Growing up in Oswego, New York, Ann Callaghan Allen ’71 never heard about her hometown’s significant history from just two decades earlier: A fort there was home to America’s only shelter established for Holocaust refugees during the height of World War II.
After living in Rochester (attending Nazareth), Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and raising a family in Syracuse while working as a journalist and then a college professor, Allen discovered in retirement the big, historic story to tell from her hometown — and its profound lessons on acceptance and caring for others in need.
 |
| Refugees Registering at the Fort Ontario Refugee Camp, August 1944. Photo by Hikaru Iwasaki, photographer, US Dept. of the Interior. Public domain, courtesy National Archives and Records Administration. |
Allen is the author of Holocaust Refugees in Oswego: From Nazi Europe to Lake Ontario, a detailed recounting. Established at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the “Safe Haven” shelter at Fort Ontario in Oswego housed 982 refugees, rescued from the horrors inflicted by the Nazi regime. While a quick online search reveals plenty of information about the shelter — and its facilities have since been converted into an educational museum — it remains relatively unknown in the mainstream of American history.
Life-Changing Connections
For Allen, who was born after the shelter closed and didn’t learn about it in Oswego schools growing up, it became a passion project as she sought to uncover the personal stories, interactions and relationships formed between the Oswegonians and the refugees.
“They were really brilliant people, not just in the sciences and the medical field, but amazing artists and musicians,” Allen said of the people who’d had to flee Europe. “This was a template for how a community can accept a group of refugees. It was almost 1,000 people in a town of 20,000, but it worked.”
 |
Refugees at the barracks in Oswego, along Lake Ontario |
Allen's investigation began with a Facebook post that became one of the book's primary stories. Local resident Ron Spereno posted that his father, Joseph, who ran a successful tailor business in Oswego for over 20 years, was first trained by Jake Sylber, one of the refugees. From there, Allen followed leads and made connections that revealed one fascinating story after another.
The school district superintendent, Charles Riley, insisted the refugee children be integrated into Oswego schools. The high school principal, Ralph Faust, led the integration effort to get them caught up academically after spending years running for their lives. A Boy Scout leader, Harold Clark, created a troop for the refugee children. By all accounts, the people of Oswego were remarkably welcoming and understanding, and the refugees went on to achieve extraordinary things.
The Margulis brothers, for example, who escaped Nazi persecution in Yugoslavia, graduated from Harvard Medical School at the top of their class. Alexander Margulis became a leader in building the fields of magnetic resonance imaging and molecular imaging as chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Ralph Margulis practiced obstetrics and gynecology, developed new cancer treatments for women, and founded one of the first health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in Michigan. Another refugee, Rolf Manfred, from East Prussia, became a rocket scientist and energy expert who worked on the Polaris missile system and served as director of research at Aerojet.
The Impact of Education
While education emerged as an important theme for the refugees and Oswegonians, it’s also central to Allen’s personal story. At Nazareth, she majored in English and found a community that helped her navigate the rapidly changing world in which Vietnam War protests with mass dissent and civil disobedience were raging, yet she couldn’t shop at Pittsford Plaza unless she wore a skirt.
 |
| Ann at Lourdes Hall, sophomore year. |
Allen specifically remembers attending a gathering for students to talk about everything going on in the world and hearing a quote that stuck with her: “College is a luxury of time to reflect.”
“I really appreciate that now, having sent three daughters through college and grad school, and with two grandchildren in college today,” Allen said. “For as much as it costs and for as much as people question the value of a college education, it is that luxury of time to reflect.”
Allen’s advisor, Susette Graham, had suggested that she would enjoy teaching at the college level. But Allen rejected the idea of becoming a teacher at the time. Instead, she worked on the administrative side of Montessori schools before shifting to earn a master’s degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and working as a newspaper reporter for a decade while raising her daughters. Then, as the news industry was rapidly changing and Allen sensed the need to shift again, she applied for numerous jobs and accepted a visiting professorship at SUNY Morrisville.
“I really liked it, and I thought wow, that Susette Graham from Nazareth was right all along!” Allen said. After the year-long appointment, she taught at SUNY Oswego for 7 years and at Le Moyne College for over 14 years, where she retired.
Befriending People
With her book, however, Allen has continued to educate. She has spoken at Nazareth twice since it was published in 2024, most recently in December, and she has connected with students who are inspired by the information.
Alexis Tobin, who listened to Allen’s recent talk and networked with her before graduating in December 2025, wants to work as a Holocaust archivist, and she noted the importance of the book amid the current rise in antisemitism, the Hamas-Israel war, and general politics about refugees.
“I think it is really relevant today,” said Tobin, who majored in museums, archives, and public history. “With all that’s going on, I think there’s a real lack of knowledge in our country. It is really important now more than ever.”
 |
In her final semester as a student, Alexis Tobin shows Ann Callaghan Allen an exhibit she created on campus about women at the Oswego shelter. |
Of the many lessons readers can take away from the book, the one most personal to Allen is most evident in its stories.
“I would hope that, if presented with a similar challenge now, I would do what those people that I talked about in the book did,” Allen said. “It was really simple things: Help them learn English, give kids toys, befriend people. When you get to know people on a one-to-one basis, you realize you have so much more in common than what you have that separates you.”
Podcast
Timothy Kneeland, professor of history and politics, interviewed Allen for his Nazareth University Centennial Podcast. Listen: Fort Ontario, Haven for Holocaust Refugees with author Ann Allen
