FDR Shelters Refugees in Oswego, NY

On June 12, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally announced his plan to create a free port for refugees at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. Under this plan, nearly 1,000 refugees—mostly Jews—were transported from Allied-liberated territory in northern Italy to an emergency shelter established by the War Refugee Board at Fort Ontario. Roosevelt circumvented the rigid immigration quotas by identifying these refugees as his “guests,” but that status gave them no legal standing and required their return to Europe once conditions permitted their repatriation.

The refugees arrived at Fort Ontario in August 1944. Because of their undefined immigrant status, the refugees were not permitted to leave Fort Ontario, even to work or to visit family members already settled in the United States; though some refugee children were permitted to attend public schools outside the camp. They struggled to create a community within the camp, but the close quarters and their uncertain futures made for tense relations.

On September 20, 1944, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt made a well-publicized visit to the camp and, as she did so often to rally support for her husband's policies, wrote about the visit in her syndicated column, “My Day.” The war came to an end, and since many of the refugees had family in the United States, they resisted repatriation to Europe. Advocates for the refugees continually lobbied Congress and the president to allow them to stay in America. Finally, after the refugees had spent 18 months in the camp, President Harry S Truman permitted their legal entry into the country. The camp closed a short time later in February 1946.