April 28, 2022

OSWEGO – The public is invited to a free Holocaust Remembrance Day program at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 1 at Fort Ontario State Historic Site and Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum in Oswego.

Elected and public officials, religious leaders, historians and others will speak on the importance of remembering the Holocaust, its more than six million victims, the historical significance of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter during this time and the current refugee crises happening around the world.

The observance program will be held at the monument located by the post cemetery overlooking Lake Ontario. The monument is dedicated to the nearly 1,000 refugees sheltered at Fort Ontario during WWII. The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum located at 2 E. Fourth St. will open to the public after the program at the monument. No admission will be charged.

Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the Holocaust, the killing of millions of Jews and other minority groups in Europe by Nazi-led Germany. Known collectively in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah, the day honors the strength and courage of refugees and encourages public awareness and support of refugees – people who have had to flee their homelands because of conflict and national disaster. Holocaust Remembrance Day observances are especially meaningful this year in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter was the only camp or shelter for Holocaust refugees in the United States during World War II. It is considered the birthplace of American refugee policy because Fort Ontario is where the first group of refugees was allowed into the U.S. outside the immigration quota system, and it laid the groundwork for future groups.

Fort Ontario is known as the place where the Holocaust came to America. It’s where ordinary Americans first heard stories of persecution, death and survival at the hands of the Nazis directly from the victims. Later, they would become advocates for the refugees in a national effort to allow them to remain in the U.S. and not be returned to war-torn Europe. Fort Ontario is also where the American press finally found a Holocaust story they could relate to after more than twelve years of Hitler’s “reign of terror.” It resulted in Holocaust stories moving from the back page of newspapers to the front page.

Fort Ontario State Historic Site is located at 1 E. Fourth St. and the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is located at 2 E. Seventh St., both in Oswego.

For more information on Holocaust Remembrance Day observances, contact the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum at 315-342-3003 or Fort Ontario State Historic Site at 315-343-4711.

 
A PLACE TO REMEMBER – Fort Ontario State Historic Site and Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum invite people to attend a free Holocaust Remembrance Day program on Sunday, May 1. The program begins at 1 p.m. at a monument near the post cemetery overlooking Lake Ontario and will be followed by the opening of the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum.