Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter

The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter also known as "Safe Haven," located in Oswego, New York was the first and only refugee center established in the United States during World War II. From 1944 to 1945, the shelter housed almost 1000 European refugees, predominantly of Jewish descent. The whole "rescue" effort was called "Safe Haven." The Refugee shelter is now the Safe Haven Museum and Education Center.

On June 12, 1944, the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter was established in Oswego, New York by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was operated by the War Relocation Authority. It was the first and only refugee center established in the United States. In August 1944, the shelter received 982 refugees of predominantly Jewish descent and of various national backgrounds, especially Yugoslavian, Austrian, Polish, German and Czechoslovakian.

Fort Ontario was located on 80 acres that overlooked Lake Ontario. The purpose of the fort changed multiple times throughout its history. At various points, it was a British fur trading post, then an active military post for the US Army from the war of 1812 all the way through World War II as well as a major supply depot for its whole active service, then an educational camp for people who were illiterate, before finally being closed on March 15, 1944. Oswego, New York, which had benefited from the revenue that came from the soldiers at the fort, sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to ask for the fort to be reopened. The answer was to reopen the fort as a Refugee Shelter.

The War Refugee Board was responsible for creating the camp, selecting the occupants and the overall policy until the closure of the camp on June 6, 1945. While creating and implementing their policies, the War Refugee Board always kept in mind the possible influence of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter on other, larger, refugee concerns.

The War Relocation Authority already had previous experience running a refugee camp within the United States. They had been responsible for formulating and implementing policies in the Japanese Relocation Centers. Their concerns were based solely on responding to problems of daily camp life. As such, there were sharp differences between how the two agencies thought the camp should be run. The WRA had found, while running the Japanese Relocation Centers, that in order to run a camp smoothly and prevent rebellion, policies had to be set out before the establishment of the camps. While the WRB wanted to implement camp policies gradually after the establishment of the camp in order to test public opinion and gain public support.

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