The Safe Haven Story1 2 3 4
 After that symbol of freedom, however, there were other symbols awaiting them. A train, reminder of the ones bound for Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, carried the refugees north to Oswego and a decommissioned military base at Fort Ontario. Barbed wire fences and military personnel greeted them at their new home. Refugee Walter Greenberg comments, "I felt deceived. I felt that I should have been free. I mean, I felt wonderful. I had doctors. I had nurses. I had food. I came to school. Oswegonians were very kind... What good is it to have all the amenities of life if one still isn't free?"
The camp gates were not permanently closed. Children left to go to school. Oswego residents passed food through holes in the gate and items such as a bicycle over it. One pair of refugees even got married. They got a license at Oswego City Hall, and the ceremony was performed under a chupa (canopy) on the parade ground at Fort Ontario. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the refugees. It wasn't freedom, but it wasn't prison, either. And eventually, those who wished managed to remain in America after the war ended.
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