Posted on 07/24/2010 8:34:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria, Elfriede "Alice" Edelstein and her mother boarded a boat with 100 other Jewish refugees and headed across the sea in 1940.
Yet when they reached the U.S. coast, the two women were greeted not by Lady Liberty's golden torch but rather by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
They had taken the long way to America.
The Edelsteins' story, along with many others, is chronicled in Erika Lee and Judy Yung's forthcoming "Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America" from Oxford University Press.
The book, available later this summer, is billed as the most comprehensive history of Angel Island's immigration station - a site many call the Ellis Island of the West - which marks its 100th anniversary this year.
It is common knowledge that during the years of the site's operation, 1910 to 1949, about 100,000 Chinese immigrants were processed, detained and interrogated at the site.
But many have yet to realize that the white clapboard compound was also the point of entry for thousands of Russians, European Jews, South Asians, Koreans, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants whose journeys had, for reasons of politics, geography or economy, led them to America through Angel - not Ellis - Island.
Originally slated to be destroyed after its closing, the station gained the attention of scholars in the 1970s when a state park ranger discovered hundreds of Chinese poems that had been etched in calligraphy into the walls of the wooden barracks.
From then until now, most research has centered on the experience of Chinese immigrants who passed through the island and the touching palimpsest they left behind.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Interesting, important ‘piece of history.’
Ping
Ah, Angel Island. Brings back memories. As a kid with my family, we used to sail our boat from Vallejo, CA to Angel Island. That was one of my favorite places to go.
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Thanks nickcarraway!The book, available later this summer, is billed as the most comprehensive history of Angel Island's immigration station - a site many call the Ellis Island of the West - which marks its 100th anniversary this year... during the years of the site's operation, 1910 to 1949, about 100,000 Chinese immigrants were processed, detained and interrogated at the site... was also the point of entry for thousands of Russians, European Jews, South Asians, Koreans, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants.. Originally slated to be destroyed after its closing, the station gained the attention of scholars in the 1970s when a state park ranger discovered hundreds of Chinese poems that had been etched in calligraphy into the walls of the wooden barracks.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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