Write a commentSeventy-five years ago, on March 15, 1944, General Order No. 9, Headquarters, Second Service Command, Governors Island, N.Y., took effect and Fort Ontario was placed on “Standby.”
Army personnel had already been re-assigned, and the few remaining civilian employees were let go in preparation for closing the oldest continuously garrisoned post in the United States.
“As they had done on earlier occasions when the army threatened to decommission Fort Ontario, Oswego business and civic leaders petitioned the federal government to reopen and garrison the post for its economic benefits,” said Paul Lear, Historic Site Manager of Fort Ontario State Historic Site. “However, this time Fort Ontario’s fate was sealed, as it was too small to meet the army’s training needs in the age of mobile mechanized warfare. No one could imagine that a few months later the old army post would reopen and achieve its greatest period of historical significance as a refugee shelter where the Holocaust came to America.”
Over the next few months of 2019, the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter 75th Anniversary Committee will prepare and present a series of events and activities to occur from the summer of 2019 through the spring of 2021. These events and activities will reflect and interpret the history of the Shelter, the experiences of the nearly 1000 Holocaust refugees interned at Fort Ontario from Aug. 5 1944 to Feb. 5 1946, and the Oswego community that welcomed them.
For more information on the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter contact Historic Site Manager Paul Lear at [email protected] or visit www.fortontario.com or www.safehavenmuseum.com. The Safe Haven
Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum, located at 2 E. Seventh St. in Oswego, NY, interprets the history of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter. Call (315) 342-3003 for public hours.
For visitor information and more Oswego County history, go to www.visitoswegocounty.com or call 1-800-248-4FUN.
New York State Parks generate $1.9 billion in economic activity annually and supports 20,000 jobs. Information on any of these areas call (518) 474-0456 or visit www.nysparks.com.
