Safe Haven Museum and Education Center

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Safe Haven Museum and Education Center Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of the 982 refugees from World War II who were allowed into the U.S.

as "guests" of F.D.R. Safe Haven Museum and Education Center is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of the 982 refugees from World War II who were allowed into the United States as "guests" of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These refugees were housed at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, from August 1944 until February 1946. Museum Leadership
Judy Coe Rapaport - President
Rebecca Erbelding - Recording Secretary
Paloma Sarkar - Treasurer

A. Michael Hirt, son of Fort Ontario Refugee Michael Hirt, visited the museum for the first time on Sunday! His father a...
10/13/2026

A. Michael Hirt, son of Fort Ontario Refugee Michael Hirt, visited the museum for the first time on Sunday! His father appears in the top row in the photograph of the Refugee Cub Scout Troop, third from left. The Hirt family, Arthur, Amalia, Joseph, and Michael fled Poland and were interned in Italy. Arthur was a judge in Poland. They lived in Barracks 163, overlooking the lake, on the west side of the post cemetery.

Michael is at left in the photograph with board president Paul Lear.

The Museum is now closed for the winter. Tours are available by advance reservation with two-weeks notice. Email [safeh...
10/13/2026

The Museum is now closed for the winter. Tours are available by advance reservation with two-weeks notice. Email [[email protected]]. The officers and board would like to thank all who visited and supported the museum during the 2026 public season.

During the off-season we will upgrade our exhibits and interactive technology to improve the visitor experience, make much needed repairs to the historic building, and plan a schedule of events to commemorate our 25th year of operation in 2027. These projects and events will not be possible without the continued support of our members and patrons. The Fall newsletter has been emailed to members - if you have not received it, please send us an email. Thank you!

"Let's sing our national anthem for Ruth," Otto Presser announced at the opening of the evening's entertainment in my ho...
10/08/2026

"Let's sing our national anthem for Ruth," Otto Presser announced at the opening of the evening's entertainment in my honor. I stood up, expecting "The Star-Spangled Banner," but sat down swiftly. They were singing "Don't Fence Me In."

Survivors, they even breached the fence. You needed a pass to go out, but if you crawled underneath no one would know if you hitch-hiked down to New York, as Adam Munz and David Hendel did frequently, exploring the wonders of New York and sleeping in Central Park. Only their friends knew of their escapades. There were no bed checks, no sergeants counting heads. [From HAVEN, by Ruth Gruber. 1983, p.193]

The 1944 Roy Rogers hit song "Don't Fence Me In" from the movie of the same name became theme song of the Fort Ontario Refugees. They were not allowed to leave the fenced in military reservation without a pass. Passes were good for six hours and confined refugees to the city limits.

"The people of Syracuse were helpful. They came to the camp to provide food and other material." Gruber said. Gruber rem...
10/05/2026

"The people of Syracuse were helpful. They came to the camp to provide food and other material." Gruber said. Gruber remembered well the time pumpernickel bread came from Syracuse "saved" the camp. "The refugees were served American white bread which was like cake to them." Gruber said. "They couldn't eat it with their frankfurters. They wanted good, strong bread."

Syracuse bakers came to the rescue with fragrant shipments of dark, chewy pumpernickel.

May 28, 1981, Syracuse Post-Standard article by Mary Pickett.

David Levi (Yugoslav refugee), recovered from his bout of illness in the hospital, burst into my office. "Tell Mrs. Roos...
10/02/2026

David Levi (Yugoslav refugee), recovered from his bout of illness in the hospital, burst into my office. "Tell Mrs. Roosevelt she did it. She did it! We're going to college in the spring semester! Once again the government had bent its rules for education. From HAVEN, 1983, By Ruth Gruber.

The saga of the Mikvah, part 1, by Ruth Gruber.After a month back in Washington, I was asked by Ickes (Sec. Interior) t...
09/30/2026

The saga of the Mikvah, part 1, by Ruth Gruber.

After a month back in Washington, I was asked by Ickes (Sec. Interior) to return to the camp. He wanted a progress report, and I welcomed the assignment.

Minutes after I entered the camp gate, I was simultaneously hugged and kissed and assaulted with complaints. Rabbi Tzechoval's wife, Mindla, pulled me to the side as we walked toward my office in the jail. "Dear beloved Miss Ruth," she said in Yiddish,"it is terrible for the women."

"What is terrible?" I asked the 30-year-old rebbetzin, a peppery little woman who wore a flowered scarf over her head. As an orthodox wife, she had shaved her head on her wedding day to make her unattractive to any man except her husband. On holidays and Shabbat she wore a brunette wig. "What is terrible? She repeated my question indignantly. "The women can't sleep with their husbands."

"Why can't they?" She stared at me with consternation. "Because we have no mikvah." This was the ritual pool in which wives cleansed and purified themselves before they had s*x with their husbands.

"What did you do for a mikvah when you were running." I asked. I waved my hand toward Lake Ontario. "You have a lake right here." "This lake"- her voice was shrill---"this lake is freezing. We would freeze to death."

I tried to be sympathetic. I tried to be sympathetic. I knew how important the mikvah was to orthodox Jewish women. But the rebbetzin would have to understand. "I can go to the government of the United States," I told her, "and explain why we should have black bread, and why we need additional funds for winter cloths. But how can I go to the government and ask for a Mikvah?"

She looked at me slyly. "Because we'll get sick if we don't sleep with our husbands. And they'll get sick too. I won't give up. I'll get my mikvah."

In HAVEN, by Ruth Gruber. 1983.

Photo: worn stone threshold of the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum on which Ruth Gruber stepped while entering the building containing her office in the basement from 1944 to 1946. Opened in 1906 as the Post Guardhouse, thousands of soldiers, refugees, little league officials, museum patrons, and others have left their mark on the building's threshold.

The museum is flying the Holocaust Memorial flag designed in 2005 by Michael Faul for 60th anniversary Holocaust commemo...
09/27/2026

The museum is flying the Holocaust Memorial flag designed in 2005 by Michael Faul for 60th anniversary Holocaust commemorations. It contains six horizontal stripes, alternately grey and blue with a grey stripe on top. The stripes symbolize the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, and the colors of the prison garbage worn by the inmates. They also refer to the six extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec Chelmno, Majdenek, Sonibo, and Treblinka. A vertical six-pointed yellow star outlined in black symbolizes the yellow star which Jews were forced to wear. The drop of blood inside the star symbolizes the many Jews who died in tbe Holocaust, but in massacres and other persecutions, rather than in the camps.

Come visit - Fort Ontario- Where the Holocaust Came to America.

"Tamar Hendel and her cousin Giselle, both nine, squeezed each others hands tightly as they walked two short blocks to P...
09/26/2026

"Tamar Hendel and her cousin Giselle, both nine, squeezed each others hands tightly as they walked two short blocks to P.S. 2, a little American schoolhouse on Mitchell Street. The Principal, Susan Donovan, greeted them solemnly and asked a little girl to es**rt them to the third-grade classroom. Tamar looked around the classroom, observing everything, the curious chairs attached to wooden desks, the big blackboard, the American children staring at her, the lady teacher behind a big desk calling names from a book. She was elated; there were so many things she would tell her parents back in the camp. Giselle sat beside her, lonely and miserable. The language was mysterious, the classroom was strange, the children seemed cold. She had no parents to confide in." From HAVEN,1986, 176. by Ruth Gruber.

Photo1) Tamar Hendel. Collection of the USHMM.
Photo 2) Giselle Hendel. " " " ".
Photo 3) 3rd Grade school - Mitchell Street.

Fort Ontario - Where the Holocaust Came to America.

Address

22 Barbara Donahue Drive
Oswego, NY
13126

Opening Hours

Thursday 11am - 4pm
Friday 11am - 4pm
Saturday 11am - 4pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

Telephone

+13153423003

Website

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