugees from the Nazis. As one of the most powerful Allied states, the United States played a major role in the military defeat of Nazi Germany and the subsequent Nuremberg trials. The Holocaust saw increased awareness in the 1970s that instilled its prominence in the collective memory of the American people continuing to the present day. The United States has been criticized for taking insufficient action in response to the Jewish refugee crisis in the 1930s and the Holocaust during World War II.
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