Manfred His Story

The list of survivors’ chosen for the journey came from a long list of names that had been narrowed down to those survivors deemed “most needy.” The 982 refugees were comprised of Manfred, his mother, sister, brother, plus, 870 of his fellow Jews and, also, 28 Greek and Russian Orthodox, 7 Protestants, and 73 Roman Catholics. The rescue effort, named Operation Safe Haven, was carried out, from beginning, to end, by Roosevelt’s emissaries, Ruth Gruber and U.S. Repatriation Officer, Captain Lewis J. Korn: On July 21, 1944, the Henry Gibbins left Naples Italy. On board, along with the ship’s captain and crew, and in addition to Ruth Gruber, Captain Lewis Korn, and the 982 survivors, there were wounded American soldiers and, according to what Manfred remembered, some German prisoners, too.

After 14 danger-filled days at sea, the Henry Gibbins arrived mid-afternoon August 3rd, 1944, in New York Harbor —the Statue of Liberty, literally, rising out of a rainy-day haze.

The sojourn, from unimaginable tyranny and enslavement, to terror on the high seas — to safety on dry land, continued by railroad, directly to the military post, Fort Ontario, in Oswego, New York. The military post had been converted to a refugee camp specifically for the “Safe Haven” group of refugees. Today, the site of Fort Ontario serves as a memorial to the holocaust survivors; the administration building, now the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum, houses priceless photographs and documents mapping the refugees’ extraordinary exodus.

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