Ruthe talked her way in
anyway.
Her mother had a bro-
ken arm (it came from a
fall) and her father had
become terribly thin, but
the four years they had
been apart otherwise
made little difference.
The Hellners were
pleased with life at Fort
Ontario, Mrs. Zogut says.
Her mother, Dina, had
placed an Oriental carpet
alongside her bunk;
Ruthe bought her cur-
tains. With her $5
monthly allowance and a
six-hour daily pass, Dina
often went into town to
see a movie or do a little
shopping.
"She would buy paper
napkins and take tea
bags from the mess hall," Dina and Ruthe Hellner at Fort Oswego.
Mrs. Zogut says. Using a
small burner Ruthe had
Dina Hellner lived the rest of
sent, Dina would make tea and her life with Ruthe. "She had a
sit with her husband in the good life," Mrs. Zogut says. "She
evenings. "They were very, very was safe."
happy."
Little remains today of Fort
Younger refugees had the Ontario, as Mrs. Zogut discovered
habit of sneaking out of camp, to when she went to the 50th an-
go to Chicago or New York, often niversary observance. The bar-
with bicycles provided by Oswego racks are down. The barbed wire
residents. But the Hellners spent is gone. There is a marker; some
photographs, including one of
Mrs. Zogut's mother, are in a
nearby marine museum. Ruth
Gruber, then an assistant to the
secretary of the interior who
helped arrange for the refugees
to come to the United States, has
written a book called Refuge, and
plans are under way to build a
Safe Haven museum.
Mrs. Zogut still has many pho-
tos of her parents at Oswego, and
other treasures of her past like a
most of their time quietly at Fort postcard from the Manhattan, on
Ontario, visiting with their chil- which she sailed to America, and
dren and Judy's new daughter. memories of a poem from her
Despite Ruthe's pleas (she childhood.
even wrote to President Truman),
"This poem was my sister's fa-
her parents were not allowed out vorite, about a Capt. Maynard
for her wedding in October 1945. and how he ferried his boat from
So she and her new husband, Sol, Buffalo to Detroit, or as we said
"went on our honeymoon to Os- `Boofallow' and `Daytroit.'
wego. We took my parents out for
"Of course, that's where we
dinner."
ended up — my sister in Buffa-
The Hellners did get out — lo and me in Detroit. What a
permanently — three months lat- strange coincidence with this
er when the war ended and Fort poem. What did we know but
Ontario closed.
that this is where fate would put
President Truman said he us." ❑
would allow the refugees to stay
in the United States, provided ifr For information about`t he
they entered the country legally. planned Fort Ontario museum,
So all 982 went into nearby :call Safe Haven Inc., 1-315-343-
Canada then re-entered the Unit- :5488, or write PO Box 846, Os-
ed States. All except two — in- wego, NY 13126.
cluding Ruthe's father — were
accepted as new citizens.
"They found out my father had
tuberculosis," Mrs. Zogut says.
David Hellner was, however,
allowed to come into New York
hi listing the names of feder-
on a temporary visa. He settled
al judges in Detroit who are
into a sanitarium, where he died
Jewish, The Jewish News on
in October 1947. "He loved this
Sept. 2 erred in omitting the
country and its people," his
name of Judge Gerald Rosen.
daughter says.
With nothing more
than $10 and some
clothes, Rothe
arrived in New York.
Correction
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