- [Narrator] Originally constructed in 1755, Fort Ontario played roles in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, being destroyed and rebuilt several times.

In 1940, it became the unlikely sight of the only facility in the United States sheltering refugees from the Holocaust.

(gentle music) - This wall represents the nearly 1,000 refugees who were ready to depart from the shelter.

We now had to figure out where they were going to go.

Most of them had no homes to go back to in Europe.

And so President Truman decided that he would allow them to transition from being a guest of the United States to potential citizens.

- [Announcer] Production funding for "Upstate Attractions" is provided by: Franklin County Development, (bright music) Allegany County, Oswego County Tourism, and the Watkins Glen Chamber of Commerce.

With daily flights to Boston Logan International Airport, Massena, New York offers access to locations such as the Adirondack Mountains, the St.

Lawrence River and destinations in Canada like Ottawa and Montreal.

Online at fishmassenany.com.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] In this episode of "Upstate Attractions," we take you to a community found on the picturesque southern shores of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Oswego River, a place that some say is where the Holocaust came to America.

Scholars say it is the only place where a group of Holocaust era refugees came to America outside of immigration, outside of the post-war period.

The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Center in Oswego, New York was a unique initiative created by an executive order signed in 1944 by then president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a decision setting the United States as the first Allied country to establish a policy to help save Jews and other groups persecuted by Nazi Germany.

Today the bastion-style Fort is part of a 75-acre New York State historic site and public recreation complex enjoyed by thousands of people every year.

And nestled in the southeast corner of the site is the Safe Haven Museum.

Together, the Education Center and the physical fort provide an experiential learning opportunity for visitors as they follow the story of 982 mainly Jewish refugees who fled Europe, arriving in Oswego through the US Government Safe Haven program.

In the next half hour, we'll check out the refugee stories in two parallel narratives through the exhibits and artifacts at the Safe Haven Museum.

And we'll tour the Fort Ontario grounds with retired historical archaeologist, Paul Lear, who will take us to the places where the refugees experienced their first months in America.

Locations, such as the train tracks where they arrived, the famous 9th St.

Fence where the locals met and spoke with the refugees.

And we'll take a look back at a park area where the housing quarters once stood.

So, to tell the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Center and Safe Haven story, let's start at the beginning.

- Roosevelt himself, he was a history major, him, and his cousin Teddy Roosevelt.

And he first got interested in Fort Ontario when he was assistant secretary of the Navy.

He was asked to dedicate a park in Oswego, Montcalm Park, named after the French general who, in the French army that came here in 1756 and took Oswego from the British.

It was his first great victory after he came to New France.

Roosevelt gave a speech at the dedication.

It's one of his earliest master speeches.

He used the example of the British lack of preparation for the French-Indian War, as it was called at the time, as the cause for their demise and disastrous loss here of Oswego.

All three forts, Fort Ontario and Fort George built 1755, and also Fort Oswego were captured after two-day siege by the French and destroyed.

So FDR was interested in preparing for war during peace.

And as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he did everything he could to get the Navy ready.

He was very concerned, he saw Europe moving towards war, the First World War.

He understood and a few others did that the United States would be drawn into that war.

He also came here in 1929 and '31 as governor of New York State to review National Guard troops.

- [Narrator] In January 1944, when FDR announced the executive order to create the War Refugee Board, his familiarity with the historic site helped him to decide this was going to be the location for the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, a safe haven destined to be the only camp for Holocaust victims in the United States during World War II.

- The Holocaust was rampant in Europe.

People were dying.

The United States had an isolationist policy.

And there was anti-Semitism throughout the world.

- [Narrator] To learn more about the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Center, story the producers of "Upstate Attractions" reached out on video chat to one of America's preeminent experts on the subject.

- My name is Rebecca Erbelding.

I am an historian.

And I focus on American responses to the Holocaust.

So I look at US refugee policy.

I look at all of the things that Americans knew and didn't know about the Holocaust as it was happening, and how the American people and their government responded to the Holocaust as it was happening.

And so Fort Ontario is definitely an interest of mine, as I am also from upstate New York originally.

- Fort Ontario was involved in a lot of key battles throughout the course of our nation's life.

And then, of course, the safe Haven Museum preserves, I think, one of the most cherished parts of Oswego's history and that we were the only place in the United States of America to take in Jewish refugees escaping the holocaust.

- [Rebecca] Safe Haven is both a memorial and a museum to the nearly 1,000 refugees who came to the United States in August, 1944.

This was the only group of Holocaust refugees that came to the United States outside of the immigration system.

And so it is a very important moment, and they are put in this, you know, smallish town in Upstate New York where they immediately become 5% of the population.

- This museum tells a story.

It's not a museum of independent artifacts and posters and pictures.

It is all part of a story.

And the exhibits are in succession.

When we redesigned the exhibit during the pandemic, and it took us a year to redesign it, we made sure that the first part of this story was who these people were before the Holocaust.

And that's at the beginning of this museum.

Then we move and we find out how these people were able to escape.

These people came from 18 different countries.

They had to travel on very rough, difficult terrain in order to get to Italy to the SS Henry Gibbons.

It talks about that trip, the voyage, coming to Oswego, being able to have a life in Oswego.

- Here in the shore of Lake Ontario is where the refugees' story of Fort Ontario began.

It's where their journey ended, from flight from Europe, from the Nazis, incarceration, Allied displaced persons camps.

A sea journey across the Atlantic, a ferry journey from New York City to Hoboken, and an all-night trade ride from Hoboken, New Jersey to Fort Ontario.

- [Rebecca] The story of Safe Haven is the story of this group of refugees who had been through horrific things.

You know, more than 100 of the men had been in concentration camps.

Some people had escaped to Italy by boat.

They had all been through a lot of trauma, and they come together and they are trying to form a created community.

It is also the story of the US government, which has not done really this before.

And hasn't really thought through the implications of bringing these people here.

- [Paul] On of the first things to refugees saw when they arrived at Fort Ontario that early morning was a chain link barbed wire top fence.

This terrified many of almost 100 of them who have been incarcerated at Nazi concentration camps like Dachau and Buchenwald.

- Coming here to a place where they were going to be safe seemed kind of anathema to what they were envisioning.

They were going to be behind this fencing, and there was also Military police that would be patrolling.

So as you can imagine, this did not appear to be a safe haven, although, we have the refugees' impressions in words, and some of them did not feel that way.

They were just glad to be someplace where they were safe.

- We have here is a section of the original fence that surrounded the Fort Ontario Emergency Rescue Shelter, barbwire topped.

Later, during the month-long quarantine period, the fence becomes a symbol of unity between the community and the shelter residents, where they gathered at the fence.

They exchange like, money or cigarettes or beer or toys, even bicycles go over the fence.

So it's the iconic artifact of the shelter.

Behind it, we displayed the last flag to fly over Fort Ontario, April 3rd 1946 when it was decommissioned.

We put them together because it symbolizes the concept of the refugees were prisoners of freedom.

Restrictions behind a fence, while Americans just outside the fence can live their lives in freedom.

Whereas while they were stuck, they cannot go anywhere, they cannot get on with their lives.

- [Rebecca] And it's the story of a small town in the United States where they start welcoming this group of refugees.

And friendships begin to form, and relationships begin to form.

And that, of course, complicates matters for the US government which had promised to send the people back to Europe after the war.

And so it also becomes the story of how their neighbors fought to allow the refugees to stay in the United States after World War II ended.

- Well, it's one of the most proud moments of Oswego's history, for sure in that we took in refugees when no one else would, who were escaping the atrocities of Hitler's Holocaust over in Europe.

And actually, the story of how it takes place, they come over as guests of Eleanor Roosevelt, then First Lady.

They stay, and I think the best part about it is the Oswego community, even though they were on the Fort Ontario property and they were barracks and there was a fence, we didn't just pretend like they weren't there.

There are stories, countless stories of Oswego residents, from kids to adults going to the fence and talking to the other children and the camp, or exchanging food or just saying hello.

So I think that's really what sticks out as part of the story for me, and the community, is that we could have easily just pretended like, "Oh, there's some people at a camp over there.

Stay away.

It's none of our business."

But we embraced the refugees, and I think that, you know, there's a lot to be said for how that could apply to today's national politics.

- This is where the 9th St.

Fence was.

This is where refugee children and Oswego children gathered in the morning of August 5th, 1944.

- [Narrator] From day one, the 9th St.

Fence quickly became the location where Americans got to meet first-hand the refugees and hear their stories of persecution and flight from the Nazis.

It also became a focus for the press and for public advocacy.

And Holocaust stories began to move from the back to the front pages.

Some of these articles and photos are presented within the Safe Haven Museum's collections and artifacts.

- As we move through the museum and we see the artifacts, we hear in their own words their experiences.

We move into what became of these refugees.

These refugees, before the Holocaust, many of them well educated, musicians, physicians, scientists.

As they moved into a life either in the United States as citizens or went back to their home country, 90% of them remained here.

And we talk about what they picked up and how they became what they were destined to become before the Holocaust and maybe even something better.

- [Narrator] When visitors come to the historic Fort Ontario site, they will see that some of the open spaces are now a public recreation complex.

(gentle music) So to envision how those spaces were utilized back in 1944, the Safe Haven Museum presents a 3D display where history buffs can explore how the open spaces and buildings were set up to accommodate the nearly 1,000 refugees.

- [Rebecca] It is a situational place.

Fort Ontario is the place where Holocaust history is very present in the United States.

You know, the ground where these refugees trod is there, and it is relevant historically for that.

- [Audrey] Well, it's important to remember that these people just picked up whatever they possibly could.

- I'm a docent and a guide here at the museum.

I greet people when they come in, and usually give them a little history of what it was like in 1945 and then turn them to a video that gives them eight minutes of an intro of what to expect before they go into the museum.

Usually they come out, to me, kind of quiet.

We talk about how intense that experience was.

Sometimes that's the best conversations that we have together.

- You know, the artifacts are unique.

They're unique because they embellish the story.

But more importantly, it is amazing that we have artifacts, because, in fact, these people picked up whatever they could and ran for help.

So the artifacts that we have, some of them are what they took with them.

We have a child's doll.

We have pieces of their life that they were able to bring with them.

(gentle music) In the shelter, they were able to re-create some things in their life.

- Here we are in the heart of Fort Ontario, the parade ground and all the buildings that were built in the 1840s.

The enlisted men's barracks, the officers quarters, the powder magazine, the guardhouse and the storehouse.

All built in early 1840s and with some 1860s improvements.

At the time the refugees were here, the enlisted men's barracks had been converted to an officer's club with the dance floor.

The refugees would have different parties and functions in the building.

On the parade ground itself, they'd have parties and outdoor celebrations.

And Doris Schechter, one of the refugee children, we have a picture of her running across the playground during one of these parties with her gold hair flying in the wind, sack races, some fun things.

But the sad part, one of the great occasions that the refugees gathered here was in April of 1945 when Roosevelt died.

He was their hero, he got them here, brought them out of Italy and Europe.

They did not know what came next.

- I'm a firm believer that we have to have hard conversations with our kids.

First and foremost, for me, I want to raise kind, respectful humans in our society.

You can't get there without learning the story behind it.

That's just how we are with our students.

We don't know about our students without learning what makes them tick and the stories behind them.

I feel like Safe Haven is very similar.

I can't expect kindness and empathy out of my kids until I teach them what that doesn't look like.

And unfortunately, that's the history of our country.

- [Rebecca] We use the term refugees to talk about the refugees at Fort Ontario.

But I think it's really important to note that the United States in 1944 and 1945 had no refugee policy.

You could only legally enter the country as a tourist or as an immigrant.

And the Fort Ontario refugees were neither of those things.

They were officially considered guests of the president, and so they had no legal status in the United States.

They are the only group brought outside of the immigration system in order to save their lives.

- So we are recording in a particular area of the museum that we call A New Life at Fort Ontario.

This entire area is reminiscent of what the refugees experienced as they moved into a, quote-unquote, "more normal life."

And they began to participate in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, high school types of activities.

- [Narrator] The Safe Haven Museum features many aspects of the refugees stories, from describing the dire circumstances that brought them to Oswego, to celebrating these transition highlights, to exhibiting keepsakes that help visitors gain an appreciation of who they were.

- And then we have artifacts that we have been donated.

And to be donated artifacts that are precious to a family tells us something about this museum, that they entrust us with it, that this museum is of such a quality that they feel it honors their relatives, it honors their family.

It honors the plight, and it honors the ability to rise above adversity and calamity.

- [Monica] The school tours, yeah, we took students in like maybe 20 at a time with their teachers and aides.

And hopefully they grasped a lot.

- [Audrey] You know, access for children in a museum with this subject matter is a challenge.

When parents come through, they interpret for their children, be they young children, be they high school students.

We've had college students come through, and they're professors interpret for them.

- Again, just teaching them about the Holocaust.

I know my own kids didn't know anything about it until we were talking about this.

That's huge.

They need to know about their history, especially living in Oswego.

And we're so lucky to have the rich history that we have right here in Fort Ontario.

So learning about that and learning that everybody is the same and learning that everybody should have the freedoms to believe what they want to believe and not have to be fearful of their lives in that process.

- [Billy] Well, certainly the Fort Ontario complex, we'll call it, which has a bunch of the different buildings that were part of the original Fort Ontario complex, and one of those buildings being the Safe Haven Museum, is a popular spot for school field trips.

We see visitors from all over the country who enjoy going to different military spots throughout the country or places of historical significance to come visit.

We're actually right now in the process of going through trying to get the national designation, national monument designation for Fort Ontario.

We think it's certainly appropriate, well deserved.

You know, what I like most, is they actually tell the story, not only of the refugees coming to Oswego and that experience, but they actually tell the story of what those refugees went on to do in the world and what we would have lost had the USA and the City of Oswego not stepped up to accept the refugees at that moment in time.

And I think that's so important to preserve the stories of the individuals of their families.

- [Audrey] We have some very interesting artifacts that were donated to us.

We have a camera that we recently received from a gentleman in Russia.

It gives you faith in human nature.

He said he bought this camera at a flea market and was curious where this camera came from.

So he did a fair amount of research.

And what he discovered was that it was owned by one of our refugees.

And so he said, "I really wanted to keep this, but I know how valuable my family artifacts are to my family and this does not belong to me."

- [Narrator] Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York is the only place where a group of Holocaust survivors actually came to America outside of immigration, outside of the post-war period.

And on this historical site is the significant Safe Haven Museum that has artifacts, and photographs, and the refugees own words and recollections on display.

There is no other place to go for this immersion into the American narrative.

For many visitors, the combination is a really powerful experience.

- [Announcer] Production funding for "Upstate Attractions" is provided by: Franklin County Development, (bright music) Allegany County, Oswego County Tourism, and the Watkins Glen Chamber of Commerce.

With daily flights to Boston Logan International Airport, Massena, New York offers access to locations such as the Adirondack Mountains, the St.

Lawrence River and destinations in Canada like Ottawa and Montreal.

Online at fishmassenany.com.

(upbeat music) (gentle music)