NYS Parks Recreation Historic PreservationOswego, N.Y. – The Fort Ontario Conference on History and Archaeology will return to the Lake Ontario Event and Conference Center at 26 East First Street in Oswego, NY on March 25-26, 2023. The conference will run from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, and 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday. The program will include speakers, exhibits, author book signings, refreshments, lunch on Saturday, and a Sunday afternoon tour of the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum. Advance reservations and payment are required. Walk-ins are not allowed.

Speakers will focus on the WWII Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, but will also include presentations on colonial maps, the War of 1812, archaeology of 18th century forts, and the first capitol of NYS destroyed by the British in 1777.

The keynote will be Rebecca Erbelding Ph.D, the nation’s top Holocaust Historian and featured commentator on the Ken Burns documentary The United States and the Holocaust. Erbelding will present new research on how much closer the Fort Ontario refugees came to being returned to Europe than ever before realized. Before leaving Italy, the refugees signed the documents agreeing to return to Europe after the war under duress, but few had homes or families to return to, and faced persecution and death from former neighbors if they did. Erbelding is the author of RESCUE BOARD; The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe and is a Historian and Archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Additional speakers on the Fort Ontario Refugee Shelter will include NYS Parks Historian Edward Heinrichs’ “What People Said: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Oswego and the Fort Ontario Refugees,” which delves into community relations and contemporary Oswegonian opinions of the shelter. In “Fort Ontario is My Camp; TR, FDR, and the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter” NYS Parks Historian Paul Lear will discuss popular theories about how and why Fort Ontario became the only shelter for Holocaust Refugees in the U.S. during WWII. Rene Chartrand, Historian-Emeritus, Parks-Canada, will present “German-Jewish Alien Detainee’s in Fort Lennox, Canada, 1940-1944,” brings Fort Lennox, one of several refugee camps for European Jews located in Canada during WWII to the narrative.

Additional topics include “Private Pete Combats Illiteracy – The 1210th Special Teachers Unit at Fort Ontario, 1943-44,” in which Adrian Mandzy Ph.D., Professor of History at Morehead State University, Kentucky, and students Jeff Wyson and Christian Wright present the results of a Fall 2022 class project involving research into the history, personnel, and artifacts of the 1210th S.T.U. at Fort Ontario meant to combat illiteracy in the troops. Historian Richard Barbuto, Ph.D, an expert on the War of 1812, will present “Defending New York City in the Early Republic.” Rene Chartrand will speak again with an illustrated presentation on John Wolfgang Romer’s maps of New York in the Crown Collection, recently made available. In “1700 – 1705 Fortification Maps and Plans by Wolfgang Romer in the British Library,

On Sunday morning Archaeologist Joseph Diamond, Ph.D, and Zooarchaeologist and Forensic Anthropologist Thomas Amorosi will deliver“A House within a House: Archaeological Excavations inside the Senate House State Historic Site, Kingston, NY,” the first capitol of NYS. NYS Parks Historian and Archaeologist Michael Roets, now Central Region Historic Preservation Supervisor, will describe the exciting features and artifacts found in at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site “The Archaeology of Fort Hunter, NY, In the Wake of Hurricane Irene: Archaeological Evidence of Life at the 18th Century Fort Hunter and Lower Mohawk Castle.” In “As to not be discovered: Exploring the Battle of Fort Bull” Historian Arthur L. Simmons III of the Rome Historical Society, and Archaeologist Brian R. Grills of SUNY Binghamton, will discuss ongoing metal detector survey, archaeological excavations, and artifacts discovered at the former Fort Bull - a key storage depot on the Oneida Carry during the French and Indian War - by a team from the Anthropology Department of SUNY Binghamton.

The officers and board of the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Refugee Shelter Museum cordially invite conference attendees to tour the museum as their guests on Sunday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Located at 22 Barbara Donahue Drive in the old army guardhouse, the museum is dedicated to telling the story of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter. The Continental Army Collectors Inc. will staff an exhibit of WWII artifacts, documents, uniforms, weapons, and more.

Pre-registration and payment are required for Saturday and Sunday conference activities. Registration for both days including lunch Saturday is $100.00, Saturday only (includes lunch) is $70.00, and Sunday only is $40.00. Student registration for both days is $80.00 (includes Saturday lunch), Saturday only $60.00 (including lunch), and Sunday only $30.00. Payment may be made on the Friends of Fort Ontario website. For more information, to request a complete conference schedule, or to arrange for registration and payment by check or credit card, call (315) 343-4711, or email Caroline.Lamie@parks.ny.gov or Paul.Lear@parks.ny.gov.

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