ONTARIO CHRONICLE. VOL I, NR 27. MAY 17, 1945
Oswego, N.Y. : Fort Ontario [Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter], 1945. Item #43532
1st edition. Original stapled mimeograph sheets. 4to (Legal Size), 6 pages. In English with German and “Yugoslavian” (Bosnian) Summary pages (!).
On June 12, 1944, after the liberation of southern Italy, Pres. Roosevelt established a temporary haven for 1,000 European Jews and other refugees at Ft. Ontario, near Oswego, N.Y. With the help of the National Refugee Service, they published their own periodical, the Ontario chronicle.
Stories include:
-Farewell Show for Joseph H. Smart
-Exhibition to be Transferred to New York [Refugee Art Exhibit]
-Chevuot on May 18 and 19th
-Day of Prayer at the Shelter
-Spring Concert
-Six Refugee Students to Graduate in June [from Oswego High School]
-The Chess Club Now at the Yugoslav Club
-Czechoslovak Jews at Terezin [A resident has a list which can be checked for friends and family]
-Refugees Participate in Methodist Church Program [in Oswego]
-Considerable Interest for Cultural Films [Presented & discussed weekly]
-After the German Defeat
-Books Recommended
-Jewish Music Week
“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 982 refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, of whom 912 were Jewish and the others were not. 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. Including non-Jewish refugees was a way for the Roosevelt Administration to make the project palatable to the American public….
Fort Ontario….At various points…was a British fur trading post, then an active military post for the US Army….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….had been responsible for formulating and implementing policies in the Japanese Relocation Centers….
During the 1930s and '40s there was a large amount of antisemitism and opposition to immigration in the United States, with a poll in 1943 showing that 78% of American opposed letting in refugees while several polls between 1940 and 1945 showed 31-48% of American sympathized with or supported antisemitism. This viewpoint was opposed by Jewish groups, several Christian groups, the YMCA, many in the media, and many politicians. To appease the latter groups while not upsetting the former too much, President Roosevelt decided to set up a small refugee camp which was just a token concession and not a significant change in policy….
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 whom 93% were Jewish with the majority of the rest being Greek with the majority of the remainder being Catholics the group consisted of 369 Yugoslavians, 237 were Austrian, 146 were Poles, 96 were German, 71 were Czechs the rest came from other groups.
A big concern with the establishment of the camp was the issue of immigration. However, President Roosevelt made 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 measures 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….
Upon arriving at Fort Ontario, many of the refugees 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….
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….
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” (Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ontario_Emergency_Refugee_Shelter)
A short film about the camp can be viewed online at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHX7C9HiUc
See also: Weiden Philipbar, More Than a Token: American Immigration Policy, The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, and the Perils of Indifference. 2019 (
https://www.academia.edu/40009971)
Mack, America’s Only Refugee Camp for Survivors of the Holocaust. 2019 (
mjhnyc.org/blog/americas-only-refugee-camp-for-survivors-of-the-holocaust)
OCLC: 970902337 & 9296502. OCLC locates only 4 holdings worldwide (U Rochester, USHMM, Bar Ilan, LBI), none at any Ivy League Institution. All holdings which can be checked online are incomplete.
Lacks staples, toning, otherwise Very Good Condition. Rare and Very Important. A displayable museum-quality piece (PBERL-1-14-KK).
Price: $1,500.00