OSWEGO – The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum will reopen its doors in a grand reopening and ribbon cutting ceremony this Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 1 p.m.
The reopening will include 32 new exhibits. Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow and New York State Assemblyman William Barclay are among the dignitaries scheduled to attend.
“We are thrilled to be reopening the museum and to feature a range of new, interactive displays and artifacts, as well as the Fort Ontario Shelter refugees‘ harrowing stories of loss and resilience. The fort was the only site in the United States to accept European Holocaust survivors during WWII,” said museum President Audrey Hurley.
In 1944 nearly a thousand men, women and children from 18 countries were transported from Europe to an emergency shelter at Fort Ontario in Oswego. Refugees who had been in concentration camps or had escaped were given first priority. It took the group two weeks to cross the ocean on a troop transport ship in which they dealt with limited space, seasickness and extreme heat.
The reopening program will include guided tours of the exhibits, the Fort Ontario grounds and historic Refugee Shelter sites. The Museum is dedicated to preserve and protect the stories and artifacts of the Fort Ontario Shelter refugees.
The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is located in what was originally the fort’s historic gate house at 2 East 7th St., Oswego NY. The event is open to the public.
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