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A Refugee Camp in New York
In August 1944, the War Refugee Board brought 982 refugees from 18 different countries to the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York. This was the only time during World War II that the US government agreed to bypass immigration laws to allow a group of refugees to reach the United States. Instead of welcoming them as immigrants, however, the refugees were designated as "guests of the President." They were held behind barbed-wire fences at Fort Ontario and were informed that they would be returned to Europe when the war ended.
In February 1946, nine months after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany, the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter closed. The United States admitted the refugees on immigrant visas. |