How to Get Processed Through Ellis Island In 2 Hours or Less

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island during its years of operation from 1892 to 1954. Those that came typically spoke no English and fled religious persecution, famine, or epidemics in their homeland.

But what was it like to actually get processed through Ellis island? In some senses it was more tolerable than we expect. Interpreters were on hand to accommodate you in almost any language. Few were turned away for medical reasons. Processing typically only took a few hours And contrary to folk legend, inspectors did not force anyone to change their name to something Anglicized.

Nevertheless, some faced challenges entering America. Two percent were held up for physical or mental illness; some were detained for weeks or months in Ellis Island's medical ward. If a child were not admitted, parents faced the unbearable choice of returning with them across the ocean or sending them back alone to live with extended family.

But for the vast majority of immigrants, they walked through the doors of Ellis Island to begin their new lives in America. Today, over 100 million are descended from immigrants who passed through this immigration checkpoint. Learn about its legacy on immigration and political life in this episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:05.4	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscoveres
0:11.9	the forgotten stories that changed our world.
0:15.5	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
0:20.7	Barnett Chadekull was a glass factory owner and a former soldier in the Tsar's Army
0:25.3	in the Russian Empire.
0:27.0	He lived with his wife, Chan, and their three children, Mary, Dershin, and Hyman, in
0:32.5	Vilna, Lithuania, which was a part of Tsar's Russia in the early 20th century.
0:37.3	In 1909, a pogrom against Jews forced the Chadekull family to flee the country.
0:43.4	Jews have lived in this part of Lithuania since the 16th century.
0:47.3	The community even built a wooden synagogue there in 1573, shortly before the adjoining
0:52.3	street became known as Jews Street.
0:55.0	While the turn of the 20th century, Jews were 40% of the city's population, and Vilna
1:00.0	was an important center of Jewish culture.
1:02.6	There were glass blowers who worked there, glazed years, and many different professions.
1:06.9	But with the rise of anti-Semitism and the second-class status that was formally enshrined
1:11.9	in Russian law, the family decided to leave.
1:14.9	And the Chadekull family became a target of a pogrom, especially because they owned
1:18.4	glassworks.
1:20.2	Traveling under Chan's maiden name, near Lowitz, a name they kept, the family managed
1:24.0	to reach Hamburg, Germany.
1:25.8	There, they boarded the Hamburg-American line steamship, the SS President Grant, which
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