National Parks of New York Harbor - Curriculum Materials (U.S. National Park Service)

An Ellis Island immigrant's oral history comes to life in the program

NPS PHOTO

At the NPNH Education Center, students learn basic drama skills to bring immigrant oral histories to life.

See Lesson Plans and Teacher Guides for pre-visit and post-visit activities designed for all of our curriculum-based programs.

Our program To Be Somebody in America (photo, left) introduces students to fascinating oral histories by Ellis Island immigrants, below. Students read two of these oral histories at school. When they come to the NPNH Education Center, they learn basic drama skills. Student groups then transform the oral histories into short dramatic performances, which they act out on stage. The oral histories below have been edited to aid reading comprehension. Each oral history also includes a graphic organizer.

COUNTRY of ORIGIN	IMMIGRANT	YEAR	IMMIGRATION STORY
AUSTRIA	NELLY RATNER MYERS	1940	Jewish girl escapes the Holocaust, only to be detained at Ellis Island because she is deaf
BARBADOS	VERA CLARKE IFILL	1921	Black immigrant faces poverty, prejudice in the U.S.
CHINA (Hong Kong)	GEM HOY “HARRY” LEW	1951	Suspected of being a “paper son,” interrogated at Ellis Island for two months
CROATIA (formerly part of Yugoslavia)	PAUL FRKOVICH	1950	Illegally enters U.S. by bicycling from Argentina with a friend
GERMANY	OTTO HEINEMANN	1930, 1933	Twice enters U.S. illegally, once as stowaway escaping Nazi officials
IRELAND	MARY MARGARET MULLINS GORDON	1925	Good description of Irish Civil War and processing through Ellis Island
IRELAND	EMANUEL “MANNY” STEEN	1925	Denied a job in the U.S. because of his religion
ITALY	JOSEPHINE GARZIERI CALLOWAY	1922	Spends a year at Ellis Island’s hospital for treatment of her trachoma
ITALY	LEO MANZONE	1921	Illiterate brother denied entry to U.S.
LEBANON	RICHARD HERBERT	1913	Mother and children escape from father to U.S.
RUSSIA (born in Romania)	LOU WINNICK	1922	Knowledge of English forces him into a parental role for Yiddish-speaking parents
SWEDEN	LINNEA HALLGREN	1924	“Feeble-minded” sister denied entry to U.S.
TURKEY (immigrant is ethnically Greek)	DOUKENIE BACOS (NOTE: This is required reading for all on-site programs.)	1921	Underage girl enters U.S. to study to become a doctor, but unscrupulous family members force her to make a hard decision
UKRAINE (formerly part of both Russia and Poland)	BARBARA BARONDESS	1921	Jewish family escapes pogroms, revolution only to be detained at Ellis Island. Later becomes movie actress.