Interpretive Panel Unveiled
OSWEGO – On the site of “hallowed grounds” Tuesday evening, a new outdoor interpretive panel was unveiled near the granite refugee memorial installed in 1981 by the Syracuse Chapter of Pioneer Women/NA’AMMAT and the Jewish Community of Central New York, which was dedicated to the millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust who never had the opportunity to start a new life.
The panel describes the historical significance of the World War II Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter – the only one in the United States.
Fort Ontario Historic Site Superintendent Paul Lear welcomed the small crowd to the ceremony. The new panel, he said, will help draw attention to the monument and highlight its significance as well as the important role the fort played.
He highlighted the fort’s lengthy and historic past.
“Also, Fort Ontario served as the only refugee shelter in the United States for nearly 1,000 mostly Jewish refugees during World War II,” he said.
He was talking recently with a National Park Service official, working on the upcoming survey of the fort (as part of its progress to national park status) he was pretty astounded, Lear said.
“He asked me why he never heard of this place. I pointed out to him, ‘Well, that’s why we’re having this conversation,” Lear said. “It is a tremendously historic place; there’s so much history here.”
“It’s about time, about time,” Common Council Vice President and fellow historian John Gosek chimed in. “I want everybody else to know about this place.”
World Refugee Day was first designated by the United Nations in 2001. And, every June 20th the world comes together to honor the strength, courage, contributions and cultures of refugees, Lear pointed out.
Today, more than 65 million of the world’s population have been displaced, he added.
“Tonight’s program is one of many being held around the world to recognize the plight of refugees past and present,” he said. “Here, we recognize the contributions of a small group of survivors – refugees from the Nazi Holocaust who arrived at Fort Ontario in August 1944 and left by February 1946.”
They were fenced in, virtual prisoners of freedom, unable to move on with their lives or leave without short-term passes.
It was established by Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had planned to open several other sites as a means of inducing other countries to accept refugees from overcrowded camps in Allied-occupied Italy.
Many were unable to return to their homes – if they even still existed – and wondered if their families were still alive.
After the war, the refugees went on to new lives and many made great contributions to society, Lear said.
Historian Rebecca Fisher worked with Lear on producing a book about the official history of the shelter. Copies are available at the fort’s gift shop.
“Each generation of fort administrators, whether Army officers or curators, changed and shaped the history and landscape for the fort in one way or another. We all have an effect here,” Lear said.
There are many things on his bucket list he wants to check off before he leaves, he added.
“One of the important things is these interpretive panels. I love these things,” he said.
Funding for the interpretive panel was provided by a grant from the Oswego Community Foundation to the Friends of Fort Ontario.
Tuesday’s panel is one of three that the grant funded.
It was difficult to fit an 18-month history of a shelter and its residents into a 7-foot by 2.5-foot panel, Lear said.
Everything was “boiled down to just the essentials,” he explained, adding that it went through many different versions.
Following the unveiling, a short walking tour of the former shelter was led by Fisher.
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees 179 state parks and 35 historic sites which are visited by more than 60 million people annually.
For more information on any of these recreation areas, call 518-474-0456, visit www.nysparks.com, or connect on Facebook and follow on Twitter.
For more information about Fort Ontario, contact Lear at (315) 343-4711 or e-mail [email protected].
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