Island of Hope, Island of Tears (NARA HD Print)

[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 [Music] here they traded their drachmas their liras in the Rue pols $4 here they sang their first American songs experienced the first American Christmas and Hanukkah [Music] here they waited to be given permission to pass over to the new land [Music] tens of millions of us have relatives who came this way [Music] saternus ruler part of the largest human migration in history [Music] of the many who came some were turned away [Music] 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] 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 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 and 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 Piraeus 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 3,000 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 in June you know what I see now I see the peasant with a vegan and hey to take me take me away the whole town was around my area vegan everybody came to say goodbye I didn't know how I could say goodbye Romania and everybody just wanted to get out of there making their way to the rail heads they sought passage to the sea some had money for the journey and some did not but turning back was seldom an alternative I didn't pay no ticket get out and training rifle lock they care dusters 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 the way 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 a 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 us deal oh shoot look your hair your hair if there was a net thing here here they would you'd have to shampoo fearing epidemics huge facilities were established to fumigate clothing baggage and people processed and ticketed they waited for the ship be 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 travelling steerage and the steamship companies understood the profit in numbers 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 this one cuppa soup and that much bread 50 days it's all fun be cool I was in the cellar those little lights going on there all the time little lights we were riding in the steerage like animals you could see a lot of water if 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 all the time people didn't know where the toilets were and so they had you you lose a terrible life I prayed one night that that ship with good I was so horrible had a stop for a why there's some you know the waves is Washington traded good there's only one thing in my mind I wanted to get out of that and to come to America it appeared like a in everybody went over to the railing and just admiring [Music] what the law was I thought I was in heaven My Goddess physicists say your Nana this is that you have never seen a building nothing but beautiful they have to pray everybody was just waiting to get off that standing with D 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 peered 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 we can be glad to see Alice Alice with a dessert was just good to see any kind of lamb according to the houses I left in my time this was like like a whole city that I almost felt smaller than I am [Music] the money came through these doors there's all these people that I figured well I guess I I'll have to stay here for good probably oh 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 coat and a dress and the pair of shoes that's it [Music] once your cassia had maybe and about about $50 I guess my biscuit my little biscuit that's all I had with me you're look at everyone we had no other possessions about 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 they would come right into the B Hall and there they were told to sit 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 ol 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 their family to come to America with 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 frightening 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 di trachoma the dreaded disease of the immigrant the diagnosis force could lead to almost certain deportation there's anything that put a chalk mark here chuckling 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 as long as some member of the family some loving member of the family was with you life was tolerable you lived in a relationship of family love even though the other members a 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 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 look you're back going with your lunch I'm gonna hack and you were sent from one to the other one doctor did you and a lot of people was full of an aside I wouldn't want a Vincent there people will reject it because they showed outward signs of illness what they consider mental difficulties we didn't call it psychiatry they call 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 I if they ever ever have to send me back I'll jump down to the water I never go back to Russia I never want to see it again built for 1500 the dining room often fed 3,000 there will 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 but I never had seen a banana before to be white that 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 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 they don't word of English I couldn't understand English not one word first question how much money because she had to have five pounds my father a number gave me that five dollars do you know how long it took a couple of years two and three years to get that twenty-five dollars but whatever we got nearer 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 thanks for my name when I told him listed 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 that I CH T I said it's alright for me I don't know the different but then they said all right you can go you're free to go to Hoboken [Music] there would still be questions of what food to buy for the railroad trip to Chicago and the boat trip to Boston was still the strange names the strange numbers in the fear of losing one's money [Music] there was the process of buying a ticket to places with unpronounceable names like Pittsburgh em Tremec and Keokuk [Music] but those were details the island had passed them through the door to America had opened [Music] there 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 it came out of my system so in upper native land method ed meese more to me than my native land that means more to me diminutive land any country on Earth this never happen and become anyone late again it's a miracle I'm glad I'm here couldn't be any better good you never buy the act hopes and one thing I was sure in houses like me that the degradation to abuse in the preparation that we had a Europe we wouldn't have here Oh God is hoping for centuries [Music]