Video summary
The video documents one of the largest human migrations in history, tracing the harrowing journey of over twelve million men, women, and children who sought a new life in America. Driven by industrial changes, political unrest, poverty, conscription into armies, and persecution based on religion or ethnicity, millions left their homes in Europe with little more than the clothes on their backs. For many, leaving was an agonizing decision made out of desperation rather than choice; they feared returning to a place where police could take them away without warning, viewing America as the only beacon of hope that offered a future and perhaps even fortune. The journey began at ports like Naples, Trieste, and Constantinople, leading travelers through northern European cities such as Bremen, Antwerp, Hamburg, and Liverpool before boarding steamships bound for New York or other destinations across the Atlantic.
Once aboard these vessels, immigrants were often treated with indifference by companies that profited from processing thousands of people at once, housing them in steerage conditions where they lived like animals below deck without seeing the sky until reaching land. The voyage itself was a trial marked by sickness, spoiled food smells, and terrifying storms, yet it ended for many when they finally saw the American coastline or heard the bells signaling their arrival. Upon disembarking at Ellis Island, however, the reality of immigration shifted from physical hardship to bureaucratic uncertainty; separated from family members who were processed in different areas, immigrants faced a confusing system where government officials acted as potential tyrants rather than helpers. They endured long waits in crowded halls while being scrutinized for diseases like trachoma or signs of mental difficulty, with those deemed unfit facing deportation back across the ocean at their own expense.
Despite these fears and the rigorous inspections designed to reject anyone who might become a public charge or spread infection, many immigrants found moments of profound relief when they were finally cleared to enter the United States permanently. The moment an official declared them free to go was often described as entering heaven itself, with tears flowing not just from exhaustion but from the overwhelming realization that they had crossed into a "free land." This transformation marked a rebirth where individuals could shed their previous identities and become human beings again in a place of opportunity. Although challenges remained regarding transportation costs for inland travel or buying supplies at strange stations like Hoboken, the emotional weight of having passed through this legendary gateway allowed them to breathe freely, realizing that America was indeed the promised land they had risked everything to reach.
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[Music]
over 12 million men women and children
passed this way pass through rooms and
corridors haunted with a special
stillness which remains only in places
once noisy with human life
[Music]
here they bought tickets for a thousand
places in America
here they traded their drachmas their
liras and the Rue pols $4 here they sang
their first American songs experienced
their first American Christmas and
Hanukkah
here they waited to be given permission
to pass over to the new land
[Applause]
tens of millions of us have relatives
who came this way
sat in this room part of the largest
human migration in history
of the many who came some were turned
away
but even they would leave part of
themselves in America to remind us why
they had come so far why they had made
the journey
[Music]
[Applause]
you never know how hard it was to leave
her what was the hardest thing I ever
had to do she said if you leave why I
don't ever want you to come back again
long hard life
[Applause]
Europe had always lost its children to
America and now there were new reasons
to leave industrial change and political
unrest and brought increased joblessness
and poverty to Italy in southern Europe
reaching as far north as the industrial
cities of Poland and Russia in America
they were saying there was a future
perhaps a fortune to be made in the
southern European ports of Naples by
Reyes Trieste in Constantinople they
gathered to board the ships to America
some were birds of passage leaving to
seek work and return
others with hopes to find at the end of
the journey the good permanent life that
awaited they were told three thousand
miles across the sea in the rural areas
of Eastern Europe they had in addition
to poverty other reasons to look to
America the government was taking young
boys to the army
the mother's lifetime she might not see
him again and always there was the
police the historic persecutor of the
Armenian Slovak and Jew you know what I
see now I see the peasant with a vagin
and hey to take me take me away the
whole town was around my you beggin
everybody came to say goodbye
I didn't know how to say goodbye
and everybody just wanted to get out of
there
[Music]
making their way to the rail heads they
sought passage to the sea
some had money for the journey and some
did not
the turning back was seldom an
alternative I didn't pay no ticket get
out and train in rifle lock
they careless just like you would care
load with a bunch of pigs you gonna move
a bunch of calves a bunch of pigs would
you put them in a passenger car that's
where they look there
for many entering the great port cities
of northern Europe was like entering a
new world
they had reached the sea and the
immigrant was now in the hands of the
steamship company immigrants from the
East and North swarmed into Bremen
Antwerp Hamburg and Liverpool to be
processed for the passage to America
they stood in line together those who
saw America as an adventure those who
saw America as the beacon of hope it was
a business of numbers an operation
designed to house feed and process 4,000
people at a time to identify those whom
American authorities might reject and
return to Europe at steamship expense
first thing to do with you is deal oh
shoot look your hair your hair if there
was a nipped in your hair they would
you'd have to the shampoo
fearing epidemic huge facilities were
established to fumigate clothing baggage
and people processed and ticketed
they waited for the ship
being boarded in many parts of Europe
and in many kinds of vessels most in New
York and some to other ports but they
had one thing in common they were
traveling steerage and the steamship
companies understood the profit in
numbers
[Music]
they began a journey that could last
from a week to a month
that was the last time it ever ran again
that was the last trip she made
she should have never made that on
either
for some it would be a voyage without
incident for others the crossing would
provide days for which they were
ill-prepared they gave us a tin plate
with a fork and the spoon
copper's shoe
and that much bread 50 days
it's all fun be cool I was in the cellar
the lights going on there all the time
little lights we were riding in the
steerage like animals you could see a
lot of water but we didn't see the sky
nice guy
to escape the throbbing engines in the
odor of spoiled food those with blankets
came on deck Ferrer
she was sick of the giant people
didn't know where the toilets were and
so they'd use you who's a terrible life
I prayed one night that that Schiphol
good I was so horrible had a stop for a
while for some you know the waves is
washing
traitor to Buddha
there's only one thing in my mind I
wanted to get out of that and come to
America
[Music]
it appeared like a in everybody
whenever to do a link just admiring
but Allah was I thought I was in heaven
my god this physicist City on out for
this is that in heaven never seen a
building nothing but beautiful they had
to cry
everybody was just waiting to get off
that stand and wait to get off that ship
you were just wondering where you were
coming to our waters going to happen to
you you know in your mind
still separated from the first-class and
cabin passengers who were processed by
immigration officials on board the
immigrant from steerage waited yet
another boat ride this one from the
Hudson River pier to an island in the
upper Bay
crowded into barges and ferries they
approached the place that had become a
legend in their mind
[Music]
I couldn't get my eyes or that it's
great
which kind of glad to see Alice Alice
with a desert was it was good to see any
kind of land according to the houses I
left in my town this was like like a
whole city that I almost felt smaller
than I am
[Applause]
[Music]
the money came through these doors I saw
these people that I figured well I guess
I I'll have to stay here for good
probably busted all these people letter
that what are they doing here and nobody
was happy you don't know what's gonna
happen
[Music]
I had a quart and a dress and a pair of
shoes that's it
once your patient had maybe and about
about $50 I guess my basket my little
biscuit that's all I had with me you
were lucky to have the one we had no
other possession spot that we had no
baggage
we had nothing nothing except the
clothes we had nothing clean to their
possessions they entered the great
building and climbed the stairs
Jesus Mary and Joseph Isis where am I
[Music]
they would come right into the beat hall
and there they were told to ship and
stay there and they didn't know where
they were it was a new land but they
haven't been in land it was just a big
wall you could get those tears and
crying of the children for the vast
majority the process would last less
than a day but now they waited those
from Europe and the Near East those who
had arrived from the Caribbean those who
were the first in her family to come to
America were those who would be met
those who came to make money in return
with those who were determined never to
return
so they all had this fear just worried
they were worried about police because
they were always checked in the other
country the word government frightened
me
government was tyranny government was
officers who looked at you with the
sense that they wanted to hate you or
eliminate you and the idea that there is
democracy or that the policeman will
help you was very new to me as a
policeman to me was someone who could
cut my head off
that was the most interesting for
everybody to vote for the ice trachoma
the dreaded disease of the immigrant the
diagnosis for could lead to almost
certain deportation there's anything
that put a chalk mark here Chuck
laughing those identified to be set
aside for possible rejection represented
a small percentage examined each day but
this was little consolation to a family
separated you didn't have to know the
people but you know that somebody's
missing the agony they went through so
you know that somebody's missing in the
pen all of a sudden the thought my
goodness they're separating us because
that's what the police always did they
separated the men from the women and
then took care of the women and children
[Music]
as long as some member of the family
some loving member of the family was
with you like was tolerable you lived in
a relationship of family love even
though the other members of family you
didn't know where they were you could
converse you could plan you could warm
each other I had a feeling that I'm left
all alone it's a terrible feeling all of
a sudden they were gone
[Music]
America did not want the burden of an
unhealthy immigrant America wanted a
person who could make a living and was
not bringing into the country an
infectious disease and they end up
you're back going with your lungs in
your heart and you were sent from one to
the other one doctor to do and a lot of
people was put away on the side
I wouldn't want a Vincent back
[Music]
people were rejected because he showed
outward signs of illness what they
consider mental difficulties we didn't
call it psychiatry they called it
neurology and we said we're sorry and
the ship that brought them had to take
them back
there was a tragedy they decided if they
ever ever have to send me back I was
jumped underwater and never go back to
Russia I never want to see it again
built for 1500 the dining room often fed
3,000 there would be dishes and forks
and knives and white napkin long tables
well set but when the people went in it
was like like chaos and they handed us
food food was not something people gave
you I didn't like it but then I tasted
it again that I never had seen a banana
before to me this vibrant was like cake
already at night Ella served as a
dormitory for thousands waiting the new
day
each morning the Great Hall would fill
and the noise would begin again
hopefully their papers were in order a
clean bill of health a letter from a
relative guaranteeing they would not
become a public charge proof that they
were not a contract labor for a
dangerous alien in adjacent rooms that
detained were given additional scrutiny
and an opportunity to make their case
but accepting an appeal to Washington
the board of inquiry was the rejected
immigrants last chance through an
interpreter they did their best to
persuade and to overcome the
complexities of a changing immigration
law
but it was in the Great Hall where the
vast majority faced their first in their
last test
in his hand the men at the registry desk
held a ship's manifest in his power the
right to interpret questions intended to
identify those who should be let in or
kept out
[Music]
they don't word of English I couldn't
understand English that one word first
question how much money she had to have
five pounds my father I remember gave me
that five dollars do you know how long
it took a couple of years two and three
years to get that $25 but multiple he
got me right and the person at the desk
called our names my mother turned to me
she says I was never here how does she
know my name I said so right now she
knows it
[Music]
thanks for my name when I told mr. they
say how do you spell it and I didn't
know how to spell it and they didn't
know it when they spell it li CH T I
said it's alright for me I don't know
the different but then they said alright
you can go you're free to go to Hoboken
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
there would still be questions of what
food to buy for the railroad trip to
Chicago and the boat trip to Boston
[Music]
was still the strange names the strange
numbers the fear of losing one's money
[Music]
it was the process of buying a ticket to
places with unpronounceable names like
Pittsburgh em Tremec and Kia caca
but those were details the island had
passed them through
[Music]
the door to America had opened
[Music]
it was as if God's great promise had
been fulfilled
I've gone into a free land I don't think
I ever can explain that feeling that I
had that time there is such a thing to
be explained came out of my system so
long
in upper native land better and means
more to me than nominative land that
means more to me
diminutive land
any country on earth you can leave this
noggin and become human being again
it's America
[Music]
I'm glad a meal couldn't be any better
quit it you never bother yet oops
and one thing I was sure and thousands
like me that the degradation to abuse in
the preparation that we at a Europe we
wouldn't have here Oh Callie is hoping
for centuries
[Music]
you
[Music]