Former refugees mark 75th anniversary of the only US safe haven during Holocaust

Some of the 982 civilian war refugees from occupied Europe are shown outside the mess hall buildings at Fort Ontario, Oswego, N.Y., on Aug. 5, 1944. The refugees, who arrived in the U.S. on Aug. 4, lived in the emergency relief shelter established by the U.S. War Relocation Authority. (AP Photo)

Religious News Service / August 8, 2019

By RENÉE K. GADOUA

OSWEGO, N.Y. (RNS) — Suzanne Krauthamer Gurwitz remembers little about the 18 months she spent at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Center in Oswego. She was 5 when she, her parents and two older brothers arrived at the former military post near Lake Ontario.

“Like other children, I played,” said Gurwitz, 80, of Plainview, N.Y. “I don’t remember being unhappy.”

Gurwitz was among 982 refugees at Fort Ontario, the only U.S. shelter for Europeans fleeing World War II. Of the 30 surviving refugees, 19 attended a 75th anniversary reunion on Monday (Aug, 5). The event commemorated the 1944 arrival of refugees in the small upstate New York city.

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