A dramatic, multi-vocal account of the personal agonies and ecstasies that played out within the walls of Ellis Island, as told by Poland's greatest living journalist. This is the people's history of Ellis Island--the people who passed through it, and the people who were turned away from it. From Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first to be processed there, to Arne Peterssen, the Norwegian who was the last to be taken away from the island via the official ferry boat in 1954, Ellis Island weaves together the personal experiences of forgotten individuals with those who live on in history: Fiorello La Guardia, Lee Iacocca, and other American leaders whose paths led them to the Island for various reasons through the years. Award-winning journalist Małgorzata Szejnert draws on unpublished testimonies, memoirs, archival photographs, and correspondence from many internees and immigrants, including Russians, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Germans, and Poles. At the book's core is a trove of personal letters from immigrants to their loved ones back home--letters which were confiscated and never delivered, finally discovered in a basement in Warsaw. But also brought to life are the Ellis Island employees: the doctors, nurses, commissioners, interpreters, social care workers, and even chaperones, who controlled the fates of these émigrés--often basing their decisions on pseudo-scientific ideas about race, gender, and disability. Sometimes families were broken up, and new arrivals were detained and quarantined for days, weeks, or even months. All told, the island compound spent longer as an internment camp than as a migration way-point--in addition to filling other roles through the years, including that of rescue station in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Now brought back to life by a master storyteller, this is a story of a place and its people, steeped in politics and history, that reshaped the United States.

The experiences of people coming to the United States from many different lands are conveyed in the words of a contemporary young girl visiting Ellis Island and of a girl who immigrated in about 1910, as well as by quotes from early twentieth century immigrants and Ellis Island officials.

This book is about the history of Ellis Island and the experience of immigrating to America.

Die Vereinigten Staaten werden als eine der vordersten Flüchtlingsorte, und kein anderer Ort symbolisiert das mehr als Ellis Island. Mehr als zwölf millionen Einwanderer--von fast jeder Nationalität und Rasse--sind auf dem Weg zu neuen Erfahrungen durch Ellis Islands Hallen und Toren eingetreten. Mit einer erstaunenden Array von Fotografien aus den neunzehnten uns zwanzigsten Jahrhunderten führt Ellis Island den Leser durch die faszinierende Geschichte dieser kleinen Insel in New Yorker Hafen, von ihrer Vorgeschichte als einer des Hafens "Austerninsel" bis ihre spektakulare Jahre als Flagschiff-Station des U.S. Bureau of Immmigration (Einwanderungsbehörde) bis ihre aktuelle Verkörperung als das größte Museum des National Park Service.

Traveling to live in a new country can be terrifying, especially to a child. Leaving behind family, friends, and places you know and love is something everyone can relate to. In this book, readers board a boat with an immigrant child going to the United States for the first time. The first-person narration introduces readers to Ellis Island and the many immigrants coming to America during the late 1800s and early 1900s, including their reasons for doing so. Historical images and fact boxes add context to this important social studies topic.